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Dear Readers Welcome to this week’s Sunday Times newsletter. News that finance minister Enoch Godongwana has decided to scrap the controversial 0.5% VAT hike, would have delighted most South Africans, already battling a high cost of living.

As we report, that decision is facing now facing a legal hurdle as a result of a continuing court case in which the Democratic Alliance, and the Economic Freedom Fighters, have challenged the powers of the finance minister to unilaterally set or change the VAT rate, without resort parliament. 

This year’s budget has taken South Africa into uncharted territory, politically and legally. The budget dispute has rocked the stability of the government of national unity, with ANC leaders suggesting the DA would have to be "punished" for opposing the budget, and the ANC drawing in minority parties to try get a 50% plus majority in parliament.  

With just three working days to go before the VAT hike would have kicked in, the country has been plunged into confusion over whether the increase will indeed take effect or not. Announcing the u-turn on Wednesday night, Godongwana said he would be introducing legislation to reverse the VAT increase. 

 The return of US president Donald Trump to the White House has seen a worsening of tensions between SA and Washington, which culminated in with Trump withdrawing aid to SA, with further anti-SA measures in the offing. This week saw signs of a thawing of relations between the two countries. Following a phone call between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump, in which they discussed trade and political matters, we reveal that the two presidents have agreed to meet in person soon.

According to the presidency, the planned engagements would be aimed at “resetting the bilateral relationship” between SA and the US. In another of our top stories, a heartbroken father is suing his wife for R5m for pain and suffering after she murdered their four-year-old daughter.

Madelein Ackerman, who is serving an 18-year sentence in Westville prison for the murder, was recently put under curatorship because, it was alleged, she is suffering from severe depression and cannot represent herself in legal proceedings against her health-care executive husband, André. In June last year Ackerman, 47, pleaded guilty in the KwaDukuza magistrate’s court to drowning their daughter Layla in two buckets of water at the family's Ballito home in 2022. She told the court she had been planning to commit suicide. Because André was frequently away at work, she feared that Layla would be neglected after she killed herself. 

On the business front, diversified mining and metals group Sibanye Stillwater is in line for a tax windfall of more than R4bn thanks to an amendment to US tax rules that will boost its loss-making platinum and palladium operations in that country. The company is also reaping the rewards of the gold price rally, and for the first time since 2017, its profits from South African gold operations have exceeded those from local platinum group metals (PGMs).

Late in 2024, the US treasury introduced section 45X of the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster US mining operations by providing tax relief for operational costs for producers of critical minerals. It gives a 10% credit to producers and recyclers of PGMs. Sibanye has two US PGM operations at Stillwater and East Boulder in Montana, where it mines platinum and palladium.

It also owns the Columbus Metallurgical Complex in Montana. It further runs a precious metal recycling facility at Reldan in Pennsylvania where industrial and electronic waste is processed to produce green precious and base metals.  

Happy reading!