pravin gordhan 2012 budget cartoon

pravin gordhan 2012 budget

Pravin Gordhan – 2012 Budget Cartoon

South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has a tough job. It is certainly much tougher than that of his predecessor, Trevor Manuel, who happily rode the coat-tails of a boom-time economy. Mr Gordhan finds himself at the helm with an increasingly turbulent global economy, rising unemployment, a shrinking tax base and a huge demand for money for public spend.

As far as the South African budget goes, the 2012 one appears to address all the things that rating agencies typically like to see. It is balanced and pragmatic, particularly given the economic challenges that South Africa is currently facing. No doubt the rich and the super-rich will be unhappy with their ever-increasing tax burden. In fact, Wonkie’s sources revealed that Sandton housewives gathered secretly after shopping last week and mumbled their disgruntlement about the increased dividend tax rates for hours. This was followed by numerous positive affirmations about how the country is going down the toilet.

Kugels aside, Mr Gordhan has limited options to raise funds for the ambitious public sector projects proposed by Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation address earlier this month. Who else but the few that are already earning can help him with that? Perhaps greater effort to tax the likes of the taxi industry and other high-value informal industries more effectively would have been a welcome addition to help raise the state’s coffers.

The bigger challenge however, Wonkie believes, is not collecting the funds to implement to these wonderful infrastructure projects. It is what happens after these funds are collected. The reason why tax-paying South Africans are irritated with the level of taxation is because they do not get the value for their contributions. Between government squandering funds on their personal jollies, rampant corruption, and tenderpreneurs that don’t deliver, there is so much leakage that only a fraction of tax funds goes to where it is supposed to.

Perhaps it is time for Mr Gordhan to apply his legendary skills in-house and clean up government’s act before raping the public any further with increased taxes, forced toll fees and the like. How would that be for a storyline for next year’s budget speech?

In the meantime, one can only hope that the rather arrogant insistence that the toll fees in Gauteng will go ahead will be met by crippling public protest. The public losing that battle is tantamount to allowing government free reign to be stupid with their spend.

Share YOUR COMMENT on Pravin Gordhan’s 2012 Budget speech in South Africa.
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If you are grateful that Mr Gordhan has not introduced the gambling sin tax in 2012, perhaps you should celebrate and play lottery online in India right now. If you’re after more real-time excitement, you can dabble on a selection of the best on the online casino South Africa list or Wonkie’s updated international online casinos directory. If you’re in India, be sure to flex your 2012 budget on the best India casinos where you can take a chance in rupees. If you’ve had enough talk about taxation and budgets, visit the latest recommended pages for other choices.

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Related Wonkie articles on South Africa’s Budget and Pravin Gordhan:

  1. Pravin Gordhan news
  2. Pravin Gordhan 2010 Budget

Share YOUR OPINION on Pravin Gordhan’s 2012 Budget for South Africa.



  1. COLLITJIES says:

    Yes remove all subsidies to the taxi industry and also apply a higher rate tax on millionaire taxi owners to subsidise the road accident fund as they are the major cause of all traffic accidents and deaths. This shoud give the cookie jar a massive injection of funds.

  2. It was a very budget indeed but we will see if the monies allocated to different departments will be utilised responsibly to change the lives of the poor and create an environment for the rich to create more job opportunities. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

  3. @Colletjies. I wonder if those millionaire taxi bosses do get taxed after all but I dubt it. Yes, they are the major cause of accidents on our roads and need to pay more towards roads accident fund.

  4. This was no Pravin Gordon 2012 Budget JOKE, it is ALL truthfull facts. Hopefully this column is posted on the ANC/Parlimentary/Zuma Hotline/and some public address system, THAT THE TRUTH BE HEARD!

  5. @Collitjies, you are so right!! i understand from the news that taxis are excluded from the toll fee in Gauteng! can you believe it? they are millionaires by and large and then get off from paying toll?? that’s not fair. but what is fair in this world?

