Minister of Finance

Honorable Minister

A few points Minister of Finance should consider in his budget 2025 :

* The Minister of Finance must be an independent official and have no affiliations to any political party so that he/she can rule without fear or favour and not be bias towards any political party.

* The Speaker must be an retired judge and have no affiliations to any political party so that he/she can rule without fear or favour and not be bias towards any political party.

* Privatisation of Eskom, SANRAL, Transnet, PRASA/Metrorail, SAA, South African Post Office/Postbank, Denel and Telkom. Stop this foolish idea to implement the NHI, it will eventually just become a bottomless pit of wasted money.

* Close down the offices of the Deputy Ministers with their personal and deploy their VIP Protection Unit to polices stations.

* Reduce the 32 ministries to at least 20 ministries.

Reduce the salaries and other benefits of the Government with 50% for a period (2) years, because during Coved they shut this country down for more than two (2) years and in that period the people of this country suffered indescribable hardship, people commited suicide, lost their jobs, had to close their businesses and what happened to the Government? they kept their jobs with all their benefits, no impact on their quality of life - fricken disgrace.

Mr Minister of Finance, you want money for your budget, start with your Government, they are the reason why we are in this predicament, cut their salaries and use that money as a portion of the 5,5% increase your government agreed upon for the civil service.

Charity begins at home.

* The last count was that 55,000 civil servants receive salaries more than a million Rand per year, how can South Africa afford that outrageous amount in salaries, and sustain it?

* Reduce the VIP Protection Unit of Ministers - a driver and two (2) bodyguards per Minister that's it and the rest, deploy them to police stations.

* Reduce the amount of Generals and Brigadiers in SAPS and SANDF by 50% - wonder how much money that will save the taxpayers?

* Bring Federalisme to all nine (9) Provinces, let Provinces govern themselves - 80% of revenue generated by a province to be used to the betterment of their residence, and 20% paid over to the National Government, this will prevent the National Government to get their hands on unlimited funds.

* With the local elections on the horizon this is what I propose regarding seats in the local municipalities, a party needs to obtain at least 3% of the votes before such a party can have representation on the local councils, this 3% will prevent a repeat where a 0,000001% party appointed a Mayor to Johannesburg Metro because this 0,00001% party was the 'kingmaker'.

This proposal can also be implemented in the National and Provincial Governments.

* Can't agree more with Mr Mark Burke, DA finance spokesperson spelled out six priorities which would grow the economy and employment without raising taxes, growing debt or cutting frontline services. He said there should be no new taxes. He proposed cutting 50% of government advertising and 33% of government travel. He suggested fast-tracking logistics and trade reforms to boost revenue, and a comprehensive spending review to identify wasteful programmes, cut programmes that promote BEE.

* The tender process should be reconsidered and amended on all levels of Government, because of the present model millions of Rands is waisted and stolen from taxpayers and this needs to stop.

* Why is it expected of taxpayers to pay millions of Rands to support the lifestyle of traditional leaders - I would like to know what is the total amount that is spent on traditional leaders and their lavish lifestyle per year?

* The existence of Unions should be reconsidered. Unions is one of the reasons why South Africa are not moving forward because of their outrageous demands, they bring nothing positive to the table, the only people that gain because of the Unions, are the executives of the said Unions.

* Close South African embassies in miniscule countries. In total, there are 103 South African embassies abroad. Furthermore, South Africa also maintains high commissions, consulates, and three other representations abroad. Are all these embassies necessary?

* Tax the taxi industry :

The SA Taxi industry has revenues of over R100Bn. They paid R5m in taxes in 2024🤣

SARS also doesn't collect VAT on the taxi fares. Finally, taxi drivers are informally employed and do not pay PAYE as they should.

The lost SARS revenues from the taxi industry are :
Corporate Income Tax (CIT) : R3.645 billion
VAT on fares : R6.75 billion
Driver PAYE: R1.9125 billion

Total: R12.3075 billion annually

This is an estimate based on the lower estimate of R100m in revenues. Higher revenue estimates that have been touted (e.g., R180 billion) or broader inclusion of fuel levies and road accident fund contributions (already partially paid