The budget was always going to have an infrastructure focus, mainly looking at Eskom and what will happen to the debt. And then also at other initiatives on spending in the infrastructure space, including on water and sanitation, as well as transport and logistics given the level of decay in on all of those areas, and the budget did not disappoint in this regard.

The fact that gross tax revenue projections have been revised upwards by over R10 billion is testament to the significantly improved tax collection efforts by SARS. This is an immensely positive outcome – an indication that the “changing of the guard,” under the leadership of Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter is beginning to bear fruits.

Key executives from Discovery Ltd provide commentary and snippets following Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s National Budget Speech presented this afternoon, Wednesday 22 February 2022

Despite the economy confronting significant challenges, government’s cautious approach to managing public finances has allowed it to provide short-term support to the economy.

Markets received Budget 2023 positively, evident in a near-20 basis point (bp) rally in the benchmark 10-year yield and the 20c rally in the rand versus the dollar.

There are several positives for the agriculture sector and the first being the required allocation to deal with the energy crisis as loadshedding has started to impact negatively on food production thus a potential threat to food security.