Budget battle should be about citizens, not power plays

This week could be make or break time for our government of national unity (GNU) as it tries to reach a compromise to pass the 2025-2026 budget.

The original budget – which included a proposal for a two percentage point hike in VAT – was tossed back to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in March, as the DA and other parties, both inside and outside the GNU, said they would oppose it.

The DA made a lot of hay while that particular political sun was shining by casting itself as a friend of the poor in its opposition to the value-added tax hike.

In the weeks since, there has been much behindthe-scenes negotiating and bickering.

Bolstered by the realisation that the ANC is at its weakest since the dawn of democracy in 1994 – and perhaps emboldened by the growing wave of right-wing sentiment set off by US President Donald Trump’s attacks on the ANC – the DA has, according to reports, made demands for concessions which go way beyond the ambit of the budget.

ALSO READ: Budget 2025: Budget vote crucial test for GNU, will not change fiscal position

Among these are Cabinet agreement on the controversial Expropriation Act and withdrawal of proposed regulations to form the National Health Insurance… both major policy planks for the ANC.

That stance indicates clearly to the ANC that the DA is not about to be any form of window-dressing in the GNU – but that sort of brinkmanship could also sour relations between the two just at a time when, as the country’s biggest political organisations, they should be working together to solve the myriad problems facing us.

There is a lot at stake because the last thing South Africa needs is to show the world that all we do is fight among ourselves.

Instead of looking at who wins and who loses in the budget debate, the politicians should try to think of us.