{"id":207905,"date":"2017-10-29T07:43:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-29T05:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=207905"},"modified":"2017-10-29T07:43:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T05:43:43","slug":"no-nuclear-and-a-government-salary-freeze-gigabas-plan-to-cut-spending-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/207905\/no-nuclear-and-a-government-salary-freeze-gigabas-plan-to-cut-spending-report\/","title":{"rendered":"No nuclear and a government salary freeze – Gigaba’s plan to cut spending: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finance minister Malusi Gigaba has suggested a government salary freeze, selling parts of state-owned companies, and abandoning nuclear (for now) as some ways to cut back government spending amid a major revenue shortfall.<\/p>\n

Gigaba made the suggestions in an interview with the City Press<\/a><\/strong>, following his budget speech this week, which was met with widespread negativity, and raised fears of more ratings downgrades for South Africa in the coming month.<\/p>\n

The budget speech made it clear that South Africa’s finances were in serious trouble, with the expectation that the country’s budget deficit would widen to 4.3% of GDP, and tax collection would fall short by R209 billion over the next three years.<\/p>\n

The dire state of South Africa’s SOEs was also raised, with bailouts needed for SAA and the SA Post Office, with more probably needing a boost at some stage as well.<\/p>\n

Some solutions were mentioned by Gigaba in his speech – such as the introduction of some new taxes – but no real map forward was given, until now:<\/p>\n

According to the City Press, some of the solutions Gigaba suggested were:<\/p>\n