South Africa’s fragile unity government has been shaken again. The country’s second-largest political party broke with partners Wednesday and voted against a national budget.

With a parliament-approved fiscal framework all sorted, the processing of the 2025 budget is marching ahead—VAT hike in tow.

Although the financial year starts on 1 April, the department noted that the Appropriation Bill is always passed later

South Africa's rand was hovering near a three-month low on Thursday after being hit by a double-whammy of U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of new and higher tariffs and the passing of a contentious budget vote that has threatened the ruling coalition's future.

The rand is under pressure as markets sit on edge, waiting to see what happens with the crucial budget vote on Wednesday—and what it means for the future of the GNU.

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South Africa's two biggest political parties, the African National Congress and the pro-business Democratic Alliance were yet to reach agreement to pass the budget on Tuesday, hours before a key parliamentary committee was set to debate it.

South Africa's Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana delivered the 2025 National Budget for financial year 2025-26 (FY25-26, 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026). Godongwana presented the government's spending priorities after the budget was postponed by three weeks following internal disagreements regarding a proposed VAT increase.

It emerged during the interview that there is currently a pool, or more accurately pools, aggregating some R89-billion swilling around in the financial services sector that is unclaimed by those who are entitled to claim their share of it, but don't.