Cape Town, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's 2025 national budget was postponed at the last moment on Wednesday due to disagreement over it, said Thoko Didiza, speaker of the National Assembly.
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana was scheduled to table the 2025 budget review to parliament and deliver the national budget speech at 2:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
"While today we are gathered here to actually have the minister of finance present the budget to the house, there has not been agreement in terms of parties in the executive to find one another in proposals of the budget," Didiza said at the parliamentary sitting.
As a result, the budget speech was postponed until sometime in March.
"The Cabinet decided not to come and do a presentation of the budget and allow themselves enough time to re-look the budget and come back to this house in March, the time in which they will inform us," she added.
Calling the postponement "an unprecedented move," local media revealed that the main point of contention was proposed tax hikes, which sparked disagreement among political parties within the Government of National Unity (GNU).
In the 2024 general elections, the African National Congress failed to secure an outright majority for the first time since 1994, leading to the formation of the GNU. ■
