'It's everyone's victory' - political parties fight over reversal of VAT increase
JOHANNESBURG - Political parties both within and outside the Government of National Unity (GNU) have welcomed the scrapping of the proposed 0.5% VAT increase.
But some parties are slamming the Democratic Alliance (DA) for claiming credit for the reversal.
Among those criticising the DA is Patriotic Alliance Deputy President, Kenny Kunene, who slammed the party's conduct as 'hypocritical.'
'A party of extortionists has failed to serve South Africans on an important matter of national interest. So, South Africans, don't be misled,' said Kunene.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula also weighed in, saying constructive dialogue had led to the withdrawal of the VAT increase while allowing for alternative fiscal solutions.
Screenshot
enca
'This is not a victory for any single party, nor is it about who shouts the loudest. This is a people's victory, a quiet but profound triumph of our democratic institutions. Parliament acted as the voice and shield of the nation,' Mbalula said.
The DA had previously taken credit for the postponement of the Budget Speech in February, blaming the delay on Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's failure to engage with its alternative proposals.
Despite objections from various parties, the budget, including the VAT hike, was passed.
This later saw both the DA and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) banding together to challenge the hike before the Western Cape High Court, where they argued that both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) had adopted the fiscal framework improperly.
EFF lawyer, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, went further, accusing the finance minister of misleading Parliament to push the budget through.
The matter continued in court until late Wednesday evening, after that the DA confirmed through an 11pm statement, that lawyers representing the Finance Minister had approached them to propose an out-of-court settlement.
The DA said it was waiting for a formal written settlement offer before deciding on a response.
Shortly after midnight, the National Treasury released a statement confirming the cancellation of the VAT increase.
On Thursday morning, the DA held a media briefing, insisting the VAT reversal was a direct result of their court application and not due to negotiations between smaller parties and the ANC.
As political parties bicker over who can claim credit for the VAT hike reversal, RISE Mzanzi leader, Songezo Zibi, said the country now has to deal with a multibillion-rand fiscal gap.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
3 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Minister Nkabane fails to submit names of panel that oversaw controversial Seta board appointments
Higher Education Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane has missed a deadline to reveal the names of an independent panel that endorsed the appointments of politically connected Seta board chairpersons. Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane was asked to submit the names of the Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) Board Chairpersons Selection and Evaluation Panel to the parliamentary committee on higher education on 11 June 2025. The five-member panel was responsible for the selection process in the appointment of 21 chairpersons for Seta boards in May. The committee requested the names of the panel after it was discovered that ANC politicians had been selected, including Gwede Mantashe's son, Buyambo Mantashe, who has been appointed chairperson of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta. Also named are former KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube and ex-ANC KZN provincial deputy chairperson Mike Mabuyakhulu. In a letter seen by Daily Maverick, written by Nkabane to the chairperson of the parliamentary committee Tebogo Letsie, Nkabane has requested an extension of the deadline to 30 June 2025. According to Nkabane, she was concerned over whether the disclosure of the names and details would violate the panellists' rights to privacy. However, she has now recognised that she is legally permitted to disclose the panellists' details. 'I remain concerned that the disclosure may invite unwarranted or unwanted public vitriol against the panel members, as I have experienced… I have written to each of the members of the selection and evaluation panel and advised them of my intention to comply with the portfolio committee's request,' said Nkabane. Nkabane's response comes after members of the committee and the public raised concerns over the non-disclosure of the selection panellists' names. The Seta board appointments caused chaos at the committee meeting on 14 May and on 2 June 2025, even leading to the eviction of the EFF's Sihle Lonzi after he questioned Higher Education Department Director-General Dr Nkosinathi Sishi. Lonzi called the Seta board appointments 'corrupt'. Nkabane had previously said the reversal was solely due to public reaction and that the appointing process had been flawless. 'We saw what was trending on social media… I took it upon myself as a responsible citizen to say, 'Listen, I could pick [up] that among the issues were the recommended candidates to serve as chairs; they are viewed as more politically associated with some of the politicians within the movement, and I decided I must take the concerns of the public,' said Nkabane. 'Time's up' – deadline extension frustrates MPs Members of the parliamentary committee voiced their frustrations about the minister's request for a deadline extension. Karabo Khakhau (DA) said this was completely unacceptable. 'Minister Nkabane needs no permission to furnish the committee with those names if they exist. Secondly, the minister has had more than enough time to receive permission from the panel to reveal their names. The minister's time is now up. There is no more room to manoeuvre. The committee has exhausted its generosity. Minister Nkabane cannot run away from being held accountable for her attempted politicisation of the appointment of the Seta board chairpersons. The chickens are coming home to roost,' said Khakhau. Higher education committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie also expressed disappointment at Nkabane's extension request. 'We … felt we had given her enough time to comply. The committee will meet on Wednesday, 18 June, to pave the way forward on what to do,' said Letsie. Ramaphosa seeks answers Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa requested that Nkabane report to him on the matter. Nkabane drew public ire after videos of her at the meeting chewing gum and being dismissive of MPs' questioning went viral. After the meeting, the minister took to X to explain herself. 'Claims that I was rude or disrespectful are false and based on misleading clips taken out of context. I did not disrupt the process,' she wrote.
