South Africa slashes planned VAT hike after pushback from Democratic Alliance

In a move seen as a last resort to prevent South Africa’s coalition government from collapsing, finance minister Enoch Godongwana has dropped a controversial value-added tax increase on Thursday.

His decision comes as South Africa’s second biggest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), threatened to leave the governing coalition over the VAT increase.

The Democratic Alliance argued that the tax would hurt the country’s financially weakest…