MK Party planning national shutdown to protest VAT increase

JOHANNESBURG - The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party is planning a national shutdown to protest the increase in value-added tax (VAT).

Earlier this week, Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana announced that Treasury would be increasing VAT by one percentage point over the next two financial years.

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The MK Party, which is the country’s official opposition, is calling for mass action against the hike.

Prior to the budget speech, the MK Party held a march to the National Treasury offices, promising to make the country ungovernable if VAT was raised.

"We will ensure that we go to the picket lines. We will ensure that we bring the country to a standstill. We will ensure there are mass protests across the country to reject this VAT [increase] because when we talk to them there in Parliament, they think we are playing games," MK parliamentary chief whip, Mzwanele Manyi, said on Monday.

In a statement released on Friday, the MK Party said it was consulting its partners in the Progressive Caucus to join it on its mass action.

These are the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), African Transformation Movement (ATM), and the United Africans Transformation (UAT).

The MK Party has also called on civil society, religious leaders, and the public to join it in rejecting the VAT increase.

A date for the national shutdown is still to be announced.