Mantashe was tabling his department’s budget of R2. 86 billion for the 2026/2027 financial year in Parliament.

He says what he can do is to negotiate with the National Treasury on the amount of funding the department requires as a suitable share in a specific financial year.

“All levies and taxes are the duty of the National Treasury. When I go to beg them to cut levies by R3 a litre, I have to go to them and actually negotiate with them because levies and taxes are the function of the National Treasury. I would have answered a number of things but the time is not allowing me. One of the other debates that we should have in the house is to counter environment and the economy. Ecology and economy are not opposites. They must complement each other. They must work together. You must have economic activity to be able to fund ecology.”

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