Wednesday, 14 January 2026

The EFF notes the debate and adoption of the 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), the Special Appropriations Bill, and the 2025 Adjustment Appropriations Bill today in the National Assembly.

The MTBPS, presented in November 2025, has once again failed to follow proper procedures, including meaningful consultation with Parliament and the consideration of public submissions. This blatant disregard exposes the process for what it truly is, a rubber-stamping, tick-box exercise that undermines the seriousness of budgeting and recklessly endangers the livelihoods of our people.

The 2025 MTBPS has been reduced to nothing more than a political bargaining tool within the GNU, stripped of any commitment to democratic accountability or public interest. To make matters worse, the arrogant Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Ashor Nick Sarupen, had the audacity to mislead Parliament by claiming that public submissions would be considered at a later stage, fully aware that this policy statement is being adopted today and will not be amended.

We vehemently reject this policy change, not only because of its complete failure to consult Parliament and society, but also because the MTBPS is irrelevant, misplaced, and fundamentally incoherent. It offers no meaningful analysis or response to global geopolitical developments that directly shape South Africa’s economic and political reality.

This silence is particularly reckless amid escalating imperial aggression by the United States against sovereign nations such as Venezuela and Cuba through sanctions and economic warfare. At this critical moment, the MTBPS should be aligning South Africa with the Global South and strengthening BRICS cooperation, including decisive steps towards de-dollarisation and alternative trade and payment systems that advance economic sovereignty and a multipolar world order.

By failing to properly align our economic policies, we will continue to find ourselves at the mercy of warmongers. As we saw today, we debated the Special Appropriation Bill, which was necessitated by the decision of the second Hitler, Donald Trump, to withdraw PEPFAR funding for narrow political reasons. We were therefore forced to debate a Special Appropriation Bill to allocate R754.5 million, framed as an emergency intervention, when this crisis could have been avoided through proper domestic investment in healthcare.

The EFF also rejected the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill and the Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill, which are deliberately presented as complex instruments, written in unnecessary technical language that systematically excludes the majority of our people from understanding why they are being taxed.

South Africa’s GNU led fiscal policy is evidently in shambles with no hope for coherent, people centred, and developmental thinking within our Treasury.

ISSUED BY ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Sinawo Thambo (National Spokesperson) 072 629 7422

Thembi Msane (National Spokesperson) 061 467 8169

Andiswa Madikazi (Parliament Media Liason) 069 516 4924

Thato Lebyane (Media Inquiries) 078 563 1581