Government Has Not Collapsed, Ramaphosa Says After Budget 'mishap'

President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that the postponement of the budget speech on Wednesday 19 February was a mishap, but insists that the government of national unity GNU has not collapsed.

The cabinet requested Parliament to postpone the planned budget speech by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.

According to Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, ministers had requested more time to engage with various trade-offs, including a proposed increase in value added tax VAT by two percentage points.

Some political parties sharply criticised the postponement. There is no government. It has collapsed. It has no capacity to present a budget, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema said in Parliament.

However, at a media engagement after officially opening the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg on Thursday, Ramaphosa sought to downplay Wednesdays dramatic events.

What happened yesterday will pass. It happened. We now need to buckle down and say, how do we then deal with the challenges that the country faces, he said.

I know there is a temptation for people to be heated up, get hot under the collar and focus on yesterday, and say there was no leadership and consultation. Yes, yesterday happened. It has given us a lot of lessons, but we must move on.

In dealing with yesterday, the GNU has not collapsed. We are drawing a lot of lessons from what happened.

The President emphasised that the main focus must now shift to the substantive issues of funding our ambitions and having to countenance with the fact that we have got limited resources.

Ramaphosa also hinted that the proposal to increase VAT may be shelved. There was concern about the consequences of having an increase of VAT. We therefore need to pause and ask, how do we then move forward in dealing with the substantive issues, he said.