Staff Reporter
Government of National Unity partner the Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to avoid raising the tax burden on households when he delivers his budget speech on Wednesday.
“We can’t afford another year of stealth taxes and we definitely can’t afford explicit increases,” DA finance spokesperson Mark Burke said.
“As such, the DA expects that there will be no personal income or corporate tax hikes and definitely no VAT increases.”
The economy has struggled to generate enough growth and jobs to ease pressure on households. South Africa’s official unemployment rate dipped to 31.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, still among the highest in the world. The economy expanded 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2025, and growth has remained weak.
“Soon, the conversation needs to move from what taxes will be raised to which taxes will be reduced.
“The DA expects the treasury to meet its commitment from the last MTBPS where the debt-to-GDP ratio for the coming year is set to decline, rather than rise as it has been doing since 2008,” said Burke.
The country currently spends 22 cents of every rand on debt servicing costs. This was crowding out spending on health, education and police, said Burke.
Burke said that escalating debt among state-owned enterprises must be stopped. Last year, Transnet alone was given another R145.8 billion in debt guarantees.
Burke also called for updates on reforms to improve spending quality — including identifying ghost workers.
“Which further programmes are not adding value, where tax revenue can be saved? We cannot afford to protect ANC pet projects that cost billions but deliver very little.”
He said resources should be shifted to fight the illegal economy. “We cannot hope to collect sufficient sin taxes when the state is failing to fight illegal cigarette and alcohol cartels.”
He said the tax system should better support small businesses and encourage household saving, backing calls from the financial services sector to raise annual and lifetime limits for tax-free savings accounts.
“South African households are characterised by high debt and low emergency buffers,” he said. “We need to more strongly incentivise savings.”
Godongwana is due to deliver the 2026 budget on Wednesday at 2pm.
INSIDE POLITICS