EDITORIAL: Budget 2.0 needs GNU’s stamp of approval
All eyes will be on the amended version
By the time SA’s national budget was postponed at the very last minute on Wednesday, journalists and economists in the traditional “lock-up” in parliament had already read and digested the full suite of budget documents, under embargo of course. That will provide an unprecedented opportunity to compare and contrast Wednesday’s budget-that-wasn’t with Budget 2.0 — the amended version that finance minister Enoch Godongwana will table on March 12, assuming the cabinet can reach consensus the second time around.
We will know, in other words, exactly what compromises have been made and whether the government of national unity (GNU) partners have indeed engaged with the budget. Godongwana said they now would. Clearly they should. And in contrast to the situation in the two weeks leading up to Wednesday’s debacle, when cabinet ministers had been briefed on the broad outlines of what the finance minister proposed, this time they have been privy to the full detail...
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