Tito Mboweni

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni attends the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: AP

Budget 2020: Can impatient Mboweni speed up urgent economic reforms?

He is known to be a man who is impatient with fools and inaction. But can the finance minister fire up the ruling party to accept the tough choices that need to be made?

Tito Mboweni

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni attends the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: AP

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is, by all accounts, a man not necessarily known for his patience.

Africa correspondent for the acclaimed London-based Financial Times newspaper David Pilling, notes Mboweni’s “impatience with those he consider fools” in a recent profile article.

He also tells of the time the minister and former Governor of the Reserve Bank hung up on Pilling because he considered him impertinent. 

Given this character trait, it is perhaps not surprising that the man charged with presenting a possibly defining budget to the South African people on 26 February 2020, recently saw fit to publicly air his impatience with the slow pace of economic reforms he has been pushing for since he took office in 2018.

Mboweni tweets of frustration at lack of urgent reforms

“Following a World Bank report putting South Africa’s growth forecast at a measly 0.9% for 2020, Mboweni took to social media to sound his most hard-hitting warning about the future that awaits the country if it fails to urgently implement reform,” Fin 24 reported on 11 January 2020.

In a series of tweets on the morning of 10 January 2020, the minister spoke of the “dire consequences” of not effecting “deep structural economic reforms” – saying if that did not occur, it would be “game over” for South Africa and that the country would find itself downgraded to junk status.

Was he laying the groundwork ahead of Budget Speech?

“Economists have suggested Mboweni’s message lays the groundwork ahead of the National Budget in February, where he is expected to address lingering concerns over the country’s financial position,” Fin 24 noted.

There are many who hope that this is indeed the case when the finance minister stands before Parliament later this month.

“There is disenchantment with the pace of change. We need a few measures of shock therapy to get the economy growing. It’s not delivering more speeches, it’s about doing,” said Mcebisi Jonas, a former deputy finance minister and now chairperson of telecommunications giant MTN, in a speech delivered in October 2019.

Also in October 2019, news agency Bloomberg reported that corporate patience in South Africa was wearing thin with the “languid pace of reforms”. 

Just get on with making the tough decisions, says top exec

“You have to make some tough decisions. It just blows my mind that we don’t just get on and do it,” Bloomberg quoted Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman as saying in an interview.

Referring to Mboweni’s January tweets of impatience, Citadel chief economist Maarten Ackerman noted: “I think he is frustrated that the February budget is around the corner and we have not seen enough action to address some of the concerns raised in the October [mini] budget. He is frustrated that the February budget will just be another talk about policy plan.”