Government and labour still poles apart ahead of key MTBPS

For every R10 of government expenditure, more than R3 is spent on transfers, about R3 is spent on public servant salaries & R1 on debt. The remaining R3 is supposed to cover goods, services & infrastructure. Transferring money from the wage bill to infrastructure is what the President’s Economic Advisory Council suggests, but will this be politically feasible ahead of the municipal elections next year? Michael Avery speaks to Dr Miriam Altman, Director of Altman Advisory and National Planning Commissioner; Martin Kingston Chair of the steering committee of Business for SA; Mathew Parks, parliamentary coordinator for Cosat​u; & Peter Attard-Montalto, head of capital markets research at Intellidex ahead of tomorrow’s medium-term budget policy statement.