CAPE TOWN, Feb 19 (Reuters) – South Africa’s national budget was postponed at the last minute on Wednesday because of a disagreement between the political parties in the ruling coalition government.

The speaker of the National Assembly, Thoko Didiza, told lawmakers that the budget had never been postponed like this in the three decades since the end of apartheid.

The budget was now expected to be tabled on March 12, she added.

For the first time in the democratic era, the African National Congress (ANC) will need the support of other parties to pass the budget this year, since it lost its parliamentary majority in an election last year.

Its main partner in the coalition, the Democratic Alliance, said the budget had been postponed because of its opposition to the ANC’s proposal to increase value-added tax (VAT) by 2 percentage points.

The local rand currency extended losses after the budget was delayed, at one point trading down 1% against the dollar on the day.

The Business Day newspaper reported on Wednesday that the proposal to increase VAT was intended to plug holes in the education budget and support social spending.

The last time VAT was raised was in 2018, and opposition parties and labour unions have in recent weeks voiced strong opposition to rumours of a further increase.

Since the aftermath of the 2008-09 global financial crisis, the government of Africa’s most industrialised nation has struggled to deliver economic growth rates high enough to make a dent in inequality and unemployment.

Public debt has climbed steeply because of revenue shortfalls and runaway spending.

(Additional reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, Tannur Anders and Sfundo Parakozov in Pretoria;Writing by Bhargav Acharya;Editing by Alexander Winning and Aidan Lewis)