Pretoria – Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says the country’s economy has still not fully recovered, despite weathering the aftermath of the 2008 recession.
Speaking at a breakfast where he met business and academics at Elangeni Hotel in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday, Minister Gordhan said it was vital for all spheres of government to make do with what they have in the pocket to enable the country to recover from the global meltdown.
“The country is still recovering from that and we have made massive adjustments in the way we manage the fiscus.
“We have had to manage expectations from government itself and move from a period of plenty to a period of scarcity.
“Even the provinces have had to feel the pressure. In essence, our view has been to work with the money we have and ensure that we introduce new measures in a bid to safeguard the resources we have.
“Although we have achieved 2.7 percent growth of the economy this year, our economy has still not recovered and we need to manage our fiscus with exactly that in mind,” he said.
The minister urged business to forge partnerships with government to ensure that the country is economically competent in Africa.
Minister Gordhan also said there was a need to focus on skills development and vocational training and that these programmes were already in place.
“We as government and business need to continue to work together to address all issues of economic interest for South Africa and this will help us develop the muscle to be economically competitive in the African continent,” he said.
Ina Cronjé, KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Finance, said there were already interventions in place to address skills development.
“We have taken steps in forging strategic partnerships.
“We have a running partnership with the South African Chartered Accountants for the development of skills base of Chartered Accountants.
“We currently have 53 learners from all over KwaZulu-Natal on this programme. The intention is to have a total of 100 CAs that can be deployed in all of KwaZulu-Natal’s departments, entities and municipalities to improve the financial management capability of municipalities.” – SAnews.gov.za
