Economist, Azar Jammine, says the elimination of wasteful and irregular expenditure will assist government in tackling the country's financial woes. President Jacob Zuma has directed Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba to identify concrete measures to urgently address South Africa's economic challenges. The directive comes after Standard and Poor's Global Ratings downgraded the country's local currency debt to sub-investment grade on Friday, while Moody's placed it on review for a downgrade. Zuma wants Gigaba, the presidential fiscal committee and the National Treasury to look for ways to cut expenditure of around 25 billion rand and create revenue-enhancing measures, including taxes, amounting to about 15 billion rand.