For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkomfe.    

Making headlines: DA confident it will stop May VAT increase; South Africa's white Afrikaner separatists want Trump's help to become state; And, Trump slaps Lesotho with highest tariff of all

DA confident it will stop May VAT increase

The Democratic Alliance expressed confidence in its case that challenges the legality of the 2025/26 National Budget process, stating that it will succeed in its plan to stop the value-added tax increase on May 1 as announced by finance minister Enoch Godongwana.

On Wednesday, the National Assembly adopted the 2025 Fiscal Framework as tabled by Godongwana in March.

DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille filed papers in the Western Cape High Court to challenge the legality of the Budget process, seeking an interdict to stop South African Revenue Service from implementing the VAT hike on May 1.

The party also seeks to suspend the operation of Godongwana’s announcement of the VAT hike based on the constitutionality of the Minister's power to raise VAT by announcing it in his Budget speech.

She said the party is “absolutely determined” to succeed in its plan to stop VAT on May 1, and believes that it has a strong and solid case.

South Africa's white Afrikaner separatists want Trump's help to become state

The residents of Orania – population 3 000 - in the semi-arid Karoo region want US President Donald Trump to help them become a state.

Last week, community leaders from Orania visited the United States seeking recognition as an autonomous entity. South African authorities acknowledge it as a town that can raise local taxes and deliver services.

The 8 000-hectare settlement is riding an unprecedented wave of support from right-wing Americans for Afrikaner nationalists, who irrevocably lost power when apartheid ended in 1994 and Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first Black president.

In New York and Washington the Orania leaders met influencers, think-tanks and low-ranking Republican politicians.

And, Trump slaps Lesotho with highest tariff of all

The tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho has been hit with a 50% reciprocal trade tariff by US President Donald Trump, the highest levy of any single state on his long list of target economies.

Lesotho, which Trump had ridiculed in March as a country "nobody has ever heard of", is a poor and landlocked country with a gross domestic product of just over $2-billion.

It has a large trade surplus with the United States, mostly made up of diamonds and textiles, including Levi's jeans.

Its exports to the United States, which in 2024 totalled $237-million, account for more than 10% of GDP, Oxford Economics said.

Trump imposed sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners, upending decades of rules-based trade and threatening cost increases for consumers.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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