Cape Town – Finance Minister
Pravin Gordhan has slammed negative criticism of South Africa, saying South Africans tend to "swim in a problem" rather than make a plan about it and moving on.
"Too many people – especially from outside the country – are making comments that are out of line and based on no real knowledge of what’s going on, what we’re doing about it and where we've come from."
Gordhan said South Africans and the global economy should rest assured that "there's no catastrophe that's going to hit us".
"We will have difficulties, but there's no need for all the pessimism we're seeing and hearing. We've survived much worse than this."
Gordhan said South Africa is fiscally safe and in no danger of falling of a cliff, "unlike some of our neighbours to the north of us".
He said the country is fiscally safe and that there is enough money available to do what needs to be done.
Gordhan admitted that a key challenge in government remains implementation.
"There's no doubt that we have to up implementation. We need better quality outcomes for our money," he said.
Gordhan was briefing journalists in parliament on Thursday, just before he was to deliver his medium-term budget speech.
Gordhan said South Africa's path (to getting out of the global financial crisis) will not be one of austerity.
"We will continue to expand infrastructure investment. We will continue to expand the social wage and we will continue to encourage a revival of investment in productive activity."
- Fin24