EFF requests to withdraw 2025 Fiscal Report over illegality
The Economic Freedom Fighters have written to the speaker of the National Assembly, requesting an urgent withdrawal of the report adopted on Tuesday at the joint finance committee meeting.
In a letter addressed to Parliament, the EFF claims that the report, which was adopted on Tuesday, was approved without adherence to key statutory requirements outlined in the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, 2009.
According to the party, Section 8(3) of the Act mandates that the Committee submit a report within 16 days after the national budget is tabled. More critically, Section 8(4) states that: “The report must include a clear statement accepting or amending the fiscal framework and revenue proposals.”
“The statute requires that before a report can lawfully be adopted, it must already contain this ‘clear statement’ – not added afterward,” the EFF said in its statement.
“Without an explicit resolution by the Committee on whether it accepts or amends the fiscal framework, any later insertion of such a statement amounts to retrospective fabrication, undermining the rule of law and Parliament’s constitutional duty in fiscal oversight.”
The EFF says that during the Tuesday meeting, Committee members were never directly asked by the Chairperson to decide whether to accept or amend the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals.
Instead, they were only asked to vote on the adoption of the report, reject it, or reserve their rights to vote.
“This procedural flaw is fundamental,” the EFF emphasized. “The clear statement required by law must form part of the report before its adoption—it cannot be inserted afterward, on the assumption that the absence of amendments equates to acceptance.”
The party further alleges that the version of the report currently in circulation contains language that was added after the Committee had already adopted it.
“The statement, ‘Having considered the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals, the Standing Committee on Finance accepts the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals,’ was not part of the draft report tabled before the Committee. It was neither proposed, debated, nor agreed upon during deliberations,” the EFF claimed.
READ FULL LETTER BELOW:
Eff Letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of Scof_adoption of the 2025 Fiscal... by Mmangaliso Khumalo on Scribd
