JOHANNESBURG - The country's focus is on South Africa's Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, who is delivering the Budget Speech for 2019.
Pressure mounts as he is expected to address pressing matters such as increasing debt, high unemployment and State-owned entities.
In his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement last October, Mboweni said the country had to start prioritising expenditure.
Political parties have called on Mboweni to prioritise spending in the budget and unemployment and debt. The DA, IFP and Cope on Tuesday said Mboweni will have to address a lot of questions on fiscal consolidation, the Budget deficit, the crisis in state-owned entities and fighting corruption. They said they were aware the government did not have much room to manoeuvre, but there were critical issues and projects that needed to be addressed.
DA MP and spokesperson on finance Alf Lees said there was ballooning debt, debt-laden SOEs, poor economic growth and unemployment.
Lees said there were key questions the party needed answers to. The country would not get out of the woods unless Mboweni dealt with jobs and the debt of SOEs.
Take a look at what the minister has to say in his budget speech being delivered live below:
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