Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver the postponed 2025 budget speech on March 12.
Image: Picture: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
Tips for Enoch?
"I suggest, Comrade, that in your Budget speech this year, you find a provision to help the poor and me."
That very direct and personal suggestion was one of thousands sent to then-finance minister Trevor Manuel in the run-up to one of the many Budget speeches he delivered 22 years ago.
Those "Tips for Trevor" days were a completely different era where ordinary people still believed they were listened to and cared for. It was a time when leaders at least pretended to listen and care. Remember how some lucky ordinary people would not only get their suggestions read by the minister but would also get a mention during the Budget speech?
It was a nice touch, even though we all knew that the priority was pleasing “the markets” – or avoiding being seen to be dissing it – more than serving “our people” and really transforming the economy.
Tomorrow we'll find out whether the suggestions, appeals and intense lobbying directed at Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and the Cabinet were taken into consideration, and what 2025 Budget 2.0 will look like.
At times like these it’s good to look back, reflect and then check where we are and where we are headed. And this shouldn’t be misconstrued as being nostalgic, or praising Manuel and the leadership collective of his time. He not only served as finance minister for many years but was also our planning chief, and clearly - as part of that collective - didn't do a pretty good job considering the state of our economy right now.
Our country has become such a crazy place that the “leader of society” party is having to be corrected, to be reined in by a liberal, pro-market grouping like the Democratic Alliance. Instead of pushing for and implementing progressive policies, the ANC seems now determined to implement the regressive, anti-poor policies. How things have changed. Having lost its total grip on power, the ANC is now forced to adapt to the “new normal” era of coalitions and compromises. Following last month’s budget debacle, it remains to be seen whether the ANC and Godongwana have learnt their lessons.