Rain, Ramaphosa and Budget Repeat - it's going to be a wild week

No prizes for guessing the two frontrunners in the race for business story of the week. 

Here at home we have Budget Day, or the latest edition thereof, while in Washington President Ramaphosa and a bevy of Ministers have an arguably even more challenging mission – to attempt damage control in the ongoing diplomatic tussle with the US government. 

Seldom has a week kicked off with such fanfare. 

Seldom has there been so much at stake. 

Both events have broad implications for the Western Cape. The Budget breakdown will determine how much money can be made available for critical service delivery and infrastructure investment. Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is appealing for an equitable budget share based on updated census figures which, he says, show Cape Town will soon overtake Johannesburg as South Africa’s most populous metro. 

The Western Cape, and Cape Town in particular, is undoubtedly a good value proposition in terms of budget spend. The City added 86 000 jobs over the past year according to StatsSA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force survey for the first quarter of 2025. Those are exactly the kind of stats Enoch Godongwana will be dreaming of when he presents his Budget later this week. 

However events on the other side of the Atlantic could determine whether Godongwana’s budget will indeed balance. Ramaphosa and his team will be hard-pressed to cool diplomatic tensions with a view to stabilising wobbly trade relations. Western Cape agriculture and marine manufacturing are among several sectors vulnerable to potential tariff impacts. 

As the week unfolds one can only hope cool heads will prevail. 

As the Cape Chamber we believe we should be guided by what we have in common, rather than what sets us apart. This approach has helped us tackle our many shared challenges. 

We see no reason why it should not do the same where it matters most, during this momentous week. 

John Lawson
CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry