By PHAKAMISA MAYABA
AS THE world was running a fever thanks to President Donald Trump’s unexpected sneeze on Ukraine, South Africa’s finance minister, Enoch Gondongwana, was effectively social distancing himself from his annual 15 minutes of shine. Chickening out, as it were, from the Budget speech – not even a ‘sorry comrades’, or an hour-to-midnight family meeting for serious damage control. Instead, an impersonal presser that seemed more procedural than genuinely regretful of the ‘unprecedented’ stand-up. After all the pomp on the pre-speech rug; the multi-colour doeks and traditional ensembles, the exchequer man did a number on … uhm, the PC thing to say is ‘the people of South Africa.’
But I figure it was anybody who’d bought a plane ticket, boarded a taxi or suffered any meaningful loss in the hope of getting access into the parleb* Godongwane’s fiscal soliloquy who was well and truly done in. All those journalists, vloggers, podcasters, the Gogo Dlaminis who remain too mbokodo – hardcore – to turn heretic on the crumbling broad church, all left to foot their own bus fare back home. No reimbursements for the poor plebs, not the ones milling outside the Nieuwmeester Dome anyhow.
No big story for the financial pages, few comical moments for Chester Missing, and News24 and Standard Bank would have to put their Budget Breakfast on ice until around 13 March, the morning after the proffered new date. Corporates would’ve felt slighted given the promotional budget-themed ads they’d splurged on across social media. And they no doubt demonstrated their displeasure when the rand suffered a swift decline – not quite in the magnitude of a certain former president’s late-night cabinet reshuffle, but still a reminder from the capitalist big brothers that ‘yes, we are watching you’.
Having bribed a neighbour whose telly is almost always tuned to the movie channel to switch to news, Yours Truly eventually found himself limping out of there, cake on his face. And I’m half-sure I heard the guy mumble something about people so stupid that they waste their time listening to seasoned bandits in pin-striped suits. Can’t say I blame him, given that by the time the postponement was announced, I had dispossessed him of the pleasure of the bit when John Rambo blows up the chopper.
Mara why, everybody – including the outcasts in the new GNU – demanded to know. Here, some sense of schadenfreude welled up in me: now you finally see what it’s like for the rest of us, nhe! Turns out, according to parliamentary speaker Thoko Didiza, ‘There [had] not been agreement in terms of parties in the executive to actually find one another in proposals of the budget’. That would’ve stirred some inward cheering from the Progressive Caucus, an apparent own goal on the part of the GNU suggesting that things might not be all swell in the partnership after all.
From that moment on, it was open season; Didiza was faced with the usual dissenting maelstrom especially from those parly hacks who regard the GNU as an assault on against the peasants. An ugly word ain’t it, peasants? Reminiscent of a time where wealth and social standing were the birthright of a handful of people , with the right blood type and with friends in the right places. But how else does one describe the whip that awaits the already economically strained lower classes? Again, excuse the primitive language, but one struggles to keep it clean when the government stars to sound like aristocrats whilst the lumpens get by scraping and bowing.
Reports suggest that the only hurdle which led to Godongwane’s expungement was a proposed 2% VAT hike, which would’ve jumped from 15% to 17%. Say what! For partners in the GNU, it was steep, unconscionable and downright – in the words of DA leader John Steenhuisen – ‘disastrous’. I would never have thought that the party framed as the crutch of the poor was about to so callously take the whip to that segment of society used to justify suspect programmes of redress – ‘the previously marginalised’. Seemingly, consultations are an afterthought when it comes to maltreating the poor. The ANC’s way, maybe, to get back at the voters for the May 2024 election yellow card? Even more befuddling is that it’s the DA, said to be on the opposing end of the spectrum,which would claim victory for preventing the ANC from steamrolling the hike through.
That Treasury had reportedly approved the increase in order to, amongst others, foot the wage bill of public servants and improve the country’s rail system felt not only like a klap in the face of the poor, but an unwillingness on the part of government to take accountability for past transgressions. You’d recall these headlines: 1) How Prasa [Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa] was looted and left for scrap; 2) SA’s bloated Cabinet ‘least’ of Godongwana’s problems. Years down the line, Cabinet remains bigger than a first-year Communication Science lecture hall, and functioning trains are as rare a sighting as a pink panther in the Kgalagadi.
More than that, the proposed hike would’ve been one of those moments where government confesses without actually getting into the booth and spilling all to the priest. Clearly, they are out of their depth in boosting the economy, and someone must step up – or in this case, be forced – to make up the shortfall. The week’s most poignant quote again came from a man I least expected to hold such left-leaning views. Cried Steenhuisen: ‘We need more jobs, not more taxes.’
Fair play to him if you take stock of increased food prices and the 30 million of South Africans who live on social welfare. Yes, that’s just shy of half of the entire population. Some 11 million of them depend solely on the R350 social relief of distress grant, so how does one justify imposing such taxes on people who already live far below the breadline? One MP proposed the sort of solution that would’ve guaranteed a burst of cheers in any township in South Africa, despite his complexion: slash the Cabinet, Speaker, especially those cumbersome ministers who probably have nothing to do at work.
One feleb (that’s a Facebook celebrity, Oom Koos) took it even further, suggesting that Godongwana had basically gone rogue, allegedly not mentioning the hike to anyone until the last minute. If this is true, that’s probably the most decent gesture the minister had shown. Any man of elementary empathy would’ve been ashamed to show off such a ruthless document whose logical conclusion is to effectively reduce the masses to penury whilst its writers munch away at the dinner event of the Budget that didn’t happen. That alone is sickening if you consider the number of ordinary people who turned up at the event, and the ones who tuned in from home and eventually got nothing but a lame apology from people who are evidently clueless as to the going rate of taxi fares nowadays.
Come 12 March, it is not Godongwana who will be subject to severe scrutiny, but the GNU itself. Seen as a has-been that has yet to come to terms with no longer being the ruling party, the punditry will zero in on whether the ANC is mature enough to give others a go at the ball, thus giving validation to the idea of a team. Or will it resort to the sour loser approach by flexing its higher numbers, especially at the smaller players, who are no doubt grateful for the opportunity of playing with the big boys.
The DA may have stood its ground on the Budget – but should the ANC continue to play by its own rules, will the former stick to its guns, or might the spectre of the EFF or MKP being brought in as substitutes find it eventually playing along? One never knows in these high-stakes leagues of politicking. What is certain, however, is that the spectators will be booing and possibly hurling things onto the pitch as soon as someone clinches a 2% VAT increase.
* Feleb: A term coined by the author for parliamentarians who seem to have gained some celebrity status.
FEATURED IMAGE: Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on his way to delivering the 2023 Budget Speech at Cape Town City Hall, with Edward Kieswetter in tow … Thus far, however, 2025 has been a no-show. Image: GCIS on Flickr.
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This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on Phakamisa Mayaba’s website, eParkeni. Used with permission.