South Africa will not fall into a recession this year. This is the assertion by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.

His comment comes amid the backdrop of a rather bleak International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast and a contraction in the last three months of 2022. Gondongwana says South Africa will not record successive negative quarters and reaffirmed his stance that the government would not provide further bailouts to cash-strapped Eskom.

However, the Finance Minister’s words came in contradiction of Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa who said that government shouldn’t shy away from spending to fix the crippling electricity crisis.

Meanwhile, South Africa has been plunged into Stage 6 load shedding until further notice.