Paying for what you’ve paid for

WHAT exactly are South Africans paying taxes for? The five foundations of any functioning country — education, health, security, transport and energy — are crumbling. Taxpayers’ money has not gone to improving and increasing these services in step with an increasing population and tax revenues — quite the contrary.

South Africans find themselves having to pay for unaffordable, belowstandard education; unaffordable, below-standard healthcare; unaffordable private security; unaffordable private transport and toll fees for freeways they paid to build in the first place; unaffordable electricity bills and, if the trend continues, charges to private corporations which will own our dams, which taxpayers paid for.

Taxpayers, like investors on the stock market, expect to see a return on their investment in their own country.

— Gail Evans, Mtunzini