The great budget fiasco may seem a dark cloud above South African politics, but it has a significant silver lining.
Several commentators have remarked that the forced postponement of the tabling of the 2025 budget represents a failure of the GNU. For instance, Business Day indicated that Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad felt “it is a shame that South Africa’s national budget was not done on time, taking a bit of a shine off the real progress that has been made” by the GNU.
Precisely the opposite is true. Since the GNU was formed after the May 2024 general election, there had been a phoney war. In particular, the DA fought several battles on policy and legislation, but failed to prove it could make a difference. Its supporters became ever more sceptical of the DA’s role — apparently neither influencing nor opposing — and President Cyril Ramaphosa handled its leaders with contempt.
Last Wednesday it was as if the DA, having failed with conventional military tactics, suddenly went for the nuclear option. The ANC’s electoral failure was translated, for the first time since 1994, into legislative failure. It does not mean the DA now has a veto in everything the GNU does — but it has to be taken seriously. That is good news for the GNU.
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