There are arguably three ways to view recent developments around South Africa’s Budget process.

The first is to lament.

This is because South Africa has very few world-class processes and institutions and the Budget process run by the National Treasury is one. Like the Springboks and Banyana Banyana (and hopefully the Proteas and Bafana Bafana again one day), it is internationally acclaimed and admired.

And for good reason, as the process has been meticulously crafted and jealously guarded to the point where it had become almost sacrosanct. That, until the unprecedented Budget postponement of February 19, and the uncharted waters South Africa entered on March 12 when the revised Budget was again not endorsed by the full Cabinet, even though it was tabled.

It is also arguably why such a positive aura has grown around the position of Finance Minister and National Treasury officials. While such exceptionalism is not immune from criticism and resentment, it has been enough nevertheless to attract top talent and arguably also prepared the National Treasury for the internal resistance role it played during the ruinous State capture years.

The second response in some quarters has been to celebrate.

As mentioned, the National Treasury may be respected but it is definitely not universally loved. Many departmental, provincial and even municipal officials do not disguise their unhappiness with the rules and guardrails that the National Treasury implements and, at times, even their contempt for the officials who enforce them.

A high-handedness definitely crept in around Money Bills and Rates Bills that raised questions about whether decisions about the fiscal framework and the division of revenue were truly democratic. Some even angrily questioned whether there was any genuine room for debate in a domain so thoroughly dominated by the technocrats.

The third, and arguably most realistic response, is to accept.

Conditions have changed, and the Budget process must change too, especially because having more than one political party in government is likely to remain South Africa’s new normal.

The uncomfortable truth is that there will be more political horse-trading when it comes to the Budget and the Budget process must be able to accommodate such.

These disagreements were inevitable as the political balance shifted over time towards coalitions.

They were also foreseen in our legislation and Parliamentary processes. That does not mean we know precisely how these all work in practice, with the last few weeks having been highly instructive and educative in this regard; a case of learning by doing.

What is crucial, though, is for the right balance to be struck now, and in the future, between technical rigour and probity and political trade-offs and democratic debate.

Ultimately, the Budget has to be technically sound even if the principles are negotiated politically.

The current risks of allowing political clamour to overwhelm sound technocratic arguments and principles must be rebuffed, and decisively so. Or we will all be poorer, literally.