Geordin Hill-Lewis

DA pledges support, offers proposals for economic support package Dear MyPE Today, I wrote to Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, to offer the Democratic Alliance’s full support to him and the National Treasury for the responsibilities they will bear in fighting Covid-19. We have also proposed an economic support package to help small and medium businesses weather the storm over the coming months. We hope these proposals will be seriously considered and that the government will soon … [Read more...] about Health disaster will have devastating consequences for thousands of businesses

Economy needs freeing from the dead-weight of a failing state Dear MyPE South Africa’s slide into economic recession following a 2019 4th quarter 1.4% GDP contraction, is largely a consequence of the government’s failure to give South Africans their freedom from Eskom, continued bailouts to zombie SOEs and unsustainable levels of debt growth. ‘Economic tinkering’ is not a reform strategy. What South Africa urgently needs is bold structural reforms that will drive competition and … [Read more...] about Recession

The following speech by Geordin Hill-Lewis MP - DA Shadow Minister of Finance, was delivered in today's Parliamentary Debate on the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill: Chair, From the outset of the medium-term budget process, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has focused on whether the proposals by the government help to advance fairness in our society. To govern is to choose. No government can have everything, or satisfy every want. That is why the government … [Read more...] about R12 billion stealth tax increase for working families

Dear MyPE Finance Minister Tito Mboweni today revealed the true horror of our nation’s precarious financial situation. We acknowledge his honesty that things are worse than imagined. We also welcome his tough talk on cutting the public wage bill and on the mismanagement of state-owned entities (SOEs). But the Minister’s number one priority in this speech was to present a credible plan to control national debt and rein in the deficit. The fact is that he did not do this. For all the tough … [Read more...] about Mboweni allows a debt blowout

Dear MyPE The announcement by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) that the unemployment rate has reached a record-breaking 29,1% shows that all of the lip service paid to reform by the Ramaphosa government does not count for much in the real world - only action and real reform counts. So long as this government delays meaningful reform, our economic and unemployment crisis will only escalate. Economic growth, and only growth, can turn around this escalating crisis. Minister Mboweni faces … [Read more...] about Only growth can turn escalating Job Crisis around

Dear MyPE The head of the ANC’s Economic Transformation Committee, Enoch Godongwana, is reported today as confirming that the ANC would impose prescribed assets on private pension savings, before it would consider approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF). His comments also confirm that prescribed assets will not be limited to the R2-trillion funds held in the PIC, but will apply to all retirement funds, banks, insurance companies and so on. If the ANC was serious about growing the … [Read more...] about Prescription of assets is unacceptable, should be rejected by all