It is understood that some of GNU partners are not happy with a proposal to increase VAT by 2% to 17%.
National assembly speaker Thoko Didiza announced just after 2pm that finance minister Enoch Godongwana would not be delivering the much-anticipated speech.
Earlier in the day, President Cyril Ramaphosa called an urgent cabinet meeting which caused a delay to the start of proceedings. It is understood that some of the GNU partners are not happy with a proposal to increase VAT by 2% to 17%.
Didiza, said the EFF and MK Party expressed concerns when a meeting was convened to discuss the budget. "It was clear that there was no budget that would be tabled," she said.
"It was for that reason I consulted all the parties, though two of the parties did express their concerns, but all parties agreed that we postpone. I think it is in the interest of all of us and the people of SA that we postpone and allow time for Treasury to finalise whatever they need to finalize finalise."
Didiza said the executive had given parliament until March to come and present. "As this parliament, we are not going to compromise our timelines as to how we need to deal with that budget. So no time will be shortened for us to deal with these issues in terms of our timeline," she said.
EFF leader Julius Malema said the decision to postpone the budget speech was unprecedented, not a practice of parliament. "It is going to be your legacy, Speaker, that during your tenure, parliament could not debate and adopt the budget," he said.
The executive must come here and present the budget, and this Parliament must decide whether we adopt that budget or not.
EFF leader Julius Malema -
"We are saying to you, that you are denying this body an opportunity to be receiving a budget, debate it, accept it or reject it. You are now subjecting the budget of SA to party politics."
Malema said the budget speech was an executive matter, not party politics.
"When the budget is supposed to be above party politics, let the budget be presented here, and let parliament decide that this is the decision we are taking as parliament, whether to accept or not.
"We don't have parties in the executive, we've got the executive. The executive must come here and present the budget, and this Parliament must decide whether we adopt that budget or not," said Malema.
MK Party chief whip Mzwanele Manyi said this was a serious indication of a country facing crisis.
"This country has got no leadership. This is what we are facing. If we say we have democrats, let democracy come and exercise itself here," he said.
"This is a theatre of politics. Let the minister of finance come and say whatever he wants to say. We don't want to hear rumours. We hear very disturbing rumours that the VAT would have been increased by 2%. In other words, we hear rumours that this ANC-led government wanted to impoverish our people. We have no sympathy with that."
However, DA chief whip George Michalakis supported the postponement, saying this should create immense confidence.
"Parliament is not a laughing stock. Parliament is no longer a rubber stamp to bad policies that will cripple our economy," he said.
"The second message that should go out to the markets and to the people of South Africa is that the GNU does not consist only of one political party. We hope that the executive will use this opportunity and this time to consider all the proposals on the table, especially the DA ones, so that when we hear a budget that gets put before this house, that it will be a budget of growth that will put our economy on the path of recovery and that will create jobs for the people of SA that they so desperately need."
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Updated: 20 February 2025 Thursday
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