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South Africa is unlikely to have a new inflation target by February's budget, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said.

"I don't want to mislead you and say there will be an announcement in February," he said. "I don't have the answers."

The central bank began formally pursuing an inflation target in 2000, when it was set at 3% to 6%. In 2017, it began explicitly communicating it was aiming to anchor price expectations around the 4.5% midpoint of its target range and is now working with Treasury to review the goal.

South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago reiterated his calls for it to be lowered.

"We have an opportunity to achieve permanently lower inflation and therefore permanently lower interest rates," he said October 17.

The reserve bank last month reduced borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 8% after inflation slowed and policymakers revised their forecasts to show price pressures remaining at or below 4.5% through 2026. Inflation has since slowed further to 3.8%, its lowest level in four years.

Monetary policymakers will deliver their last rate decision of the year on November 21.

The Government of National Unity (GNU) Clearing House Mechanism has agreed to establish a small team to work on some of the concerns raised around the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act.

The team comprises Deputy Minister Andries Nel, Freedom Front Plus's Dr Cornelius Mulder, GOOD Party's Brett Herron, Democratic Alliance's Helen Zille and African National Congress's Mdumiseni Ntuli.

Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the BELA Bill into law, despite a significant degree of public rejection and concern over its constitutionality.

He placed on hold two clauses of the Bill for three months to find solutions to the concerns around them.

Should no solutions be found, it will be implemented fully, he said.

Some political parties and civil society organisations have been vocal about the Bill, saying in its current form, it would deprive children of mother-tongue education in single-medium schools.

The team will have two weeks before it has to report to the Clearing House Mechanism.

The Clearing House Mechanism, which met on Wednesday, noted the need to resolve the BELA Bill matter within the three months that the President allocated.

The meeting also agreed on the need to put party political interests aside and find a solution to benefit all South Africans.

Earlier this month, Deputy President Paul Mashatile lauded the positive start to the inaugural GNU Clearing House Mechanism.

Former Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has been elected as one of the chairpersons of Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Defence.

Gigaba is implicated in crimes in the Zondo Commission report.

When Gigaba was Public Enterprises Minister in 2012, overseeing the affairs of State-owned enterprises such as Denel, he allegedly introduced the company's executives to members of the Gupta family at their Saxonwold home.

Phiroene Phala is elected as co-chairperson.

Parliament pointed out that it was resolved that the committee would consist of 17 members - 11 National Assembly members and six National Council of Provinces permanent delegates.

It explained that the committee was constitutionally mandated to exercise oversight over the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and its subsidiaries by investigating and making recommendations on the budget, functioning, organisation, armaments, policy, morale and state of preparedness of the SANDF.

"Determining membership of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence is guided by Section 228(3)(a) of the Interim Constitution, which provides that a Joint Standing Committee on Defence shall be established, consisting of members of all political parties holding more than ten seats in the National Assembly and willing to participate in the committee. Section 228(3)(c) provides the formula for determining membership," it said.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Review Committee elected Advocate Glynnis Breytenbach and Mtikeni Patrick Sibande as its co-chairpersons.

Parliament highlighted that the co-chairpersons or the chairperson of a joint committee preside at committee meetings except when one takes the chair by agreement between them.

"…they have the power to act in any matter on behalf of and in the best interests of the committee when it is not practical to arrange a committee meeting to discuss that matter."

The Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament is expected to elect chairpersons on Friday, after it did not reach a quorum to proceed on Tuesday.

The Multi-Party Women's Caucus is expected to elect chairpersons on Wednesday.

Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs deputy director-general for policy, governance and administration Dr Kevin Naidoo said on Wednesday the department intends to submit the Draft Local Government: Municipal Coalitions Bill to the State Law Advisor for final vetting and to the Presidency for a final economic and social impact assessment by December.

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs announced on Wednesday that it planned to table the Draft Local Government: Municipal Coalitions Bill in July 2025.

