Budget 2025: Mbalula Claims Da Wanted 'transformative Laws' Shelved

African National Congress ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula claims the Democratic Alliance DA wanted the ANC to stop implementing transformative law in exchange for supporting the 2025 budget .

DA leader John Steenhuisen announced on Wednesday 12 March that the party will not support the budget presented by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in its current form.

Weve been very clear from the beginning that we dont believe that a value added tax VAT increase is the right way to proceed, especially if its not accompanied with bold economic reforms that will focus on growth, he told SABC News .

However, in a post on X , Mbalula claimed the DAs objection was not about the 0.5 percentage-point VAT increase Godongwana announced.

Steenhuisen was so clear: stop implementing transformative laws if you want us to support the budget! This is what their objection is about, not a concern on the poor! This is crazy stuff, he wrote.

The ANC and DA are the two largest parties in the 10-member government of national unity GNU. Without the DAs support, the ANC may need to enlist the support of non-GNU parties to pass the budget in Parliament.

DA advisor and strategist Ryan Coetzee dismissed Mbalulas claim as straight up nonsense.

The growth and spending reforms the DA wants would benefit all South Africans but especially the poor and unemployed. Unemployment is up from 22 to 33 under the ANC. Not exactly concern for the poor, is it? he wrote on X .

ANC National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe also accused the DA of attempting to extract concessions from the ANC using contentious legislation such as the National Health Insurance NHI and Basic Education Laws Amendment Act BELA.

They want to counterpose everything else on battles they have lost. They want to counterpose the budget to BELA, NHI and Expropriation Act, he told SABC News .