Latest news with #MmusiMaimane
Eyewitness News
14-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
BOSA's Maimane launches 'Budget to the people' initiative at Parliament
CAPE TOWN - Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane has launched his party's "Budget to the people" initiative at Parliament to mobilise and give citizens a chance to make inputs. The party said the initiative would ask South Africans exactly what they wanted to see in the national budget, which Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will table in exactly a week. The initiative will span the next seven days through budget community town halls, including a digital service to canvass South African views. Maimane said that BOSA would ask South Africans one simple question: "What do you want to see in the national budget?" He said that the last two attempts to table the national budget had been marred by "political infighting" and a "deadlock" within the Government of National Unity (GNU), paralysing Parliament while citizens continue to suffer. He said that it was time to listen to citizens and what they wanted to be included in the budget. "We begin and we launch this tour of going around and seeing people, asking them their input in what we would like to call the people's budget tour. It will be a seven-day mobilisation where we will hear from ordinary South Africans about what they want to see. We will be going around asking them." Maimane said that during the initiative, BOSA would be engaging citizens on the party's growth charter, a blueprint for how South Africa can grow the economy at 5% per year. "For too long, national budgets have served the connected first, and the citizens second. This budget is not just a financial document. It tells us who and what the government truly values. Our 'Budget to the people' initiative is about shifting that power back to the people of South Africa," said Maimane.
eNCA
25-04-2025
- Business
- eNCA
Taxi industry's R408 million relief fund raises eyebrows
Tension is brewing between the City of Cape Town and Santaco Western Cape. JOHANNESBURG - The South African National Taxi Council is standing by the COVID-19 relief fund payments. This follows the Transport Department allocated a R408-million once-off taxi gratuity in the 2025/26 financial year. Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane, has questioned the continued financial support for the industry.
eNCA
25-04-2025
- Business
- eNCA
Taxi industry's 408 million relief fund raises eyebrows
Tension is brewing between the City of Cape Town and Santaco Western Cape. JOHANNESBURG - The South African National Taxi Council is standing by the COVID-19 relief fund payments. This follows the Transport Department allocated a R408-million once-off taxi gratuity in the 2025/26 financial year. Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane, has questioned the continued financial support for the industry.
IOL News
25-04-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Santaco defends Covid-19 relief fund payments to taxi operators
The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) has hit back at criticism following the Department of Transport's plans to allocate R408 million of its 2025-26 budget to the taxi industry. Responding to a Parliamentary question by Build One South Africa's Mmusi Maimane, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said Cabinet had approved a once-off relief fund of R1.35 billion to the industry. Santaco's national spokesperson Mmatshikhidi Rebecca Phala said the organisation welcomes the continued efforts by the Department of Transport to process and pay outstanding relief funds to taxi operators, many of whom were among the hardest hit by the pandemic's economic impact. "It is important to note that tax compliance is a core requirement to access these funds. As such, claims that relief is being paid to a non-compliant taxi industry are false and misleading. "The distribution process has been governed by clear and regulated criteria. The criterion for qualifying operators is solely when they are, a South African citizen or permanent resident in the Republic and be in possession of a valid operating license, or receipt as proof of application for renewal of an operating license and must be registered for income tax with the South African Revenue Services," Phala said.
