National Assembly passes 2025 budget, but the vote was CLOSE

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The National Assembly has voted to adopt the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals, following a debate in the house.

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Parliament also debated on and adopted the report of the Standing Committee on Finance related to the national budget, on Wednesday afternoon.

Members of Parliament voted as follows:

• 182 members voted against
• 194 voted in favour
• there were no abstentions.

“The question that the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals and the report of the Standing Committee is thus adopted,” Presiding officer Cedric Frolick said after the votes were counted.

Earlier in the debate, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance Mkhacani Maswanganyi outlined the steps taken since Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered the Budget Speech in March.

“The Minister, together with the commissioner of SARS [South African Revenue Service], briefed the committee on the 14th of March. On 18 March…the committees of Finance, both in the NCOP [National Council of Provinces] and the NA [National Assembly] received the post-budget input from the Parliamentary budget office and the financial and fiscal commission.

“The committee issued adverts for public hearings… on websites, social channels and print media. The committees held public hearings on 25 March 2025 [and] we received 51 submissions – 29 written and 22 orally.

“National Treasury and SARS responded to the issues raised during the public hearings and engaged with the committees and stakeholders on the 28th of March 2025,” he said.

Following that, the committee secretariat sent out a draft report and set an agenda meeting for both the Standing and Select committees on Finance to consider and adopt the report.

“The report… is a result of an extensive process,” Maswangayi explained.

How the voting went

The ANC voted with most of the Government of National Unity (GNU) members in tow to adopt the budget.

The Democratic Alliance and Freedom Front Plus rejected it.

To boost the numbers and secure a majority, the ANC courted support outside the GNU, including ActionSA and Mmusi Maimane’ from’s Build One South Africa (BOSA).

The vote was to support and adopt the report from the Standing Committee on Finance, which accepted the framework without amendments, including a one percentage point VAT hike over two years and no adjustments to income tax brackets.

The committee report was approved by the ANC, IFP and Action SA, with the DA, MK Party and EFF rejecting it.

In a huge break from the GNU, the DA and Freedom Front Plus rejected the budget and voted against it.