VAT battle is over but GNU crisis is not

Meetings are due to undo the damage after the finance minister caved on the tax increase

- Emsie Ferreira

The budget bungle is a hard lesson in coalition politics for the ANC and its main partner, the Democratic Alliance (DA). While the announcement that finance minister was abandoning the VAT increase was made abruptly minutes after midnight on Thursday, it was inevitable after events in the past fortnight.

The DA claimed credit for the about-turn but the smaller parties resisted the narrative that it is the hero of the story, with reason.

At a media briefing after the midnight confirmation of Minister Enoch Godongwana's climbdown, DA federal chairperson Helen Zille said her party's opposition to the budget delivered a clear victory for the country's taxpayers.

The DA's high court challenge to the budget had proven decisive in a two-month battle that began on 19 February when Godongwana withdrew an initial budget with a two percentage point VAT hike minutes before delivery, she said.

The minister's announcement that he was reversing staggered a one percentage point increase came the day after the first part of the court application was argued in the high court.

"It was clear that the DA's court intervention was the pivotal intervening factor that has enabled the people of South Africa to come out victorious," Zille said.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had joined in the DA's case and its counsel pleaded on Tuesday that the National Assembly's acceptance of the fiscal framework was marred by political misrepresentation.

Godongwana's replying affidavit, in which he insisted that the increase could not be interdicted, was proof that the ANC had lied when it persuaded parties to vote in favour of the framework with the proviso that the minister would look for an alternative way to raise revenue.