The legislative proposals are meant to better guide the establishment and management of coalition governments.

The Bill proposes introducing legally binding coalition agreements, a minimum threshold of 1% for a seat in councils, no-confidence votes by a show of hands only after two years have passed since electing municipal office-bearers, and a collective executive system instead of mayoral executive systems in hung councils.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Portfolio Committee chairperson Dr Zweli Mkhize said the committee had requested more information from the department on the draft legislation to prepare and exchange ideas on the proposals in the Bill before tabling them.

Naidoo said the number of hung councils had increased significantly from 29 in 2000 to 82 since the 2021 local government elections.

"A hung council is one where no party has over 50% of the votes. This, the committee heard, brought many governance and service delivery challenges, necessitating a framework to guide the formation and management of coalition councils," he explained.

Noting the proposal regarding removing municipal office-bearers by a show of hands, Mkhize said the committee resolved to get a legal opinion.

"We don't believe that there is a way we can prescribe that, on such a matter, the secret ballot is unacceptable. Can we make a law to outlaw a secret ballot? I don't think we can," he said.

"There can be a credible basis on which people would actually object to an open voting system. What is important here is to indicate that the provision for a secret ballot is a right that we cannot just easily overrule," said Mkhize.

The committee noted the department's rationale to mitigate against smaller parties or independent councillors who often turn out to be kingmakers driving "a hard bargain" in coalition formations and ending up with "a level of political power that has no relation to their electoral support".

The committee enquired about the legality and constitutionality of a 1% threshold and resolved to get a legal opinion from Parliament's Legal Services Unit.

"The committee stressed that where the framework on coalition government is concerned, the focus should be that such a government must be in the voters' interest. It also noted, however, that the nature of forming such a government is a combination of negotiations, policy agreements, policy alignment and disagreements," Mkhize explained.

However, the committee also noted other non-policy issues, such as trust, mutual respect and sometimes plain self-interest, which would play a role.

Political parties expressed mixed reactions to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) saying this was a new chapter in South Africa's economic trajectory.

Godongwana delivered his first MTBPS since the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), in which he touted scaling up private-sector participation in the delivery of infrastructure for economic growth.

He also pointed out that several initiatives are underway to resolve local government failures systematically, one of which is the Eskom municipal debt relief programme.

The DA said Godongwana's MTBPS attested to the party's influence in guiding policy and unwavering commitment to South Africans.

The party noted and welcomed that the 2024 MTBPS contained numerous measures that it has long fought for.

"It lays the groundwork for sorely needed economic reforms, unlocking our nation's potential for job creation and sustainable economic growth. We are finally focussing on infrastructure investment instead of ever-escalating spending with little to show for it," the DA said.

The party pointed to the need for a hard fiscal legal rule, in addition to the three-year fiscal anchor.

"While today's announcement marks a new chapter in South Africa's economic trajectory, we have called for these reforms for more than a decade. We have, since the 2008 financial crisis, called for limits on government debt, as well as measures to attract foreign direct investment. To the millions of South Africans that stood in queues to vote DA on May 29: this Budget is a testament to our tireless work in government and our work in opposition before that. We will continue to deliver more," the DA stated.

RISE Mzansi National leader Songezo Zibi welcomed the MTBPS, urging Godongwana to bring to Parliament a detailed assessment of the fiscal risk posed by climate change, including disaster management financing; and increases in household and business insurance costs.

"…these will worsen the cost of living, and increase the burden on the public purse," he said.

The MTBPS emphasised the need for accelerated investment in critical infrastructure to enable service delivery and commercial activity, he noted.

"With debt repayments of R388-billion in this financial year alone, we will need a mix of public and private capital injection or get left behind in terms of our rail, water, road and other infrastructure critical to economic growth," he said.

He highlighted that government must bring to the fore specific plans and timelines for such investments in areas such as transport and logistics, where critical State-owned companies such as Transnet and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) continue to be beset by capital investment challenges.

