The treasury also did not allocate new funds to other struggling state-owned entities such as Denel, Transnet, the Land Bank and the South African National Roads Agency

Funds will be diverted from the higher education department to help cover the NSFAS shortfall

Read the finance minister’s speech

What a shame it is that even younger ANC leaders like Gigaba seem unable to imagine a politics beyond Zuma and the stagnation he represents.

Several events could derail the budget but it’s the failure of parastatals that could blow the ship totally out of the water

Revenue collection will fall R50.8-billion short of targets, while the budget deficit will widen to 4.3% of GDP.

Pravin Gordhan has said he plans to reduce government spending, raise taxes and cut the budget deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP.

But Nhlanhla Nene assured South Africans during his medium-term budget speech that a better future could be created within an "affordable" framework.

Civil society and trade unions fear Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s medium-term budget spells the beginning of austerity for South Africa.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has made his priorities clear by slashing departmental expenditure and increasing health and education spend.

Not only has Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan tackled perks, he is looking at the cost of Parliament and what that means.

After several budgets, in which Pravin Gordhan threatened to be more austere, ministers will find themselves with less money to spend on luxuries.

The revered minister of money Pravin Gordhan returned from the pulpit known as Parliament with nine commandments for his ministers.

The allocation to school infrastructure in the mid-term budget is inadequate, writes David Macfarlane.

The Federation of Unions of SA would like Pravin Gordhan’s mid-term budget to focus on education and ensuring the super rich pay more tax.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan faces a massive shortfall in tax revenues as he presents the mid-term budget on Tuesday.