Latest news with #DuncanPieterse
IOL News
24-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
National Treasury set to unveil significant spending reviews to Cabinet
National Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse says work on spending reviews has just started, along with the work around conditional grants review in infrastructure and the ghost worker audit. Image: Supplied National Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse said the work to be done by his department on spending reviews will soon be presented before the Cabinet. Pieterse said there were historical spending reviews and that they have embarked on a new wave of them. 'Some of the new spending reviews are complete, like the work on active labour market programmes and public employment, and that we will be tabling to Cabinet and elsewhere soon,' he said. He made the statement along with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and the National Treasury team unpacking the 2025/26 Budget on Friday. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ In his Budget speech, Godongwana said the National Treasury has undertaken expenditure reviews looking at more than R300 billion in the government's spending since 2013 to identify duplications, waste, and inefficiencies. Pieterse said some of the work on spending reviews has just started, along with the work around the conditional grants review in infrastructure and the ghost worker audit. 'We intend to take this work and make it part of the budget process and embed it there, and of course, the committee should, when it engages with us on a quarterly basis, ask us about the outcomes there.' He also said they are starting with national and provincial departments for the ghost worker audit because that is the area where they have the best data to effect piloting work there. 'Nothing stops us from extending it to entities as we gather that data, but that is going to be a little bit more difficult in exercise because now we are moving beyond Persal, which is where all the data on personnel sits, to individual data sets,' he said. Godongwana had a data-driven approach to detect payroll irregularities and will replace the more costly method of using censuses. 'This initiative will cross-reference administrative data sets to identify ghost workers and other anomalies across government departments.' In its presentation to the joint committee on Friday, the National Treasury said it planned to conclude the full review of the 2026 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and roll out reforms from the Budget process review study. It also said it will strengthen the consultation channels in the context of the Government of National Unity framework, including empowering the Cabinet to grapple with the complexity of trade-offs and macro fiscal stability, as well as to empower government-wide technical committees to be responsive to the GNU priorities. It added that it will upgrade data, IT, and capital-budget systems to embed evidence-based decisions across the government. DA spokesperson for finance, Mark Burke, wanted to know the powers and timelines of the spending reviews. 'I would like to understand what the force of its findings will be. Will they be recommendations or enforceable?' he asked. 'While we are looking at that, some of the expenditure items that we will no doubt identify in there will require legislative changes. I am hoping the minister can give us a bit more information on our agreed omnibus bill to effect those changes and whether he's got a timeline on the introduction of that legislation.' ActionSA MP Alan Beesley said it would be great if the spending review processes were transparent. 'It is an issue that we have, as ActionSA, been saying, it must start with the Cabinet. We have got a bloated Cabinet to live the life of luxury, and we have to live by example. We can't tell other people to tighten their belts when the Cabinet's belt is getting looser, so I think the first spending review must be with the Cabinet,' Beesley said. Mmusi Maimane, the Standing Committee of Appropriations chairperson and BOSA leader, said while he accepted the principle of spending reviews, it would be a miss if it did not include parliamentary input upfront or post factor. 'When we do spending reviews, there are certain things to be taken into account,' he said. Deputy Minister David Masondo said they would look at spending reviews to make sure that it was not enough just to raise revenue. 'We need to be looking at how we are spending that money in the context of making sure that there are efficiencies in our spending. I think the issue around the timelines on the spending reviews and making sure that they are enforceable, it is something that we will have to go back and do,' Masondo said.
Eyewitness News
23-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
Treasury maintains firm stance on not giving SOEs bailouts
CAPE TOWN - National Treasury has maintained its firm stance on state-owned enterprises (SOEs), saying it's determined to apply the fiscal strategy. Treasury will continue the trend of not bailing out SOEs from the previous two budgets, even though it will offer guarantees to support entities like Transnet to allow it to execute its capital investment programme and do business in market. Minister Enoch Godongwana and Treasury officials on Friday briefed a joint meeting of Parliament's four finance committees from both houses on the budget and fiscal framework. Struggling SOEs failed to get a mention in the third version of the 2025 budget that was tabled on Wednesday, with no bailouts in sight over the medium term. National Treasury Director-General Duncan Pieterse told members of Parliament (MPs) that this was part of their fiscal strategy to contain costs. "Of course, this budget maintains the strategy of ensuring that we do not provide or recommend large balance sheet support or bailouts to state-owned companies." While there are no bailouts on the cards, state-owned companies, public entities, and municipalities will together fund 72.7%, or R748.5 billion, of total public-sector capital investment from their budgets. The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) will also benefit to the tune of R66.3 billion, out of which R18.2 billion will go to the rolling stock fleet renewal programme.
