By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Fikile Mbalula says next week’s budget by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana should be pro-poor and address unemployment crisis.
Mbalula made the remarks during his keynote address at the ANC’s Duma Nokwe Memorial Lecture, held in the Sedibeng Municipality.
Mbalula believes the revised Budget must be reflective of transformation policies.
“Radical socioeconomic transformation must and will happen in our lifetime. It is our contention as the ANC that the national Budget must reflect a growth path that would ensure adequate absorption of the unemployed through economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and expansion of existing businesses,” he said.
With the constitutionally mandated Budget deadline of 31 July now looming, the National Treasury faces one of its most complex fiscal reengineering exercises in recent memory.
The legal architecture underpinning the Budget has now been reset; the high court order not only suspended the VAT hike, but also invalidated the parliamentary resolutions that had adopted the fiscal framework – meaning that a full reboot of the Budget needs to take place.
The 21 May retabling will encompass a full legislative reset: the Fiscal Framework, Appropriation Bill, Division of Revenue Bill, and the previously tabled Rates and Monetary Amounts Bill will all be presented to Parliament for fresh approval.
Until the new Budget is passed, government departments may continue to spend under Section 29 of the Public Finance Management Act up to 45% of last year’s Budget over the first four months, and 10% per month thereafter, so business will continue as normal for now.
The Treasury remains adamant that the Minister acted within his constitutional authority in initiating the VAT measure under Section 77. But in a multiparty government, constitutional authority means little without political consensus.
The failure to secure that consensus, both in the Cabinet and in Parliament, exposed the structural weakness of the Government of National Unity (GNU) — and the fragility of the fiscal machinery that supports it.
Mbalula said his party needed to win elections to mitigate against what he referred to as contradictions and strategic setbacks seemingly happening because of policy differences among political parties in the GNU.
“Comrades, we must not just win the elections to manage contradictions, but to ensure radical and rapid socioeconomic transformation. Our people have said through the ballot that they want radical and accelerated change.”
Despite taking a beating in the 2024 elections, Mbalula maintained that his party lost mostly because of a poor voter turnout.
“As much as we did not get over 50% … our people simply decided to stay at home. They didn’t go to any other political party. If they went to other political parties, we will be having a total new government in the republic.
“The ANC is still the largest party in South Africa today. That is why, comrades, with that 40% we will deepen transformation. We will pass laws that will deepen transformation — [the] Bela Act, NHI, Expropriation Act…”
Nokwe served as the ANC’s secretary-general from 1958 to 1969, a pivotal period in the struggle against apartheid. He died in 1978 while in exile in Zambia, during the height of apartheid.
In September 2024, his remains, along with those of 48 other freedom fighters, were repatriated from Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The ANC is planning to rebury him alongside his wife, Nomvuyo, on Saturday, 17 May.
As the ANCs Director of International Affairs in Lusaka, Zambia, Nokwe was the public face of his banned organisation for over six years. He was a well-known figure at meetings of the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations, and his diplomatic skill helped win respect for the ANC overseas. He died in exile and is buried in Lusaka.