This comes after ratings agency Fitch Ratings downgraded South Africa further into ‘junk’ status, from BB+ to BB with a very negative outlook.

The DA’s Geordin Hill-Lewis says despite the commitments made by Mboweni and President Cyril Ramaposa there is still no clear progress on economic reforms.

“Fitch makes it clear that the reason for the downgrade is ‘a lack of a clear path towards government debt stabilisation’ and a failure to follow through on plans to cut the cost of the public wage bill. All of these pressures are exacerbated by the economic cost of Covid-19,” says Hill-Lewis.

He believes the budget tabled in February is irrelevant given the devastation the economy is now suffering.

“It would undermine the credibility of the Treasury to continue with this budget. It should be discarded, and a new budget tabled immediately after the lockdown. This new budget should be the first small step on what will be a long journey to regaining our investment grade credit rating.”

Hill-Lewis says the country’s economic crisis is as a result of bad economic policy, no fundamental reform, profligate public spending and corruption.

Jacaranda FM