Budget Speech 3.0: Godongwana sets third Budget Speech date

Taxpayers would have to, for the third time, pay the bill for the upcoming revised Budget Speech to take place late this month.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced on Wednesday, during a media briefing in Pretoria, that the third version of the revised Budget will be tabled on May 21. 

The announcement comes after the 0.5% VAT reversal announced last week by the Treasury, which was proposed in the March 2025 Budget.

The revised Budget will likely have significant implications for taxpayers, who will have to bear the brunt of the changes.

While Godongwana acknowledged that the Budget process has been messy and that there are lessons to be learned, his Director-General, Duncan Pieterse, confirmed that the money to pay for the 3.0 Budget Speech would come out of the taxpayers' pockets.

“The costs incurred by the department for the Budget process mainly relate to travel, accommodation, advertising, etc. The cost associated with the past two budgets does not constitute fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” Pieterse said.

He said his department would seek to see how they would limit those costs so that it would not become expensive for the taxpayers.

“We are mindful of the fact that as these costs are being incurred and we are doing multiple budgets they can be viewed in a very negative light, so for example on the next Budget we are tabling, we are going to cut down on the printing and cut down on other aspects as well,” Pieterse said.

The EFF and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) have called on Godongwana to resign after the Budget battle, with the MKP taking it a step further and tabling a motion of no confidence against him.

However, Godongwana dismissed those calls, saying that he was not going to resign, as it was President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to make.

“It's unfair that after I have done my constitutional responsibility of giving a bill to Parliament that I must now resign,” Godongwana said.

He also rejected the MKP’s application of a motion of no confidence against him.

He said according to the Constitution, it was not in the MK Party’s jurisdiction to table a motion of no confidence.

He stated that the motion could only be tabled against the president or the Cabinet as a whole and not ministers because they were appointed by the president.

Godongwana added that there were lessons to be learnt after the new arrangement of the Government of National Unity.

“We are all new in South Africa to what is called coalition politics. There are lessons to be learnt by the Cabinet, the legislature and ourselves,” he said.

He said the National Treasury had already commenced work on developing a new Fiscal Framework that will maintain their trajectory toward debt stabilisation, a crucial element in strengthening public finances, saying the revised Budget will adhere to all established technical processes and consultations.

Parliament's spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo, said that Parliament did not admit to any procedural defect in the process of passing the Fiscal Framework. 

"Parliament had a strong case before the court. The decision to settle was driven by the recognition that subsequent developments — including the minister's withdrawal of the Division of Revenue Bill and the Appropriation Bill, and the introduction of a new Bill maintaining the VAT rate at 15% — had overtaken the original framework," Mothapo said.

He stated that the process of passing the Budget had been complex, and the latest development is the way forward.

Cape Argus