Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced on Wednesday that the cabinet had approved a raft of measures to reduce excessive ministerial and official spending.
The measures include:
Limiting officials' car hire to "B class" cars - a Polo Vivo or the equivalent.
Barring ministers, deputy ministers, premiers and mayors from buying cars that cost more than R1-million; and
Allowing only directors-general and ministers to fly business class domestically; officials below that level must fly economy.
Gordhan attacked critics of his mini-budget statement , labelling them analysts who pushed their own agendas.
"Let's be frank with the so-called analysts and commentators," he said. "Those guys are not neutral."
He said the biggest critics of the path being followed by the government were people who wanted the well-off to continue to prosper while the poor suffered.
COPE MP Nick Koornhof yesterday slammed the application of the booze ban announced by Gordhan to government functions, calling it a "knee-jerk reaction".
Speaking at a meeting of parliament's finance standing committee at which Gordhan and Treasury officials clarified parts of the mini-budget statement, Koornhof said a total liquor ban at government functions was "unthinkable".
He said: "The ban on alcohol . I'm not happy with that. I think it's a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction."
He said the government should have banned only the consumption of imported alcohol or hard liquor and not all alcohol.
He said the wine industry would suffer if the ban were implemented.
Koornhof is a self-declared wine fanatic who has encouraged the consumption of South African wines here and abroad.
Pointing at a soft-drink bottle in front of one of the MPs at the meeting, he said such drinks were often more expensive than beer.
"If you take that Grapetiser, it probably costs more than beer at the Mount Nelson," he said.
Gordhan nodded and said he welcomed Koornhof's input, but he did not dwell on the matter.
Culled from Times Live ZA.
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