Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it now has “synergy” with the African National Congress (ANC) on the budget and economy after rejecting previous budgets from the opposition benches.
This comes as Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled the Government of National Unity (GNU) administration’s first budget on Wednesday, which focused a lot on fiscal consolidation.
The DA for the first time did not present its “alternative budget” now that it’s part of government and holds one of two deputy minister positions in the Treasury.
Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen submitted an alternative budget a year ago as a member of the opposition, rejecting most proposals.
But fast forward 12 months and Sarupen now finds himself on the inside as part of the finance ministry.
But Sarupen said that most of the DA’s alternatives had been factored into the adjustment budget.
“If you look at this MTBPS, all my criticisms from 12 months ago in Parliament on the debate are addressed in the particular document, which shows that we have synergy.”
He said that a year ago he was criticising National Treasury on its growth projections and other issues.
“And I said in Parliament, in my speech, that over-optimistic growth projections are a problem. I said continued commitments to SOE bailouts were a problem. If I look to reflect back, there are few other things like the public sector wage bill,” said Sarupen.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana quipped that being in government was more of a “reality check” for some of his DA cabinet colleagues.
“One of my colleagues in Cabinet was asking me a question. He said: ‘You know what? Government was a reality check for me.'”
Godongwana said the tone of the budget was not affected by the GNU because major parties were in agreement on fiscal consolidation.
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