Ntshavheni says EFF free to challenge national budget in court

CAPE TOWN - Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were free to challenge the national budget in court, but Cabinet was fully behind the third version tabled by the Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana last week.

The red berets on Thursday indicated that they were again headed to court, this time to challenge the imposition of a fuel levy hike that comes into effect next week.

Thursday marks a year since last year’s elections that yielded no majority party and led to the formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) that has had to battle both internal and opposition contestation in the last three months over what should be contained in the country’s budget.

After an eleventh-hour disagreement within Cabinet over the original budget, which should have been tabled in February, and then continued disagreement over a reduced value-added tax (VAT) increase proposal in the second version in March, Ntshavheni said she did not want to second-guess what could happen a third time around.

"There’s always been agreement inside Cabinet of saying this is the budget, we are going to support it, despite its weaknesses and political parties do other things."

However, the EFF said it would be challenging the powers accorded to the finance minister to hike the fuel levy after a three-year reprieve, before Parliament has approved the budget.

"They can go to court, they are entitled to go to court. But it doesn’t stop us from proposing a budget. The fuel levy has been part of the budget since time immemorial."

The 16 cents increase in the fuel levy is due to take effect next Wednesday, but the budget is not expected to be put to the vote before the end of July.

Ntshavheni said that Cabinet hopes to soon study a review of the fuel levy that should indicate what impact it has on the price of fuel.

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