Zibi pointed to an urgent need to reform municipalities to ensure better governance and financial management, also calling for a clear local government reform programme to enhance the quality of political oversight and administrative capacity.

FAILED POLICIES

ActionSA MP Alan Beesley said this budget is a testament to more than a decade of "failed policy and misplaced priorities".

Beesley pointed out that the so-called GNU is a "continuation of more than a decade of government failure."

"The current government, under the guise of the GNU, continues to lead South Africa down a fiscally unsustainable path, ignoring the reality that we are living beyond our means and spending taxpayer money in ways that yield no meaningful returns," he stated.

Beesley highlighted that between 2008/09 and 2023/24, government debt has ballooned from R627-billion, or 23.6% of GDP, to a staggering R5.26-trillion - 74.1% of GDP.

"Consequently, 22 cents of every Rand collected by SARS now goes towards paying interest on this astronomical debt. And what do we have to show for all this debt, accumulated during a period of fiscal recklessness? Collapsing public services, virtually no economic g...

The new South African coalition government's resolve to control debt and expedite reforms to fire up the lackluster economy will be put to the test when it unveils its first budget on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's mid-term policy statement will provide an early glimpse at the priorities of the alliance forged between the African National Congress, the business-friendly Democratic Alliance and eight smaller rivals after elections in May failed to produce an outright winner.

The new administration's pledge to prioritize growing the economy has driven a 4% gain in the rand, helped local-currency bonds outpace all peers in an emerging-market index and fueled successive record highs on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange over the past four months.

Investors now want to see the government take real action, such as fixing logistical bottlenecks and boosting local government capacity, before they consider sinking significant amounts of capital into the country, said Casey Sprake, investment analyst for fixed income at Anchor Capital.

"We've got the sentiment; it's been priced in within the markets and we reached a point we never thought we would get within our political space," she said. "We need to see tangible reforms. We need to see this over a period of time and not just this flash in the pan."

Gross domestic product has averaged less than 1% over the past decade, insufficient to keep pace with population growth, and the central bank says a recovery needs to be underpinned by a sustained increase in real net investment following years of decline.

The National Treasury is expected to revise its growth forecasts to 1.8% next year and 2% in 2026, compared with its February estimates of 1.6% and 1.8%, the median estimate of 15 economists polled by Bloomberg shows.

The country has had an uninterrupted power supply for the past seven months following years of rolling blackouts, the main contributor to the improved outlook. Pension reforms have also been introduced that allow individuals early access to part of their retirement savings, which along with lower interest rates should boost spending.

"It's certainly not unreasonable to assume that growth is going to look healthier going forward because of the electricity situation," said Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank. This and a lift in consumption, will provide needed "wiggle room" for the minister, she said.

The government is also looking to bolster output by modernizing and expanding the energy, rail, port and water supply networks, with President Cyril Ramaphosa vowing to turn the country into a construction site.

Godongwana will shed some light on how that ambition will be financed as he will have little room to maneuver if he is to meet his commitment to curtail debt and the budget deficit. The government has said it will launch a credit-guarantee facility to boost private-sector involvement and more details are expected to be revealed in the budget.

"Ultimately, the bottom line for infrastructure spend is that a lot of it has to come from the private sector," said Sanisha Packirisamy, an economist at Momentum Investments. "There's not really all that much space in the fiscus" to build these massive infrastructure projects, she said.

The ratio of debt to GDP is expected to peak in 2025-26 and the consolidated budget deficit is likely to reach 4.5% of GDP in the year through March 2025 - in line with Treasury's targets, the economists' survey showed.

Godongwana tapped R100-billion from the country's contingency reserves this fiscal year to pay back borrowing, helping keep debt and new loans in check.

Without the drawdown, this year's deficit would have most likely widened and the "government would have had to increase its bond financing," said Investec Bank Treasury Economist Tertia Jacobs. "It actually helped to stabilize the fiscal position in the context of fiscal consolidation."

