Sacp Accuses Da And Gayton Mckenzie Of Violating Cabinet Secrecy

The South African Communist Party SACP has accused Patriotic Alliance PA leader Gayton McKenzie and the Democratic Alliance DA of violating the doctrine of cabinet secrecy.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Wednesday 19 February, SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo claimed the DA had leaked budget details through a statement it issued soon after the budget speech was postponed.

The cabinet met on Wednesday morning and agreed to postpone the budget to allow ministers to engage further on the proposed trade-offs.

The postponement of the Minister of Finance's 2025/26 National Budget Speech today is a victory for the people of South Africa, as it prevents the implementation of a 2 VAT increase that would have broken the back of our economy, DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said in a statement afterwards.

According to Mashilo, the DA erred by allegedly divulging details from the postponed budget and cabinet meeting.

What you have seen here is a political party called the DA violating cabinet secrecy in other words, violating the law, seeking to undermine all other parties to elevate itself even ahead of the budget being unveiled. The president and law enforcement agencies have to deal with that, he claimed.

Current Affairs ZA reached out to the DA for comment but had not received a reply at the time of publishing.

In a now-deleted post on the X social media platform, McKenzie sought to counter the DAs suggestion that it was the only party that opposed the VAT increase in the cabinet meeting.

This is not true. The majority of members in cabinet was against the budget. The minister of justice ANC and minister of electricity ANC spoke first against it. DA, Inkatha Freedom Party, PA, FF Plus and Pan-Africanist Congress spoke out, he wrote.

It was not a fight it was us listening to each other without party political heads. The finance minister graciously took note of everything that was said. Let us not lie or claim easy victories. The GNU showed leadership and not party politics.