'THEY HATE THE POOR'

Pic: Darren Campher

POPULAR content creator and political activist Darren Campher has slammed Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget agenda as “anti-poor” ahead of today's expected budget speech. 

Godongwana at the weekend underlined South Africa's difficult budgetary options, including the difficult decision to raise the Value Added Tax (VAT) or slash the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants.

He reportedly told the Sunday Times: “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.”

Godongwana has now been accused of throwing the poorest people in the country under the bus. 

Activist Darren Campher, who in November last year announced that he was joining the MK Party, said the ultimatum is a prime example of how the government detests the country's most poor people.

In a video on his social media accounts, he says: “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.”

The MK Party in Gauteng will be marching to the National Treasury’s offices to protest over the proposed VAT increase.