In a statement, Minerals Council South Africa it was concerned by the degree to which the country would have to borrow internationally to budget its budget deficit.

In a somber outline of the country's prospects, which have been significantly worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, Mboweni said South Africa's debt was hurtling towards 81.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) as the country borrowed more to plug a budget deficit expected to more than double to 15.7 percent.

"South Africa is at a fork in the road and faces a slip to a sovereign debt crisis unless tough choices are made," Minerals Council chief executive Roger Baxter said.

"To take the fork to the high road South Africa requires significant structural economic and institutional reforms to steady the ship, and create the space for much faster growth. To achieve this will require a significant increase in investment. This in turn will require a significant improvement in the competitiveness of the economy, which will be driven by proper structural and institutional reforms."

Business Leadership South Africa applauded Mboweni's commitment to fiscal discipline to try and ease South Africa's debt crisis, but called for more clarity and guidance on how economic growth was going to be delivered through policy reform.

The finance minister said the economy was now expected to shrink by 7.2 per cent in 2020 from an earlier forecast of 0.9 percent growth, its largest contraction in nearly 90 years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

BLSA said achieving the government's target of a primary surplus by 2023/24 would take a considerable focus on restraining government spending while driving economic growth. 

"Of course, in the face of the (health crisis it is entirely appropriate that government open the spending taps to ensure we can fight the crisis as ably as possible," it said.

"But the trade-off must be that we then make an extraordinary effort to boost the economy as soon as we can. To do that, we have to radically change the economy. It is not good enough to fall back into pre-crisis mode."

The business body said it wold have liked to see evidence of a concerted effort between all parts of government around a policy agenda to deliver stronger growth.

"It is now very important that economic policy be driven by a united cabinet, particularly by the president," it said.

"Cabinet should already have delivered a comprehensive economic reform package as a critical next step in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis."

African News Agency