By Enyichukwu Enemanna
South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) will hold more talks with the Democratic Alliance (DA), a key partner in the Government of National Unity (GNU), after lawmakers from the DA voted against the passage of the 2025 budget, a senior ANC official said on Tuesday.
“We are now deeply concerned by the conduct of the Democratic Alliance. The DA has simultaneously acted as an opposition force. It seeks to divide government, confuse the public,” ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula told a press conference.
Mbalula said the ANC remains committed to the coalition, which was formed last year after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Mbalula spoke after top ANC officials of South Africa’s biggest political party met on Monday to discuss the way forward following last week’s fractious budget vote in parliament.
The country’s national budget was passed in parliament last Wednesday after facing opposition from different parties, with 194 members voting in favour of the fiscal framework and 182 against it.
The DA is opposing a proposal in the budget, which seeks to raise VAT by one percentage point spread over two years, arguing that it would hit the poorest hard.
The largest party in the coalition, the African National Congress (ANC), narrowly passed the budget with the backing of small political parties including ActionSA, Build One South Africa, the Patriotic Alliance, IFP, UDM and others.
The DA has instituted a court action challenging the legality of the budget’s passage, urging the court to block the implementation of a value-added tax increase, a development widening the rift in the ruling coalition.
The DA says the adoption by a parliamentary committee of a report supporting the fiscal framework did not follow due process.
There are fears that the DA may quit the multi-party government which helped the ANC retain power.
Senior DA officials also met on Monday to discuss their stance on the coalition, though a party spokesman said no decision had been taken at that meeting.
