EFF writes to Didiza for urgent withdrawal of report adopted at joint finance committee meeting
The party also wants the matter removed as an item on the National Assembly’s agenda on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker of the National Assembly Thoko Didiza during the Budget Speech on the 12 March 2025. Picture credit: Phando at Parliament
JOHANNESBURG - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has written a letter to Speaker of the National Assembly, Thoko Didiza, requesting an urgent withdrawal of a report adopted at Tuesday’s joint finance committee meeting.
It also wants the matter removed as an item on the National Assembly’s agenda on Wednesday afternoon.
The EFF objected to what it described as an incoherent, deeply flawed and illegal process.
It’s also claiming the committee was never directly asked by its chairperson if it accepted Minister Enoch Gondogwana’s budget or wanted to make amendments to it, which it argued had resulted in legal and procedural concerns on the adoption of the report on the fiscal framework and revenue proposals.
On Tuesday, the African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) backed a proposal from ActionSA, which supported the budget but recommended that the minister do away with the tax hike and provides income tax relief for ratepayers.
The EFF gave the Speaker until 8 on Wednesday morning to resolve the issue or it would consider urgent legal steps.
EFF spokesperson Sinawo Thambo explained: "This outdated and unconstitutional procedure reflects the failure of the former liberation movement to grasp that Parliament is not a rubber stamp of the National Treasury’s anti-poor neoliberal budget agenda. Instead of a transparent process of amendments, what we witnessed is a mockery of democratic oversight."
Thambo said they therefore requested the following urgent remedial actions:
"That the report adopted on 1 April 2025 be withdrawn from the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports (ATC); that the report be removed from the Order Paper of the National Assembly scheduled for 2 April 2025, as published in No. 13–2025; that, the Standing Committee on Finance be instructed to reconvene and formally resolve, before adopting any report, whether it accepts or amends the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals, in accordance with Section 8(4) of the Act."
ALSO READ: