Steenhuisen lauds new Budget as ‘credible’
The head of South Africa’s second-biggest political party said talks about the nation’s revamped budget are “are going very, very well,” a signal that the coalition government is resolving differences that derailed the National Treasury’s previous tax and spending proposals.
“We had a wonderful presentation by the minister of finance,” on a third iteration of the budget, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen told reporters at the Nampo Harvest Day expo in the central Free State province on Friday. “I think we’re certainly getting there.”
“There really a sense of collaboration and working together to put on the table a credible budget that will be a strong stable platform for us to go out and seek confidence from our investors and also to start growing the economy and creating jobs here in South Africa,” he added.
Steenhuisen’s comments follow an assertion by Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo, on Thursday that he is “very confident that we’re not going to have budget 4.0,” and that lawmakers will approve the proposals in parliament May 21.
Last year’s election failed to produce an outright winner, with the African National Congress (ANC) setting up a 10-party coalition in June, a month the vote in which it lost parliamentary majority it had held since apartheid ended in 1994.
The DA and African National Congress have since February sparred over issues including the National Treasury’s proposal to hike value-added tax — all of which raised questions about the alliance’s durability.
Tensions escalated last month, when the ANC enlisted the backing of parties that aren’t part of the coalition to pass the fiscal framework — legislation that underpins the budget — after the DA withheld its support. The DA then filed a lawsuit contesting the adoption of the legislation on procedural grounds.
The Treasury backed down, saying it would scrap the planned VAT hike, cut spending to fill a R75 billion gap in the budget over the next three years, and seek to settle the court case with the DA.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation