Godongwana bets on full GNU term

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana says he expects the government of national unity (GNU) to remain intact for the full five years of the seventh administration and it will make more progress on its various gains.

The minister was addressing guests at the RMB-Sunday Times Think Budget panel in Cape Town on Thursday. This was after Godongwana tabled the GNU’s first medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) in parliament on Wednesday.

The May election saw the ANC enter a GNU with the DA, IFP, Patriotic Alliance and other parties after the governing party lost its outright majority for the first time since the advent of democracy 30 years ago.

Asked by asset managers at the event how challenging it was to put together a medium-term budget in a GNU, Godongwana said doing so with deputy finance ministers David Masondo and Ashor Sarupen was one of the easiest parts of his work.

“Forming a budget under the GNU was the easiest thing to do. The other challenges such as the NHI [National Health Insurance] were difficult. The easiest thing to do was the budget ... Not a single dissenting voice, because we agreed on the strategic thrust of fiscal consolidation. All of us. We might disagree on the pace of that fiscal consolidation, but we agreed,” he said.

Recalling the negotiations that had led to the formation of the GNU, he said the EFF had demanded that if it entered into a coalition with the ANC, it could not include the DA or Freedom Front Plus (FF+). The DA was willing to enter into a coalition but would not consider working with the EFF or the MK party.

While the MK party was open to a coalition with the EFF and would not consider the DA or FF+, the party led by former president Jacob Zuma had said it wanted President Cyril Ramaphosa removed, Godongwana said. He said despite concerns the GNU was plagued by infighting, progress was being made.

“We are working very well. Forget about the newspapers, speculation and gatekeeping. We might irritate each other but that does not mean that on substantive issues we are not on the same page. I think regardless of what analysts say, this thing is going to last five years. Mark my words.”

Briefing reporters ahead of the MTBPS, Sarupen said during the formulation of the budget his reservations on overly optimistic growth forecasts, the wage bill and other elements of the approach to the budget had found expression in this year’s MTBPS.

“A year ago, I was tabling a DA alternative budget. This year we contributed to the MTBPS. But I am speaking here as deputy finance minister. If I reflect, the minister made sure I was at every single meeting when we put this together. I was given a tremendous amount of scope to put ideas into the system.”

At the RMB engagement, Masondo reminded attendees that the primary surplus announced in the MTBPS would be a function of economic growth and the structural reforms the government had already started implementing in the sixth administration.

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