  6. Taxis are a business like many others why do they get the breaks and not othet businesses in the transport Industry. Anyhow it is time to kill the taxi industry, we cannot carry on building an infrastructure for them to put more taxis on the road. Sooner rather than later there will be a million maybe two million on the roads which are not big enough and all will be subsidised by the commuter. Fatboy Malema has it wrong it is not the mining industry that needs to be nationalised it is the taxi industry, We need more rail, light rail, heavy rail, underground rail, overhead rail, any rail all subsidised so that we can get our workers to work, safely, on time and at aprice they can afford. This is done in elsewhere in most of the world. But our African solution is to screw the poor and make our roads more dangerous. The only problem is the Government is scared shitless of the taxi industry. Or is it too many hands in too many pockets.

  7. pietpompies says:

    I think Mr. Zuma is abdicating from his responsibilities as Head of the state. He appears to be too scared to take action and discipline those who are blatantly engage in Mafia style business ie. fraud,corruption unethical tender procedures etc. etc. If those torrents of abuse can stopped. how many additional billions of Rands will become available for issues that Mr. Gordhan has to budget for.
    I support the demonstrations against the introduction of the toll fees in Gauteng whole heartedly. We already pay far in excess of what we get in quality (value) on our roads in South Africa. What happens to our vehicle licence fees paid? Are these monies used exclusively for the repair and maintenance of the roads. I have my doubts! There is of course also the taxes on fuel?

  8. They are going to tax us on everything until we have nothing left. what then where is the money going to come from ????

  9. hmm, what about a re-distribution of wealth from the taxi millionaires to all the poor South Africans, no matter race, gender or creed??

  10. Start with that infamous ministerial hand book approved by the ministers in 2007 without consultation with the public. For example how can you justify giving an ex, note ex, minister about R250 000 worth of air fares?? And tripple traffic fines and get the cops off their butts to do their job so we don’t need a road accident fund.

  11. The air fares are per annum

  12. pietpompies says:

    madoba – you are so right. No matter how you hit the nail on the head, these buggers just give you the ‘V’ sign and carry on with their iniquitous actions, it is your money they are spending! We all are f–t–g against thunder with our criticism. But we must not give up- the wheel is turning slowly, albeit.

  13. The main thrusts of finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s Budget-the shift from consumption expenditure to investment-is exactly what the country needs if we hope to see any substantial growth in the economy, and in turn, any real possibility of wide scale job creation.

    Gordhan has managed to keep the budget deficit surprisingly low due, in part, to less spending rather than more saving. Government revenue has, despite difficult economic times, remained surprisingly stable. However, these must be weighed against the fact that, as the financial demands of the country grow, the prohibitive cost of infrastructure development-an area of growing importanced to government-will conutinue to rise.

  14. The whole system of the world is run on the basis of pyramids on top of pyramids all the way up to the world bank and contol of the world. We, the readers of this blog carry the heaviest load – we are at the bottom of the bottom set of pyramids. In South Africa, we all know Jacob is not at the top of our particular little pyramid, he is a puppet manipulated by someone else’s strings, who, in turn is a puppet manipulated by other strings and so the pyramid system goes on and up. If you follow world trends and surf the net, you will find that a lot of the 2012 hype is the realisation by the ones at the very bottom of the pyramid scheme that we are being totally manipulated. Trends are changing, the man in the street is walking away from the pyramid system, and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out what happens when the foundation of the pyramid walks away. OK, if you don’t get it, the pyramid collapses. Refusing to pay road toll is the start of the collapse of our pyramid. Next, there will be the witholding of tax monies. The government has neither the expertise nor manpower to control such actions. So, the ruling party’s little pyramid scheme collapses. Instead of concentrating on local politics, turn your attention to world trends and see for yourself which way the pendulum is swinging. pietpompies, you’re on the right track.

  15. Scorpio. Whites make up 7% of the population but produce 70% of the tax revenue. While taxis produce zero. To achieve economic growth the remaining 93% of the population need to start contributing. Without the growth they never will. How about not subsidising taxis and there would be a bigger fiscus.

  16. pietpompies says:

    ” While taxis produce zero”!! See above comment. Why are they exempt from paying toll fees?? They are also the biggest single cause of collisions (NOTE – not accidents) and deaths on our roads. They are a pest on four wheels.

