Both of South Africa’s major parties have failed to agree on a budget

Hours before a crucial parliamentary committee was scheduled to discuss the budget on Tuesday, the African National Congress and the pro-business Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s two largest political parties, were still unable to agree on a passage.

The ANC, Nelson Mandela’s erstwhile liberation movement, lost its legislative majority for the first time since aiding in the end of apartheid in 1994, making the budget the most test yet for the wide coalition government that was formed last year.

Weeks have passed during the ANC and Democratic Alliance’s protracted negotiations. While the DA has wanted greater influence over policymaking, the ANC requires the backing of at least one other major party in order to approve the budget.

On X, Democratic Alliance party chairman John Steenhuisen stated, “The ANC threatened the (coalition) by refusing to finalize an agreement on growth and spending reforms last night.” “The DA will oppose the budget unless and until a written agreement is reached.”

Despite their ideological differences on a wide range of topics, such as health, education, and land, the ANC and DA have managed to govern together thus far despite sporadic disagreements.

ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli told local radio Newzroom Afrika that the party thought it had “sufficient consensus” to clear the Standing Committee on Finance’s meeting on the fiscal framework on Tuesday, the first legislative barrier for the budget.

The National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, is scheduled to review and perhaps vote on the recommendations made by the parliamentary committee on Wednesday.

A news conference on the budget talks that the DA had scheduled for Tuesday at 0630 GMT was postponed. Later on Tuesday, discussions between DA’s Steenhuisen and ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa are anticipated.

The coalition’s conflicts over a plan to raise value-added tax by two percentage points caused the budget for the fiscal year beginning on April 1 to be postponed from its February presentation date.

The majority of the major parliamentary parties quickly rejected the amended budget that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presented in March, which called for a one-point VAT increase spread over two years.