April 17, 2025.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Trent Roebeck.

Making headlines:

Enoch Godongwana says dropping VAT hike would have severe consequences

FUL welcomes ConCourt dismissal of Hlophe’s appeal

And, analysts say Global economic growth to suffer immediate setbacks because of US tariffs

Enoch Godongwana says dropping VAT hike would have severe consequences

South Africa's finance minister has said that failing to raise the value-added tax rate from May would cause severe harm to state finances, court papers showed, after a stand-off over the proposal risked the stability of the coalition government.

The two biggest parties in the coalition government, the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance have been at odds over the proposal to raise VAT by 0.5 percentage points on May 1 and another 0.5 points next year.

VAT is currently at 15%.

In response to the pro-business DA challenging the legality of the VAT hike plan in court, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana argued that any delay or removal of the VAT hike would have dire consequences on the country's finances.

He said If the rate increase is halted now, that revenue will be lost, and the State will be left without the funds needed to meet already-budgeted spending commitments.

FUL welcomes ConCourt dismissal of Hlophe’s appeal

Freedom Under Law has welcomed the decision by the Constitutional Court to dismiss uMkhonto weSizwe Party’s leader in Parliament and impeached judge Dr John Hlophe’s appeal of the Western Cape High Court’s interdict that prevented him from sitting as a member of the Judicial Service Commission.

As a Judge, prior to his political career, Hlophe was removed from office by the National Assembly, following the JSC finding him guilty of dishonesty and gross misconduct for his attempts to unlawfully influence two Constitutional Court judges, in 2008, to rule in favour of Jacob Zuma in cases before them.

Last year, he was nominated by the Zuma-led MKP, the political party he joined following his removal from judicial office, to serve on the JSC, which is responsible for nominating judges for appointment, and for disciplining judges.

Freedom Under Law executive officer Judith February said central to her organisation’s arguments was the clear view that for someone who had been removed from judicial office for gross misconduct to be a member of the body which is central to the selection of judges is unconstitutional and unlawful.

February said the ConCourt’s ruling, which came with costs against Hlophe, was important to prevent future “dilatory” court proceedings.

Analysts say Global economic growth to suffer immediate setbacks because of US tariffs

Global economic growth is expected to be significantly and immediately curtailed as a result of the ongoing US trade actions, global advisory firm Oxford Economics warned.

Oxford Economics corporate advisory lead for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Marcos Casarin said that the tariff regime introduced under US President Donald Trump had prompted Oxford Economics to revise its global growth forecast for 2025 and 2026 downward by 0.5 percentage points, bringing it to 2.3%.

Casarin reported that the US GDP growth forecast for this year had also been sharply reduced, from 2.5% prior to the US elections last year, to just 1.2%. He added that Oxford Economics expected the US economy to be 2% smaller in 2026 than originally forecast, with risks remaining skewed to the downside.

He said this pace of growth expected for 2025 is actually the weakest since 2001, if the global financial crisis of 2008/9 and the pandemic in 2020 are excluded.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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