Ten civil society organisations, and counting, are urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to censure Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana following comments he made to a Sunday newspaper, which they say shows his “lack of regard” for the Constitution.

Ahead of his much-anticipated rescheduled Budget speech on Wednesday, Godongwana had made comments to the newspaper that he was not required to consult on the Budget outside of the African National Congress (ANC).

The ANC and its Government of National Unity partners clashed over the original Budget in February, with talks still ongoing this week on particular points of contention such as VAT increases.

A national Sunday newspaper reported that Godongwana had defended his opposition to the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant by stating that, “If you allowed me to cut the SRD, I wouldn’t increase anything. I’m faced with increased expenditures which are not in the Budget.”

Civil society is accusing the Minister of misleading the public and having a lack of regard for the democratic process.

“Minister Godongwana asserted that he is not required to consult on the Budget outside of ANC leadership, due to market sensitivity, and that ideally he should consult as few people as possible. This is openly contemptuous of his responsibility to the ANC’s coalition partners, those who voted for them, the expertise of government departments, and our participatory democracy,” the organisations said.

Further, civil society pointed out that there were eight-million SRD grant beneficiaries with 16-million dependants who had used the grant since it was introduced in 2020, owing to the Covid-19 lockdowns, which restricted some from working.

“National Treasury has sought to remove it from the Budget on numerous occasions and successfully limited its scope through barriers that the Pretoria High Court has deemed unlawful. Having lost the battle within government to dismantle the SRD grant, the Minister chose to solicit a press interview to pre-empt and circumvent government policy,” the organisations said.

They also accused Godongwana of misleading the public by stating that a VAT increase was needed to fund the SRD grants.

“It is categorically untrue that the SRD grant is not in the Budget. Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse confirmed to the Parliamentary Finance Committee on 31 October 2024 that the SRD grant was ‘included as a provisional allocation in the fiscal framework’s baseline’ for 2025/26, meaning it is budgeted for, and it has been in the Budget for the past five years. It is by no means a new or unanticipated expense,” the organisations argued.

They further stated that the Minister was asking the poor to make an “impossible sacrifice” in his arguments that Treasury could not make any further budget cuts, warning that if it did, this would impact basic services.

Civil society disagreed with the Minister and pointed to several alternatives.

“…building the State’s capacity to collect existing taxes—as Sars Commissioner Edward Keiswetter has called for; drawing further on the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account; removing unnecessary tax breaks and subsidies which benefit the wealthy such as retirement fund contribution rebates and corporate tax incentives; raising VAT on luxury goods; reversing the Corporate Income Tax rate cut, from 27% to 28%; dealing with unnecessary and wasteful expenditure; and implementing a wealth tax,” they said.

They further warned of economic instability, owing to Godongwana’s comments, so close to the rescheduled Budget speech.

“The President must ensure that the Minister of Finance shows due regard for democratic processes and mandates, and is appropriately censured. The government as a whole must end the era of impunity for National Treasury, which, together with the Minister of Finance, must not be allowed to act unilaterally and defy the collective will of government,” the organisations said.

The organisations calling for Ramaphosa to censure Godongwana are:

•     Institute for Economic Justice
•     #PayTheGrants
•     The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union
•     Black Sash
•     Alternative Information and Development Centre
•     My Vote Counts
•     Extinction Rebellion
•     Makause Community Development Forum
•     Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia
•     Green Hope Foundation