Finance minister Malusi Gigaba is scheduled to table the 2018 national budget today at 14h00 in parliament.<\/p>\n
All eyes will be on Gigaba as he lays out South Africa’s plan to plug a R50 billion-plus gap in the budget, while ratings firms will be watching out for plans to address slow economic growth, high levels of unemployment, and embattled state-run companies.<\/p>\n
Citizens and companies, meanwhile, will be looking out for tax hikes and other changes which will ultimately put pressure on already strained households.<\/p>\n
The budget comes at a time of political change in South Africa, after president Cyril Ramaphosa was elected into office last Thursday, and delivered the state of the nation address on Friday.<\/p>\n
In his address, Ramaphosa spoke to some possible cost-cutting measures which could be taken by government in the time ahead, including downsizing government departments and cutting expenditure on civil servant salaries.<\/p>\n
In a budget preview by the DA on Tuesday, the opposition party laid out<\/a><\/strong> what it believes could be done to free up over R110 billion in the budget over the short- to medium-term.<\/p>\n Several websites and broadcasters will be live streaming the speech – this is where you can watch it:<\/p>\n