The Democratic Alliance and Congress of the People on Monday called on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to show he is firmly in control of macro-economic policy when he tables his first medium term budget on Tuesday.

The parties said it was up to the former revenue service commissioner to show that "the centre will hold" and that the left would not be allowed to dictate economic policy.

"We stand at a cross-roads where elements within the ruling party alliance, with a clear populist agenda, are increasingly micro-managing the government.

"If this trend continues to prevail, the potential impact of changes to the macro-economic policy will be a blow to consistency and will send the wrong signals to participants in the economy," they said in a statement.

Stop wasting money

At a joint press conference, DA and Cope MPs called on Gordhan to continue on the course former finance minister Trevor Manuel struck in his 14 years at the helm.

They said he should hold steady on taxes and keep up infrastructure and social spending, which in the absence of tax hikes would mean more borrowing given widely-accepted deficit forecasts of just under eight percent.

The DA's Dion George said greater borrowing would call for greater prudence and discipline in state spending.

"I hope he has the power to stop wasting money because every cent we have is borrowed money," he said.

George called on Gordhan to take a clear ideological stance amid the infighting on economic policy and leadership plaguing government and to "look beyond communism".

Nationalisation is not going to work

"We hope he says to Cosatu (Congress of SA Trade Unions), nationalisation is not going to work," he said.

"We would like him to stand up and say I'm in charge of macro-economic policy."

Cope's Smuts Ngonyama urged Gordhan to show "which side he is going to take".

The parties also urged the minister not to allocate further bail-outs to stricken state-owned enterprises, but rather furnish them with good governance guidelines, including caps on executives salaries.

The Independent Democrats also called on Gordhan to send a clear signal on wasteful expenditure.

Cut wasteful expenditure

ID MP Lance Greyling urged Gordhan to deliver a Medium Term Budget policy statement "that reveals a bold and creative plan to cut wasteful expenditure and prioritise support for the most vulnerable in our society during the current economic crisis".

"The ID also expects the government to pick up the slack in terms of the decrease in aggregate demand of the economy by ensuring that its infrastructure build programme is intensified during this recessionary period.

Greyling said Gordhan should factor in the likelihood that the global recession would deepen and echoed the DA and Cope's call for him to take a tough line on parastatals.

"The ID therefore expects the finance minister to announce major cost-cutting exercises and for the budgetary taps to loss-making entities like the PBMR (pebble-bed modular reactor) and Denel to be firmly shut."

Sapa

Ackerman takes a bow Pick n Pay Chairman Raymond Ackerman writes about his confidence in SA's future.

SA's top 5 fraud cases Meriza La Key counts down South Africa's biggest Ponzi schemes.

The Malema factor ANCYL leader Julius Malema has become one of the most feared and most powerful figures in the ANC.