The first quarter's anaemic growth rate of 0.1% shows that the DA was right to fight for economic growth and hard reforms as part of the budget fight.

South Africa cannot sustain itself on low growth. Our country needs higher levels of sustained growth in order to deliver jobs for millions of South Africans.

Now that a revised budget has been tabled, hard decisions need to be implemented to grow the economy without delay.

The DA continues to fight for reforms that will grow the economy, including:

Rapid structural reforms to stabilise energy and logistics by bringing the private sector to run electricity, ports and freight rail;

Cutting wasteful government spending to lower government debt and free up capital for investment and business growth;

Eliminating red tape and making it easier to do business in South Africa;

Removing barriers to direct foreign investment such as onerous ownership requirements.

The DA will continue to use our position in the GNU to drive reforms to get the economy growing again, as we did during the VAT fight.