GNU finally passes ultimate test of collaboration by getting national budget approved
But the delays mean that the medium-term budget policy statement is creeping ever closer and coalition partners will want to avoid a repeat of the national budget process.
Members of the National Assembly at the National Assembly during the budget vote on 23 July 2025. Picture: Zwelethemba Kostile/ParliamentofRSA
CAPE TOWN - After a year of ups and downs and two false starts on tabling a national budget, the Government of National Unity (GNU) has finally passed the ultimate test of their collaboration by getting a national budget approved in the National Assembly.
But the delays mean that the medium-term budget policy statement is creeping ever closer, and coalition partners will want to avoid a repeat of the national budget process.
The DA’s finance spokesperson, Mark Burke, said that as that deadline looms, the party has to weigh up whether the concessions it’s had to make so far have been worth it.
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“I think we keep trying to build towards an economy that’s built on an efficient government that creates jobs and is able to deliver growth. It is only because the DA is in this government that the markets still think this government is being fiscally responsible.”
Burke said with only six ministers in government, the impact the DA can have in government is limited, but it’s trying to steer its coalition partners to what it believes are more sensible economic policies.
“Unless we have some market-friendly policies implemented, we will continue to see what we see now, which is 0.1% economic growth and there’s an open question whether if we didn’t have this two-pot system where people are drawing down on their futures to pay for their present, whether we wouldn’t in fact now be in a recession.”