Cape Town - Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has promised Parliament he would not
change any policy in the National Treasury.
He told MPs he would stick
fiscal consolidation and ensure that the economy grew to create jobs. It has
been projected the economy would grow at less than 1 percent this year.
In his first appearance in
Parliament on Tuesday since his appointment to the National Treasury more than
a month ago Gigaba said government did not speak in forked tongue on economic
policies and was not sending mixed messages through his economic adviser Chris
Malikane.
Malikane has advocated for
the nationalisation of mines and banks.
But Gigaba said government
policy would remain unchanged unless the ANC decided to do so at its police
conference in June and elective conference in December.
“With regard to radical
economic transformation as outlined by President Jacob Zuma in February the
debate about radical economic transformation is an ongoing discussion in South
Africa,” he said.
He said no matter whether
the programme was called radical economic transformation or inclusive growth
the main objective was to fight poverty and inequality.
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The government was also
committed that small, medium and micro enterprises benefit from the R500
billion procurement programme.
Gigaba said this was to
ensure they spread the slice of government’s goods and services, and that not
only big companies benefit from this huge government programme.
The R500 billion
procurement programme would also benefit the youth, women, townships and rural
communities.
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