Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba can expect rebuttals, rebuke and ridicule from the opposition when he delivers his maiden Treasury budget vote speech on Tuesday.
Opposition mudslinging was ubiquitous in the first week of the annual budget vote debate frenzy, as was the shiny fleet of black BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz ministerial cars that were lined up on the precinct.
The 40-odd debates are scheduled to take place over almost three weeks in back-to-back sessions. A few are held simultaneously in the National Assembly and other venues, interspersed with individual ministerial media briefings that triggered fatigue on day one among overworked press gallery journalists.