Johannesburg – Finance Minister Tito Mbowenion Tuesday reiterated that he did not want strings attached to any help from global financial bodies.
Mboweni was speaking during a webinar organised by Bloomberg, when he was asked about progress on securing a loan from the World Bank.
“What I have resisted is any attempt by the World Bank to any policy considerations or conditionalities to us. When we approached the IMF for the $4.2 billion loan, they did not impose any conditions on us. The World Bank was trying to impose policy conditions on us, and I won’t have any of that,” Mboweni said.
He added that the institution understood his stance on the matter.
“I think we are edging closer to a common understanding, the World Bank country rep in SA has requested a meeting to discuss their approach. What I have resisted is the World Bank’s attempt to impose any policy conditionality on us. There will be no policy prescription for SA and the World Bank now understands that,” said the minister.
Mboweni also announced a R500 million investment in a vaccine consortium that is aiming to produce an effective treatment for Covid-19.
At the virtual gathering, Mboweni again emphasised the public service wage bill had to be slashed.
