Use the Mid Term Budget to cut VAT on food, Mr Finance Minister
19 October 2022
Note to editors: The following remarks were delivered by Dr Dion George MP during a protest at the office of the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana.
Today, the DA took the fight for more affordable food for poor South Africans directly to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana ahead of his Mid-term Budget statement next Wednesday.
On behalf of all those who are struggling to put food on the table due to the cost of food crisis, we protested at the Finance Ministry to deliver our memorandum, demanding the following interventions that would bring much-needed relief from hunger:
Drop VAT on more food items commonly purchased by the poorest 50% of households, such as bone-in chicken, beef, tinned beans, wheat flour, margarine, peanut butter, baby food, tea, coffee, soup powder. This will help poor households to stretch food budgets further and enable the purchase of more nutritious food.