Busisiwe Mavuso, Business Leadership SA’s CEO, has praised Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana for a Budget committed to debt stabilisation.

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South Africa keeps relying on commodity booms to bail out the fiscus, yet the mining sector’s pleas for relief – from lower electricity tariffs and targeted incentives – keep falling on deaf ears, industry representatives said on Wednesday.

The diamond and ferrochrome industries are especially at risk, they said, adding that overall production volumes would need to increase for the sector’s tax contribution to be sustainable.

The warning stands in contrast to the broadly positive reception the 2026 Budget received from much of the private sector, which described it as credible and conservative, with benefits for taxpayers and small businesses.

Social grants were increased roughly in line with inflation, as were sin taxes.

Busisiwe Mavuso, the CEO of Business Leadership SA, called the Budget pragmatic, saying it “tackles the country’s core challenges and reiterates the government’s commitment to structural reforms”.

“South Africa’s position has improved significantly compared with recent years, and this progress was evident in today’s Budget.”

She praised Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s efforts to stabilise government debt.

Changes to tax thresholds and limits, including an increase in the annual limit for tax-free savings from R36 000 to R46 000, alongside higher retirement fund deductions, will incentivise South Africans to save.

“This has the added macro benefit of increasing South Africa’s chronically low savings rate and providing a wider pool of capital to fund much-needed infrastructure investment,” said Mavuso.

Mavuso will expand on the positives and negatives of the Budget at the News24 and Standard Bank’s Budget Breakfast, which will be broadcast live from 08:30 on Thursday, 26 February.

Mavuso will be joined in conversation by outgoing SA Revenue Service Commissioner Edward Kieswetter, Standard Bank group economist Goolam Ballim, and veteran financial journalists Bruce Whitfield and Carol Paton.

Although mining was not overtly mentioned by Godongwana on Wednesday, the Minerals Council South Africa noted that the upswing in gold and platinum group metals (PGMs) prices had underpinned the fiscus and contributed to the R21.3 billion increase in gross tax revenue. Mining tax collections increased by 29%.

“The Minerals Council agrees with National Treasury that the near-term benefit of the upswing in gold and PGM prices is positive for the fiscal outlook, but the improvement is based on a small group of minerals and purely because of increased prices rather than higher production,” said Mzila Mthenjane, CEO of the council.

“The mining sector bailed out the distressed domestic economy during and immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

“Gold and PGMs account for about 40% of South Africa’s mining production and employ about 262 000 people out of the industry’s 474 000-strong workforce,” she said.

Bongani Motsa, acting chief economist at the council, said the industry is “disappointed” that there had been no mention of reduced electricity tariffs for the ferroalloys industry, which is facing closure and job losses. Electricity prices for industrial users have risen by more than 900% since 2008, rendering the industry uncompetitive.

For mining to sustainably contribute to tax income, the production of all minerals needs to increase.

“With the current outlook for mining volumes to continue contracting, we’d like to see incentives in future Budgets that encourage exploration as well as assistance to sectors that are under distress, such as ferrochrome and diamonds, to increase production and to sustain and grow jobs in the longer term,” said Mthenjane.

Althea Soobyah, head of tax at Forvis Mazars, was more upbeat: “We’ve become so accustomed to bad news Budgets that even small adjustment shifts are well received and reflect National Treasury’s shift away from a reliance on tax revenue towards growth-enhancing initiatives.”