The National Treasury announced that Finance Minister Enoch Gondongwana would re-table the 2025 revised Budget on May 21. The announcement came three days after Gondongwana’s withdrawal of his earlier Budget, which included the contentious proposal to increase VAT by 0,5%.

The High Court reserved judgment on the DA’s legal challenge to the Employment Equity Amendment Act, which the party said imposes unconstitutional racial quotas that harm minorities and threaten economic growth. The case looked set to place further strain on the already fragile Government of National Unity (GNU).

Unemployment in South Africa rose by a full percentage point in the first quarter of 2025, with the economy shedding 291,000 jobs. Only 16,8 million South Africans were now employed, down from 17,1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Despite the choreographed theatrics and humiliating spectacle staged by Donald Trump at their White House meeting, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s team, which included golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, successfully reset relations, paving the way for future trade opportunities with South Africa’s second-largest trading partner.

Several Economic Freedom Front (EFF) members, including party leader Julius Malema, were forcibly removed from the National Assembly for disruptive behaviour during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Question and Answer session. Earlier, Malema had vowed he would not be intimidated by Donald Trump, after the US President played a video of him chanting “Kill the Boer” during his White House meeting with Ramaphosa.

Floyd Shivambu became the latest high-profile casualty in the uMkhonto we-Sizwe (MK) Party when he was removed from his powerful post as Secretary-General just a week after fellow EFF defector Mzwanele Manyi was fired as Chief Whip in Parliament.

As wind, cold, and rain left a trail of destruction across KwaZulu-Natal and the country, US President Donald Trump continued to cause havoc across the globe, including Africa, with his tariffs and unpredictable policies.

With most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continuing to modernise their arsenals and the Middle East conflict escalating as Israel and Iran launched missiles at each other, the world became a more dangerous place than it had been for decades.

The entry of the United States into the Israel–Iran conflict created a huge headache for the South African government. While the country had always enjoyed warm diplomatic relations with Tehran, it could not risk further alienating the Trump administration, given that the relationship was already on life support.