Latest news with #AppropriationsBill
IOL News
a day ago
- Business
- IOL News
Parliament faces budget impasse as DA threatens to vote against ministers
The National Assembly Programme heard that individual budget votes of departments will have to be passed by the National Assembly next week otherwise the Appropriation Bill will be sent back to the standinng committee for further processing. Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers Parliament is at a crossroads on the passing of the budget for 2025/26 just six days before the National Assembly adopts the Appropriations Bill. This takes place as the second biggest party in the Government of National Unity (GNU), the DA, has threatened not to vote for the budget votes of those ministers they deem are compromised and should be axed from the Cabinet. The Appropriation Standing Committee is set to adopt its report today ahead of the passing of the bill by the National Assembly on Wednesday, before the bill is sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. Briefing the Programme Committee on Thursday, National Assembly secretary Masibulele Xaso took the chief whips of political parties on the four steps to be followed when the bill is passed next week. Xaso said once the Standing Committee on Appropriation has submitted its report on the bill, the House will first consider that report and thereafter the bill. 'After the report is considered, we then move to the First Reading of the bill. After the First Reading of the bill, we'll do the departmental votes and after the departmental votes, we then do the schedule.' Xaso also said if the National Assembly rejected the First Reading of the bill, it rejected the bill. 'The House may consider to pass, amend, or reject any legislation before it. Any legislation means any legislation. So in this context, on the first reading of the appropriation book, the process ends there,' he said. Xaso stated that when the House passed the First Reading of the bill, MPs will consider the departmental votes, one by one. Where there was no agreement on all the votes, the bill will be recommitted to the committee for amendments. 'The vote, together with the bill, must then be referred to the Standing Committee on Appropriation for further processing. So in that event, we will then not proceed to take a decision on the schedule. We will not proceed to take a decision on the Second Reading of the bill.' He also said should the Second Reading of the bill not be agreed, and then the bill will be rejected. 'It won't go back to the committee because the bill would be dead in the parliamentary process. It would mean the bill must be reintroduced into the system,' Xaso said. EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi enquired whether there will be fresh elections should the bill not be passed. 'If we take the bill to the committee to process, the fact of the matter is that it will mean that we as Parliament failed to pass the budget. Does that mean, if Parliament fails to budget, we must go to elections?' Mkhaliphi asked. In response, Xaso said the House must proceed with First Reading of the bill and once it was rejected, the process ended there. 'The bill, at that level, must go to committee to look at the nature of amendments and implications and come to the House with a report,' added Xaso. MK Party MP Visvin Reddy said the law states that if the budget can't be passed, there should be fresh elections. 'That is what the law says. Why try to second guess the law. It is like trying to fit a puzzle where it can't fit.' 'If the law says we can't pass the budget so be it let's go for fresh elections.' But, national Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza said there were rules on how to run the parliamentary business. 'We need to look our rules as the National Assembly,' Didiza said. MPs heard that the budget must be passed within four months in the new financial year, which is the end of July. Parliamentary legal advisor Frank Jenkins indicated that the Public Finance Management Act sets out how government can spend prior to budget being approved. Jenkins said in the first four months the government can spend 45% of budget equivalent to previous year budget and thereafter 10% each month. 'If funds are used prior to budget, the funds are used for existing programmes. Money is going to be deducted when the budget is finally passed.' However, Jenkins said the implied motion of no confidence, when a budget was not passed eliciting elections, was not applicable in South Africa as the constitution provided for dissolution of Parliament when its term expired and by resolution after three years after the elections. 'The Constitution does not envisage in the first or second year after the elections,' Jenkins said. Cape Times
IOL News
2 days ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Parliament at a crossroads as budget vote approaches