Daily Maverick
3 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Letter to Mahlamba Ndlopfu — Now is the winter of our discontent
Ah, Chief Dwasaho! I write as one frozen stiff by the icy breath of our weather this week, which was worsened, not by cold fronts and damaging winds, but by the harsh realities revealed in the Statistics South Africa reports. According to the latest figures from StatsSA, in the first quarter of 2025 our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by a maiden 0.1% — yes, not a typo, not a rounding error, just a whisper of movement above economic rigor mortis. When annualised, that translates into a lukewarm 0.8% year-on-year. The only warm patch came courtesy of agriculture, surging by 15.8%; clearly, cabbages are doing more heavy lifting than the Cabinet. If agriculture were a currency, I'd wager it has flourished under the recent sunshine of Baas John Steenhuisen's melanin-light leadership — though perhaps all it ever needed was a little brown boost in the soil and the soul. So, my dearest leader, if our economy was the weather, it would be a bone-chilling fog bank rolling in from all sides with no visibility, no direction, and certainly no sunshine in sight. It is a climate where only those with thick skin and thicker wallets survive. For the rest of us? It's winter without end, comrade. A cold front of missed opportunities blows through a nation still waiting for the warmth of the fundamental economic reforms promised in 2018, when I was 10kg lighter, with not a strand of grey hair. The need for immediate action is NOW. Frostbitten As I dived, nose first, into the frostbitten pages of StatsSA's latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, I emerged gasping, winded not from the effort but from the sheer chill of our labour market's trajectory. The official unemployment rate rose to a bone-cracking 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025, up from 31.9% in the last quarter of 2024. That's 8.2 million South Africans left out in the economic cold — up from 7.9 million — huddled around the dwindling embers of hope, awaiting a job to fall like manna from heaven. The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged jobseekers (like me), swelled to a stormy 43.1%. That's not an economy with 'low clouds' — that's a Category 5 unemployment cyclone bearing down on the nation, with little shelter in sight. Gauteng added a gentle breeze of +9,000 jobs, while the Western Cape enjoyed a sunny spell with +49,000, and the Free State contributed a faint +4,000, a drizzle of progress. But for the rest of Mzansi? It's all nightmarish: KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the Northern Cape all reported job losses, a frostbite of opportunity. The stormfront hit the rural provinces hardest, where economic activity retreats like sunlight in mid-July. Perhaps everyone has seized on the National Prosecuting Authority's snail-pace strategy to prosecute thieves in Gucci suits. But for minors, we hear the same story: to use KZN police commissioner Lieutenant- General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's chilling words: 'Unfortunately, there's an engagement inside,' and the suspect was fatally wounded. Economic Richter scale Our economy is wobbling through yet another tremor, an earthquake clocking in at 5.6 on the economic Richter scale, just as the country flounders without a discernible compass. The much-vaunted National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 remains a glossy wish list; the New Growth Path, launched by Ebrahim Patel in 2010, has long fizzled into policy vapour. And let's not even mention the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) of 2020, a blueprint that has yet to see the light of day since its launch. We've dwelt in this winter of our discontent since 2009 — that's 16 years of frost, shivering in the dark with no economic fruit in sight. My leader, it has been a year since the markets heaved a collective sigh of relief following the cobbling together of the Government of National Unity (GNU). Investor confidence flickered, the rand strengthened, and — momentarily — the economic barometer pointed north. But alas, no fresh economic policy has emerged from the fog. Meanwhile, our industrial strategy (now a series of industry-specific master plans) continues to clash with the Treasury's fiscally (im)prudent stance, and the South African Reserve Bank remains fixated on inflation targeting, wielding high interest rates like a blunt snow shovel. It's a jigsaw of clashing fronts, a high-pressure system of indecision, the crosswinds of ideology holding the country to ransom. In meteorological terms, this isn't merely a cold snap; it's a prolonged polar vortex: policies fracturing like ice sheets, implementation frozen stiff, and gale-force confusion sweeping through every sector. And the question that keeps me awake in the long economic night is this: how do we find warmth when we can't even agree on the thermostat? The economy is the heartbeat of any democracy — and, dare I