Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement to be tabled in 2026

In what's been an unusual year for the country’s budgeting process, prompting many firsts for the country, the mid-term budget won’t be tabled until 2026.

Following consultations with the finance minister, Parliament has once again moved the date for the tabling of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) to January 2026.

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This will be just a month before Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is due to table the national budget for the new financial year.

The three attempts at tabling a national budget that was eventually passed by both houses of Parliament at the end of July has now also thrown out the tabling of the adjustments budget.

Traditionally tabled in October, it's an opportunity for the Finance Minister to make revisions to estimates on which the fiscal framework is based and to allocate additional money where needed.

Speaker Thoko Didiza said it was explained to Godongwana that if he were to table the MTBPS in November as per his request, Parliament would not meet the timeframes prescribed in law to go through the process before it rises in December.

“We can't compromise our own processes as Parliament that we must undertake in dealing with this Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, as well as the adjustments on the appropriations.”

Didiza said the decision to move the tabling to 13 January 2026 is in the interest of protecting parliamentary processes so that they are neither compromised nor rushed.