1. Introduction
The new Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, is in hot political water, not only for his heretical views on South African Airways, but also for a bizarre “meltdown” on Twitter.
2. Meltdown
The minister comes across as a sophisticated version of Donald Trump, sitting back consuming good food, good wine and good cigars, ready to post the first thing, no matter how bizarre, that comes to mind on Twitter.
Last week the minister posted a series of bizarre late-night Tweets calling for “war” on editors and complaining about being “stabbed in the back”.
The minister was presumably calling for “war”, and complaining about being “stabbed in the back”, after what must have been a humiliating “smack down”, following his call to close down South African Airways.
3. Sozzeled
The Tweets are so bizarre that they merit asking the minister who has a reputation for consuming vast quantities of good food, good wine and good cigars, whether he was sozzled at the time he took to Twitter and declared “war” on the media.
It’s simply not good enough for the minister, who is now in damage control mode, to assure us that “there is really nothing to worry about.”
What we need is for the minister to get a grip, and to start acting like a finance minister, by apologising for his attack on the media.
4. Trade Unions
We are here to debate the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill [B34-2018].
What is important about the Bill is that no increases have been made to the provincial equitable share to fund the above-inflation public-sector wage agreement.
Which means that the provinces must fork out billions of rands to fund an above-inflation public-sector wage agreement, which, over the medium-term, we estimate will cost:
- the Eastern Cape – R2.6 billion;
- Free State – R1 billion;
- Gauteng – R3.4 billion;
- KwaZulu-Natal – R3.9 billion;
- Limpopo – R2.3 billion;
- Mpumalanga – R1.4 billion;
- North West – R1.2 billion;
- the Northern Cape – R513 000; and the
- Western Cape – R1.7 billion.
However, the provinces cannot afford to pay for the above-inflation public-sector wage agreement.
5. Enemies
The trade unions who negotiated the above-inflation public-sector wage agreement, which they knew had not been budgeted for, and which they knew we could not afford, and which they knew would compromise service delivery in the provinces, were immoral, and proves that trade unions are, in fact, the enemies of the poor in South Africa.
6. Conclusion
We cannot, and we will not, support the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill [B34-2018] in Parliament.