As Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana prepares to deliver his 2025 Budget Speech, eNCA revisits his key commitments made in the 2024 budget. From tackling the electricity crisis and raising revenue to investing in education, health, and infrastructure, the 2024 budget addressed key national priorities.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is set to deliver his 2025 Budget Speech on February 19th, and as he prepares, eNCA takes a look back at his key commitments made in the 2024 budget. The Minister promised to tackle the electricity crisis by increasing the limit for renewable energy projects qualifying for carbon offsets, from 15 to 30 megawatts.
To raise R15-billion in revenue, the Minister chose not to adjust the tax bracket, rebates, and medical tax credit for inflation, but he did increase personal tax. Vaping products and heated tobacco products, including hubbly-bubblies, were also taxed with excise duties. Mindful of the already high cost of living and the impact of fuel prices on food and transport costs, the government proposed no increases to the general fuel levy for 2024/25. This money would remain in the pockets of consumers. The fuel levy of R3.84 was not changed between 2023 and 2024, after a 9-cent increase in 2022. Contributions to retirement funds will be split, with one-third going into a “savings component” and two-thirds going into a “retirement component”. As of February 1, 2025, more than 2.4 million South Africans cashed out R43 billion from their pensions funds after the two-pot pension system was launched in September.The education sector was allocated an extra R25.7 billion to cover wage increases over the medium term. At the same time, the critical school nutrition programme was secured, providing food to pupils in almost 20,000 schools. The health sector was allocated R848-billion, including R11.6 billion to cover the 2023 wage agreement, R27.3 billion for infrastructure, and R1.4 billion for the National Health Insurance Act (NHI) grant. The elderly, war veterans, those with disabilities, and care dependants received an increase of R100, while the foster care grant increased by R50. The child support grant increased by R20, and the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant increased from R350 to R370. Government planned to invest more than R943-billion in public infrastructure. The spending was to support the refurbishment and maintenance of existing assets and the building of new infrastructure. Government has also been prioritizing fighting crime and corruption with a focus on enhancing law enforcement agencies. At the same time, government used R2.9 billion from the Criminal Asset Recovery Account to combat illegal mining and other priority crimes, with 60% allocated for police deployments, including vehicle procurement
FINANCE BUDGET SOUTH AFRICA GODONGWANA ECONOMY TAXES ENERGY EDUCATION HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE
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