DA's rejection of budget is trying to strongarm President into making other concessions - Godongwana

CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says by rejecting the budget, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is trying to strong-arm the president into making other concessions that don’t fall within the ambit of the budget.

On Wednesday, DA leader John Steenhuisen flatly rejected Godongwana’s budget despite Treasury backing down from an original two percentage point Value-Added Tax (VAT) increase proposal, to 0.5% percentage points.

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At a pre-budget press briefing on Wednesday, Godongwana intimated the DA were being sore losers after having lost the battle over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, the National Health Insurance and the Expropriation Act.

“Is their problem the tax, or is their problem something else? It’s important to call a spade a spade. I personally met the DA on the seventh despite the fact that they say they have not been consulted.”

Godongwana said the DA’s rejection of the budget is not purely about the VAT hike, and the party will cave if they get their way on other matters.

“In their discussion they highlighted a couple of issues. And one of the issues is that they’ve lost a couple of battles and it’s creating tensions in their own party, and therefore they want to win something. So it’s not surprising that in the new submission they’ve made to the president, it includes something outside the budget, including the Expropriation Act.”