THE MK party says there's nothing to celebrate in the budget speech.
Party spokesman Nhlamulo Ndhlela said they have assessed the 2026 Budget Speech against the ones in 2024 and 2025.
"The pattern is undeniable: austerity has been entrenched and radical economic transformation abandoned. The liberation mandate has been sold out," he said.
Ndhlela said across these budgets, fiscal consolidation and debt stabilisation have been prioritised over land reform, free education, local government support and industrialisation.
Ndhlela said the consequence is decline for the African majority.
"Education exposes this betrayal most clearly. Learning and culture remain the largest functional allocation at 23,7% of consolidated expenditure over the medium term, yet this share conceals stagnation in real per learner spending. Inflation and enrolment growth continue to erode resources. Approximately 75% of provincial education budgets remain locked into salaries, leaving inadequate funding for infrastructure and materials," he said.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled his budget on Wednesday, 25 February, where he announced how the public purse will be spent.
The EFF echoed MK party's sentiment and said the speech vindicated the party that National Treasury is captured by the white capitalist establishment and continues to maintain a fiscal framework for profit and the repositioning of a global capital-afrikaner nationalism alliance at the expense of black people, and workers in particular, risking taking South Africa to new levels of neocolonialism.
"This is a fictional budget that relies on different creative accounting methods to achieve a meaningless ‘fiscal anchor'. The budget tabled by the minister of finance and National Treasury fails to appreciate the degree of economic crisis facing South Africa," said EFF spokesman, Sinawo Thambo.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) rejected the budget, saying "it entrenches austerity under the language of stability and credibility".
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Union general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said Godongwana celebrated narrowing deficits, stabilising debt ratios and rising primary surpluses.
"But for the working class, the unemployed, and communities facing collapsing services, this budget does not represent renewal, it represents continuity of a contractionary fiscal path," he said.
However, the ANC welcomed the budget as a practical and people-centred budget that speaks directly to the daily realities of ordinary South Africans.
Party spokeswoman Mahlengi Bhengu said Godongwana made it clear that Mzansi has reached "an important turning point in the management of our public finances".
"For many citizens, these words are not about technical fiscal language. They mean something simple but powerful, that the country is stabilising, and government is regaining control of its finances so that more resources can be directed towards jobs, services and social protection," she said.
RISE Mzansi acknowledged the progress made in stabilising the national debt, which is expected to settle at 78,9% of GDP in the 2025/26 financial year.
However, party leader Songezo Zibi said, as a nation, "we must be clear that every rand spent on debt-service costs is a rand taken away from development".
He said while fiscal discipline is necessary, the true effectiveness of this budget will not be measured by spreadsheets, but by how it translates into what matters most to South Africans in the 2026/27 financial year: jobs, food on the table, functional local governments, safe streets, and reliable infrastructure.
"For our economy to grow, the rule of law must prevail. The allocation of R1 billion each to the South African Police Service and the South African National Defence Force specifically to combat organised crime is a necessary step," said Zibi.
