WHY SILENCE ON TAX FRAUD, MBOWENI?
THE FEDERATION of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) agrees that while the economy is at a crossroads because of state capture and corruption, it is unfair to blame workers for the burden of the public sector wage bill.
The wage bill constitutes
35% of government expenditure as announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in his maiden Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in Parliament on Wednesday.
While the three-year public sector wage agreement concluded with unions earlier this year will breach budgeted estimates by more than R30.2 billion through 2020/21, Fedusa notes Mboweni’s announcement that national and provincial departments should absorb these costs within their R1.8 trillion compensation baselines over the period.
The minister went to great lengths to complain about the public sector wage bill but said nothing about combating tax fraud perpetrated by big business and illicit financial flows that have seen billions of rand leaving our country annually.
Fedusa challenges Mboweni and President Cyril Ramaphosa to implement immediate measures to stop illicit financial flows that rob the government of billions of rand in tax revenue every year.
The debt-service costs increased to about 15% of the main budget revenue in 2021/22, which amounts to R215bn according to the MTBPS, while the deficit will widen to 4.3% of GDP. Gross loan debt is expected to increase from R2.8 trillion or 55.8% of the gross domestic product in 2018/19 to R3.7 trillion or 58.5% of GDP in 2021/22, mainly to finance the budget deficit. The debt will be financed by raising funds in the domestic and international capital markets. Domestic debt issuances will remain the major source of financing.
Fedusa welcomes the spending priorities of education through improving the quality of education, building scarce skills and transforming society through inclusive economic growth and employment creation which are key objectives of the National Development Plan.
Fedusa is pleased that 2 200 critical medical posts will be created in provinces and medical student internships will expanded in order to grow the sector.
The success of the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme which saw the sector exports grow from R7.1bn in 2008 to R25.1bn last year, which led to the opening In the opening of 22 new leather factories and the creation of 2 200 jobs is also good news.
Despite there being many young boys and girls infiltrating the so called “equal rights” world we live in, we are still force fed from a young age to believe that what we have to say holds less value than the words of someone over the age of 20 or someone married with kids or an elderly person.
If I cannot even put a finger on the point at which my opinion counts, why is it even a thing?
In conclusion I would like to ask all citizens of Cape Town reading this letter to not disregard what their younger siblings, nieces, nephews, children or anyone for that matter has to say, because at the end of the day no matter who they are, everyone has been given a voice so why not let them use it?
Yours faithfully