Sachs did not resign, he wanted a transfer - Gigaba

Cape Town – Former National Treasury official Michael Sachs, who resigned two weeks ago, did in fact not quit, but requested a  transfer to the Gauteng provincial finance department, said Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba.

He was responding to a question from the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) David Maynier, who asked him to specify the reasons for Sachs’ resignation.

“The truth is, Minister, the budget process is in chaos and has been hijacked by the Presidential Fiscal Committee under President Jacob Zuma,” Maynier said. “There’s speculation that his resignation is because the Minister stood back and deferred decisions to the presidential fiscal committee. Was this a factor in Michael Sachs’ resignation?”

Gigaba said Maynier is listening to “too much gossip”.

“The honourable member has a scant regard of the truth and facts. Michael Sachs requested to be transferred to the Gauteng department and the budget process is in no mess at all.”

READ: Treasury rocked as budget chief quits 

Gigaba said Cabinet has decided to implement fiscal consolidation measures that will inject 0.8% of GDP into the budget, which will amount to R40bn as part of debt repayments.

In addition there will be further expenditure cuts to the amount of R25bn as well as measures to reignite growth.

“These are the facts and everything else is not,” Gigaba said.

Fin24 earlier reported that Sachs, a veteran at National Treasury who headed up the budget office, resigned, reportedly because Zuma was interfering in the budget process.

His resignation was later confirmed by Gigaba, who said he was “saddened” to see Sachs leave. 

Zuma allegedly wants to push through a plan to find R40bn within the constrained budget to fund a free-education policy for families who earn less than R350 000.