With finance minister Enoch Godongwana set to table Budget 3.0 on May 21, he is torn between the urgent priorities of raising extra revenue, cutting spending and increasing investment.
Godongwana has faced calls for his resignation following the budget fiasco, especially over his insistence to force through an unpopular VAT hike. He has resisted the calls, while President Cyril Ramaphosa has also come to his defence.
Godongwana has pulled the DA into direct involvement in redrafting the third version of the National Treasury’s budget following his failure to win approval for the two previous efforts.
The move has led to ANC MPs throwing down the gauntlet to the party’s leadership, demanding that the DA be dumped from the government of national unity due to its repeated rejection of ANC policy and that other parties be brought in to achieve a majority.
Ramaphosa insists Godongwana is still the right man to look after the public purse. We’re now implored to look kindly at the minister's predicament because, unlike his predecessors, he’s operating in a completely different environment. But if they know the situation has changed, why do they behave as if it hasn’t?
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