South Africans should draw lessons from VAT saga, says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africans should draw lessons from the recent value-added tax (VAT) saga. Ramaphosa’s comments come from growing calls from organisations like the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) that Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, should resign from cabinet.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the Workers Day rally in Middleburg, Mpumalanga, on Thursday. The Workers Day rally, which was led by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), was also addressed by its President, who highlighted the federation’s disapproval of austerity measures.

The President says developed and established democracies also have disagreements on the VAT. He says lessons can be drawn from what transpired regarding the VAT saga.

“We’ve drawn a lot of lessons from all this. And because we are drawing a lot of lessons from all this, this is something that we have to take on board, and it doesn’t lead to a Minister of Finance resigning or stepping down – no. It should be on all of us to say what lessons we are learning from this and what is that we can do that we can strengthen and learn from from the budgetary process.”

May the 1st is set aside to commemorate the day of workers, their plight and challenges. Ramaphosa has called on the biggest labour federation to never tire of fighting for workers. He has also weighed in on the action taken by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to take government to court about the Employment Equity Act.

“And I would say to them they must go and read our constitution very carefully because what we are seeking to do is to transform our country so as to ensure that what apartheid bequeathed us is something that’s be corrected. So the Employment Equity Act is aimed at doing that.”

The South African Communist Party (SAPC) also delivered its message of support to Cosatu. Secretary General Solly Mapaila also weighed in on the VAT saga.

“We must condemn this in the strongest terms. Now for instance, we have to listen to reactionary forces that want to create an impression that they are against the VAT. What we are calling on Treausury is to increase capital income tax.”

While Cosatu has welcomed the VAT reversal, its President Zingiswa Losi has spoken out strongly on government’s austerity measures. She says this will have an impact on public servants.

“Austerity reduces the number of police officers per community. We can no longer afford it. You cannot, therefore, President balance the budget by balancing it at the back of workers. We are therefore saying here today, cut corruption, not clinics. Tax the rich, not the poor.”

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa has extended his condolences to the families of the police officers whose bodies were found in a river in Centurion, Gauteng, after they went missing from Bloemfontein to their deployment in Limpopo.

Ramaphosa says he is confident that SAPS will get to the bottom of what really happened.