Mid-term budget speech is not going to be rosy: Economist
An economist says South Africans should prepare themselves for brutal honesty from Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, who is preparing to deliver his mid-term budget statement on Wednesday afternoon.
Mboweni is set to update the country on the government's plans to tackle the nation's debt, economic growth, cash-strapped state-owned enterprises and joblessness.
The country's unemployment rate has reached a new high in more than a decade.
According to Statistics South Africa the figure is currently 29.1 percent. This means that around 6.7 million people were without jobs in the third quarter of this year.
Economist Dawie Roodt says Mboweni will also touch on plans to cut spending.
"He will tell us about the state of enterprises, it costing us too much money and he will tells us he needs to borrow more money because he simply hasn't got enough money."
"He will also tell us that next year he will have to cut back on spending, and we all have to really make do with even less. So that is the message that we are going to get from the Minister of Finance."
"So, I am afraid there is no good news. It is bad news, some more bad news and then more bad news," says Roodt.
The mini-budget will be delivered at 2 on Wednesday afternoon in Parliament.
