“Until what point will South African taxpayers be driven before they draw a definitive line and decide that enough is enough?” asks TAU SA President, Mr. Louis Meintjes.
Mr. Meintjes has responded to growing speculation that interest rates will soon increase, that Eskom can announce a drastic increase in its rates early in the New Year, but most importantly that there is growing rumours doing the rounds that taxes would be raised.
“Adv Richard Sizani, acting chairman of the Public Service Commission, revealed that government departments are on the brink of collapse. Municipalities cannot provide services because the money simply disappears. Individual electricity consumers, including farmers, have to a great extent, to subsidize those municipalities who are with millions of rand in arrears with their electricity bills. Local authorities get increasingly qualified audit reports and now it seems that the Office of the President also overspent millions of rands. That is over and above the Nkandla debacle,” said Mr Meintjes.
“How can the government even consider milking the taxpayers with higher taxes just so that even more can be wasted and exorbitant salaries paid to malfunctioning officials? South Africa’s taxation is uneven. A minority of the population have to keep an entire non-functional and often corrupt bureaucracy going. They simply cannot do that anymore and taxpayers are going to ask themselves whether they are willing and able to pay even more tax?
“It is outrageous that the Auditor-General releases the one damning report after another while no one is seemed to be criminally prosecuted or civil held liable. The taxpayer cannot take responsibility for this anymore. No tax increase should even be considered before government has set the example in effective management and sound usage of taxpayers’ money,” says Mr. Meintjes.
A proper and transparent investigation should be done on what are the real causes for the poor performance on all levels in the government. An honest conclusion would be that the price of “affirmative action” has become too expensive for South Africa…
South Africa Today – South Africa News
