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NEAL SEEMS TO FIT LIKE A GLOVE

28/02/2019 01:15:00 BY SIBONGILE SUKATI

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LOBAMBA – It was like he was born for the position of Finance minister. Neal Rijkenberg, the Minister of Finance, yesterday sailed through his maiden budget speech as if it was something that he had done for many years.

It took just one hour and five minutes for the minister to read his 42-page budget speech.
Rijkenberg started making his remarks at exactly 2:55pm and by 4pm he was done as there were no interruptions during his speech.
The minister, who was dressed in a navy blue suit, and sky blue tie, finished off his look with a cream white rose. Unlike previous years, the budget speech used to take about two hours to be delivered.

The minister would sometimes bring chuckles to the House as he would mispronounce words, but tell his audience that he would go over the sentence again and that this time they should ‘listen carefully’.

He also caused laughter as he tried his best to pronounce the saying “indzaba yetfu sonkhe” (it is everyone’s business) as he addressed the issue of combating corruption in the country.

He had said government would continue to take the primary role in the fight against corruption in the country as this was becoming more and more everyone’s business.

Rijkenberg had the house in murmurs, however, as spoke on the issue of taxes, particularly when he announced that the PAYE for people who earned more than E250 000 annually would increase from 33 per cent to 36 per cent.

Meanwhile, the minister arrived in Parliament accompanied by his wife Barbara, who was also dressed in a fitting navy blue dress with a touch of a fishtail and a greyish fascinator.

They made their way into the minister’s office in Parliament where they sat for about five minutes. The minister then indicated that he wanted to enter the House of Assembly, but was stopped by Clerk to Parliament, Ndvuna Dlamini, who stated that it was too early for him to walk inside.

On another note, the minister yesterday tabled a total of eight bills which among others were the Finance Bill of 2019 and the Alcohol and Tobacco Bill.