Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Photographer: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana this week concluded a briefing where he announced that he would table the national budget anew by telling reporters, “Love you all.” It was a way of saying we’ve been through the trenches with the treasury on two failed attempts and he will see us back there soon.
Fatigue might have softened the minister, and his third budget might well be his final one for the year because, this time, there will be no tax increases.
We are all tired — the public, the press and many politicians — weary of a coalition that constantly leads itself to the edge.
The exception is Democratic Alliance (DA) federal council chair Helen Zille, who is riding high on the VAT victory and into the next economic policy battle with the ANC, this time over new employment equity targets gazetted by the labour department.
Redress is an existential issue for the ANC, more so with local government elections on the horizon and its poll ratings heading south.
Whatever the merits of the arguments on either side, the application is confirmation that the coalition’s policy differences will, for the foreseeable future, be settled in the courts.
It need not be so. Godongwana rightly called for proper, early consultation with all parties on the 2026 budget. He hopes this will help to cement the coalition.
But his admission of lessons learnt comes late in the day and more is needed to stabilise the government. Analysts have since the first sign of trouble between the ANC and the DA advised the parties to thrash out a formal coalition contract that could give structure and safeguards to the 10-party experiment.
Instead, the president set up a clearing house where debates are sent to die and keeps pulling smaller parties closer for the sake of numbers, come the next standoff.
Neither of the two biggest parties have the courage or humility for a conversation that would require them to reconsider positions so tied to their respective identities as to be non-negotiable.
This is despite many in the ANC privately concede outdated policies contributed to the loss of its majority and everybody in the DA knows it will never win a majority. Voters will feel collective relief when they stop treating the coalition as a convenience and accept that, from here on, being in power means sharing it. That realisation and a policy reckoning must come soon, while the ANC still has in Cyril Ramaphosa the one leader remotely capable of it.