[WATCH] 🎥
RISE Mzansi has urged government to consider a special dispensation for the safety and security budget.
National Leader, Songezo Zibi , stated that the reality in South Africa is that violent crime is choking the economy, communities, and small businesses, and without a forceful response, we will continue lamenting the poor state of the economy.
He made these remarks in his speech in support of the Rates and Tax Bills in the National Assembly this afternoon.
#RISEInParliament#ForThePeopleByThePeople
Firstly, we support the adoption of these reports and bills. We also support the philosophy of Taken as a Country in respect of our national taxation policy, which is to provide relief to those with the least income while asking those with more to contribute more to our collective well-being. We also welcome the allocation of more budget resources to the USA Revenue Services so that it can do an even better job of going after the high net worth tax dodgers who refuse to pay their fair share. But I also want to ask a Minister Coldron to consider the possibility of perverse incentives from ever growing excise taxes. Because criminals consider the amount of money they will make by undercutting. The publicly approved prices of alcohol, of tobacco versus the chances of being caught by the authorities, and I think that has the possibility of accelerating illicit trade instead of cutting it. But I understand, Minister, that there is a balance to these things. We must. Please look at where the point of balance is. But also, as you said from Minister yesterday, that our biggest and most pressing task is to grow the economy and create opportunities for South Africans to work and to build businesses and sustain the needs of a growing population whose young people are unemployed and enter the tax system in ever decreasing numbers. This is not sustainable. The rate at which we grow our tax base must always exceed the rate at which our population is growing. Then we will know we are on the right track to a sustainable future physically. This is also help us to reduce the number of people who are reliant on state transfers for survival. There are some things we must do to help to kick start the economy. The 1st is we know is accelerating investment in public infrastructure, especially in transport, logistics, water and renewable energy. Although escorts performance is improving, we need serious investment in modern generation capacity and transmission infrastructure. Our goal, Minister Ramon Kappa and say once again, is to have the most competitive electricity prices among our emerging market peers. We also need to recognize the toll crime and poor service delivery take on small businesses that have to pay for security services due to general crime and then pay extra illicit taxes to criminal gangs that extort money from them. Again, Minister, I know what your favorite answer is, is where must I get the money, take it from education and give it to you. But I want to ask you to consider a special dispensation for the safety and security budget. Violent crime is choking our economy, is choking communities and small businesses, and if we are not able to respond with force, we are going to continue to lament a poor state of the economy. I thank you.
