#BUDGET2020: Galvanized By Mandela’s Lawyer Bram Fischer, Tito Mboweni Speaks Hope From The Docks

Thalia Holmes

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni finished his 2020 budget speech on Wednesday by quoting anti-apartheid activist Bram Fischer’s final words from the dock in his 1966 trial:

“With confidence we lay our case before the whole world, whether we win or die, freedom will rise in Africa, like the sun from the morning clouds”.

And if anyone has been on the political dock recently, it is Mboweni.

With the South African economy growing a mere 0.7% in the past year, and expected to grow no more than 1% each year for the next three, unemployment looming near 30%, and public debt-to-GDP rising continuously to an expected 71.6% in the medium term, Mboweni faced an almost impossible task.

“The minister is in the unenviable position of balancing the…needs of an economy that’s in doldrums, Moody’s breathing down our necks, and the politics that he’s facing,” said