How the hell can we believe you?

Has the ANC hoodwinked us all by kicking the can of increased taxes down the road? Will we suddenly find the honeymoon of the comparatively soft budget this week will be over and we will be gouged yet again?

That’s the fear of many people, almost disbelieving that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was restrained in his measures to raise revenue.

Although he did, predictably, increase “sin taxes” on alcohol and tobacco products, he left the fuel levy unchanged.

And while there was no individual surcharge or increased personal income tax to fund the National Health Insurance (NHI) – as many feared – a standstill position on income tax brackets and medical aid credits effectively means many middle-class families will be thousands of rand worse off this coming year.

If the NHI will cost at least R200 billion a year to implement – and there is no provision for that in this budget – it is still going to take time to complete the preparations necessary for its implementation… or it might be dropped on us without notice as a social and financial bombshell.

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Despite the fears of many that the latter may happen, it seems unlikely, given the ANC’s track record of not wanting to upset “the markets” because this could accelerate the already precipitous fall of our currency.

Yet money will have to be found for NHI and the government’s enormous social safety net, which means that almost half of all South Africans receive some form of permanent or temporary government grant.

Still more money will have to be found for programmes to stimulate the growth of jobs, because unemployment is at its highest and a ticking time bomb.

All the while our economic growth prospects are dismal.

If we could afford a belt, we would have to tighten it.

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