Parties call for pro-poor budget, reject tax hikes

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it wants Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to provide a comprehensive spending plan when tabling the 2025 National Budget for the third time on Wednesday.

The revised budget will come after he reversed the 0.5% point Value-Added Tax (VAT) increase following some parties’ legal action.

The DA says the main objectives of a spending review will help in removing excessive and overlapping government expenditure.

Party MP Dr. Mark Burke says, “We are expecting the minister to speak to a comprehensive spending review to be conducted by this government and the findings from that review to be implemented in the form of an omnibus bill that takes away areas of excessive spending and overlapping government departments that do the same work to the sub-optimal standard.”

Burke adds, “If we can get this right, we will create space in the fiscus, meaning the money at our disposal to focus on the projects that we need and while we are doing all of this the DA is not expecting a cutback to frontline services such as doctors, nurses, teachers and policemen.”

Tax increases

Action SA insists that it is completely against any possible tax increases that Godongwana may try to propose when he tables the budget.

The party’s Parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, says they need to see the government delivering basic services within its available financial resources.

Trollip says, “We’re really interested to see what budget 3.0 will look like. We haven’t been consulted by the finance minister, but we are not a member of the GNU (Government of National Unity), that’s probably would have been expected, but what we do expect to see though is that the minister  takes to account that there is blanket opposition on any form of increase taxation.”

“We also need to see the government cutting its coat according to its clothes, which means that they must be prudent in their affairs,” he adds.

‘Third time luck’

Build One South Africa (Bosa) says Godongwana must table a budget that will speak to the needs of ordinary people.

Bosa leader Mmusi Maimane says, “This budget could not have come at a crucial time. It cannot be the third time lucky. It must be a budget that focuses on the future. It gives expression to our priorities and makes sure that people are heard.”

Maimane says, “National budgets have served in many ways in the political elites and previously they were easy to pass because it was one party rule, now is the time to really make a budget that is not just a financial document, but it is the budget that tells us who and what the government intends and the people truly that valued. It must be a budget that says we shift power back from the political elites to the ordinary South Africans.”

Anti-poor

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) says it will not support a budget proposal by Godongwana that is anti-poor. PAC Spokesperson Apa Pooe says they will reject any proposals for austerity measures.

Pooe says, “The budget must decisively confront poverty, landlessness, youth unemployment and deep inequalities that continue post-apartheid South Africa. It must stop prioritising the elite’s interests and begin to finance the future of the African majority through free quality education, rural development, and land restoration. We reject austerity, we reject tax hikes that are affecting the poor and the budget cuts that are essential to service delivery.”

Impoverished communities

The Good Party says they expect a budget that is designed to benefit the needs of the impoverished communities.

Party’s Secretary-General Brett Herron says they will take a keen interest in social-related expenditures such as allocation to grants, among other things.

Herron says, “When the minister of finance tables budget 3.0, we will be looking at the expenditure side of the fiscal framework. We will want to make sure that we are not heading to yet another austerity budget.”

“So we will be looking to see whether the Social Relief Distress Grant (SRDG) is maintained in this budget, whether they propose increases to the existing social grants are mantained, whether the proposed spending to retain educator posts in the education system is retained  and whether the spending on health is retained so that we can employ doctors and whether the investment on infrastructure  and rail signalling system is maintained.”

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