Africa-Press – South-Africa. The ANC says it has accepted that coalition politics has thrust it into uncharted waters as far as running the government is concerned.
This lesson, the party has said, was learnt during the budget impasse that will now see the Finance minister Enoch Godongwana tabling the budget for the third time on May 21, a first since the dawn of democracy.
Previous budgets had not been subject to much debate and toing and froing, as the ANC enjoyed the majority to pass the budget without much resistance.
Under coalition politics, the ANC says it now accepts that the budgeting process will have to be subjected to negotiations with political parties represented in parliament.
ANC chair of subcommittee on economic transformation Zuko Godlimpi on Wednesday said how the National Treasury previously went about the budgeting process, where they present it to cabinet for the first time on the eve of its presentation, will have to change.
“It is quite clear that the approach of the National Treasury coming to cabinet on the eve of presenting the budget is no longer possible,” said Godlimpi.
“That’s one part the ANC has agreed that it has got to change completely, and I think the minister of finance has made that point that even for May 21 they will have to have a much more extended consultation process.”
He said the budget impasse had come with some positives, as South Africans have now a better understanding of how the budget process works.
“So, there are positives to this and there are negatives of course because it delayed us, but it’s good that everyone now knows about the budget process and they can actually express themselves. So, it’s a positive note,” he said.
“Many South Africans didn’t know that actually when the minister of finance speaks in February that’s not the final budget — there’s a longer process that follows. So, it’s a good thing; everyone has learnt out of this. We will have to follow through with that consultation so that we don’t get ourselves into this situation [again].”
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula reiterated that the party has drawn lessons from the budget process.
“The point I want to raise is [about the] lessons learnt: we’ve obviously learnt that we are in uncharted waters, that’s a fact, and that when you are in a coalition you’ve got to engage all the time, and that’s what the ANC picks up from this,” said Mbalula.
“The other lesson for us, which is uncharted waters, is that we must engage with the budget process with everybody, because the budget is an important political tool — local government, provincial government and national. And when you have a reduced majority there will always be others who want a stake in the budget for their constituencies.”
Godlimpi said those claiming victory over the reversal of the contested VAT increase were being dishonest, as the minister of finance made the decision before the court could deliver its judgment.
“There’s only been one VAT increase that the ANC has actually allowed to pass: the 2018 one. So the argument that the ANC has a track record of allowing VAT to increase [isn’t true],” he said.
“In fact, one of the unstated things in the ANC was to never touch VAT, either in reduction or increasing it. That’s why it remained at that 14% for a very long time. It was almost an unproclaimed consensus that you don’t go there. That is why even ANC leaders were quite categorically saying ‘don’t go there’.”
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