Increased taxes for the rich will benefit the poor in South Africa, social development minister Bathabile Dlamini said on Thursday.
“We should have a society where those with resources are willing to give to those that have nothing and in the end we will all win,” she told a poverty conference in Johannesburg.
“This may require increased levels of taxation for the rich and it will require the captains of industry and investors to accept lower profits so that their workers may enjoy higher and dare I say it, decent work.”
She said this should be explored over the next few years to ensure a better country.
“The building blocks for such a social compact are found in the policies of the African National Congress.
“We believe in the development of a political and economic system that places the needs of the poor and social issues... at the top of the national agenda,” she said.
Academics heard that such a policy would ensure that “democratic dividends” benefited all.
“This might sound trite but if we do not consider whom our policies are geared to support in the main over the next 15 years, even the abilities of those of us who are able to buy services in the private realm will be compromised by an increasingly divided society impatient with this system we call democracy,” Dlamini said. - Sapa