FISCAL FIREFIGHT

13th March 2020 By: Darlene Creamer

FISCAL FIREFIGHT

There is little question that South Africa’s powerful public-sector unions are preparing for a showdown with government over the 2020 Budget, which contains wage-bill cuts of R160-billion over three years, compared with the baseline contained in the 2019 Budget. Cuts of R37.8-billion outlined for the 2020/21 wage bill look especially vulnerable to a union pushback, as the hikes form part of a three-year settlement agreed in 2018. Any slippage in the first fiscal year will make it harder to achieve the target, as the cuts in the two outer years will have to be even deeper than the R54.9-billion and R67.4-billion outlined in the 2020 Budget for 2021/22 and 2022/23 respectively.