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LETTER TO MINISTER SIKHANYISO

08/12/2018 22:57:00 BY MANCOBA MABUZA

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Your Royal Highness, Let me start by declaring my love for the kind of person you are.
You strike me as a free-spirited personality and someone who is not afraid to speak her mind at any given point in time. I also envy your energy levels; you appear to be a very energetic and passionate citizen with much love for the country.

While I have given up on certain people in the corridors of power, but trust me, I still hold you in high esteem and I just like the way you do things. You come across as being raw and you give us an unmanufactured personality. With you, what you see is what you get.

Thank you for being the person that you are. I do not have an intention to flatter you when I say, politics aside, you are an interesting character and I am following your Cabinet adventure with keen interest.
Now, early in the week you were quoted by the media as having called upon the country to stop taxing emaswati to make money and speaking strong against what was referred to as ‘harsh laws’ Obviously, in a world characterized by diversity you are bound to have different opinions and many perspectives on what you said.

what you said ...

In all honesty, there is nothing wrong with what you said; you have every right both as a citizen and more so as a politician. Your job is to direct government policy and make decisions about national issues.
There is nothing wrong with raising current national problems and how you think these can be solved. It is your job as a minister and one can only hope that you also raised it in an official meeting and that it is part of Cabinet minutes. Also, as a politician and the dynamic princess that you are, you might have said it to win the hearts and souls of Emaswati who will love what you said, given their vulnerable and poor economic status.

People are poor; some can afford but are unhappy about the way they are being taxed, but for your own information and that is where you miss the point, your Royal Highness, a majority of us are unhappy with the manner in which public funds are misused and squandered in this country.
More than our concern for being taxed heavily is our hatred for public officials who steal from public coffers, go to ridiculous shopping sprees in Dubai and elsewhere, without any drop of embarrassment; come back to flaunt those extravagances right before us and drive expensive cars with the money they take from the public.

Your royal highness, more than our problem of being taxed to the grave is our anger against a government that does not train enough doctors and nurses, pay them well and improve their conditions; we are angry with a government that does not use the tax to buy medication for public health facilities and instead use the money for unnecessary ceremonies that are very expensive.

While it is true that the SRA is being viewed as a monster in some circles, but we are a conscious and educated generation that appreciates the importance of tax; we do not have a problem with being taxed in so far as the money will go towards the right things: free, quality and relevant education, health care, youth empowerment projects, investing in industrialisation of the country and other important things. Your royal highness, would you please make sure that everyone accounts for what they have and/or earn; please let us appreciate your genuineness through calling upon those who have money through fraudulent means to stop it, or even go to jail. Please help us appreciate that you are frank.

we are angry ...

Get me right, what you said is correct and the only problem might be that it was raised by someone we view with suspicion; we are angry your royal highness; very angry – we are starving; we do not have clean water; we cannot afford electricity; we are sick and lying on hospital beds without hope because the government of which you are part does not care of us; we are without tertiary education because your government does not take us to school to get education; your government does not give us opportunities as young people; we are angry because your government is not giving us cost-of-living-adjustment and even salaries as civil servants; we work under harsh and unfavourable conditions; we are not happy because we see our money being wasted on a daily basis by corrupt politicians who cannot be arrested because of their biological or proximity advantages. That is why we do not appreciate your statement.

We know that even if we can be taxed 1.0 per cent or less our, situation will not improve as long as the structural issues that are responsible our suffering are still not addressed.

Honourable minister, we refuse to celebrate your statement because we are a knowledgeable generation. We know that tax is not a problem but greedy politicians that are part of the obtaining snuggery. We have seen countries with high income tax rates doing well. Go to Norway they will tell you that the high tax rates are not a problem because almost everything is free.

The standard of living in Norway is among the highest in the world and they are one of the world’s most well-functioning and stable countries. Despite the high tax they can go to a health facility and get free and quality service, they are not worried about who will pay the education of their children until tertiary level. They decided to share the economy and their natural resources are shared among the people of Norway.

NO problem with being taxed

Go to Denmark and they will tell you that they have the highest ratio of tertiary degree holders in the world and that is why they do not have a problem with being taxed because they see where the money is going. Their country ranks highest in the world for workers’ rights and therefore the workers are relatively happy about their working conditions.

The people of Denmark will tell you that they do not have a problem with the tax rate because their health care system is one of the best as well; that they have a life expectancy of over 80 and that their health care is being publicly financed through taxes. All university and college education is free of charges; there are no tuition fees to enrol in courses. Students aged 18 or above may apply for state educational support grants, which provides fixed financial support, disbursed monthly. Why then would they complain about taxes?

Here at home, we look at your statement as being political rhetoric and populist propaganda aimed at winning the hearts of the masses and making them feel good only for a minute and temporarily forget about their suffering. We see your statement as being hypocritical, knowing your privileged background. We are not saying your statement is wrong; but we view it differently because of our situation in comparison to ours. And yes, we are aggrieved, we are very unhappy; we are angry!