Budget 2025: ActionSA sets record straight!

WITH Parliament having adopted the 2025/2026 budget on 2 April, ActionSA emphasised this occasion.

They noted that it marks merely the starting point in shaping the government's spending plans.

It sets the stage for important discussions necessary to finalise the appropriation, revenue, and tax bills in the coming weeks and months.

Despite previously calling for the scrapping of the 1% VAT increase, ActionSA voted in favour of adopting the fiscal framework report.

Speaking during a media briefing in Parliament, Cape Town on Thursday, 3 April, ActionSA's parliamentary leader Athol Trollip expressed concerns over uncontrolled government spending and widespread wastage, warning that this places the fiscal position in critical jeopardy.

He said this demands tough yet responsible decisions.

"Engaging in grandstanding and political brinkmanship does nothing to resolve this crisis. In fact, it only deepens it. Without responsible action, we risk finding ourselves months down the line without a set budget and with an economy in tatters."

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Trollip further emphasised that the adoption of the report on the fiscal framework was merely one step in a multi-stage budgeting process before the final budget was approved.

"This process typically takes three to four months to conclude and involves multiple votes on various aspects of the budget," he said.

"The adopted report on the fiscal framework includes several key points, foremost among them ActionSA's recommendation, which is the only practical tool enabling Parliament and government to identify alternatives to cover the shortfall created by scrapping the 0,5-percentage point VAT increase and addressing income tax bracket creep."

Trollip also explained that ActionSA chose to recommend changes to the fiscal framework rather than amend it outright because an amendment would have required the finance minister to redo the entire budget process.

"This would have caused delays, and instability and critically allowed the VAT increase to take effect on 1 May with little recourse, the very outcome we are fighting against. Instead, our approach allows for the necessary time to table alternative revenue proposals and most importantly, gazette the postponement of the VAT increase without triggering a full budget revision."

Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League has called for Democratic Alliance (DA) members who are in the cabinet to resign.

ANCYL secretary-general Mntuwoxolo Ngudle said that the DA's continued undermining of the government's principles calls for an immediate removal of all DA ministers and deputy ministers from the GNU.

"The DA's actions, especially its selective governance and policies of exclusion, are detrimental to the unity and future of our country. The DA's involvement in the GNU is not reflective of shared values, but rather of opportunistic politics that serve to weaken the broader vision of inclusive governance," he said.