say, the very essence of the state. Bleeding jobs Yet it remains locked in a low-growth, high-interest-rate trap, bleeding jobs with every tick of the GDP clock. Are we not merely hoping the thermometer will fix the fever while the patient quietly slips into shock? While I paced the lounge on a pallid Tuesday evening, contemplating ways to become an economic wizard, the anthracite fire sputtered with dirty yet oddly soothing warmth. Suddenly, like a frost front through a broken window, a major newsbreak occurred: you, my leader, in all your infinite incandescence, have appointed an Eminent Persons Group. Wait for it: 'To guide and champion the National Dialogue.' Not to draft, not to deliver — to guide, like torchbearers in a tunnel with no exit. Moreover, we're not stopping at one symbolic gathering. As Head of State, you are summoning all and sundry to a full-blown National Convention. One can only hope the guest list excludes Comrade Jimmy Manyi and his former boss uBaba kaDuduzane lest this turns into a Radical Economic Transformation revival festival. The first sitting of this National Convention, scheduled for 15 August 2025, will set the agenda. Imagine! The second, pencilled in for January 2026, promises to 'reinforce our shared values and adopt a common vision and programme of action'. What does it mean? In short, the Eminent Persons Group is like a cocktail: a retired judge mixing with a former apartheid politician, a peace activist, a Grand Slam champion, a rocket scientist, a mountain climber, unionists, and the odd former businessperson or two — all now expected to guide and champion our National Dialogue. In weather terms, it's akin to entrusting the thermostat to a room full of thermometers — none of which agree on Fahrenheit or Celsius. Yet this isn't intended to draft an agenda — no, not at all. If it doesn't set the agenda, what does it mean to 'guide and champion'? Jobs are haemorrhaging, growth is nonexistent, and interest rates freeze whatever sizzle the economy once had. Budgetary greenhouse Meanwhile, on another planet entirely, we have assembled a budgetary greenhouse stocked with 400 members of the National Assembly, 90 from the National Council of Provinces, and a bloated Cabinet of 75 ministers and deputies. Yet the national agenda now rests on the shoulders of a hodgepodge of rugby captains, soccer coaches, ex-judges, clergy, and authors. These noble souls are expected to steer our industrial, fiscal, monetary, and legislative future. Until 2026, this country will remain without a growth-inducing economic policy. Instead, our 'captains of sport and clergy' are expected to grind out the results of policymaking while inflation waltzes with the Treasury and the Reserve Bank storms through with hawkish winds. All the while, the Democratic Alliance will persist with its courtroom battles dressed up as a moral crusade, trying to undo the very legislative frameworks that remain the ANC's only family silver after 31 years in power. Laws that were written by men and women who understood the demands of our Constitution, the need 'to heal' and the imperative 'to redress'. And these are the very words the DA finds offensive: heal and redress. If that's not an emergency, I am at a loss. Comrade Leadership, why deploy 31 innocent souls when you already command a Cabinet twice that size? This isn't a participatory democracy; it's a bureaucratic iceberg — 90% protocol, 10% purpose, masking a freeze on real policy action. The absurdity is staggering. Policy inertia and the endless punting of cans down the road of conventions won't win votes, nor will it heal the wounds of the present — let alone those of the past.
The South African
10 hours ago
- The South African
The quiet Western Cape towns South Africans are semigrating to
If you were wondering where South Africans are semigrating to in 2025, it seems the Western Cape's smaller, country towns are becoming quite popular. According to BusinessTech and property experts from Seeff Property Group, country towns across the Western Cape are experiencing a surge in demand for property as more South Africans wish to opt out of busy city life. This semigration trend was seen, in particular, amongst remote workers, retirees, and families looking for quieter and safer lifestyles. Some of the most popular Western Cape country towns include Barrydale, Bonnievale, Ladismith, Swellendam, Pearly Beach, Riversdale, Gansbaai, Still Bay and Struisbaai. BusinessTech also reported data that showed that over 8 000 property transactions worth nearly R9.5 billion occurred across the Cape countryside last year, with an estimated 90% of these sales coming in under R1.5 million per transaction. 'We're seeing strong interest from all over the country, with nearly 60% of buyers from Gauteng,' Anet Rossouw from Seeff noted, as per BusinessTech . Another 10 percent are from the other South African provinces, with the rest of the buyers being from the Western Cape itself, looking for second homes or future retirement homes. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
