Mulder says Freedom Front Plus not quitting GNU over national budget disagreement
The Freedom Front Plus said that despite recent developments over the budget, it remained supportive of the GNU and still believes it's the best way forward for the country.
FILE: Freedom Front (FF) Plus leader Corné Mulder speaks to EWN at his office in Parliament on 27 February 2025. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
CAPE TOWN - The Freedom Front Plus, the fourth-largest party in the Government of National Unity (GNU), said it's not about to quit the formation over its disagreement over the national budget.
But party leader, Corné Mulder, said that his party also did not join the GNU to continue to rubber stamp the African National Congress (ANC)'s policies that have failed to work over the last 30 years.
Along with the Democratic Alliance (DA), the party was one of two that voted against the fiscal framework in the National Assembly last week over their refusal to accept an impending increase in the value-added tax (VAT) rate by 0.5 percentage points.
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The Freedom Front Plus said that despite recent developments over the budget, it remained supportive of the GNU and still believes it's the best way forward for the country.
But Mulder took exception to the ANC shopping around for support outside the coalition instead of working with its partners to thrash out differences.
"That puts a huge question mark over the successful function of a Government of National Unity or a coalition."
Mulder said that the Freedom Front Plus had wanted the GNU to come up with a new agreement on how it would deal with the budget and on ways of how it thought expenditure could be cut to avoid a VAT increase.
"The ANC was not prepared to put that in writing at the time, and we were not prepared to vote for something we do not agree with."
The party’s federal executive will meet again on Tuesday as part of the ongoing evaluation of its role within the GNU, but Mulder does not believe these discussions will result in the end of its role in government.