Note to editors: the following speech was delivered today by BOSA Leader, Mmusi Maimane MP, during Parliament’s debate on the Fiscal Framework.
At the third time of asking, we are today considering the 2025 Fiscal Framework, the basis for the Government of National Unity’s very first budget.
Today we face this truth: the GNU is not government of growth or reform. It is a government of taxes. Let’s call them out for what they are.
Budget 1.0 gave us a 2% VAT increase.
Budget 2.0 added another 0.5% to VAT.
And now Budget 3.0 brings a hike in the fuel levy.
What’s more – personal income tax is not adjusted for inflation while municipalities are leveraging more property taxes and spurious levies.
Year after year, South Africans are being asked to carry more of the burden, while government carries on with business as usual.
We will be back here next year, facing another round of tax increases, because there will have been little to no investment. This budget does not crowd in investment – neither local nor international.
We are falling behind, by our own measures, and in comparison to our continental peers.
I recently visited Accra, the capital of Ghana, and you can feel the difference in the air. Cranes fill the skyline ,a clear signal of construction, investment, and progress.
How many cranes are visible in Johannesburg, Cape Town, or Durban today?
This budget funds government as an employment agency, we keep people at home through grants, we keep government employees through above inflation multiyear wage deals and whatever is leftover is to pay our debt.
This budget keeps us in a holding pattern. Growth is projected at just 1.4% for this year. By 2027, that rises only slightly to 1.8% – far from the 5% growth we need to meaningfully reduce unemployment and poverty.
Meanwhile, gross fixed-capital formation, which is the clearest indicator of future growth and productivity, remains stagnant at 4.2%. These numbers are warnings. And they are being ignored.
What this means for ordinary South Africans is simple and devastating: low growth, low investment, and accelerating job losses.
The diplomatic disaster last month at the White House only confirmed what many investors already suspect: South Africa is becoming un-investable. And we are seeing the consequences.
We cannot tax our way out of this crisis. We must invest our way out. And that means fundamentally rethinking how we use the public purse.
We must prioritise investments that unlock growth – in infrastructure, digital connectivity, and efficient public transport systems. We need to fast-track the rollout of modern Special Economic Zones, backed by genuine incentives.
We must tackle the barriers in our key growth sectors of energy, logistics, agriculture, and small business development.
And none of this will succeed unless we build a state that is efficient, ethical, and centred on serving citizens, not political elites.
Lastly, the spending review process must be pursued seriously, otherwise we continue with a bloated government with no clear priorities, and unaccountable ministers.
South Africa cannot afford another year of more taxes and less hope. It is time for a new direction. A budget that unlocks investment. A government that puts growth and jobs first. And a country that believes in its future again.
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