Political parties disagree on their approach to budget

The Patriotic Alliance said it would vote in favour of the budget, with spokesperson Steven Motale saying: “[We] hope as the GNU we can get over this hurdle together.”

Good Party leader Patricia de Lille said her party would also support the budget. 

“The 0.5 percentage point VAT hike must be read together with the attempts by the National Treasury to cushion the poor and to soften the blow on poor people. More food has been exempted from VAT. There is no increase in the fuel levy. There are a number of attempts from National Treasury to soften the impact on the poor,” she said.  

Rize Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi said no single political party had the option of rejecting the budget.

“The law says you approve or amend. You have to table a proposal. If you don’t table a proposal, then you are not helping the finance minister produce the budget that he or she needs. The first thing that needs to be pointed out is that the political parties that merely say they reject it are being unhelpful.”

He said what was important for his party were the citizens who were already struggling to pay their bills.

Zibi said if the 0.5 percentage point VAT hike stays, then it should only do so until October. “In October, the finance minister tables an amendment to the budget to get rid of it completely in February,” he said.

Between October and February, he said, the government could identify cost savings it could make from wasteful expenditure.

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