ANC urges DA to engage in good faith during upcoming budget negotiations
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is set to deliver a new budget next month, after the previous one was overturned by the Western Cape High Court.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula addressed a media briefing on 1 April 2025. Picture: Thabiso Goba/EWN
JOHANNESBURG - As the Government of National Unity (GNU) restarts the entire budget process, the African National Congress (ANC) has urged the Democratic Alliance (DA) to engage in good faith during the upcoming budget negotiations.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is set to deliver a new budget on 21 May after the previous one was overturned by the Western Cape High Court.
The ANC and DA have been clashing over the previous budget, mainly over to the proposal to increase value-added tax (VAT).
READ: Mbalula says the new budget won’t include VAT adjustment
The DA’s refusal to support the fiscal framework and its legal challenge to overturn the VAT hike did not sit well with the ANC.
The party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, says the DA must pick a side.
"Of course, it will call into question, morally, their continued presence in the GNU because you can’t be in the GNU to support a budget that you don’t agree with. For us, it’s not a make-or-break issue, it’s a principled question."