Budget Speech postponed
YESTERDAY’S highly-anticipated budget speech by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was postponed indefinitely until next month.
Speaker Thoko Didiza has announced that a number of opposition parties failed to reach an agreement over the proposed 2 percent VAT increase.
Didiza said the executives needed time to relook the proposal before deciding whether it can be approved and delivered to the people.
This is the first time in 30 years of democracy that the budget speech has just been postponed.
According to Didiza, the government leaders informed her that Government of National Unity (GNU) parties in the executive were not able to agree to the budget.
The parties in the GNU, including John Steenhuisen’s Democratic Alliance (DA), supported the postponement, while opposition parties such as Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Front (EFF) and former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party rejected the move.
They called for the minister to account for the delay.
Reports indicate that President Cyril Ramaphosa has called an emergency Cabinet meeting.
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