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Commentators are cautiously positive about the treasury’s decision to use the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account

Additional funds have been allocated to pay teachers, doctors, nurses and police officers but productivity is not always commensurate with salaries

A proposed R6.9 billion is to be allocated over the next three years to prepare for the rollout of the system across the country

The incentive is aimed at encouraging investments in local production

The budget points to state-owned entity bailouts as a key driver of South Africa’s increasingly constrained fiscal position

The term’s of its extension beyond 2025 have yet to be agreed on, but the treasury has made provisional allocations for the grant

The decision follows pressure from civil society and labour — as well as warnings that the treasury risks leaving the Reserve Bank in a precarious position

The country’s jobs data comes the day before the tabling of what looks to be another tightly managed budget

And there are fewer journalists to hold policymakers accountable for this decline