Fikile Mbalula, ANC Secretary General after the 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA) at Cape Town City Hall on February 06, 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa. The address is an annual event, in which the President of South Africa reports on the status of the nation, normally to the resumption of a joint sitting of Parliament (the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces). (Photo: Gallo Images/Jeffrey Abrahams) 
The next few days will be crucial in South Africa’s Budget process as the National Assembly votes on the Appropriation Bill on Wednesday, 23 July. Once again, the two biggest Government of National Unity (GNU) parties are not on the same page.
Speaking to journalists in Cape Town on Sunday, African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the ANC was engaging with various parties to try to pass the Bill. “As of now and today, we are talking to everyone.”
The Appropriation Bill sets out allocations to departments from the national Budget.
In previous iterations of the Budget, the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA) have been at loggerheads, including, among other issues, over the VAT hike, which landed in court. Both parties, however, accepted and passed the fiscal framework in June.
Now, there’s another dispute between the parties.
After President Cyril Ramaphosa axed the DA’s Andrew Whitfield as deputy minister of trade, industry and competition, the DA announced its withdrawal from the National Dialogue and said it would not support the budget votes of “corruption-accused” ANC ministers. This included Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane and the then higher education minister, Nobuhle Nkabane, who was fired by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday evening and replaced by one of her deputies, Buti Manamela.
Every department’s budget needs to pass for the Appropriation Bill to pass. As the Bill needs 201 of 400 votes to pass, it will be crucial for not only every MP to be there on Wednesday but for the ANC to broker some sort of support, in case the DA doesn’t vote in favour of the Bill. (The Parliamentary Monitoring Group explains the process here.)
Mbalula said, “In GNU, every item, like the passing of the Budget, is a hurdle and the engagement will be on with political parties between now and Wednesday in terms of ensuring that we pass the Appropriation Bill.”
‘SA at risk’
At a parliamentary hearing in June, advocate Empie van Schoor, the National Treasury’s chief director of legislation, said that if Parliament fails to pass a Budget, the Public Finance Management Act allows departments to spend up to 45% of the previous year’s allocation in the first four months. Those four months will be up at the end of July.
Thereafter, they can spend 10% of the allocation a month, capped at the previous year’s total and limited to previously approved services. Van Schoor said no restrictions would apply regarding the compensation of employees, as it was a previously approved item.
Mmusi Maimane, the chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations, however, told Daily Maverick: “If you reject a budget vote on the back of politics — you don’t like the minister, you think there's corruption or whatever the case might be, and you reject it on that instance — what immediately happens is that if South Africa does not have an Appropriations Bill on the 1st of August, national departments will be able to spend up to 10% of their annual budget as of last year. Meaning that you have to explain to citizens what you spend 10% on. You can’t pay teachers, you can’t pay police. You can’t pay, you can’t do any of that stuff, because their budgets are bigger than 10%.
“Until Parliament can reconvene to pass a Bill, departments will only have 10%. That’s the consequence”.
Read more: The GNU has failed the only test that matters: growing the economy and delivering jobs
Maimane’s party, Build One South Africa, is outside the GNU, but votes on occasion with the GNU to pass crucial votes.
Maimane described the process of passing the Budget as frustrating and angering. “This is the dysfunction of the GNU,” he said. “There are only two things that you’re supposed to do when you enter a coalition — elect the president and decide on the Budget.
“But because of the internal fights within the GNU, it is putting the people of South Africa at risk.
“It has meant that we are now rushing through everything, meaning Parliament can’t do its actual job, which is to apply the law to interrogate the Budget, to give oversight to it, and to use its own laws. So it, in many ways, has been frustrating, painful and angering because people are putting politics ahead of people.”
DA’s position
Karabo Khakhau, the DA’s national spokesperson, said the party’s position on the issue was unchanged: it would not support budget votes of implicated ministers such as Nkabane and Simelane.
The “only way” the DA could support the budget votes was if Nkabane and Simelane were removed, said Khakhau.
After Nkabane’s removal on Monday, Khakhau said, “Our demand to President Ramaphosa was for him to take action against the seriously compromised, corrupt and nefarious in the ANC, and the firing of Nkabane is the first step for him.
“One Nkabane does not a renewed ANC make. There is still a very long list of ANC corruption to be eradicated.”
On Tuesday morning, however, News24 reported that DA leader John Steenhuisen said Nkabane’s axing would “allow us to support the budget vote on Wednesday”.
The DA’s parliamentary chief whip, George Michalakis, had said the party did not have issues with the Budget, but instead with certain ministers entrusted to manage the funds, reported EWN.
Michalakis said: “The deadlock at this point will have to be addressed. It will have to come from the President, taking decisive steps against those ministers. It’s a purely political issue.”
DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp has dismissed Maimane’s interpretation of what will happen if the Appropriation Bill fails to pass, telling the Sunday Times, “There is just no money for new projects. Governance will go on. Service delivery will go on.”
ANC’s search for votes
While the DA holds out, the ANC is once again looking for parties outside the GNU to support the Bill.
Matthew George, ActionSA’s national communications director, told Daily Maverick: “I can confirm that the ANC did reach out to us. However, discussions with respect to the Appropriation Bill have not progressed beyond that initial introductory contact.”
ActionSA is not part of the GNU, but has voted with the GNU on occasion, such as the passing of the fiscal framework. This led to speculation that it would join the GNU. The party maintains it is a “constructive opposition” in Parliament.
George said the party has finalised its approach to Wednesday’s sitting, “which is consistent with our established practice of assessing the fiscal merits of each department’s budget”.
The party has previously said it would reject the budget vote for the defence department, which has lost funds “while our troops are expected to operate in volatile theatres and safeguard our borders”, said its chief whip, Lerato Ngobeni.
At the time of publication, the ANC’s chief whip, Mdumiseni Ntuli, had not responded to Daily Maverick’s request for comment. DM