By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is seeking the court to interdict the proposed 0.5% increase in Value Added Tax (VAT), effective May 1, 2025.
Speaking outside the court on Tuesday, DA spokesperson on Finance, Dr Mark Burke MP, delivered a passionate statement, emphasising the party’s opposition to what he called a “tone-deaf” budget.
“We oppose a debilitating and bulldozing Budget that will lead to further poverty by taking money from people who can’t afford it and giving it to people who don’t know how to use it.
“We oppose a bullying Budget that will lead to more young people losing hope when they realise they will be poorer than their parents,” said Burke.
He also warned that the VAT hike would deepen youth despair, depress property values, and make daily transportation more expensive.
He said the DA was opposing a “bleeding Budget”, which he said would lead to more South Africans wondering why their property values had decreased further.
The party also opposed a “blind and blundering Budget,” that it said would make it more expensive for the working class to get to and from work.
He said his party would lend its support to a Budget focussed on infrastructure investment and no new bailouts.
He further clarified the DA’s position on fiscal policy: “We are not opposed to a workable budget. We won’t oppose a budget for its sake and under all circumstances. We would support a budget focused on infrastructure investment and no new bailouts.”
He emphasised that legal action was a last resort but necessary to protect ordinary citizens from policies that threatened their livelihoods.
The DA’s legal challenge comes amid rising public concern about the government’s fiscal policies. The party’s decision to go to court reflects a broader frustration with the ANC’s approach, which many see as out of touch with the economic realities faced by South Africans.
Meanwhile, ActionSA has claimed that, through a parliamentary reply, the DA’s Deputy Minister of Finance Ashor Sarupen has implicated himself in being intimately involved in the Budget process, particularly in drafting the original February 19 Budget speech which included the deeply unpopular two percentage point VAT increase, as well as the subsequent revision to the split 1 percentage point increase.
“Yet in recent weeks, the DA has cynically weaponised this very VAT hike in a desperate attempt to salvage its political image and to extract more influence in the Government of National Unity (GNU),” said ActionSA MP Alan Beesley.
Beesley accused the DA of waging an internal war in the GNU by “prioritising extortionist power plays and Ministerial positions in the GNU over the financial well-being of millions of struggling South Africans”.
He said the DA’s “kamikaze-style attacks” on the Budget process were never about blocking an unjust tax hike, but rather a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Budget so that the party could renegotiate its position in the GNU.