Daily Maverick
24-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
It was a difficult process, says Mbalula on VAT withdrawal as uncertainty looms over budgetary shortfall
While the DA and other parties celebrated the withdrawal of the 0.5 percentage point VAT increase, they haven't figured out how to fill the budgetary shortfall. After weeks of negotiations over a Budget deadlock, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's surprise overnight withdrawal of the proposed 0.5 percentage point VAT increase has left one major question unanswered: How will the R13.5-billion budgetary shortfall now be addressed? For now, the hard work appears to be just beginning. With the VAT hike off the table, the pressure is mounting to chart a new fiscal path. Bosa leader Mmusi Maimane, who also chairs Parliament's Standing Committee on Appropriations, warned of the work that lies ahead, saying: 'A revised fiscal framework has to be tabled to the Finance Portfolio Committee, that then will come to the Appropriations Committee.' This uncertainty emerged on Thursday, 24 April 2025, as political parties that supported the fiscal framework — namely the ANC, IFP, ActionSA, PAC, Rise Mzansi, Bosa, UDM, Good, Al Jama-ah, the Patriotic Alliance, and the National Coloured Congress — held a media briefing in Sandton, Johannesburg. When asked by Daily Maverick how the Budget gap would be filled, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said: 'We have not arrived at that, it is a second process that we have to embark on.' In a statement on Thursday night, the National Treasury said: 'By not increasing VAT, estimated revenue will fall short by around R75-billion over the medium term.' Reflecting on the tense lead-up to Godongwana's decision, Mbalula added: 'It was a difficult process, but it has given us the result and we are very much happy about that.' On when consensus among the parties was actually reached, he responded: 'It was very clear that we had reached a consensus, we knew that our demand and the concerns had been agreed to. That is why we did not rush to make an announcement ahead of the minister.' DA 'hypocrisy' The political parties that voted in favour of the fiscal framework pushed back against claims that the decision to scrap the VAT hike was a result of the DA's court challenge. Patriotic Alliance deputy president Kenny Kunene dismissed the DA's celebration as disingenuous, saying: 'The DA has no moral authority to claim victory for the removal of the VAT increase. They weren't even part of this discussion. The parties that are sitting here can take credit.' Kunene accused the DA of hypocrisy: 'The DA waking up and claiming victory is hypocritical. They never rejected the VAT increase in the first place. Instead, they tried to use it to bargain for positions in the Government of National Unity (GNU).' IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa echoed similar sentiments, accusing the DA of behaving with a 'big brother' syndrome. 'We're not going to find solutions in the courts or the streets,' he said, emphasising that real negotiations were taking place among the parties represented at the briefing. Fadiel Adams, the leader of the National Coloured Congress (NCC), was also critical of the DA's claim of victory: 'The DA played no part in this, this is our work. This is us coming together and saying, 'Let us put our differences aside. The DA must be honest and say we would have voted for the VAT if you allowed us to have the ports, roads and railways, if you allowed us to take the Western Cape into a bigger version of Orania,' Adams claimed. The DA allegedly tried to use the Budget negotiations to win concessions on pieces of legislation it opposes, including the Bela Act, Expropriation Act and National Health Insurance Act. It reportedly also wanted a stronger role in developing economic policy. The DA took the VAT hike to court and on Thursday its Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille said: 'Today is a cause for celebration because it is the clearest indication yet of what it means to enable a party like the Democratic Alliance, fighting for the people of South Africa, to have the balance of power in the national Parliament.' She added: 'The issue that the ANC fears more than anything else is that the public will come to understand the extent of the DA's muscle in holding the balance of power and the impact that we can make, both through the political process and then the legal process, if the political process proves impermeable, as it did this time.' On the GNU While the ANC has touted a possible reset of the Government of National Unity (GNU), tensions within the arrangement continue to surface. Hlengwa took a direct swipe at the DA's dual role — being part of the GNU while voting against the Budget and going to court — saying: 'You cannot be in government today and opposition the next day.' Mbalula said he was surprised the DA remained in the GNU. He would not be drawn into commenting further about a reconfigured GNU that could include the likes of ActionSA and Bosa, among others. While it's unlikely the DA will exit the GNU voluntarily, the ultimate decision on whether the GNU remains intact rests with the ANC's highest decision-making body, the National Executive Committee (NEC). Two weeks ago, ANC Deputy President Paul Mashatile confirmed that the ANC would reconfigure the GNU to include other parties that want to work with the ANC. 'Now, the leadership of the ANC, after what has happened recently, decided that we are going to reconfigure the alliance. We are going to reconfigure the alliance and we are going to reconfigure the GNU to ensure that we bring other parties on board to work with us, but also to ensure that we discuss this properly with all the parties,' Mashatile said. In a collective statement, the ANC and other parties at the press briefing on Thursday said: 'The discussions required maturity above all, and were all intensely focused on achieving consensus, which was necessary to resolve the budget impasse. 'We affirm the constitutional mandate of the Treasury and that they have been responsive to the inputs and suggestions of the political parties in the engagements. This demonstrated that no one party is the alpha and omega in providing solutions for South Africa, a collective approach by all parties that represented here have put South Africa first and made sure that the Budget is approved.' DM
