<\/p>\n
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said that the party met with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to discuss budgetary matter, however, he denied any attempt to have an impact on the final composition of the budget address.<\/span><\/p>\n Mbalula told journalists during a press conference on Monday in the Free State that the purpose of the meeting with Godongwana was to obtain a report on his updated budget.<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes, we met, and we discussed and got a report about the Budget, that\u2019s it. As a political party, we exist for that. We need to get a briefing from our deployees and we discussed the matter of the Budget as an ongoing,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n He conveyed the party’s full support for the minister, following a series of Cabinet meetings aimed at reaching a consensus on the budget.<\/span><\/p>\n After one of these meetings, the Cabinet disclosed that it had presented various options to Minister Godongwana, though the specific details of these options were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n “We want the minister to deliver the Budget on Wednesday and we keep ourselves abreast about what are the challenges that we are facing from the point of view of this Budget, and we discuss it in that context. <\/span><\/p>\n “We support the minister and work with everybody at the level of government. We are confident that this will produce the budget,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Godongwana is set to deliver his highly anticipated Budget speech in Cape Town on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n The speech, originally scheduled for last month, was delayed due to ongoing disagreements among political parties within the Government of National Unity (GNU) regarding the proposed VAT increase.<\/span><\/p>\n “It\u2019s an important item now in our political lives and that must be resolved, and we can\u2019t resolve it alone. The government cannot resolve it on its own, it must resolve it in concert with the people and that is important to take our country forward,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n The parties including the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had rejected the VAT hike. <\/span><\/p>\n kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za<\/span><\/p>\n Politics <\/strong><\/p>\n Get your news on the go, click here to join the News WhatsApp channel. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said that the party met with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to discuss budgetary matter, however, he denied any attempt to have an impact on the final composition of the budget address. Mbalula told journalists during a press conference on Monday in the Free State that the purpose of the meeting with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2735,118,1771,4227,4607,16440,6962,1558,5395],"class_list":["post-234164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-budget","tag-claims","tag-continue","tag-debates","tag-dismisses","tag-gnu","tag-interference","tag-mbalula","tag-speech"],"yoast_head":"\n