While a number of protests took place outside of Parliament ahead of South Africa’s 2017/18 budget speech‚ a generally cool‚ calm and collected Pravin Gordhan took to the podium‚ on schedule for the speech.

Starkly different from President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address a few weeks earlier which erupted in chaos‚ the mood in Parliament was generally serious and orderly with the first few minutes going off without a hitch

Members of parliament in attendance were sharply dressed in variations of dark blue and grey blazers with red being the colour of the day as far as neck ties were concerned – complementing the uniform overalls of the Economic Freedom Fighters.

 Gordhan himself wore a navy blue blazer‚ with a light-blue shirt and a bright tie with a shade of purple.

The finance minister’s speech got off to a less than smooth start however with him fumbling slightly over the words of his first few sentences.