Money in Short Supply as Crunch Election Looms: Next Africa
South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivers his budget update in the Cape Town city hall in November 2023.
Photographer: Dwayne Senior/BloombergWelcome to Next Africa, a twice-weekly newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email.
Enoch Godongwana has an unenviable task when he presents his annual budget on Wednesday.
The finance minister has to show investors that South Africa’s stuttering economy will skirt a debt crisis. He also needs to persuade voters that they should give the African National Congress another five years in power in elections later this year. Opinion polls show the party risks losing its national majority for the first time since apartheid ended three decades ago.