Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has recently underlined South Africa's difficult budgetary options, including the difficult decision to raise the Value Added Tax (VAT) or lower the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants.

"If you allowed me to cut the SRD, I wouldn't increase anything. I’m faced with increased expenditures which are not in the budget," he was reported as saying.

This statement from the minister has received backlash, with Godongwana accused of throwing the poorest people in the country under the bus. Activist Darren Campher said the ultimatum is a prime example of how the government detests the country's most poor people.

"Tell me how, in the most unequal country on the planet, they said 'we're short of some money in the Budget, where are we going to get it from?' The poor! We're going to get it from the people who have the least money," Campher said.

He went on to say that the government bypassed a wealth, corporate, or luxury tax and went to targeting the nation's most impoverished.

"They went straight to you, commoners. Cough up! They said you're already destitute, what is it going to matter to you? Life is already sh*t, it's just going to go further down ... When do we get to tap out of this abusive relationship as a country? We are the winners of the inequality prize," he added.

Campher said the move is audacious and unrepentant in its anti-poor stance.

Political parties have also denounced Godongwana's plans for the Budget. The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) in Gauteng will be marching to the National Treasury’s offices to protest over the proposed VAT increase.

The march seeks to highlight harmful effects of VAT increase on low-income households and small businesses.

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'They are targeting the poor!' Darren Campher on Enoch Godongwana’s VAT or SRD ultimatum | Budget 2025