SUNDAY, 01 MARCH 2026, 13:21
South Africa’s 2026 Budget has raised various fuel levies in line with inflation, pushing up petrol and diesel prices as the government seeks additional funding, including support for the financially strained Road Accident Fund.
National Treasury is stepping in to stimulate the economy and fix the municipalities, with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana declaring the age of austerity over.
Almost 10 years after Cape Town experienced a drought so severe it sparked fears of a Day Zero scenario in which residents’ taps would run dry, the City of Cape Town is again sounding the alarm over possible drought conditions.
South African taxpayers were afforded relief in the 2026 Budget, with full inflationary adjustments to personal income tax brackets and medical tax rebates.
In the 2026 Budget Speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has unveiled key reforms and strategies to bolster South Africa’s economic resilience, emphasising infrastructure investment and more efficient public services.
The government has revised its tax revenue expectations due to rising collections from VAT and commodities, scrapping a proposed R20-billion tax increase for 2026.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered rare relief for taxpayers by adjusting personal income tax brackets and medical tax credits in line with inflation, easing the sting of bracket creep after two frozen years. But higher fuel levies and inflation-linked increases to alcohol and tobacco taxes will take some shine off the otherwise ‘good news’ Budget.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivers the 2026 Budget Speech
KwaZulu-Natal, however, has a better literacy story to tell: it starts with a low Grade 1 score but more than doubles it by Grade 3.
A widening gap between skills taught at school and university and those wanted by employers is fuelling South Africa’s deepening youth unemployment crisis.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver his Budget speech with a big order of business to cap SA’s debt levels at 77.9% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Mustek, one of South Africa’s only pure-play technology companies listed on the JSE, released mixed results.
SARS has confirmed that offshore financial secrecy is effectively over, with expanded global automatic information sharing making it increasingly difficult for taxpayers to hide undeclared foreign assets or income.
Rassie Erasmus named his first Springbok training squad for 2026, which contains familiar names and some exciting raw talent.
The Proteas will face West Indies in their next Super Eights outing at the T20 World Cup, on Thursday. In that match, batter David Miller will once again be crucial.
President Trump delivered his usual rally speech rhetoric, cleverly disguised as a very long State of the Union speech. Meanwhile, the Democrats offered their rebuttal in the person of Abigail Spanberger, the new Virginia governor.
Eskom, the world’s biggest emitter of the toxin sulfur dioxide, presented a study that argues against the cost of installing equipment to limit emissions, risking a breach of a World Bank loan agreement and riling environmental activists.
U.S. President Donald Trump briefly laid out his case for a possible attack on Iran in his State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday, saying he would not allow the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism to have a nuclear weapon.