Taxpayers to shoulder R239m for expanded Cabinet amid economic woes

Cape Town – South African taxpayers will bear an additional R239 million burden in 2025/26 due to the expanded government under the Government of National Unity (GNU), finance minister Enoch Godongwana disclosed in parliament.

“The allocation is for salaries of the executive, cost of support staff, official vehicles and goods and services.

‘The cost for official vehicles was calculated based on the current threshold of R800,000 inclusive of VAT and security upgrades,” Times Live quoted Godongwana as saying.

Critics have denounced the expanded GNU as an unsustainable financial burden amid a struggling economy.

ActionSA’s Athol Trollip criticised the wasteful spending, highlighting the growing gap between rising public service costs and declining service delivery quality.

According to The Citizen, he called the luxury perks of the GNU a “slap in the face” for citizens grappling with economic hardships.

“The jet-setting GNU’s insistence on wasteful spending is a slap in the face of every citizen forced to tighten their belt to get through each month,” he said.

“In the face of a stagnant economy, where GDP contracted by 0.3% in the third quarter and annual growth limps along at a mere 0.3%, and with an adjustments budget reflecting a worrying misalignment of this government’s priorities, it is shameful that, instead of cutting wasteful expenditure on government excesses, the GNU has increased the allocation to fund luxury perks,” Trollip said.