  17. Garth, we should take a leaf out of Israel’s book. A tiny country holding back the mountains of people surrounding them. Our 7%, if we could just stand together, could have the same effect. Brains over braun. From an accounting and tax prospective, taxis deal in cash which is easily unaccountable, hence they pay no taxes. But the surplus has to be banked for safety reasons. As much as we would deem it a violation of our rights, if SARS set up a system of monitoring bank accounts, the taxi barons could be taxed on an annual basis on their bank deposits, deeming such bank deposits to be turnover. It would then be up to the taxi baron to employ accountants to audit and produce financial statements and reach a net profit, thus reducing their assessed taxes. The system could be applied to parliamentarians, government officials and civil servants as well. The kick-backs turning up in their bank accounts over and above their normal deposted salary are deemed to be payment for services rendered, payment for awarding lucrative government contracts. By taxing these tax dodgers in this manner, the tax burdon on the 7% would be relieved. The big problem with this gets back to politics. If this sort of tax responsibility was intorduced, the ruling party may well lose voting support. The ruling party is quite happy to let the situation continue as is. The 7% who do not support them is neither here nor there. Ditto the effect if they took away taxi subsidies and made them pay toll fees.

  18. pietpompies says:

    You are so right Scorpio- it’s all a political game. The ANC must watch theit P’s and Q’s lest they loose votes. So they do not do what’s in the best interest of the Country but in the best interest of the ANC and their own pockets!
    We still do not know the out come of Juju. Again the ANC is procrastinating on this issue because they do not really know what to do! In the meantime Juju is continuing with his ranting and raving.

  19. @pietpompies; we do not know the outcome of Fatboys appeal because the ANC cannot make up their minds about anything. I thought the nationalization debate was dead but Malema who hasn’t a clue about economics (or anything) keeps it alive among the ANCYL and a few others because he has no other plan. They have budgeted for Nuclear power stations when we have enough coal to last at least beyond the life of any nuclear plant and given our wavering support for many rogue governments are we going to be sanctioned like Iran. But Malema wants them even though he knows nothing about them. In fact he knows nothing about anything. But he will somehow avoid the penalties imposed by the ANC too many of them think this uneducated baboon is their saviour. If he is charged for corruption or tax evasion he will like other ANC cadres will somehow be absolved because the ANC is governed by a pack of lily livered louses.

  20. Why tax the taxi miilionaires? Rather help them own more taxis and make more accidents wiping out the useless “hopping mad” ( a wonderfull english saying) part of our population who ALWAYS have some reason to dance in the streets breaking windows and kicking dustbins – the only way they ever generate taxes are the 14% vat on the replacement costs of whatever these fools broke down.
    I agree with garth that the ANC ( african national “congress of baboons” in the “parlaiment of owls” …aishh, the english language is so racist!) can’t make up their minds about anything, they get their tips from and other blogs like these…

  21. a-maize-ingly-corny says:

    Oh boy!
    Dirk is quacking his Nazi rubbish again!
    By the way Dirk – get a dictionary and learn to spell. The fact that your mother tongue is duck-speak does not excuse you from learning to spell correctly.

  22. Paulos Nkosi says:

    mr pravin is indeed in the difficult position but as our minister of finance he has the power to supervise or monitor the use of the revenue collected through taxation….this year,s budget is quite a challenge to him.The way the budget is planned espcially on the taxation of liquor.

  23. pietpompies says:

    Wonkie . please elaborate on “Gordhan’s legendary skills”. He or rather ‘they’ seem to be scared of the Taxi industry, the real problem people who are responsible for most of the ‘accidents’ or rather collisions (prangs) on our roads and hence the drain on our Road Accident Fund. They drive thousands of kilometers per month and I, a pensioner. drives 500 ks a month.Why should I subsidise the taxi industry with the little bit of fuel I use. There must be a more equitable way to fund the RAF.

  24. Instead of all the emails we get asking for our names to be added to a protest list against E toling, why not start a new petition for signatures/names demanding that the ANC stand down. This would solve all our problems…… unless we get a new rear-end government.

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