The Citizen
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
R466bn ‘hit' as National Treasury lowers SA GDP forecast
'This is the main contributor to the projected increase in the country's debt-to-GDP ratio' – DG Duncan Pieterse. South Africa's National Treasury has lowered its GDP growth forecast for the country (to 1.4%) for 2025, as well as for the next two years (1.6% in 2026 and 1.8% in 2027), in the wake of 'international trade volatility and policy uncertainty' due to US President Donald Trump's tariffs and the resultant threat of a global trade war. The slower growth over the next three years is expected to have a R466 billion 'hit' on the SA economy, Director-General (DG) of the Treasury Duncan Pieterse confirmed in response to questions during a Budget 3.0 media Q&A session on Wednesday. In the March budget, Treasury forecast 1.9% GDP growth for 2025, 1.7% for 2026, and 1.9% for 2027. However, it had to revise this downwards in the latest budget. Facing questions about SA's 'weaker fiscal position' reflected in the country's higher debt-to-GDP forecast of 77.4% in Budget 3.0 (up from 76.2% in the March budget), Pieterse said the downward revision in economic growth 'is what's driving' the increase in debt-to-GDP projections over the next three years, not higher government debt levels or significant increases in spending. ALSO READ: Sensible or underwhelming? Economists react to Godongwana's Budget 3.0 He said that due to the revision of the economic outlook, SA is now forecast to see 'a R130 billion movement' in nominal GDP growth for 2025 – essentially less-than-expected growth. 'In 2026/27, the impact would be around R161 billion, and in 2027/28, around R178 billion … The cumulative effect [of the lower GDP growth] is some R466 billion,' Pieterse later added. 'Included in this is the fact that we ended up with lower-than-expected GDP growth in the last quarter of 2024 [0.6%, instead of the forecast 0.8%]. Remember that the Q4 2024 GDP outcome was not included in the March budget [it was not released at the time],' he explained. Source: National Treasury Pieterse said the lower GDP growth forecast effectively 'pushed up the debt-to-GDP' or debt as a percentage of GDP metric. 'However, for us, the de facto fiscal anchor is the primary surplus … And that is getting better. We believe our fiscal objectives are on track,' he said, echoing Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. ALSO READ: Budget 3.0 was not a chainsaw budget, economists say Pieterse stressed that more focus should be placed on SA's primary surplus and the fact that the forecast budget deficit as a percentage of GDP was still 'intact' at 4.6% for 2025/26. 'As global growth has faltered, South Africa's economic outlook has also weakened, with GDP expected to grow by only 1.4% in 2025. Global risk and economic weakness reinforce the need for us to put our fiscal house in order,' he said in the foreword of the latest Budget Review, tabled with other budget documents in parliament on Wednesday. 'The fiscal strategy remains on course so that government can spend less on debt-service costs and more on critical public services. As per our commitment, government debt will stabilise in 2025/26 at 77.4% of GDP. For the first time since the 2000s, government is consistently running a primary surplus, where revenue exceeds non-interest expenditure,' Pieterse added. This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
Daily Maverick
21-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Education and health funding slashed while fuel levy increased
From grant recipients and healthcare, to education and Home Affairs, this is an overview of the May 2025 Budget allocations. A rocky road lies ahead for social grant recipients who will see no increase in the amounts they receive over the next two years. This is just one of several changes revealed by Treasury this week in the third iteration of the National Budget for 2025. Those in the public sector who were hoping to take advantage of the early retirement programme will have to hop to it. The R11-billion allocation over the medium term has been slashed to R5.5-billion, which means the potential 11,000 employees who could have benefited has been halved to 5,500. Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse said part of the reason for halving the allocation is that there is a process under way with the bargaining council for the current financial year. The previously projected savings of about R7-billion would also be reduced to about R3.5-billion. Slight acceleration for the fuel levy Consumers will also take a hit with a 4% (inflationary) increase to the fuel levy that will see petrol go up by 16 cents a litre, while diesel increases by 15c a litre – effective from 4 June this year. In other words, Treasury is clawing back the R4-billion relief that would have been seen had the fuel levy not increased. However, this is the first fuel levy increase since 2021. The zero-rated foods increase (on canned vegetables such as chickpeas and baked beans, edible offal of sheep, poultry and other animals, and dairy liquid blends) is now out the window. Importantly, additions to front-line services such as education, health and Home Affairs remain in place, although they have been revised downward. Healthcare The three-year allocation for health (provincial health compensation costs, unemployed doctors and goods and services) shifts down from R28.9-billion in the March Budget presentation to R20.7-billion in the Budget tabled this week. This funding will cover the employment of 800 doctors who have completed their community service, safeguard about 4,700 health posts and address shortages in medical goods, services and accruals. The May 2025 Budget overview document states that an additional R1.4-billion is earmarked for the construction of Siloam Hospital and the implementation of public-private partnership health technology at Tygerberg Hospital. Home Affairs Lines at Home affairs (Hell Affairs) are destined to remain long for the foreseeable future. While the March Budget allocated an additional R3.3-billion over three years for digitisation and 'human resource capacitation', it has been reduced to R965-million. Importantly, the line item in the 'spending additions funded over the MTEF period' now only reads 'digitisation', which means the 'human resource capacitation' or jobs or training element has been dropped. Education The additional spending for education shifts from R29.5-billion in March 2025 to R19.5-billion. This will go towards safeguarding about 5,500 teacher posts and increasing the early childhood development (ECD) subsidy from R17 per child per day to R24. The May 2025 Budget overview document then says that 'additional funding of R10-billion over the medium term will expand ECD access to an additional 700,000 children up to the age of five years old'. Defence 'The R5-billion we had proposed to allocate to the Department of Defence for its participation in the SADC mission in the DRC is reduced,' said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. However, the SANDF allocation for 2025/26 has been increased from R1.8-billion to R3-billion. 