In February, the Treasury said it...

The families of the victims of the Life Esidimeni tragedy, members of the disability sector, the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, public interest law centre SECTION27, and others, will on Tuesday morning stage a picket, calling for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to pursue criminal charges against former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and former Director of Mental Health in Gauteng Dr Makgabo Manamela for their negligence in the matter.

The group will meet at Church Square in Pretoria to hand over a memorandum to the NPA.

SECTION27 said despite a historic court judgment that indicated government officials should be held personally criminally accountable for their roles in the tragedy, the NPA has not yet pursued criminal charges against those implicated, including Mahlangu and Manamela.

In July, Judge Mmonoa Teffo ruled that the deaths of Virginia Machpelah, Deborah Phehla, Frans Dekker, Charity Ratsotso, Koketso Mogoerane, Terrence Chaba, Daniel Josiah, Matlakala Motsoahae, and Lucky Maseko were unnatural.

Teffo found that Mahlangu and Manamela caused these deaths, which were among the 144 deaths resulting from the Life Esidimeni disaster.

"Judge Teffo stated that Ms Mahlangu negligently terminated the Life Esidimeni contract despite expert advice and warnings, resulting in the relocation of mental healthcare users to non-governmental organisations that were ill-equipped and lacking in experience to provide adequate care. Dr Manamela implemented the plan to move mental health care users to dangerous conditions when she knew the risks of doing so," SECTION27 explained.

Teffo stated this conduct led to deaths that could have been avoided.

The group pointed out that the families had endured a painful eight-year wait for justice. The picket takes place at the end of Mental Health Awareness month.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) also committed to push for criminal charges to be laid as soon as possible, added DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom.

He stated that there had been "too much delay" in charging culpable people since Teffo gave the inquest findings.

"They should surely be charged with culpable homicide, and other charges should be laid against all those who can be identified in causing the suffering of the Esidimeni patients. These include contraventions of the Mental Health Care Act and the National Health Act, as well as fraud in licensing the NGOs and other matters," he said.

African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said on Tuesday its National Executive Committee (NEC) has resolved to establish a standing committee to investigate leaks of NEC and National Working Committee (NWC) information to journalists and third parties.

Mbalula was outlining the outcomes of the party's most recent Special NEC meeting, where he explained that this permanent committee will conduct forensic audits of information leaks by NEC and NWC members involving internal ANC decisions and discussions.

"…and in most instances, these decisions and discussions distorted," he said, adding that the ANC has an "obligation and a responsibility" to defend itself against, what he termed as distortions from faceless source.

Mbalula explained that in investigating the leaks the party is defending its integrity.

"This committee will be implemented to defend equally the integrity of the ANC information, because the ANC speaks for itself and it does not speak through third parties," he said.

The committee will be composed of ANC members

"It is wrong for a faceless source, constipated with factionalism… to distort the ANC, at the highest level of the NEC. The ANC's integrity in terms of communication is undermined by faceless sources, who have got no shame of themselves, and they are standing in the organisation. We cannot blame the media for working with faceless sources," he said.

He stated that members of the ANC must "self-respect".

LEADERSHIP CONTESTATION

The NEC also decided that members should not engage in leadership contestation, lobbying, or self-promotion for any position in the lead-up to the 2027 National Conference, except within the period to be determined and announced by the Secretary-General.

"Any member violating this directive by engaging in unauthorised leadership contestation will face disciplinary action without hesitation, as such, behaviour that detracts from the critical work of implementing national conference resolution and our electoral manifesto will be dealt with accordingly," stated Mbalula.

He said the NEC was firm that the party should not be drawn into premature leadership discussions, that diverts focus.

The NEC resolved to strengthen public participation and accountability by ensuring that all elected public representatives - councillors, members of Parliament and members of provincial legislatures - engages closely and regularly with community members.

