Maimane warns more taxes inevitable if govt fails to attract significant investment

CAPE TOWN - Chairperson of Parliament's appropriations committee, Mmusi Maimane, said that Wednesday’s tabling of another national budget could not be viewed in isolation from President Cyril Ramaphosa's meeting just hours later with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in the Oval Office.

The Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader said that unless government attracted significant foreign direct investment and grew the economy, the contestation over raising taxes to fund expenditure and service debt would not dwindle. 

Ramaphosa's visit to the US on the back of months of disinformation about the country has grabbed world attention, as he appealed to Trump not to sever trade ties with South Africa after the US pulled critical health aid over false beliefs of a genocide against white farmers. 

Maimane said that Wednesday was a significant day for the country.

Domestically, the finance minister took a third stab at presenting a national budget, while across the world, the president was taking steps to ensure the economy does not bear the brunt of a trade war with the US.

"If South Africa isn’t growing, the facts are real. There are limited opportunities to create jobs. The ultimate issue is then that the conversation about the budget, becomes this second issue, which is that it becomes about taxation."

Instead of reducing the budget to a debate over taxes, Maimane said that much broader discussions needed to be had about growing the economy, which made Wednesday’s meeting with the US president significant. 

"If there was one mission about yesterday, it was how well do we attract investment to South Africa." 

Maimane said that if government failed on this score, the finance minister’s threat of further taxes in the next year would inevitably come to pass.