South Africa’s finance minister dropped plans on Thursday to increase value-added tax (VAT), in a major climbdown to prevent the collapse of the coalition government.
Enoch Godongwana’s decision came after the second-biggest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), threatened to quit the government, warning a VAT hike would hurt the poor the most.
Godongwana, a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC), had argued the increase was needed as the government was facing a financial crisis.
The climbdown is likely to be a relief for many South Africans, who are already struggling financially because of the high cost of living and an unemployment rate of 32 per cent.
The ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since white-minority rule ended in 1994 in last year’s elections, forcing it to share power.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the second-biggest opposition party in the country’s parliament, said South Africa had witnessed a budget fiasco, and the incompetent Godongwana should resign.
The ANC denied it had bowed to pressure by scrapping the increase.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said: ‘The decision had been taken after a shared commitment across party lines that the working class, the poor, and all other people cannot be further burdened in this economic climate.’
Pretoria, one of South Africa’s largest cities, turned into a sea of red, black and green on Wednesday as thousands of South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) members marched against austerity measures and ANC government budget cuts in public education.
The crowd, ushered by heavy police presence, sang struggle songs and waved placards as they marched to the offices of National Treasury and the departments of Basic and Higher Education. Some members of COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP) also joined the protest.
The teacher’s union highlighted concerns over the government’s recent budget cuts and its negative impact on education and teacher morale.
This included poor infrastructure at schools like toilets, dilapidated classrooms and not having a library, increased workloads, overcrowded classrooms, and growing threats of violence on school premises.
Last year, Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, admitted that provincial education departments were under huge financial pressures.
She said these have been years in the making due to aggressive budget cuts, poor spending and a stagnant economy.
- The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) marked its 8th anniversary on Tuesday.
In a statement, it said: ‘SAFTU has been since its historic formation on 22nd April 2017 – a milestone in the ongoing struggle to build a militant, independent, and worker-controlled trade union movement.
‘SAFTU was born to challenge exploitation, neoliberal austerity, precarious work, and the betrayal of working-class interests by compromised leaderships.
‘It emerged with a clear mandate: to represent the most marginalised, to organise the unorganised, and to place the working class at the centre of political and economic transformation.
‘Since 2017, SAFTU has led the fight for decent work, living wages, and quality public services. We have been a consistent voice against:
- Austerity budgets that cut public services and freeze wages,
- The privatisation of state-owned enterprises,
- Labour brokering and the casualisation of labour,
- A National Minimum Wage that entrenches poverty,
- And the deregulation of labour protections that erode the right to strike and weaken collective bargaining.
‘In April 2018, SAFTU mobilised hundreds of thousands of workers in a historic general strike to oppose both the introduction of a poverty-level National Minimum Wage and the amendments to labour laws that sought to undermine hard-won workers rights – particularly the right to strike.
‘It was a powerful rejection of anti-worker policies and marked SAFTU’s explosive arrival as a militant force.
‘SAFTU continues to call for:
- A living wage for all workers;
- Universal access to healthcare, education, and social protection;
- A progressive tax system to redistribute wealth;
- Democratic public ownership in key sectors;
- And an end to inequality, exploitation, and neoliberalism.
‘We call on all workers, communities, and progressive formations to join the May Day marches, rallies, and mass demonstrations taking place across all provinces – and to remain mobilised for continued actions beyond May Day.
‘These are not isolated issues.
‘They represent an all-out assault on the working class — and we must meet them with unity, resistance, and struggle.
‘We call on all workers, communities, and progressive formations to join the May Day marches, rallies, and mass demonstrations taking place across all provinces – and to remain mobilised for continued actions beyond May Day.
‘These are not isolated issues.
‘They represent an all-out assault on the working class – and we must meet them with unity, resistance, and struggle.’
- The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in Limpopo led a mass picket at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) provincial offices yesterday against unfair labour practices at the broadcaster.
The picket was the start of a nationwide programme of action by the Federation across all provinces to all SABC office around the country.
The ANC Youth League and other progressive civil society organisations will join the picket.
- The Progressive Domestic Workers Union of South Africa (Prodwusa) wants the treasury to develop a pension fund for domestic workers so they can retire with a measure of financial security.
The union is still drafting the proposal, and will hand it over to the department of employment and labour during a demonstration next month on the plight of domestic workers.
PRODWUSA stated: ‘This pension fund will correct that injustice and bring long-overdue recognition to the domestic labour sector.’
About 850,000 people, most of them women, are employed as domestic workers in South Africa, contributing 5.2 per cent to total employment, according to a Statistics South Africa report.