SA has passed the R3-trillion debt mark, with national borrowing averaging about R2bn every weekday, Western Cape premier Alan Winde said on Wednesday.
“Yesterday we passed the R3-trillion debt mark. We find ourselves in very difficult times but there is nothing like a good challenge,” said Winde, who noted that SA had a habit of pulling back from the brink of disaster.
The success of the province’s R5.3bn Covid-19 response was testimony to what could be achieved through partnerships and collaboration between various tiers of government and the private sector, he said.The provincial government would now transfer its focus to economic growth, and it would be important to focus on a limited number of tasks, rather than trying to do too much.
“We were very successful [in dealing with Covid-19] because we focused on one thing and everybody focused on it,” he said, pointing to the example of four newWinde said the province would do whatever was necessary to tackle unemployment. “If we need to declare a disaster on unemployment to allow things to happen quickly, then we will look at doing it,” he said.
Wednesday’s webinar also featured several senior property developers, who highlighted challenges facing the industry - particularly the backlog at the provincial, which has closed six times so far during the lockdown. Winde said he hoped the bottleneck would be cleared by early next month. Last year, finance minister Tito Mboweni warned of the upcoming R3-trillion milestone and said it was expected to rise to R4.5-trillion in the next three years.
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