’Let’s go to work’ – Gigaba

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba moments after a media briefing at the National Treasury in Church Square, Pretoria. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba moments after a media briefing at the National Treasury in Church Square, Pretoria. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Apr 5, 2017

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Cape Town - Malusi Gigaba, South Africa’s Minister of Finance, on Tuesday reassured all South Africans that he is committed to inclusive growth and radical economic transformation to the benefit of all South Africans.

Gigaba stated that he will “use the National Treasury to push for inclusive economic growth but stick with the spending frameworks already put in place by the Government”.

Mayihlone Tshwete, Gigaba’s spokesperson, said “Minister Gigaba rates the banking sector as a very important stakeholder, and he wishes to work closely with the banks, Minister Gigaba will continue his planned national stakeholder engagement road show during the next few days by meeting with all stakeholders such as labour organizations, investors and captains of industry to achieve the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP)”.

This was just a meet and greet for Gibaba, but his message was crystal clear: Let’s go to work!

Maria Ramos chaired the meeting, which was attended by all local banks’ CEOs as well as some international banks.

Gigaba was appointed Minister of Finance late last Thursday after Pravin Gordhan was removed from the post after a widely anticipated Cabinet reshuffle.

Read also:  Who is our new Finance Minister?

In a statement, the Banking Association of SA noted the delegation included the CEOs of Standard Bank, ABSA, Nedbank, First Rand, and Investec. Also present was the CEO of Deutsche Bank, who represented international banks in South Africa as well as MD of the Banking Association, Cas Coovadia.

In the meeting, the Minister and Deputy Minister assured the banks that there will not be a shift in policy and pointed out, that what was required was a joint commitment to addressing the environment we find ourselves in, especially addressing the ratings downgrade and improving the economy.

The banking delegation emphasised its view that the manner in which recent appointments had been handled was unfortunate. The delegation also pointed out that institutional stability as well as the need to convey certainty of commitment to the established macro-economic framework was critical.

The banks expressed their willingness to work with the minister and his team.

Coovadia emphasised that the meeting was conducted in a very constructive manner and concluded with a commitment to work with the National Treasury to achieve these shared goals.

BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE

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