ANC SECURES NARROW BUDGET VICTORY

THE ANC has lived to see another day after it narrowly passed the Budget, with a difference of 12 votes last night without their partner in the Government of National Unity, the DA.

- MASHUDU SADIKE

The ANC, after teaming up with smaller parties within the GNU, got 194 votes while the DA with the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) and the EFF garnered only 182. The voting has created more questions than answers about the future of the GNU after the DA was adamant that it would not vote alongside its biggest partner. After the events of the National Assembly last night, the DA said that the Federal Executive would meet today to discuss its future.

The EFF and the MKP had vehemently opposed the passing of the Budget to the point of threatening court action.

However, National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza addressed the threats of court action from the EFF and the MKP regarding the request from the two parties for the withdrawal of the report on the Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals.

Didiza's response comes after the EFF and MKP raised procedural and legal objections to the adoption of the report on the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals by the Standing Committee on Finance.

In her letter, Didiza clarified that the Money Bills and Related Matters Act does not prescribe the procedure followed by the Standing Committee on Finance. Instead, she emphasised that the procedure is governed by Assembly Rules.