The National Assembly Programme heard that individual budget votes of departments will have to be passed by the National Assembly next week otherwise the Appropriation Bill will be sent back to the standinng committee for further processing Image: Photographer: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers Parliament is at a crossroads on the passing of the budget for 2025/26 just six days before the National Assembly adopts the Appropriations Bill. This takes place as the second biggest party in the Government of National Unity (GNU), the DA, has threatened not to vote for the budget votes of those ministers they deem are compromised and should be axed from the Cabinet. The Appropriation Standing Committee is set to adopt its report on Friday ahead of the passing of the bill by the National Assembly on Wednesday, before the bill is sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. Briefing the Programme Committee on Thursday, National Assembly secretary Masibulele Xaso took the chief whips of political parties on the four steps to be followed when the bill is passed next week. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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After the First Reading of the bill, we'll do the departmental votes and after the departmental votes, we then do the schedule.' Xaso also said if the National Assembly rejected the First Reading of the bill, it rejected the bill. 'The House may consider to pass, amend, or reject any legislation before it. Any legislation means any legislation. So in this context, on the first reading of the appropriation book, the process ends there,' he said. Xaso stated that when the House passed the First Reading of the bill, MPs will consider the departmental votes, one by one. Where there was no agreement on all the votes, the bill will be recommitted to the committee for amendments. 'The vote, together with the bill, must then be referred to the Standing Committee on Appropriation for further processing. So in that event, we will then not proceed to take a decision on the schedule. We will not proceed to take a decision on the Second Reading of the bill.' He also said should the Second Reading of the bill not be agreed, and then the bill will be rejected. 'It won't go back to the committee because the bill would be dead in the parliamentary process. It would mean the bill must be reintroduced into the system,' Xaso said. EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi enquired whether there will be fresh elections should the bill not be passed. 'If we take the bill to the committee to process, the fact of the matter is that it will mean that we as Parliament failed to pass the budget. Does that mean, if Parliament fails to budget, we must go to elections?' Mkhaliphi asked. In response, Xaso said the House must proceed with First Reading of the bill and once it was rejected, the process ended there. 'The bill, at that level, must go to committee to look at the nature of amendments and implications and come to the House with a report,' added Xaso. MK Party MP Visvin Reddy said the law states that if the budget can't be passed, there should be fresh elections. 'That is what the law says. Why try to second guess the law. It is like trying to fit a puzzle where it can't fit.' Reddy urged that the law be looked into its raw form and follow it. 'If the law says we can't pass the budget so be it let's go for fresh elections.' But, national Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza said there were rules on how to run the parliamentary business. 'We need to look our rules as the National Assembly,' Didiza said. MPs heard that the budget must be passed within four months in the new financial year, which is end of July. Parliamentary legal advisor Frank Jenkins indicated that the Public Finance Management Act sets out how government can spend prior to budget being approved. Jenkins said in the first four months the government can spend 45% of budget equivalent to previous year budget and thereafter 10% each month. 'If funds are used prior to budget, the funds are used for existing programmes. Money is going to be deducted when the budget is finally passed.' However, Jenkins said the implied motion of no confidence, when a budget was not passed eliciting elections, was not applicable in South Africa as the constitution provided for dissolution of Parliament when its term expired and by resolution after three years after the lections. 'The Constitution does not envisage in the first or second year after the elections,' Jenkins said.
IOL News
03-07-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Appropriation Bill faces uncertainty as legal concerns mount
Standing committee on Appropriations chairperson Mmusi Maimane says if the Appropriation Bill fails to pass in its entirety, it will have to return to the committee to be processed. Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers The fate of the Appropriation Bill hangs in the balance as the Standing Committee on Appropriations is saddled with a legal opinion stating how voting should take place if the bill is to be passed. This came up when committee chairperson Mmusi Maimane briefed the parliamentarians about a legal opinion he received from the parliamentary legal services at the conclusion of the public hearing on the 2025 Eskom Debt Amendment Bill on Wednesday. Maimane said their job as the committee was not to get involved necessarily with the politics of goings-on inside the Government of National Unity. 'All I sought to seek is a legal opinion, guiding, whether, when we do scheduling of votes, what happens in an event when some don't pass and some do, given this was consultation on the Appropriations Bill,' he said. Maimane also said the National Assembly table has advised that the Appropriations Bill has to be adopted in its entirety if it is going to pass. 'Therefore, it will mean that if it fails to pass in its entirety, it will have to return to this respective committee to then be processed from then on as consistent with the Money Bills and Related Matters Act. I though it is important for members to be appraised,' he said. The parliamentary rules set out the process to be followed in passing the Appropriation Bill. 'The Assembly must first decide on the separate votes in the schedule to an appropriation Bill (in the case of a main appropriation Bill, when the debate on supplementary amounts has been concluded) and thereafter on the schedule,' reads rule 328. Maimane said he was really committed to making sure that the Appropriation Bill is passed so that it can be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. 