While the Democratic Alliance (DA) claims to have successfully blocked the proposed 2% VAT increase, the African National Congress (ANC) says its ministers were the first to oppose the National Treasury’s proposal and others followed.

The DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, was the first to claim victory and boast about how they defeated the ANC’s proposal.

The 2025/26 National Budget Speech was postponed to March 12 after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana could not deliver it on Wednesday due to parties being at loggerheads over the budget.

According to Steenhuisen, it was the DA’s pressure that led to the postponement.

He said this was a victory for South Africans because it would have broken the back of the economy. He also blamed the ANC for this.

“The postponement resulted from the DA's resolute opposition to the ANC's plan to hike VAT at a time when millions of South Africans are already suffering under a cost of living crisis.

“The last-minute postponement came about because of the failure by the ANC, and Godongwana's failure to engage meaningfully with the alternative proposals tabled by the DA,” he said.

After the hard-fought battle, Steenhuisen said their fight will now focus on introducing a new budget that is anchored in growing the economy, rather than increasing taxes or government debt.

This is the first time that the budget speech was postponed in the history of the country.

“This historic victory demonstrates the DA's muscle within the Government of National Unity.

“For the first time ever, the ANC was prevented from tabling an anti-growth budget. Now is the time to replace a failed ANC VAT budget, with a brand-new GNU growth budget,” Steenhuisen said.