Ramaphosa says ongoing discussions to reach consensus over national budget healthy

CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa has described ongoing discussions to reach consensus over the national budget as healthy. 

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs event on Thursday, Ramaphosa said it has been another learning curve for the African National Congress (ANC) to have to consider the views of nine other political parties in drawing up a national budget. 

It’s been a week since the tabling of the 2025 budget collapsed for the first time in a democratic dispensation, as Government of National Unity (GNU) partners last week railed against a proposed 2% point increase in value-added tax (VAT), only hours before Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was due to make his speech.

Cabinet held a special meeting on Monday to iron out political parties’ budget differences, as they work towards a 12 March deadline to table a reworked version. 

Ramaphosa doesn’t believe the sticking points are insurmountable. 

"Our differences are not fatal. There are governments that have fallen and broken apart over budgets. It shows we are a maturing democracy, where our differences are not fatal."

Reaching consensus and striking the balance, he said, will come down to trade-offs, given that revenue is too low to fund the state’s expenditure. 

"You’ve got to do deals, you’ve got to trade-offs and say what’s important now and what can be done later, and grow the economy."

Ramaphosa said although ideological differences among GNU parties have been stark, they have so far, been able to navigate through them rather smoothly. 

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