It’s felt like a never-ending story. But after five gruelling months for the government of national unity (GNU), President Cyril Ramaphosa’s coalition has finally passed a Budget - a critical oil for his administration’s engine to keep running. At the same time, National Treasury’s brought three new measures to ensure we don’t take this long for next year’s Budget process. Specialist journalist, Carol Paton, and the Lead host, Graeme Raubenheimer, together break down and chronologically track the politically fraught Budget process thus far, ahead of the final vote in the National Council of Provinces on 30 July. Lastly, we end off with your voicenotes! You can send show host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to [email protected]. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.