After more than a decade of covering the budget speech, nothing could have prepared me for what transpired on that gloomy afternoon of February 19.
On that Wednesday, I had woken up early, braved the persistent rain and the peak-hour traffic worsened by the wet weather to make it to the National Treasury offices in Pretoria on time for the pre-speech lock-up.
For the uninitiated, in the lock-up journalist, analysts and economists are issued the speech before its delivery to the joint seating of parliament and can only start reporting on it the second the minister starts addressing the house.
It allows the media time to dissect the speech and have proper reporting than “live” reporting would afford them in real time. Those in the lockup are completely cut off from contact with the outside world.
The lockup starts as early as 5:45am and the journalists are not allowed to communicate with the outside world. Their communication devices, including cellphones, tablets and internet routers, are handed in to state security agency officials, who return the gadgets when the lock-up ends. That’s the price they pay to get a head start before the finance minister starts speaking at around 2pm.
There was excitement in the air as I joined fellow journalists but there was also an unmistakable sense of anticipation since it was going to be the first budget speech delivered under the less-than-a-year-old government of national unity (GNU).
To ensure that the lockup protocol is fully observed and effective, National Treasury and State Security Agency officials pop into the lockup room regularly just to check if everything is indeed in order.
There was also an army of security guards who kept a close eye on journalists and economists from the time they arrived and parked their vehicles, when they took a comfort break, up until they left the lockup.
The investment that the National Treasury makes into the strict security measures shows how serious the department is in ensuring that information contained in the speech is not leaked, especially considering that it has a huge potential to affect markets.
After a hard day’s work, at around 1pm on Wednesday, we were relieved when we were informed that we could take back our communication gadgets and start filing stories we spent hours working on. When we were about to leave after the appointed hour, 2pm, we got the shock of our lives to learn that the speech had been cancelled and postponed to March 12.
The sticking point for the cancellation, we learnt, was that the ANC failed to get a buy-in for the speech from some of its coalition partners mainly the DA — that make up the GNU, especially on the issue of raising the VAT to 17% from 15%.
Though a postponement of the budget speech was unprecedented, one started getting jitters when news articles that were published stating that Finance Minister Godongwana was set to announce in the budget speech a substantial VAT hike were confirmed in the 2025 Budget Review.
Though there is nothing wrong with the government taking a decision to raise taxes, in more than a decade since I have been covering the budget speech, it was the first time seeing contents relating to the merits of the speech being leaked to the media.
Making matters worse was when journalists who attended the embargoed pre-budget speech media briefing raised concerns about the minister failing to answer some of the questions asked. This gave the journalists an impression that the minister had bitten more than he could chew on matters relating to the 2025 Budget Speech.
After the speech was called off, there was so much uncertainty. The seemingly confused National Treasury staff did not allow us to leave the lockup immediately after the postponement was announced. Some journalists complained, arguing that they have already filed stories and have been given access to their communication devices. We were eventually allowed to leave at about 3pm.
The postponement also saw the rand tanking against major international currencies, which could result in prices of goods and services rising.
Though the postponement was a bitter pill to swallow, for Godongwana it is a lesson that he and future finance ministers need to learn to be better organised for the occasion. They need to do this by ensuring that they first have a buy-in from political partners way before the delivery of the budget speech.
The minister also needs to prevent market-sensitive leaks while also answering journalists questions on matters relating to the speech.
Failure to do these might seek to perpetuate uncertainty on future budget speeches, turning the whole process into a mockery.
