Tito Mboweni wants to reform the economy to get it working again. This entails reducing public servants’ salaries and investing the saving in essential infrastructure. If I were finance minister I would take two letters with me to an urgent meeting with Cyril Ramaphosa. I would explain to the president the hard decisions we must make, urgently, to save SA’s economy and its people.
I would remind him of my duty as his finance minister to not only ensure the economy is revived, but that the government meets its obligations to the most vulnerable, and to ensure that as many people and companies as possible legally make as much money as they can so that they can pay taxes.
I would remind him of my duty to ensure that SA never fails to meet its obligations to the baby born into the poorest family in Alexandra township; that every clinic has enough drugs; that the government is able to provide hope and pay for the food that poor children must have at all primary schools, from Masakhane in Hout Bay to Alexander Bay in the Northern Cape and Masisi and Mutele in Limpopo.
I would tell the president I intend carrying out my duties as mandated by the constitution to safeguard the nation’s future. That I intend doing everything possible to avoid any economic calamity, including a downgrade to junk status. I would say it is my duty to ensure growth to absorb our 40% unemployed into the income-earning classes.
I refuse to be responsible for plunging SA into yet another man-made credit rating downgrade calamity
Then I would produce the first of my two letters — a document proclaiming that all the arable land held by the government is to be released to emerging farmers. Title deeds will be held by the state for four years, then released to those who have employed at least 10 farmworkers for at least two years.
The proclamation would declare that majority stakes in SAA, the SA Post Office, Airports Company SA, Transnet, Denel and Alexkor are up for sale. That majority stakes in Eskom’s coal-fired power stations are up for sale, and that its transmission and the distribution businesses are independent entities with minority government shareholding. That PetroSA and its subsidiaries are to be sold forthwith.
Pay cut
The salaries of the president and his deputy will be cut in half. Each will be limited to two official vehicles, each worth no more than R350,000. They’ll pay fixed rentals for their official Tshwane residences and share the Cape Town presidential guesthouse until parliament is moved to the capital. The other properties will be sold and the funds given to the National Treasury.
The salaries of all public servants on more than R950,000 a year, including directors of state-owned companies who earn board fees, will be reduced by 20% from December 2019. Those on less than this, but more than R400,000, will take a 10% pay cut.
Each minister will be limited to one vehicle (R350,000 max), one driver and one bodyguard, and pay market-related rentals for their official residences in Pretoria. The houses of those who choose to live in their own homes will be sold. MPs will also pay market-related rentals for their dwellings.
Then I would show the president the second letter — my resignation stating that as finance minister I refuse to be responsible for plunging SA into yet another man-made credit rating downgrade calamity, and that I refuse to preside over an economy that locks people out of economic opportunities to keep some of my comrades happy.
The president could then choose to either sign the economic reform proclamation or have my resignation. In the latter case I’d go back to farming avocados and sheep at my Magoebaskloof farm.
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