Cape Town – Cheesed off with its Government of National Unity partner – the African National Congress (ANC) – the Democratic Alliance (DA) has turned to the courts to challenge the lawfulness of the national budget process.
On Wednesday, (2 April 2025), the ANC persuaded other parties to pass the 2025 Budget.
Without the support of major parties – the DA, Economic Freedom Fighters, and uMkhonto weSizwe Party – the ANC still managed to get the contested budget over the line with 194 votes against 182.
Reacting to being outmanoeuvred by the ANC, Helen Zille, the DA Federal Council Chairperson, said Thursday, (3 April 2025), said: “Today, I filed papers in the Western Cape High Court to challenge the legality of the 2025/26 National Budget process”.
Zille added: “A VAT increase is set to come into effect on 1 May unless it is interdicted, and that is what the DA is doing.
“We are taking this fight to court to ensure that South Africans are not unfairly burdened with higher costs of living.
“We are seeking an interdict to stop SARS [South African Revenue Service ] from implementing the VAT hike on 1 May.”
Zille said the interdict request was based on the DA’s legal challenge to suspend Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s announcement of the VAT hike and overturning Parliament’s adoption of the Fiscal Framework.
Minister Godongwana has announced that VAT, presently at 15%, will increase by half a percentage point in 2025/26 and another half a percentage point in the following year.
However, Zille said: “We seek to suspend the operation of the finance minister’s announcement of the VAT hike on the basis of the constitutionality of the minister’s power to raise VAT by announcing it in his Budget speech.
“If this is found to be unconstitutional, Minister Godongwana’s announcement on 12 March of the VAT hike would not be binding.
“By voting for the Fiscal Framework in Parliament yesterday, ActionSA, the IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party], and several smaller parties were complicit in hiking VAT for the people of South Africa.”
Zille said this decision will have a devastating effect on South Africans already struggling to make ends meet.
She said the DA has been consistent from the beginning that without meaningful economic reforms to grow the economy, “we could not” support a VAT hike.
“The DA will continue to act in the best interests of South Africans and ensure policies that accelerate economic growth,” Zille said.
However, Zille did not comment on speculation that the ANC snub was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, which would see the DA quit the Government of National Unity.
