The DA briefed the media outside the Western Cape High Court on Thursday, 3 April, after launching a court application against the parliamentary report on the fiscal framework, a key aspect of the Budget which was adopted in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The party wants the court to declare Tuesday’s proceedings in the Standing Committee on Finance null and void. It also wants an urgent interdict to set aside the scheduled 1 May 0.5 percentage point VAT hike, which is due to be implemented before the Budget is finalised and passed in Parliament.
The DA opposed the adoption of the budgetary report, signalling a split in the government of national unity (GNU), in which the DA is the second-largest partner after the ANC.
Read more: GNU 2.0 loading — ‘You can’t be part of a government whose Budget you opposed,’ says Presidency
Speaking outside the Western Cape High Court, DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille said: “The DA never only has one plan. We have a whole series of plans and we are absolutely determined that we are going to succeed in our plan to stop VAT on the 1st of May as announced by [Finance] Minister [Enoch] Godongwana.”
Court was the party’s plan B, she said.
Zille dismissed “the mistaken illusion” that ActionSA stopped the planned VAT hike “because in fact, the fiscal framework as passed by Parliament on Wednesday… that fiscal framework includes, and the notice put out by Parliament itself, said that that VAT increase will come into effect on the 1st of May”.
Read more: Budget deadlock — is ActionSA the ANC’s saviour and what does it mean for the GNU?
She said ActionSA was living in an alternative reality if it believed it had stopped the tax increase.
The Standing Committee on Finance’s fiscal framework report passed through Parliament with ActionSA’s support after it proposed a recommendation to find alternative revenue sources to VAT before 1 May.
Future of the GNU
Zille confirmed that the party’s Federal Executive, its highest decision-making body between its congresses, would be meeting on Thursday to discuss its next steps.
Asked by journalists whether this filing meant the end of the DA in the GNU, Zille said the party would not rush its decision.
“We know that whatever decision we take will have profound implications for South Africa and for our economy, so we’re not rushing into anything.”
Read more: DA federal executive to meet over GNU while party heads to court over fiscal framework vote
Zille continued: “We are going to consider all the options, look at all the consequences, and try to predict the unintended consequences, and then make a rational decision… at the right time.”
She then stated: “We are not in the GNU for blue lights, or cars or ministerial homes or status. We are in that GNU for one sole purpose, and that is to get South Africa’s economy to grow at the rate it needs to grow in order to absorb more people into productive employment and thereby reduce poverty.”
ActionSA’s support ‘conditional’
Hours after helping the ANC secure the passage of the fiscal framework report through Parliament, ActionSA was unhappy with the misrepresentation of the recommendations it made to the report.
ActionSA made several recommendations to cover the shortfall created by scrapping the VAT increase and addressing income tax bracket creep, which was not reflected by the ANC or government in its official statements.
Despite its unhappiness, ActionSA believes the failure of the ANC to accurately convey the contents of the report that was voted on does not change its substance or lessen the importance of the recommendations put forward in the interests of South Africans, said Athol Trollip, ActionSA’s MP and parliamentary leader.
Addressing the media in Parliament on Thursday morning, Trollip said the party’s support for the Budget remained conditional.
“Our support remains conditional on the strict fulfilment of the agreement to scrap the VAT increase and income tax bracket creep through alternative proposals – several of which we have already outlined.”
On the possible legal challenge by the DA, Trollip said it was well within the party’s right to do so.
“They are well within their rights to pursue legal remedies in line with their views. It is also crucial to recognise that this is uncharted territory for our country, and in any constitutional democracy every mechanism available must be respected.”
Speaking about the days leading up to 2 April, where many negotiations and much horse trading took place, Trollip said his party, as a constructive opposition, had taken it upon itself to engage various political parties in a bid to find a solution to the impasse. It spoke to the ANC and also reached out to the EFF and MK party.
“But what is ironic is that the DA spoke to nobody other than the ANC, making their unreasonable demands. They overplayed their hand,” he claimed.
Read more: Big Budget Bust-Up — here’s why DA might be overplaying its hand
“What must be noted about the DA is that ActionSA made genuine efforts to engage them on the Budget. Not only were we rebuffed continuously, we were insulted, we were maligned and we were treated with such contempt by Mr Mark [Burke], who has made it an art form to be unreasonable, rude and arrogant. He has alienated everybody in the standing committee because they simply won’t engage,” Trollip said.
The DA’s Burke responded that he’d heard “ActionSA is referring to me individually as rude, arrogant and perhaps condescending – I’m not sure if I got all the adjectives right”.
He added that he heard ActionSA label him a “case study in obstructionism”.
“I’d say two things to that last allegation. The first is it’s in the DA’s blood to be a case study in obstructionism. When the South African government turns pernicious and tries to punish South Africans, we obstruct. We’ve done it for 30 years, proudly,” Burke said.
He added: “I’ve got the whole of South Africa standing behind me saying we’ve been overburdened, we cannot afford more taxes – this is unacceptable.”
Trollip claimed the DA appeared to be more interested in pushing its own political interests than finding a solution to the Budget impasse.
“I believe they are propagating this impasse at their interest. They are not putting South Africans first.
“Even a legal challenge is going to delay this matter even further and what’s going to happen on the 1st of May is that VAT is coming, so they can try what they may and scapegoat everybody else for the fact that they overplayed their hand and lost. It’s their problem and they are not fixing it,” Trollip said, claiming that the DA’s case would hinder efforts to scrap the VAT increase. DM