Parly’s budget office not forthcoming on guiding parties to amend national budget: Godongwana

CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said Parliament’s budget office is not up to the task of advising political parties on how to exercise their right to amend the national budget.

Godongwana said instead of rejecting a budget outright, political parties should instead be recommending changes.

Speaking at a public participation workshop on the country’s macro-fiscal policy on Friday, Godongwana hinted that he will only be tabling the mid-term adjustments budget in November, some three weeks later than is customary.

Godongwana said this year’s protracted budget process was his biggest learning curve since he was first appointed four years ago.

The National Treasury had to craft three versions of the fiscal framework that underpins the budget before it was approved by Parliament in May.

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Godongwana said this experience has necessitated new ways of crafting a budget to accommodate a coalition government.

“The members of parliament must be able to examine that budget and question it, and amend it, but not to reject it.”

Godongwana said Parliament’s budget office also needs to up its game in line with the new political landscape, and can’t continue to only play the role of critic as it has done in the past.

“The parliamentary budget office is not up to the task. In order for it to be up to the task, it must help parliament to amend.”

While Parliament has provisionally allocated 22 October 2025 to receive the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), Godongwana indicated he will only do so on 12 November 2025.