Alex wages a bitter sweet war

Alexandrians are waging a bitter war over the proposed ‘sugar tax’ in a last-minute attempt to force the government to ditch the idea.

This follows a proposal in the budget speech to introduce a sugar tax along the lines of the so-called sin tax on beer, wine and spirits in an attempt to reduce the consumption of alcohol and, thereby, control the related adverse effects on society such as increased crime.

Simon Mabiletsa, president of Tshebedisano Support Network, a network of small businesses which have congregated to support each other in times of need, said they suspected that the government wanted to use the sugar tax to finance tertiary students in the wake of the #FeesMustFall campaign.

“As we suspected, they wanted to use the sugar tax to fund tertiary education, we then asked for a one-on-one meeting with the president of the country but we were rejected and referred to the Department of Basic Education.

“We wanted to suggest to them to access other funds as suggested by former President Thabo Mbeki, and those other funds include cutting their own pay packets and using that money to finance the students’ tertiary education,” Mabiletsa said.

He called on the government to take action on the multi-billion drug business and close it down and use that money to finance the students and let legal businesses flourish. “We have foreigners in our midst whose businesses are mushrooming and, unlike ourselves, they don’t pay any tax at all yet they are allowed to flourish but we, as South Africans, are closed down.

“More than 70 000 jobs are at stake here if the government decides to go ahead with its sugar tax and that’s excluding the chain effect downwards, as most of those workers are breadwinners and feed and care for an average of six members of the family.

“It was high time this government dropped its arrogance act and listened to the people on the ground and, at the same time, conducted transparent and meaningful consultations with the people instead of window-dressing in order to justify a programme they would like to implement.

“We want the consultation to be thorough and meaningful. They must thoroughly exhaust those instead of rushing to implement unworkable policies. This very policy was a disaster in Mexico and other countries, but we still want to fly with it here. What for?”

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