Analysts: ‘Disruptor’ Mboweni won’t return as finance minister
Political analysts Somadoda Fikeni and Ralph Mathekga do not believe Finance Minister Tito Mboweni will stay on at Treasury after the elections.
The two analysts made the comments at a pre-budget discussion in Rosebank on Tuesday evening.
“The first thing is that he may be a disruptor, in a sense of raising issues that are unorthodox that many fear raising. At the same time, I don’t think that is a sustainable position. Come May, he may not come back as the finance minister. We must remember that this was an emergency parachute released to manage the finance portfolio, when Nhlanhla Nene unexpectedly exited. He is a person who is not diplomatic," said Fikeni.
“If you are in the finance portfolio you need a judicial temperament, which he doesn’t have.”
Mathekga believes Mboweni does not carry enough weight within the ANC.
“He does not have so much support to manage a portfolio such as this, that is a difficult position. He will need the president to protect him almost at every step if you’re going to make it work. In my view, you cannot have a treasury minister who doesn’t have many friends.”
All eyes will on Mboweni as he tables the budget in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Investment strategist from 274 Investment Managers, Nadir Thokan, believes the crisis at Eskom will top the agenda.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during his State of the Nation Address that the cash-strapped power utility would be unbundled into three entities.
Eskom is struggling with debts of over R400 billion.
“I think it is going to be tightrope. I think there will be some capital injection that is announced. I think that given that we are spending at a slower rate than what we thought we’d be spending, we would probably get about R15 to R20 billion. But that is not going to cut it unfortunately for Eskom,” said Thokan.
“The larger issue is what is going to happen to the R100 billion that Eskom has asked for in terms of debt relief onto the sovereign balance sheet. I think there is a possibility that is going to be announced, but it will be announced with very stringent conditions that need to be met.”