Meanwhile, the NEC noted a decline in party membership, highlighting that the renewal programme aims to ensure that the ANC "purges and strengthens itself" to attract the best members.

Mbalula explained that the NEC reaffirmed its commitment to building authentic branches dedicated to National Democratic Revolution (NDR), rejecting transnationalism and the culture of buying membership and placing self-interest above the organisation.

The NEC considered several outstanding reports from the Integrity Commission affecting various leaders of the ANC, and accepted its recommendations.

South Africa's improving economic prospects after years of lackluster growth will result in better fiscal metrics and may soon lead to an upgrade of its junk-rated debt, according to RMB Morgan Stanley.

Positive sentiment in the continent's most industrialised economy has built up since the African National Congress formed a governing coalition with business-friendly parties after losing its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994 in the May 29 election.

Reforms undertaken by Cyril Ramaphosa during his first term as president have also boosted the outlook and triggered a wave of investment by multinationals as well as rallies in the rand, bonds and the benchmark stock index.

"South Africa stands out as the fastest-improving fiscal story" across Morgan Stanley's emerging-market scope of coverage when measuring for fiscal-risk premia, Andrea Masia, an economist at its Johannesburg-based unit, said in a note.

RMB Morgan Stanley expects a budget update on Wednesday to confirm a primary surplus in the year through March 2024, and the positive balance to grow from an estimated 0.3% of gross domestic product to 0.7% of GDP in the current period. It also sees government debt stabilising at around 74% of GDP over the medium term.

"Improving growth dynamics, which feed into better fiscal metrics and a stabilisation in debt, may drive expectations of a sovereign credit-rating upgrade in the coming review period," Masia said. While South Africa's debt levels are still higher than nations that also have a BB credit rating, "the direction of travel is clearly positive and may support the case for an outlook change to positive from some agencies," he said.

The nation obtained a full house of junk ratings in 2020 when Moody's Ratings downgraded South Africa, leaving it without an investment-grade assessment for the first time in 25 years.

That's as the country's fiscal decline accelerated after loss-making state-owned companies including Eskom and South African Airways received a series of bailouts, officials repeatedly failed to rein in public-sector wages and graft scandals marred Former President Jacob Zuma's nine-year rule.

S&P Global Ratings is scheduled to publish a sovereign credit-rating review November 15, though it doesn't have to stick to that date. Fitch Ratings and Moody's may give updates after this week's budget.

ActionSA has called for South Africa to respect the sovereignty of Taiwan and China and said the South African government must to resist attempts by "foreign powers to dictate its foreign policy".

This comes after the South African government asked Taiwan to relocate its representative out of Pretoria.

Taiwan said it would not do so and accused Beijing of pressuring South Africa to ask for a relocation.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation said relocating what would be rebranded as Trade Offices in Taipei and in Johannesburg, was standard diplomatic practice, and would "be a true reflection of the non-political and non-diplomatic nature of the relationship between the Republic of South Africa and Taiwan."

ActionSA said government, to embody the leadership of former President Nelson Mandela, who had on many occasions firmly asserted South Africa's independence of the US and China, must stand its ground against China.

"In the spirit of Mandela, South Africa committed to respecting the sovereignty of both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Mandela's astute leadership and positioning ensured that, while recognising the complexities of the global arena, South Africa's foreign policy would be crafted at home, guided by human rights, a spirit of global cooperation, and sovereign independence," said ActionSA spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni.

She said democratic South Africa's founding values must be restored and strengthened and cautioned against South Africa being " blackmailed" into adopting global positions outside of its interests.

"ActionSA believes that the South African government must refrain from capitulating to any foreign power, specifically China in this instance, regarding how to treat its diplomatic guests, namely the Taiwanese. While we acknowledge the presence of many conflicting interests, our foreign policy and global positioning cannot be dictated by any foreign power wielding undue influence over us," she said.