The tabling of a budget is the last place you would expect to turn into a theatre of high political drama.
It’s usually a drab affair.
Financial journalists and economists get a sneak preview of the numbers on the morning of its presentation under strict lock-up rules. Their electronic devices get confiscated and they are not allowed to transmit any content until the finance minister starts speaking at 2pm.
For as long as this practice has been in place, like clockwork at 2pm the finance minister takes to the podium of the National Assembly and delivers the hugely anticipated speech.
Things took a bizarre turn this time around when instead of the usual proceedings, National Assembly Sspeaker Thoko Didiza announced the budget speech would be postponed because parties in the government of national unity were deadlocked over it.
DA leader John Steenhuisen emerged afterwards to confirm that his party had objected to a two-percentage point increase in VAT to 17%.
Their objection carries significant weight because the ANC needs DA votes to pass legislation that gives effect to the budget — the Appropriations Bill, Division of Revenue Bill and the Revenue Laws Amendment Bill.
This impasse is unprecedented. No-one knows how to respond to what the National Treasury director-general referred to as “uncharted waters”.
The ANC, in power since 1994, is used to getting its way. The budget has always been voted for by MPs even at the height of the worst divisions in the governing party. Everyone knows you may disagree about everything, but the budget must pass.
All this manufactured consensus, however, changed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday when the DA stood its ground on VAT and triggered a pause of the budget speech.
Until now, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC had successfully dribbled past their largest coalition partner when it came to contentious laws such as the National Health Insurance Act, Basic Laws Amendment Act and expropriation legislation.
Even though the DA cried foul every time these were signed into law and threatened to walk, it never did. The budget was the last issue the ANC expected the blue party to take a firmer stance over and say “enough”.
A flustered finance minister Enoch Godongwana took questions at a press conference in the afternoon about the delay in the tabling of the budget to March 12 and what this all means. He told journalists he was happy that cabinet was fully engaging with the budget.
In truth, this was a bloody blow across his and the ANC’s nose. They have been finally reminded that there is more than one partner in the governing coalition and contentious policy should be decided and agreed to by all parties first before it becomes law.
The DA has finally scored a victory in the GNU, and this one may be more impactful than all the battles it has lost.
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