Political parties express mixed reactions to 2026 Budget

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana flanked by Deputy Ministers Ashor Nick Sarupen and Dr. David Masondo, and South African Revenue Services Commissioner (SARS) Edward Kieswetter ahead of the Budget Speech on February 25, 2026.

African National Congress (ANC) Spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Mtsiri says the focus on local government is one of the positive developments in the 2026 Budget Speech made by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday afternoon.

Bhengu-Mtsiri says, “The lived experiences of the people that you are referring to can only be addressed through reforms that are going to create employment, reforms that are going to fix local government, reforms that are going to enable us to build bulk infrastructure, which is the main Achilles heel in local government.”

She says, “You have this spiralling formal settlements that were not planned for in terms of spatial development and as a result the entire bulk system is compromised.”

GNU

The Democratic Alliance (DA) MP on finance, Dr Mark Burke, says he believes that the tabling of the budget is the reflection of the Government of National Unity (GNU) as opposed to one party.

Burke says, “Likewise, for the first time in almost 20 years, the increase in the VAT registration threshold from R1 million to R 2.3 million. What that does is that it relieves the admin burden on small and emerging businesses.”

He says, “It comes as a package of 22 types of limits and thresholds that have been announced today. So that’s very positive. On the whole, it looks like a budget that results from a coalition government than the ANC budget. So that’s positive.”

PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says the budget should have focused on rejuvenating financial injection into public infrastructure instead of impressing investors.

Malema says, “Well we have to allocate more money in an infrastructure and build the state capacity, and not be driven by all the desires to impress the IMF (International Monetary Fund) where in the people are not at the centre of your budgeting, but if anything is, the so called investors who are being impressed with this budgeting when the people on the ground are suffering.”

He says, “So we will concentrate more on the investment in the infrastructure building state capacity so that we can create more jobs and ensure that we employ as many young people as possible.”

CONSERVATIVE

United Democratic Movement (UDM) MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa says the budget is too conservative in order to address the many challenges facing the economy.

Kwankwa says, “One could not really call it a growth budget, it’s very conservative, it’s trying to make sure that we sort out finances. We appreciate the fact that they are just going to adjust the tax table for inflation. It’s going to give some relief to some South Africans.”

“The other issue for us is not entirely clear is that the minister keeps on talking about how funds are located between the different spheres of government and the fact that the local government level, which is municipalities, gets 10%.”

He adds: “We have been talking about the issue of around the raising capacity of different municipalities. It does not look like the form is going to pick up yet. We do not believe that the grants are going to help us to address some of the challenges.”

HOPEFUL

African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) MP Steve Swart has described the budget speech as hopeful.

Swart commended Godongwana for not increasing personal and corporate taxes but raised concerns over the country’s high debt burden and sluggish economic growth.

He says, “We’re very grateful that there’s been no increase in personal taxes, corporate taxes and in fact that there is bracket relief for salary earners. On the other hand, we are still concerned that whilst the ship might be moving slowly in the right direction, there isn’t that firm fiscal anchor and debt is still too high, coming in at 78.9% of GDP, our debt service costs are far too high and are crowding out much-needed expenditure on other items.”

Swart says, “Taxpayers are demanding better services, better education, better health and they want to be safe in their homes and we believe that there’s still a lot to be done in this regard.”

POLICE

Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Dr Mmusi Maimane says they welcome the R1 billion allocation given to police.

Maimane says, “I think the most important issue we are going to look at is the fact that we welcomed the R1 billion investments that is going to policing. I think South Africa is the dangerous place, but if you really want to eradicate poverty, you want to make sure that the economy is growing at the right rate.”

He says, “The fundamental question is that while we talk about investment and infrastructure and the stimulus on SMMEs, I do think that South Africa needs to be able to create a better economic growth story to attract investments. So National Treasury can do its job, but we need to make sure that all the other departments do their jobs.”

PUBLIC NETWORK GRANT

Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana says one of the highlights of the proposed budget is about scaling down public network grant instead of a complete shutdown.

Gana says, “The other aspects that I looked out for was around the public transport network grant, whether it will be shut down or it will be phased out. We are happy that it is being phased out rather than scale down, rather than being shut down, because at least it allows the municipalities that have been using it the public transport network grant for at least start planning for a scale down of the funds of the grant rather than scale down.”