For an addict, the only win that counts involves tax-free sweets

● If ever Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba needed to destress by crushing candy, it was when he had to present his maiden budget on Wednesday.

First EFF members were not so sweet, calling for the “Gupta stooge” to be sacked. But they were ignored, so they boycotted the affair.

Then the DA tried to stop him taking the floor after a court found that, when he was still minister of home affairs, he had lied under oath in a fiasco over private airport lounges.

And when he finally got to deliver his address, his bombshell announcement — the first increase in VAT since 1993 — was roundly condemned. That hike from 14% to 15% may not seem like much, but the tax is applied to just about everything, so it will hit South Africans in the pocket.

Gigaba didn’t seem concerned that his budget would go down as anti-poor. He was in high spirits as he ad-libbed about being caught playing Candy Crush in parliament the previous week, even joking about needing rehab for the habit.