Opinion: The 2025 MTBPS is Not a Budget—It’s a Manifesto of Moral Bankruptcy
Minister Enoch Godongwana stood before the nation this afternoon and delivered a document draped in fiscal prudence but stained with moral apathy. The 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) is not a responsible navigational plan for our economy; it is a declaration of subservience to debt and a clear betrayal of the liberation dividend promised to the masses.
A budget is a nation’s most sacred moral document. It is where we articulate our values. And what values has this government articulated today? The value of Debt-Worship.
The Idolatry of Austerity
The ideological heart of this budget is a fatal flaw: the prioritizing of fiscal consolidation—the relentless pursuit of a primary surplus and debt stabilisation—over the foundational needs of our people.
We are told, yet again, that high debt-servicing costs—the penalty for years of state capture and mismanagement—must consume over 21 cents of every rand in revenue. This staggering figure is not just an accounting entry; it is a manifestation of structural violence. It is money that should be funding nurses, rebuilding broken rail lines, and paying a dignified social wage, but is instead siphoned off to appease bondholders.
This is not a policy of necessary discipline; it is an act of neoliberal fundamentalism. The government is sacrificing the living standards of the poor and the dignity of the unemployed on the altar of a balanced balance sheet. They are starving the engine of our economy—the people—for the sake of a credit rating. This is inexcusable.
A Direct Attack on the Dignity of Households
The MTBPS hits struggling households with a two-pronged attack on their meagre disposable income:
- The Silent Tax Hike: By refusing to adjust Personal Income Tax (PIT) thresholds for inflation, the Treasury silently drags low- and middle-income workers into higher tax brackets—the insidious ‘bracket creep’. This is a hidden tax on the very people whose real wages are already shrinking.
- The Consumption Squeeze: Alongside this, we see proposals for increased Value-Added Tax (VAT), a regressive tax that hits the poor hardest. To increase the tax burden on basic goods while simultaneously failing to lift real wages is an act of economic cruelty.
Furthermore, the rumoured plan to lower the inflation target to a rigid 3% is an ideological choice masquerading as a technical one. It is a commitment to suppressing aggregate demand, which in turn deepens unemployment and chokes the very consumer spending necessary for small business growth. This is not “pro-poor,” as its proponents claim; it is a chokehold on labour and a guarantee of economic stagnation.
The Betrayal of the Unemployed
Nowhere is the moral failure more glaring than in the treatment of the unemployed. South Africa suffers from catastrophic joblessness (hovering around 32%), yet this budget locks in an acceptance of this reality with anaemic, sub-2% GDP growth forecasts. A government that accepts low growth is a government that has ceased to fight for its people.
And what of the most vulnerable? The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant remains stagnant at an amount far below the food poverty line, and, most unforgivably, its future is once again left hanging without concrete funding beyond 2026. This is not stewardship; it is calculated neglect. It leaves millions of South Africans—our mothers, brothers, and children—trapped in perpetual insecurity, held hostage by political indecision.
The lack of infrastructure delivery, crippled by skills deficits and weak political will at the municipal level, further compounds the crisis. The government promises a construction site, but delivers a stagnant swamp, locking out thousands of potential jobs.
PEOPLE’S Mandate: A Budget for Human Dignity
This MTBPS is a reflection of a government that has lost its way, choosing the dictates of global finance over the cries of its own citizens.
PEOPLE should stands firm:
And demand a budget founded on human dignity, not on arbitrary fiscal anchors. We demand:
- A Massive Public Employment Programme: An immediate, large-scale public works initiative to mop up chronic unemployment, funded by urgent expenditure reprioritisation.
- The Institutionalisation of the SRD Grant: The grant must be immediately indexed to the food poverty line and permanently secured in the fiscal framework, offering a bedrock of social security to all in need.
- Investment over Debt: A courageous re-negotiation of the debt trajectory that places economic development and the social wage ahead of debt-service costs.
The time for austerity talk is over. The moment for a decisive shift—a budget that prioritises the health, education, and employment of its people—is now. Anything less is a continuation of the failure, and a betrayal this nation can no longer afford.
-✍🏾Rev.Mo’hau Khumalo
Social Commentator &Tramsformation advocate
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