Where to watch South Africa’s third Budget Speech live

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver the 2025 Budget on Wednesday, his unprecedented third attempt at laying out South Africa’s financial framework for the year.
Godongwana will deliver his speech at 14h00 during the National Assembly plenary at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, with live streaming available on several platforms.
The key change in the third budget is that it will not include the widely rejected VAT hike. This is after the minister committed to maintaining it at 15%, as confirmed by pre-budget announcements.
Consequently, the latest version is also expected to have the full support of the Government of National Unity (GNU) and its supermajority in parliament.
The previous two attempts to pass a Budget led to conflicts between the two biggest parties in the GNU—the ANC and the DA—over the proposed increase in VAT.
With wide rejection of the initial proposal to raise VAT to 17% in the first Budget, Godongwana did not even get to table his first budget in February, postponing it to March.
The second Budget came with a much smaller VAT hike of two 0.5 percentage point increases over two years, but the DA also rejected this.
The party ultimately voted against the budget in the portfolio committee and again in the National Assembly, forcing the ANC to find outside help to pass it.
It passed the Budget and the VAT hike with the assistance of non-GNU members, BOSA and ActionSA.
However, following widespread criticism of the VAT hike and a legal challenge against procedural matters and the powers of the minister, Godongwana ultimately withdrew several laws that made up the budget.
A settlement with the DA—made an order of the High Court—set aside Parliament’s acceptance of the 2025 Fiscal Framework report, allowing the budget process to be reset.
The third Budget Speech can be viewed via several means, such as TV services like DStv, news channels, and live-streaming sources like YouTube.
You can watch the Budget Speech from the following sources:
The speech will also be live-streamed on the government’s X page, Facebook, and Parliament’s YouTube channel.
The speech can also be streamed below:
What to expect
National Treasury confirmed on Wednesday morning that VAT will remain at 15% in the budget and that various assumptions tabled in March will be revised.
“The revised budget will adhere to all established technical processes and consultations as set out in the Money Bills and Related Matters Act,” it said.
“This includes formal consultations with the Financial and Fiscal Commission, thorough consultations with all political parties within the Government of National Unity as well as Cabinet approval before presentation to Parliament.”
Treasury has worked on a new fiscal framework that will maintain the trajectory toward debt stabilisation, a crucial element in strengthening our public finances.
This process included:
- Revising economic assumptions using the latest available data.
- Generating an updated fiscal project.
- Recalculating revenue projections and tax implications.
- Determining appropriate borrowing strategies.
- Consolidating these elements into a coherent and sustainable fiscal framework.
This means that, although there will be no VAT increase, South Africans should expect the minister to increase revenues via other measures.
This includes possible increases in excise taxes and South Africa’s fuel levies, the latter of which would be the first time an increase would occur in three years.
Economists estimate that fuel levy increases could raise R4 billion in revenue, while the increased excise taxes should raise R1 billion.
Moreover, Treasury will likely keep to previous stealth taxes by not adjusting income taxes for inflation, ie. bracket creep. If it does not change medical aid tax credits either, these measures should raise R19.5 billion in revenue.
These taxes will be needed as the National Treasury tries to plug a significant budget deficit. In addition to the tax increases, major expenditure cuts are also expected.
While Treasury alluded to “borrowing strategies”, economists believe this will be a negative, last-resort measure.
Investec Chief Economist Annabel Bishop said that it is unlikely that the country will turn to debt, as it is already seeing a notable rise in borrowing projections.
“Cutting expenditure is a prudent solution as South Africa is battling to fund its fiscal deficit and needs to consolidate its finances to improve fiscal sustainability and health,” said Bishop.