South Africa is at a crossroads, writes Visvin Reddy
Image: Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA)
WHEN the ANC announced plans to increase Value-Added Tax (VAT) in 2025, it struck a dagger into the heart of every struggling South African. VAT - a tax that punished the poor for simply surviving - was once again being weaponized to protect the rich and punish the working class.
Today, the so-called "leaders" of South Africa’s political parties stand exposed, naked before the nation, stripped of their empty rhetoric and false promises. The VAT saga has laid bare their treachery, their hypocrisy, and their unforgivable betrayal of the very people they swore to serve.
Let's be clear: VAT is not just another tax. It is a tax on survival. When government raises VAT, it increases the price of bread, milk, school shoes, and bus fare -essentials that millions of South Africans already struggle to afford. VAT doesn't ask if you are rich or poor. It strikes hardest at the empty pockets of the working class, pensioners, and the unemployed.
In a country where over 18 million people depend on social grants, unemployment has soared to over 32% and more than 55% of citizens live below the poverty line, a VAT increase is economic violence.
And yet, knowing all this, the ANC still proposed a VAT increase of up to 3% in internal discussions - a brutal attack on the most vulnerable. Only a massive public outcry forced them to reduce the immediate increase to 0.5%.
Had the ANC still held its old majority, the VAT increase would have sailed through Parliament unchallenged. It was the entry of the MK Party into Parliament that weakened the ANC's iron grip. But even then, the betrayal was only beginning.
When the Fiscal Framework - the blueprint for government spending, including the VAT increase - came before Parliament, the ANC desperately needed allies.
They found them among parties that had loudly campaigned against the ANC, sworn never to work with the ANC, and claimed to stand for the people.
Yet when the moment of truth arrived, ActionSA, BOSA (Build One South Africa), Rise Mzansi, Gayton Mackenzie's Patriotic Alliance, and others stood not with the people - but with the ANC.
In a narrow vote, the Fiscal Framework was adopted, giving life to the VAT increase.
These so-called opposition parties handed the ANC a knife and pointed it at the neck of the poor. ActionSA, a party that had thundered against ANC corruption and mismanagement, voted for the ANC's Fiscal Framework.
BOSA, led by the so-called "new hope" Mmusi Maimane, voted with the ANC.
Rise Mzansi, the party that brands itself as the future, voted for a future with higher VAT and deeper poverty. Gayton Mackenzie, who styles himself as a man of the people, handed the ANC the majority it needed.
When caught, these parties scrambled to spin a narrative so ridiculous it insults the intelligence of every South African. They claimed: "We voted for the Fiscal Framework, but it had nothing to do with VAT." Lies.
Blatant, shameless lies. The Fiscal Framework explicitly includes the assumptions and parameters for government revenue — including the VAT increase. It is the foundational document that dictates taxes, spending, and borrowing. Without the Fiscal Framework being adopted, the VAT increase had no legislative path forward.
On Monday, the Western Cape High Court confirmed what any honest politician already knew: The Fiscal Framework contained the VAT increase.
The court set aside the adoption of the Framework and suspended the VAT hike, exposing the lies told to the people. The spin has failed. The betrayal stands naked before us.
South Africans must remember this treachery. Remember that these parties made public pledges - and broke them when it mattered most.
Remember that in the corridors of Parliament, when faced with a choice between standing with the people or kneeling before the ANC, they chose to kneel.
They are not opposition parties. They are political charlatans.
They are the ANC’s convenient enablers, eager for scraps from the table of power.
The tragedy of South Africa is not just a corrupt ruling party. It is an entire political class - old and new - that talks revolution during elections but practices betrayal in Parliament.
This is not a once-off event. It is a symptom of a deeper sickness: A political elite more interested in self-preservation than public service. A culture of spin doctors, legal loopholes, and manufactured consent. An economy managed for the rich, subsidized by the poor.
And VAT is just the beginning.
Behind every act of betrayal today lurks the threat of more: More taxes on the working class. More protection for monopolies and billionaires. More lies dressed up as governance.
In this sea of betrayal, the MK Party has stood firm.
From the outset, MK MPs opposed the Fiscal Framework, exposed the hidden VAT increase, and demanded that the burden of fixing the economy be placed where it belongs: on the backs of the wealthy, not the poor.
Tax the billionaires, tax the monopolies, nationalize key industries and use the wealth of the country for its people, not for its elite. That is the road to freedom.
Not endless VAT hikes. Not squeezing pensioners and single mothers to please global markets and local oligarchs.
South Africa is at a crossroads. The mask has slipped. The lies have been exposed.
In the next election - and every election to come - South Africans must remember who voted for higher VAT. They must remember who lied to them.
And they must punish every political party and every political opportunist who chose betrayal over bravery. Never again must we allow political charlatans to dictate the destiny of our children. The VAT saga is a warning. Let us heed it.
Visvin Reddy
Image: Tumi Pakkies/ Independent Newspapers
Visvin Reddy is a MK Party MP
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.