Medium-term Budget Speech | No-value departments should be cut off, says economist

JOHANNESBURG - The state is too big and needs to be shrinked.

That's the view of Efficient Group chief economist, Dawie Roodt.

He was reacting to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's medium-term budget speech.

The minister said government is indebted to the tune of around R5-trillion and has warned that the country's economic outlook is very weak.

READ: Mid-term budget speech | Godongwana reveals worsening budget deficit

"The state is simply bloated. There are too many cabinet ministers, there are too many departments, there are too many deputy ministers," Roodt said.

"There are too many director generals. And all of them they have black cars and blue lights and secondary to that comes with everything that goes with that.

"There is huge amount, of a huge number of people who are currently so called serving in cabinet that simply should not be there."