President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that Finance Minister Enoch Godogwana delivered his budget speech in the face of declining revenues but said he had to “juggle” and find a way to make “difficult” choices.
“He has made the difficult choices now. Parliament will have to discuss all that, come up with solutions and they must bring about solutions,” he said.
Ramaphosa was reacting to Godongwana’s speech in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Godongwana has announced a 0.5% increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) for the 2025/2026 financial year, with an additional 0.5% increase for the 2026/2027 financial year.
As a result, the VAT rate will rise to 16%. Ramaphosa mentioned that it took them time to finally find a way to deliver the budget.
“It took a lot of discussions, a lot of talking together with the various parties and it came to this. In the end, the minister was faced with a lot of challenges and difficulties on how to balance the budget, particularly in the face of declining revenues,” the president stated.
“But also not wanting to cut spending and have austerity, and he was faced with 17,000 teachers in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) who needed work, he was faced with unemployed doctors.
“He was faced with an increasing pension for the older people, so he had to juggle. Every finance minister always has to juggle and find a balance.”
Ramaphosa said they would wait for the political parties’ reaction to the budget to either oppose or reject it.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have slammed the budget that included the VAT increase.
Politics
