How difficult is it going to be for you and
for South Africa to actually try and balance your budget
. Uh It is already difficult. Uh Beginning of
the year we presented a budget in February. Um
first quarter of that budget, we had to reverse
it downwards because of revenue short form. So we're
in a tight fiscal space at the moment, both
for as a result of the global challenges and domestic
challenges. So what does that mean for taxes?
Do you have to raise taxes? Look, that's
also a challenge uh raising taxes in an environment like
that becomes so difficult. Uh In 2022 we reduce
company tax by 1%. It's going to be difficult
to go back and raise that. I mean,
consumers and South Africans are in a tight space now
for personal income tax. That's also going to be
a difficult area to go into minister. You've actually
, we've understood that you intended to look at the
possibility of raising taxes is that that just off the
table, I can't say it's off the table,
but I'm just outlining the difficulties even of raising taxes
in that current environment. Something else that people are
really intently watching for South Africa is, of course
, there was talk about you taking half of the
reserves of the central bank. Is that still on
the table or have you held and seen a lot
of resistance? Let me just say people have raised
this issue. We have known that our reserves have
increased in the reserve bank. The, the act
requires that we myself and the, and the governor
of the central bank agree uh if there's any going
to be anything, but that's a difficult issue because
it also raises challenges uh about its impact on the
balance sheet of the central bank and so on.
We've got to take a lot of those things into
account. So for the moment, no deal is
it. Could you see a deal for the moment
? There's no deal and, and, and there's
no pressure on the, on, on, on
us or the central bank to mm, we've got
to be very careful. I think we're more prudent
on both sides of the, what would make the
central bank say yes to this agreement because it does
weaken at the moment. I'm not saying they are
not, they are disagreeing. All I'm saying is
that it's a matter which has been raised. We
have already had this thing. We have where there
has been reluctance even on our side to take that
route. What would you do with the money if
you had it? Look, if we had it
. There's an argument that you should avoid an impress
impact. In other words, in order to,
you must use it for debt instead of finance and
consumption. So those are some of the discussion if
we were. I'm not saying at the moment we
are minister, talk to me a little bit about
transnet. So this is a state logistics company and
you basically, you're optimistic that it can turn itself
around. Look, there are two things we should
avoid is to use the template we did in Eskom
investing more money in fixing the utility and not in
fixing the power to the grid. Those are two
distinct things. So same thing with Transnet is while
we are facing transnet, we must also keep,
keep our eyes on making sure that the Logistic framework
operates. But that means it doesn't have to rely
on transnet alone. We've got to make sure that
we bring in private sector participants in. Are you
willing to put more money if they ask for additional
request? But in some circumstances, it may not
be easy to say no money, but the question
is under which conditions and uh to if we do
and we'll have to take into account that it must
be done structured in a manner where there's going to
be some efficiency gains for the country. But do
you expect them? So I think the guarantee at
the moment is up until March. Do you expect
them to ask for more money. And how do
you make sure that you're not just throwing money in
a bottomless pit? They have already done that.
They've asked for money. They have already done that
. We, our teams are working with Transnet and
as I've indicated for us, there will have to
be a quid pro quo in the sense that Transnet
will have to say, what are they going to
deliver in exchange? And have you had any responses
to that? Anything I'm saying? My teams and
Transnet teams are working on some of those issues.
Minister, how worried are you? About 2024?
There's a lot of geopolitics, South Africa has actually
been part of some of the concerns over Ukraine.
You've certainly made your intent clear with Israel and Gaza
, there's trade concerns. We're not sure if inflation
is fully under control, it could be much more
entrenched. What does 2024 look like for you?
I mean, on the inflation of part, you
can see globally still inflation is going to be a
challenge. But at a domestic level, I think
the central bank has been able to tame it a
bit. Uh And as a result now there's optimism
that we'll be getting into a phase of interest rate
cuts. So in that sense, there, there's
that possibility at a global, I mean, the
global conflict are of of course a great concern,
the impact on, on, on, on us
. I mean, let me just give you the
Russian one. We tabled the budget on 23rd of
February when we wake up on the 24th, eh
, eh, Russia has invaded Ukraine and with all
its implications on fuel price, food prices and so
on the their impact. And therefore we South Africa
is, is arguing for peaceful resolution of all these 00:06:32.009 --> conflicts.