'We have to make sure that the bill from that point on can then proceed as it is. I thought I have to appraise members on the question we have to be engaged with as we go forward,' he added. Maimane said he would share the legal opinion when it was written after DA MP Kingsley's Hope Wakelin asked whether he was going to seek or has sought the legal opinion. 'I have sought one and that was the advice that I was given. Hopefully once its all written up I will send it,' said Maimane when Wakelin asked to be given the copy of the legal opinion. He also said he would send a notification to MPs on the activities of the committee to finalise the processing of the Appropriation Bill. The turn of events come against the backdrop of the second biggest party in the GNU, the DA, having lived up to its promise to vote against the Budget of the department led by 'compromised ministers and deputy minister'. This after President Cyril Ramaphosa fired former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield after he undertook a trip to the US without authorisation. On Saturday, DA leader John Steenhuisen said his party will vote against upcoming departmental Budget votes for the departments headed by Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane, Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane, and other 'corruption-accused ANC Ministers'. He said they will keep voting against those departmental votes until those ministers were removed. 'In this way, the DA will strike the appropriate balance by allowing the broader GNU Budget process to proceed to ensure the stability of the country, while forcing the ANC to act against specific Ministers. 'If the ANC wants our support for those departmental budgets, they must replace the incumbent Ministers with alternatives that meet the very standard the President has set for himself through Whitfield's axing,' Steenhuisen said. The DA has already rejected the budget for the Department of Human Settlements in the National Assembly and the Higher Education Department's budget in the National Council of Provinces. The Higher Education Department's budget will be debated in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon.
IOL News
03-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Western Cape Finance MEC ensures stability with R89. 3 billion budget despite national challenges
Western Cape Finance MEC Deidré Baartman delivers the 2025 Budget Speech in the Provincial Parliament. Western Cape Finance MEC Deidré Baartman re-tabled the province's R89.3 billion Appropriations Bill after the national government unexpectedly withdrew its budget, including the legally binding Division of Revenue Bill. Addressing the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Baartman clarified that although the process had to be repeated for legal compliance, 'nothing in substance in the Western Cape Appropriations Bill has changed.' The 2025/26 Western Cape Budget still allocates a total of R269.5 billion over the next three years, with more than 80%, or R215.8 billion, dedicated to social services. This includes R101 billion for education, R100 billion for health, R6.4 billion for housing, and R8.4 billion for social protection.
IOL News
03-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Western Cape Finance Minister re-tables R89. 3 billion Appropriations Bill as national budget faces uncertain future
Western Cape Finance MEC Deidré Baartman delivers the 2025 Budget Speech in the Provincial Parliament. Image: Supplied Western Cape Finance Minister Deidré Baartman re-tabled the province's R89.3 billion Appropriations Bill after the national government unexpectedly withdrew its budget, including the legally binding Division of Revenue Bill. Addressing the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Baartman clarified that although the process had to be repeated for legal compliance, 'nothing in substance in the Western Cape Appropriations Bill has changed.' The 2025/26 Western Cape Budget still allocates a total of R269.5 billion over the next three years, with more than 80%, or R215.8 billion, dedicated to social services. This includes R101 billion for education, R100 billion for health, R6.4 billion for housing, and R8.4 billion for social protection. In terms of strategic spending, the province is staying the course on its four apex priorities: R43.8 billion to 'Growth for Jobs,' R3.9 billion to safety, R194.9 billion to build an 'Educated, Healthy and Caring Society,' and R23.4 billion to innovation, culture, and governance. 'In light of this,' said Baartman, 'the doors of the Western Cape Government have, and will continue to, remain open.' Despite the chaos at a national level, Baartman assured residents that essential services would remain intact, crediting this stability to provincial fiscal discipline. 'Despite the uncertain fiscal environment, the Western Cape Government can assure this house that we have kept strict protocols in place on cash flow management in the province to ensure service delivery continues uninterrupted,' said Baartman. She also acknowledged the tireless work of officials during this turbulent period. '2025 has really seen us exercise our legal and procedural muscles within the uncertain fiscal space nationally, and I would like to thank the Provincial Treasury team as well as the Legal team in the Department of the Premier for their assistance and guidance throughout this process.' Looking ahead, Baartman expressed hope for a smoother national budget process next year. 'For certainty, fiscal stability and trust, it is my sincere hope that the national budget process for 2026 will flow more effortlessly.' IOL News
