The 2025 budget has been approved after a team led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, with support from the National Treasury, tabled various options that persuaded the Cabinet to greenlight the new budget.
In a statement, Cabinet mandated Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to select from their discussed options and fund the budget in a manner that considered the fiscal constraints, mitigated the impact on the poor and middle-income households and supported economic growth.
The room was filled with tension, as the Cabinet members knew that the decisions made would affect every South African household.
This complied with the provisions of section 27 of the Public Finance Management Act (1 of 1999).
Godongwana and the National Treasury are now set to finalise the budget and table it before Parliament on 12 March, as reported by African Insider. Cabinet held a special meeting on Monday to discuss the budget fallout, which allowed lawmakers to deliberate more about the budget and also its impact on citizens.
This comes after last week, when the Cabinet reportedly rejected a reworked budget, this time without the 2% VAT increase, with Godongwana saying that this would not work for the people.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had to set up a team of ministers led by Mashatile to swiftly assist Godongwana in consolidating cabinet inputs for further consideration.
During a post-Cabinet briefing last week, the Minister in The Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, stated that additional submissions would be presented at Monday’s meeting.
So far, the budget has been rejected twice by the Cabinet.
It was postponed last month after parties in the Government of National Unity (GNU) failed to reach an agreement on the proposed VAT increase.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is among the parties rejecting the tax hikes, saying this would cripple South Africans financially.
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