Treasury in line for some interference from new ANC Leadership
The couch economist picked up this little bit of news as it pertains to the future South African economic landscape….
The government under ANC leader Jacob Zuma would set up a commission after the election to oversee all the ministries, including the National Treasury, a senior official of the ruling party said yesterday.
The commission would co-ordinate the implementation of government programmes, as well as spending, budgets and “how they are being handled from top to bottom”, said Mathews Phosa, the ANC’s treasurer general.
So from the above we see some good, but equally some alarming signs.
The good: Ministries are going to come under pressure in terms of the spending as well as implementation of programs. This is excellent and one wonders why this has not been in place in the past. I hope that we will see decisive action i.e. dismissals for non performance and not just re-deployment?
The Bad: The treasury, I would have thought, is the one area that has done relatively well over the past 14 years. After all South Africa has seen amazing growth in this time. The only thing you would want to achieve by interfering here is to change policy? Is there an implication that we are going to see a move away from the treasury policies that have brought us so much success over the past 14 years?
I would guess the only way is left????? I hope we will see the extent of the involvement of this commission before it commences. We should not be left to think what this commissions aims for the treasury are. We certainly need to know what the ANC’s policies are….More importantly the investor community would need to know this.
Let’s watch this space………