Budget 2023
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Nene contradicted Zuma, says Malema

Johannesburg - Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's 2015/16 budget speech contradicts President Jacob Zuma's state-of-the-nation address as there was no emphasis on the Freedom Charter, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema said on Wednesday.

"There was nothing [of the] Freedom Charter. Actually, we are now told that the mechanism [is] to meet objectives of the National Development Plan and nothing emphatic about the Freedom Charter," he said in reaction to Nene's budget tabled in Parliament.

"So the president's speech actually is completely different from what the budget is being directed to.

"The budget's supposed to finance what the president spoke about and those are serious contradictions and that's why... we say they don't mean what they say."

Fin24's Matthew le Cordeur caught up with Malema outside parliament:

Malema unhappy with corporate tax move

Malema said the EFF was especially disappointed with government's approach to revenue collection, stating that corporate tax should have been increased.

"We are very disappointed with the revenue, in particularly the raising of personal income tax, and leaving the corporate tax untouched," Malema said.

Malema told Fin24 that he believed the ruling government was working too closely with corporate business. "It is clear confirmation of a government in cahoots with capital against its own people," he said.

Tighter, stricter rules on transfer pricing needed to be introduced, as it would generate a lot of revenue so that the financial obligations of the state could be met.

"I would have insisted we increase corporate tax," Malema told Fin24. "We would have introduced tighter and stricter rules on transfer pricing."

"For the first time now the minister of finance and ANC government acknowledge that transfer pricing is a big problem," Malema said.

The increase of social grants should not be celebrated, since doing so would be a celebration of mediocrity, Malema said.

"We are not impressed with the issues of social grants. All we need is jobs for our people. They should have introduced a very clear mechanism on how jobs are going to be created in order to reduce spending on social grants," he said.

He praised the increase in education and health care spending, but would have been happier had taxation within the education sector, particularly on textbooks, been targeted in the budget.

Budget echoed Sona - Mantashe

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said Nene's speech did echo President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address (Sona).

"Coherence in the work of the governing party is quite important," he said outside parliament. "It is the basis for success."

"The budget was the allocation of resources to the programme as announced in the Sona," he said. "Where it is in the energy, or in agriculture ... all the allocations are talking to the Sona, which is a fiscal budget."

"We [as ANC] are quite happy [with Nene's speech]," he said.

Listen to the full interview:

- Sapa and Fin24.

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