Godongwana says Future Budget will be Crafted Early to Avoid Crippling Fallout because he ‘Learnt Lessons’

SIHLE MAVUSO|April 30, 2025

***LESSON LEARNT: Finance Minister Enock Godongwana says they have learned their lessons from the budget impasse and fallout. Photo: GCIS***

The Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana has admitted that they have learnt their hard lessons out of the 2025-2026 budget impasse and in future, budget processes would be started around September every year so that by February the following year, all hurdles have been cleared.

Godongwana made this admission while briefing the media today, April 30, in Pretoria. It is where he announced that the new and refined budget without VAT increase would be tabled on May 21, 2025.

He said in the past, passing the budget was easy as the ANC had the majority and it would pass it without hassles. However, the government of national unity (GNU) and other factors in the National Assembly mean that there must be consensus on the matter.

“We are dealing with uncharted terrain, as you are aware we used to have the budget with the dominant party being the ANC and one would prepare the budget and be sure that it goes to parliament, and the ANC will pass the budget. Now, we are in a coalition government and that coalition government takes two forms; one, there is a GNU in cabinet but in parliament there is a number of political parties, therefore when you table a money bill, section 77 of the constitution empowers me to do that, I was within my constitutional parameters to table the money bill.

“What then happened, because of the nature of the coalition politics, we couldn’t find a consensus both in the cabinet and in the legislature. I am not going to put blame on anybody, but that process on its own… because all of us are new in this things, was messy, that process on its own is messy, we all have learnt from it, all of us learnt from it because we were not anticipating the kind of challenges we faced,” Godongwana said.

He added that it would be unfair to call for him to resign merely because he was performing his duties within the constitution. He said, by the way, it’s the president’s duty to fire ministers.

“Now, it would be unfair to say to me, having performed in terms of my constitutional obligations of proposing a money bill in parliament and get into an environment of multi-party environment which created large tension and say I must resign. At this stage where I sit, I think people must understand that thing in that context.”