Minister of finance Enoch Godongwana. Picture: Timothy Bernard/African News Agency (ANA)
Pretoria - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has been reminded to think about the people who make up most of the country’s population when he presents his Budget today.
The minister is faced with the huge task of convincing South Africans that service delivery will receive a major boost when he presents his Budget, but doubts have been raised about this afternoon’s much-anticipated speech.
Independent political analyst Gakwi Mashego said while it was expected for a national budget to address business owners and the working class, it would be a terrible idea to forget those who pose a threat of revolution to the country.
“The townships are littered with unemployed young people who have no say in the national Budget, because everyone else believes they have nothing to offer, yet they live in households that are expected to pay for services.
“Our unemployment rate, especially among the youth of South Africa, is a time-bomb that needs to be urgently defused if we are to ensure that our problems are significantly reduced,” said Mashego.
He said unemployment and lack of business opportunities continued to water the seeds of desperation in vulnerable young people who are pliable to being influenced due to their socio-economic status.
“The challenge facing the national Budget is the issue of revenue collection. The government has an indigent policy that says people who can pay, live in towns and townships, and those who are too poor to pay are found in villages. I have no idea where they get this from because most people in townships don’t even own their land as opposed to those in rural villages.
“When you visit a kasi citizen living in a beautiful house you will find them drowning in bills. When you open their fridge there is only an onion inside. Those that are regarded as poor villagers actually have livestock and vegetables, meaning they are better off than those people being heavily taxed in the townships. Township people end up bridging electricity and causing Eskom more debts,” he said.
Mashego said township businesses were suffering due to power blackouts, and consequently end up with nothing to contribute to the South African Revenue Service (Sars)
“Sars has to figure out new ways of collecting revenue … The economy has gone digital and a section of society is podcasting and blogging. Ask them if they pay any revenue and you’ll find that they don’t. Why are content creators being exempted from tax when they are earning a serious income? The country needs a tax regime that speaks to the current situation and not the past,” he said.
Mashego said there are mine dumps that attract zama-zamas who mine them illegally, sending untaxed millions outside the borders of the country while exhausting police resources.
“To mitigate the unemployment situation, the government should urgently consider legalising small-scale mining and giving these people licences so that they pay taxes. For example, where is the beneficiation of marijuana?
“They should fund the training, business skills, and marketing within these unlocked industries. In this way we can have a bigger bowl for tax collection. We should stop relying on industries that are collapsing,” he said.
African Transformation Movement (ATM) spokesperson Zama Ntshona said township businesses remained an ignored sector while Godongwana kept making empty promises about job creation.
“Last year, the minister spoke about R18.4 billion that he said was made available for the Presidential Employment Initiative. We are expecting him to give a progress report on that, including the number of jobs created and how much of that money is still remaining,” Ntshona said.
“Black business is on its own. The symbiotic relationship of this government with big business undermines the development of new entrepreneurs. The ATM wants to hear about (a) wealth tax and bold steps to fund small black businesses.”
Pretoria News