Bitter battle threat over sugar tax
TRADE union the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) has warned that their campaign against the proposed sugar tax will not be so sweet if the proposed tax is retained.
The union’s top leadership‚ including president Artwell Mazo and general secretary Ntatishi Masemula‚ yesterday led a handful of members on a march to the Treasury head office in the Pretoria CBD to voice their displeasure with the proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
Mazo said this was just a warning shot as more was still to come if their demand was not met‚ saying the march was just the beginning of the rolling protests that would be held across the country ahead of next year’s budget speech.
“This is a buildup to our biggest marches that will be held in Durban‚ Cape Town and Pretoria prior to the finance minister’s [Pravin Gordhan] budget speech‚” he said.
In a memorandum handed to a deputy director in the Treasury‚ Lwazi Giba‚ Fawu demanded that Treasury and the Health Department convene a stakeholder summit on sugar, fat‚ health and jobs to look at causes of obesity and non-communicable diseases‚ necessary health policies and future of jobs before unilaterally implementing sugar tax.
The union hoped for the summit to be held as early as February.
Giba said all he could do was to ensure that the memorandum received the attention it deserved.
The union stated in the memorandum that the march was necessitated by the admission from Treasury researchers that up to 6 000 jobs in the sugar industry food chain were on the line if the tax was introduced.
General secretary Katishi Masemola said it was disingenuous to claim these jobs would be created elsewhere. “This was argued by the government before‚ when the Tobacco Laws Amendment Bill‚ later an Act‚ with its accompanying regulations‚ was introduced.
“We were told of the similar arguments that as people stop or reduce smoking‚ and jobs being lost‚ they will drink more soft drinks and eat more chocolates which will result in jobs created from increased corruption‚ something that has not been scientifically proven to date‚” he said.
Masemola said there was also no guarantee that people would cut down on sugary beverages with the introduction of the tax.
He said poor people relied on fatty chicken skins‚ and the meat cuts that rich people avoided for health reasons‚ for survival.
“Millions of people buy chicken skins because they have no choice. Will the government introduce a fat tax to discourage the poor from turning to the chicken skins?
“We support a healthy nation but not job losses. Educate the nation on health – do not tax jobs away.”
He said they were disappointed with the low turnout for the march but blamed this on “bosses who refused to release workers to protect their jobs”.
The union gave Treasury until December 7 to respond. — TMG Digital