Mayibongwe Maqhina and Mashudu Sadike

THE strife between the ANC and the DA over the proposed VAT increase once again took centre stage when ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalulu accused their Government of National Unity (GNU) partner of driving an anti-transformation agenda while protecting white monopoly capital.

He made the remarks hours after Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the DA was attempting to leverage the proposed VAT increase to further their grievances with the Expropriation Act.

The ANC was scrambling to garner enough support from political parties, even within the GNU, to have the budget, which contains a proposed 1% VAT increase over two years, adopted by the National Assembly.

The DA, the second largest party in the coalition has maintained that it will not support a budget that is “not pro-poor”, with leader John Steenhuisen saying: “The ANC VAT budget doesn’t have a majority, and the DA won’t give it one. It is now up to the ANC to fix the mess it has created.”

However Mbalula questioned the DA’s stance during a press conference on Thursday, saying it was an attempt to use the budget process to renegotiate its role within GNU.

“We will not be deterred by those who wish to see South Africa return to the 'good old days' of apartheid economic privilege. As expected, the DA has once again revealed its anti-transformation agenda by opposing this progressive budget proposal. The DA seeks to use the budget process as leverage to renegotiate its role within the GNU, not because it has the interests of the people at heart, but because it is determined to advance an agenda that prioritises privilege over progress,” he said.

The DA has failed to prevent the ANC from signing critical Bills including the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act or Bela, the Expropriation Act and the NHI among others.

Despite early protests, DA MP Siviwe Gwarube, now Basic Education Minister, was seized with implementing Bela.

“Their opposition to the VAT increase is not about protecting the poor; it is about ensuring that economic policies serve corporate interests at the expense of working-class South Africans. In their desperation, they seek to create an Israeli-Gaza-type situation using the Western Cape as their political salvo - a scenario in which African and Coloured people of the province would be treated as subhuman in the land of their birth,” he said.

Asked if the GNU was under threat, Mbalula replied: “We are committed to the GNU. It's just that there are differences with the question of the budget… It's important that we must find each other and continue to engage. We have not closed the door.”

Briefing the media on the outcomes of Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Ntshavheni said the DA's demands, as articulated by Steenhuisen, have nothing to do with their interests in protecting the poor.

She said South Africans should not be fooled when the DA opposed the budget as everybody in the Cabinet had signed off for VAT increases and requested mitigation of the increases.

“Those things have been done, but the DA wants to hold the country for ransom because they want to reverse the gains of the Expropriation Act. The DA is fully aware that our implementation of the Expropriation Act will abide with provisions of the Constitution.”

“The DA’s opposition to the budget is not about VAT increases. It is about reversing the gains of transformation. It is about the anti-poor, anti-middle class. It is about reversing the expropriation. It is a pity they have a megaphone and scribes to make their voices loud,” she added.

DA MP and Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen said the ANC could no longer pursue the same policy positions with their 39% of the seats in Parliament.

“The South African electorate kicked them out for a reason. They can’t expect us to rubber-stamp….we want those reforms. We want growth, we want people to get into jobs and lower cost of living. The DA’s manifesto is very clear that we will lower the cost of living. This budget raises the cost of living. It does so in a way that passes the cost onto poor middle class families and it is fundamentally unfair to every single South African that now we have got to pay the price for the ANC's failed policies over the last 15 years.”

He said the budget could be funded from the existing baseline by cutting wastage, programmes that do not have impact, and also increasing tax compliance.

“It is not difficult to do these things. We can tax this year, but next year, we are going to be in the same crisis because of the crisis of growth,” he said.

Cape Times