Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA claiming victory over the National Treasury’s withdrawal of the VAT hike has pitted it against the majority of its government of national unity (GNU) partners.
In a joint briefing held by the 11 political parties that supported the budget, including those in the GNU, the DA came under fire for claiming that the VAT hike was reversed because of its court challenge.
The ANC, ActionSA, IFP, Rise Mzansi, UDM, Bosa, Al Jama-ah, Good, NCC, PAC and PA held a joint conference after the announcement that the much-contested VAT hike would be halted.
Some of the parties laid into the DA, saying the party wanted to use the budget to “extort” the finance minister.
This comes as the DA has been publicly criticised for trying to use the budget talks to renegotiate legislation such as the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, the National Health Insurance Act and the Expropriation Act.
Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi told the media that the successful talks among the parties which led to the finance minister Enoch Godongwana finally agreeing to reverse the VAT increase were about stopping the DA from using the budget to score wins in the GNU.
“This process has been about freeing the finance minister from extortion. We can now proceed with the budget without also having to talk about legislation that has already been passed by parliament,” said Zibi. “This is what this has been about. We cannot hold budgets hostage to other political priorities that have nothing to do with appropriation.”
Zibi said they could not allow the DA to make South Africans wait longer for land justice because the DA knew they could use the emotional VAT hike issue to negotiate the Expropriation Act.
“Those were the points of extortion and we must challenge them,” said Zibi. “But I can tell you, all of the points of extortion they placed on the table, they are not on the table any more. If anybody wants to reverse legislation they must earn a majority, amend the legislation, take it back to parliament and win that amendment to the legislation.”
The PA’s Kenny Kunene also accused the DA of trying to use the budget talks to extort the GNU.
“The DA in its negotiations over VAT increase made some demands. The DA indicated that they will vote for the VAT increase if a certain port was privatised. If the NHI was removed. If the Bela Act was removed,” said Kunene.
“So the DA was going to vote for a VAT increase had the ANC and the GNU parties agreed to be extorted by them. So when the extortionists could not get their way they ran to the courts.”
Kunene said the DA “had no moral authority” to claim victory over the VAT hike removal as they were not part of the talks.
“So the DA waking up this morning after seeing the statement of the minister and claiming is quite hypocritical because they never rejected the VAT increase at the beginning. Instead they tried to use it to privatise what South Africans own. They tried to use it to get positions in the GNU. They tried to use it to change what parliament has already resolved on,” said Kunene. “So a party of extortionists has failed to serve South Africans on a very important matter of national interest.”
The IFP’s Mkhuleko Hlengwa accused the DA of trying to play both sides — being both in the government and in the opposition.
“We believe that you can’t be half pregnant. You can’t be in government today and in opposition tomorrow. Either you are in or out for the purposes of consistency within what we do in the budgetary processes and in governing generally so that we can be in a position to resolve the problems,” said Hlengwa.
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