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Maimane advocates for unity: Bosa seeks collaboration to reverse VAT hike and foster growth

Maimane advocates for unity: Bosa seeks collaboration to reverse VAT hike and foster growth
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba speaks during an interview in his office on November 21, 2021 in Sandton, South Africa. Herman Mashaba has highlighted the party’s intention to secure executive roles in Johannesburg’s government. (Photo: Gallo Images/City Press/Tebogo Letsie)
Victoria O’Regan
By Victoria O’Regan
8 Apr 2025
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Bosa and other political parties that supported the fiscal framework are expected to meet with the ANC on Tuesday night to discuss proposals to scrap the VAT increase.

Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane says his party is ready to work with political parties, including the ANC and others in the government of national unity (GNU), to eliminate the VAT increase and commit to a “credible, inclusive and growth-orientated Budget”.

Maimane was speaking to reporters during a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, 8 April 2025, on his party’s submissions to avoid a VAT increase. 

He said the Budget impasse was not merely about the 0.5 percentage point VAT hike, but about “resolving an economic crisis”. 

“South Africa is indeed, like any other economy in the world, facing profound headwinds… It takes parties like Bosa to say, let us step in, let us lead and ensure that we can take this country forward to be able to grow an economy that creates the jobs necessary at the scale that is required,” he said. 

“I committed myself before — I will work with parties that are committed to this vision, and I include today that we are willing to work with parties like the ANC, parties in the Government of National Unity (GNU), whatever the reconfiguration looks like, we are here to ensure that we grow the economy. Grow South Africa, eliminate the 0.5% (VAT increase) and then take it on from there.”

Read more: The Budget brouhaha and you — wallet pressure, service strain and the price of political paralysis

Maimane’s comments came as political parties, including the ANC, Bosa and Good, that supported the fiscal framework are expected to meet virtually on Tuesday night to discuss proposals to remove the VAT increase. 

“We have a meeting later on this evening with the African National Congress and a number of political parties to discuss crucially what submissions will ensure that as we adjust the budget, that we can get rid of the 0.5% VAT hike,” said Maimane. 

He confirmed that the meeting had been organised by the ANC’s chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli. 

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press / Tebogo Letsie)



“He (Ntuli) is well within his purview to bring everybody together because this is a parliamentary process… He’s hosting the meeting, we’ll make the submissions and then take it on from there. My expectation is that we’ll set up some form of a team that will work deliberately to say ‘let’s then make the submissions more concrete’,” he said. 

“We’re not playing for defeat, we’re playing for a win here. And it’s not a political win, it’s a win for South Africans. So, that’s what we’re working towards, and I think there’s a collective enjoining of that spirit,” said Maimane. 

“If you remain inside the room, you can make these points, you can fight the issue.”

Read more: Budget 2025 – Bosa didn’t give a blank cheque, we took responsibility and chose between bad and catastrophic

Meanwhile, in a statement on Tuesday morning, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba refuted media reports from the ANC’s national working committee meeting on Monday night that suggested a move to reconstitute the GNU to include ActionSA. 

The Sunday Times reported that the ANC’s national working committee instructed its negotiating team to make contact with all its partners, and ActionSA, to reconstitute the coalition government. This could mean ActionSA would be included in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet should the party agree to be part of the GNU. 

However, ActionSA said it would not entertain such a scenario until the VAT increase was off the table. 

“ActionSA affirms that the party will not give any consideration to this proposal until the VAT increase and income tax bracket creep have been resolved,” said Mashaba. “It must be stressed that ActionSA has received no communication from the ANC in this regard, but the party will remain available for constructive engagements around the budget impasse.”

At a press conference at Luthuli House on Tuesday, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula thanked parties like ActionSA for supporting the fiscal framework. 

“The national working committee acknowledged those political parties that rose above partisanship and placed national interest and social justice and economic stability and the sector of the liberation of the fiscal framework, parties such as ActionSA demonstrated majority and patriotism in supporting the framework on the basis that alternative revenue proposals will be sought, including the replacement of the proposed VAT increase within 30 days,” he said. 


‘Disaster’ if fiscal framework did not go through


Last week, the Standing Committee on Finance’s fiscal framework report passed through Parliament with Bosa’s support after ActionSA proposed a recommendation to find alternative revenue sources to VAT before 1 May.

Read more: GNU 2.0 loading — ‘You can’t be part of a government whose Budget you opposed,’ says Presidency

The ANC, IFP, PA and ActionSA were among the parties that voted in favour of the framework on 2 April. The DA, EFF and MK voted against it. 

The DA has since announced it will take the 0.5 percentage point VAT hike and the process of passing the fiscal framework document to court for review.

Read more: DA says it is ‘willing to speak to ANC to get a workable Budget on the table’

“We understood the fact that the fiscal framework is not perfect; we understood that fact that this is something that will need to be changed, but a disaster would have occurred had it been that the fiscal framework had not gone through,” he said. 

Maimane added that rejecting the framework at that stage would have put South Africans “at proper risk”, including through delayed social grants and the disrupted functioning of schools, hospitals and police stations.

Responding to questions from reports on whether Bosa would be open to joining the GNU, the party’s deputy leader and MP Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster added: “We’ve always been clear, even right from the start, part of the reason why we didn’t join the GNU is that we didn’t see a charter; we didn’t see a plan or a roadmap that mapped out where South Africa was going. We didn’t see an indication on what are the policies that this is going to be based on, and what is the growth-path for South Africa.

“And so at this point, until such is there, that’s one of the things we’d want to engage on… But I do want to make it clear that this decision is purely about the Budget; that this decision was never about an engagement or bartering about the GNU. It was about making sure that we get what is best for South Africans,” she said. DM

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