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Dion George. Picture: LUBABALO LESOLLE/GALLO IMAGES
Dion George. Picture: LUBABALO LESOLLE/GALLO IMAGES

In the past it was the practice of the DA finance spokesperson to provide the public with a comprehensive “alternative budget” before the delivery of the national budget by the incumbent finance minister.

In his submission last February the DA’s Dion George labelled the ANC “incompetent and incapable” of applying policies and practices that would rescue SA from the multitude of “government-induced crises” besetting the national economy.

Most commentators described the 2024 budget as uninspiring, going nowhere and full of empty promises that the ANC government would not or could not fulfil. They were right. 

Now that the DA is part of the ANC-dominated government of national unity, one has to ask whether it will again publicly present an “alternative budget” constructed along the lines of long-held DA fiscal, monetary and economic policies and principles.

These are in stark contrast to those of the ANC/Cosatu/SACP alliance. The DA must surely call out and strongly object to the ANC’s continued gross misuse and abuse of its power over the national purse, even though it is part of the GNU.

This should not prevent it from exposing the harsh reality of the ANC’s blatantly corrupt, reckless and careless mismanagement of state funds, losing, wasting and stealing billions of rand of taxpayers’ money.

The party has a responsibility to tell the public exactly how a continuation of the ANC alliance’s self-serving economic policies and practices may benefit the few, but will condemn the majority of our population to an ongoing state of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and despair. 

Predictably, the president’s state of the nation address this week will be wordy, underwhelming and devoid of realism, but if the DA remains docile or acquiescent in this crucial matter it will be clear that it serves no purpose being part of the political establishment. It will have no reason to exist, whether in the GNU or not. 

David Gant
Kenilworth

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