Budget Speech rescheduled with new date confirmed

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s 2025 Budget Speech was sensationally cancelled at the last minute on Wednesday afternoon.

Due to start at 14:00, Thoko Didiza, Speaker of the National Assembly, announced 15 minutes after the hour that the Budget Speech would not take place as scheduled.

This came reportedly after a disagreement between parties within the Government of National Unity (GNU) on the proposals within the budget.

It was widely reported ahead of the scheduled speech that Value-Added Tax (VAT) was to be hiked by two percentage points – taking it from 15% to 17%.

This was corroborated by a leaked 2025 tax summary document for SARS, which showed the hike.

While adjustments to the zero-rated tax basket would have been made, parties – primarily the Democratic Alliance (DA) – reportedly took great exception to this.

The Budget Speech will now be delivered in three weeks’ time on Wednesday, 12 March 2025.

Following the postponement, the rand was trading as follows against five major currencies at the time of publishing:

Roadmap to tackle debt

Earlier, the rand was little changed on Wednesday, ahead of the Budget Speech.

At 09:15, the rand traded at 18.4050 against the dollar, near its previous close.

Investors were keenly awaiting the Budget Speech for clues on the coalition government’s fiscal priorities, its roadmap to tackle debt and economic reforms.

“A well-received budget could push USD-ZAR below 18.3000,” said Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE.

However, he said the local currency could come under pressure over lack of reforms and concerns over spending discipline and taxation.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker in early trading, with the yield up 3 basis points to 9.155%.