HILARY JOFFE: Subtle changes in budget speech signal pushback on perks
03 November 2019 - 00:22
When finance minister Tito Mboweni delivered his medium-term budget speech in parliament on Wednesday afternoon, some small but significant changes had been made to the draft which had been shared with journalists under embargo on Wednesday morning. Specifically, the curbs on cabinet ministers' pay and perks which had been in the speech in the morning had been somewhat diluted by afternoon. The cap on the cost of official cars had been raised from R700,000 to R800,000; a phrase about "downward adjustments" to cabinet and provincial premiers' salaries replaced with one about "further negotiations"; and a ban on subsistence and travel payments substituted with something fuzzier...
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