Where to watch the 2025 Budget Speech live
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver the 2025 budget speech on Wednesday (19 February) at 14h00.
The budget speech can be viewed through several channels, including TV services like DStv (channel 408), news channels, and live-streaming sources like YouTube.
You can watch the Budget Speech from the following sources:
In addition to Parliament’s YouTube channel, the government also noted that the speech would be live-streamed on its X page and Facebook.
The speech can also be streamed below:
As Enoch Godongwana prepares to deliver his annual budget speech, investors will also look to him to expedite reforms needed to revive economic growth while stabilising the nation’s precarious finances.
At the top of the list of concerns will be debt-servicing costs and possible tax hikes while under pressure to chart an economic course that navigates the hazards unleashed by Donald Trump’s trade war.
A major point of concern is South Africa’s debt and revenue collection. IMF senior resident representative Tidiane Kinda said that safeguarding fiscal sustainability was crucial.
“More ambitious fiscal consolidation was required to turn the trajectory of the country’s high debt, now at about 75% of GDP, strongly downward,” he said.
Kinda also highlighted public wage reform, with the public sector wage bill having increased significantly since 2007.
He said that limiting wage increases to below inflation, reducing allowances and pay progression, adopting an evidence-based approach to pay-setting, and controlling the growth of the public-sector workforce could potentially yield savings of up to 2% of GDP.
Additionally, there were also reports this week about possible tax increases, which had not been anticipated, with the assumption being that the current fiscal path would continue.
Wits adjunct professor Michael Sachs explained, however, that the National Treasury had long argued that permanent spending increases must be backed by permanent tax increases.
However, Sachs questions the feasibility of tax increases actually generating the expected and required revenue, which is also vulnerable to extenuating factors.
Joubert Botha, head of Tax and Legal at KPMG South Africa, adds that the fiscal deficit, coupled with subdued economic growth, needs decisive action to restore stability and ensure long-term sustainability.
“2025 may well be a year of tax consolidation with consequential adjustments rather than major announcements or proposals.
This is mainly due to the recent tax announcements in the form of the global minimum tax and the two-pot retirement system.
“We anticipate that SARS will continue with the modernization programmes, including the development and use of Artificial Intelligence and technology solutions to enhance tax collection, compliance management, and dispute resolution,” he said.
Frank Blackmore, lead economist at KPMG South Africa, also noted that the US impact on the budget may require some reshuffling of budgetary items to make space or compensation for USAID’s withdrawal.
Despite the uncertainty, markets are taking the budget in their stride. The rand and government bonds were steady on Wednesday.
A sale of government debt on Tuesday attracted strong demand, with dealers placing orders for more than four times the amount on offer.
The IMF has also recommended speeding up reforms at state-owned enterprises, including power utility Eskom and rail operator Transnet, arguing that would have a powerful positive effect on the entire economy.
The IMF foresees the economy growing 1.5% in 2025, compared with its 1.1% forecast for last year.
Godongwana is expected to unveil more details on funding models to encourage the private sector to invest in infrastructure projects.
Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the nation will spend more than R940 billion on infrastructure over the next three years and is engaging financial institutions and investors to unlock a further R100 billion in funding.
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