Postponement of an SA government event is not an unusual occurrence. I suspect it also happens regularly in other governments, institutions that are clearly too large to manage effectively. But the annual budget! Postponement of this sacred ritual gives rise to all sorts of anxiety about the state of government. 

First, there is anxiety concerning the competence of our executive, which is well founded. How does this happen? It’s not like the budget date gets sprung on the finance minister or his officials. They must have realised the budget was bound to be controversial and that solutions — like a 13% VAT increase would be vigorously contested. ..

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