DA rejects ANC's regressive proposal to tax South Africans an extra R3000 a month

19 August 2021

The Democratic Alliance rejects the Department of Social Development's new absurd proposal to tax South Africans anywhere between 8-12% extra, amounting to nearly R3 000 a month for those earning R275 000 a year. 

The proposal should be withdrawn and binned. 

The proposal shows a lack of basic understanding of how the tax system works, and is bizarrely regressive in that it is aimed at low earners rather than high earners. The proposal is essentially to tax low-income workers and the struggling middle class much more.

South Africans are already facing extraordinary financial pressure in a shrinking economy, as millions have lost jobs or had their businesses shut or looted. The tax base is shrinking.

No nation can be taxed into prosperity. Only economic growth that delivers more work for more people, and which grows the tax base, can fund a larger social safety net.

One must ask how such a proposal even comes to be released for public comment, and why Cabinet and the President did not stop it before release. This points to a breakdown in leadership at the centre of government.

Issued by Geordin Hill-Lewis, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, 19 August 2021