'This will cover the immediate costs of an orderly and safe withdrawal of our troops and mission equipment,' Godongwana said. Anticipated spending pressures Initiatives that may require funding later this year include: The withdrawal of the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) funding, particularly through USAID; Infrastructure projects in the Budget Facility for Infrastructure and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa rolling stock fleet renewal programme; Accommodating population changes that impact on the provincial equitable share allocations; Strengthening capabilities in the Office of the Chief Justice and Statistics South Africa; Political party funding and infrastructure provision for royal houses; and The National Social Dialogue. DM
Mail & Guardian
07-05-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Faster reforms will spur faster growth: Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa. (File photo) President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Ramaphosa said the 'Our economy needs to grow, everyone agrees, in the GNU and outside the GNU. It needs to grow much faster to create the jobs that our country needs to achieve the prosperity that we all yearn for,' he added, nodding to the fact that the reform initiative was one thing on which his party and its coalition partners agreed. 'Growth is the only way to achieve fiscal sustainability, and social progress in our country.' Ramaphosa said this was why the coalition government committed itself to sustaining the momentum achieved by Operation Vulindlela in its reform agenda, adding that these reforms had a direct impact on the lives of South Africans. 'So we need bold, far-reaching reform initiatives to revive and reshape our economy. Our immediate priority is to follow through on the reforms that we have initiated and the reforms that are already underway so that they can reach their full impact.' A competitive electricity market was a top priority, he added. Duncan Pieterse, the director general of finance, said the programme would seek to achieve 'radical economic reform' over the next five years to spur growth. Phase two of Operation Vulindela expands to seven the target areas of the reform initiative launched in 2020. The first stage focused on ensuring electricity stability and water supply, improving the logistics system and overhauling the country's visa regime. While the unit would over the next five years drive the initial reform efforts to conclusion, widening its focus was critical to target stumbling blocks to inclusive and sustained growth. 'Phase II will therefore target both long-standing and emerging constraints on economic growth and the new reform areas that matter for inclusion, resilience and spatial equity. 'These include strengthening the effectiveness of local government service delivery – especially in metros – leveraging digital public infrastructure to modernise state capabilities and unlock economic participation and finally driving urban densification and spatial integration to reduce transport costs and connect people with opportunity.' The treasury team will draw on lessons from the first phase, such as assembling sectoral task teams and setting measurable targets. 'Our challenge is execution at scale,' Pieterse added. 'We need to mobilise the full capacity of the state, crowd in the private sector and create conditions for markets to work more effectively. This means creating an enabling environment for investment into key sectors of the economy.' He said the relevant departments will be key implementors in this regard 'as the problem solvers'. The National Treasury was enhancing fiscal instruments and guarantee frameworks to enable more blended finance. This applied in particular to electricity transmission, freight rail and water. Operation Vulindlela was ultimately, Pieterse added, about reinforcing credibility that the government can deliver on its reform agenda, and that institutions can work together and meet reform targets, resulting in more jobs and a more resilient economy. It was launched in 2020 by then finance minister Tito Mboweni, and has been credited with saving the economy from collapse during the 2023 load-shedding crisis. Ramaphosa noted that South Africa had been hit by wave upon wave of hardship, first the ravages of state capture, followed by the Covid pandemic and then an electricity crisis 'of an extraordinary type that made South Africans very angry, frustrated and dejected'. But reforms in the energy sector through the efforts of the Operation Vulindela team have been salutary, he said. 'These reforms that we embarked upon have enabled investment in energy generation, and have also resulted in billions of rands in new investment in renewable energy in every part of the country,' he said, adding that it sparked an economic revival in particular in the Northern Cape thanks to a concentration of projects. Barriers to port infrastructure and water investment were falling away and data costs were lower, though far from low enough, the president said. The unit had allowed government departments to overcome a reluctance to work together, and to persuade business and state-owned entities to work more closely with the government. 'One of the key achievements that we continue to make is to break down the silos in government and to continue to enable departments to work together and to enable colleagues to walk away from this mentality of doing this on their own.' Godongwana said once fully implemented, the reforms initiated in phase one will provide a significant boost to the economy in the medium term once fully implemented, while phase two was aimed at ensuring long-term growth. 'I think one of the issues that need to be part of this restructuring is procurement reforms, quite a challenge,' he said, adding that this had just occurred to him while looking at the list of priorities. The minister, who will deliver his redrafted budget for 2025 on May 21, said since the treasury had over the years completed more than 240 spending reviews, it was well-placed to assess whether expenditure was well-aligned with policy. 'The road ahead is challenging, but with agility and commitment to reform, we can achieve greater competitiveness and a more inclusive economy in line with this administration's priorities.' Rudi Dicks, the head of project management in the presidency, said it was significant that phase one of the project had unlocked 22.5 gigawatts worth of renewable energy projects, representing an investment of R400 billion, and seen waiting periods for water use licences reduced from 300 days to 90 days.
