Eff Open To Budget Talks But Only Without Da And Ff Plus: Dlamini

EFF Secretary-General Marshall Dlamini says the party has met with the ANC in a chief whips forum to discuss the possibility of voting for the national budget. While the national budget has been tabled in parliament, political parties must still vote for it to be passed.

Speaking to SABC News at Dlomo Dam in Sharpeville, Gauteng, Dlamini says the EFFs conditions remain that they wont support a VAT increase.

To put it simple, the EFF will get into genuine and serious negotiations with the ANC when the DA and Freedom Front Plus are not in that GNU. Other than that, that stance remains. We will never get into any discussion or anything. We dont support the VAT increase, but anything else, as we said. Even the president said it when we were closing our conference. We are ready to participate in government as the EFF, but not with racists, says Dlamini.

Dlamini says the ANC must first negotiate with their GNU partners and close that chapter before they can consider negotiating with anyone outside of the GNU setup. He insists that even when the EFF would get into negotiations with the ANC about the budget, it would be on the basis of no VAT increase, but to look at other alternatives.

So, people of South Africa must not be confused. Even the negotiations that we would get into with the ANC the first one would be to say let us look at alternatives. We will put them on the table, adds Dlamini.