The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has criticised US President Donald Trump’s “imperialist political attacks” on SA and misinformation by Afrikaner rights group AfriForum about “imaginary” genocide in the country.
Briefing the media on the outcomes of its national executive committee (NEC) meeting, the union’s leaders said the NEC condemned these acts and called on African states to consolidate their commitment to “protect and nurture their minerals and to do trade here in Africa [instead of] overrelying [on the] US”.
Last week, Trump imposed a 30% tariff on SA exports to the US, which were among the highest announced, sending shock waves through the low-growing economy.
Key SA exports to the US that will be affected by the 30% tariff Trump placed on SA goods include platinum, locally assembled cars, aluminium, ferroalloys and agricultural products such as wine and citrus.
Meanwhile, the NEC said it assessed the budget statement and “condemned the increase of 0.5% in VAT this year followed by another 0.5% the following year, bringing the VAT rate to 16% in 2026/2027”.
The Treasury opted for a half-percentage point hike in each of the next two years, with the proposed increases set to generate R13.5bn in revenue in 2025/26, R30bn in 2026/27 and R32bn in 2027/28.
“This is an indication of how far removed the government is from the struggles facing our people,” Nehawu said in a statement.
“Despite the commitment to ensure the zero-rated items are not included alongside in the VAT rate increase, the general impact on working-class families will translate to another sharp increase in the cost of living.”
While opposition parties including the DA have rejected the VAT increase, saying it is “a punch to the gut of already struggling South Africans”, the cabinet welcomed the budget by saying it would help finance SA’s sustainability.
“Indeed, workers and the working class would be the hardest hit with this intransigent attitude of government of insisting on the VAT hike.
“The voting patterns on the fiscal framework notably supporting the call for the government to find alternative sources of funding within 30 days to replace the VAT hike, have made clear the balance of power in favour of the exclusion of the DA, which has arrogantly insisted that there can be no government in our country at this stage without its inclusion. The time now requires decisive implementation of their exclusion,” Nehawu said.
The DA took finance minister Enoch Godongwana and SA Revenue Service commissioner Edward Kieswetter to court last week over the VAT increase, which comes into effect on May 1.
The DA’s rejection of the fiscal framework could complicate the operations of the government, given that the party would still be required to implement government policies that are informed by the budget, in its ministries.
“We are not in the GNU for blue lights, or cars, or ministerial homes, or status,” DA federal council chair Helen Zille said after filing court papers against the VAT hike last week Thursday.
“We are in the GNU [government of national unity] for one sole purpose and that is to get SA’s economy to grow at the rate it needs to grow to absorb more people into productive employment and thereby reduce poverty,” she said.
The DA’s legal papers have two parts: the first is to get the process that transpired on April 1 in the parliamentary portfolio committee on finance declared null and void because “it was unprocedural”.
The second part, said Zille, is to get section 7.4 of the VAT Act declared unconstitutional because “it gives the minister the power to enforce a VAT increase without taking it through to parliament, and without the need to have the fiscal framework and other legislation required passed in parliament”.
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