President Cyril Ramaphosa has allayed concerns which have emanated from the postponement of the budget speech.
Speaking on the side lines of the first day of the G20 foreign ministers meeting at Nasrec, Johannesburg, just a day after the botched budget speech Parliamentary sitting, he said there was nothing untoward with what transpired.
Important lessons learnt about GNU processes
“The Minister of Finance [Enoch Godongwana] finds it hard to speak too loosely about this. Yesterday taught us another important lesson, and that is going to be important in our processes. And to look at how we navigate challenges in the GNU [government of national unity]. Our level of consciousness and awareness of our budget now needs to be heightened,” he said.
Ramaphosa further added that it was not unusual for a national budget speech to be postponed as this has happened throughout the world.
He explained that because government consists of different political parties, it cannot be business as usual. Decisions need to be endorsed by majority of partners.
On Wednesday National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza announced that the budget speech would be postponed. GNU partners were not in agreement about several aspects of the speech, including two percentage point increase in VAT.
Some parties, ministers opposed to VAT increase
Cabinet held a meeting on Wednesday before the budget, where they were officially presented with the budget. However, some parties and individuals were disgruntled.
The Democratic Alliance and Patriotic Alliance have led the charge against this decision. There are at least four ANC ministers who were vehemently opposed to this decision.
The president assured that the GNU had not collapsed, despite their differences playing out in the public domain. He also poured cold water on the assertion that the DA deliberately halted the National Assembly sitting as revenge for his decision to pass legislation which they are against.
GNU intact
“The GNU has not collapsed, I do not see it as a revenge act by anyone. It is how a collective unity government should be handled,” said the president.
The budget speech is scheduled for March 12.
