Budget in a nutshell: will government stick to its guns?

A huge cut in the public-sector wage bill, setting the ANC government up for a mighty fight with its union allies, is the standout item in finance minister Tito Mboweni’s budget.

Ratings agencies might be less impressed with the budget deficit and deficit numbers.

In what it described as “a major step towards fiscal sustainability”, the government proposed cutting expenditure over the next three years by R156.1bn compared with its 2019 projections.