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To: President Ramaphosa, Finance Minister Godongwana and SARS Commissioner Kieswetter

Stand with farm women who demand a wealth tax

Image credit: Kayleen Morgan/EWN

*[Campaign update]: We protested outside Parliament on the 19th of February 2025 to demand a Basic Income Grant and an end to austerity budgets! We also stand in solidarity with the statement by Black Sash, which reads: "A VAT hike would be a direct attack on the poor, worsening inequality and deepening the financial distress faced by millions of South Africans”.  Instead, WFP proposes a wealth tax to fund the expansion of the SRD grant into a Basic Income Grant that will lift millions out of starvation. Why must the most vulnerable in society continue to pay more of their already unlivable low wages to a government that does not meet their needs?

The end of the harvest - a profitable celebration for the wine farmers - signals the bleak reality of unemployment, hunger and poverty for women farm workers and dwellers. During the off-season, farm women must creatively take care of their families’ needs, despite being landless or living in substandard housing conditions.

Enough is enough! Women farmworkers and dwellers are tired of experiencing centuries of injustices. Women on Farms Project is spearheading the Feminist Reparation Campaign, which demands the introduction of a wealth tax to be imposed on the richest 1% of South Africans, which account for approximately only 356 000 people [1]. This wealth tax will be applied to people like Johann Rupert - a billionaire and the second richest South African mogul. The wealth tax must be in place by the latest 1 April 2023.

Revenue from the tax will ensure feminist livelihood - a dignified existence with land:
- Access and ownership to productive land
- A living wage and basic income
- Universal health care
- Free quality public education

Why is this important?

If there was ever a time in South Africa’s history to impose a wealth tax, it is now. Here’s why:

1. In 2021 the South African Revenue Service appointed the first Director of the High Wealth Individuals Unit, tasked with improving the tax compliance of wealthy individuals and assessing the feasibility of a wealth tax. There is also existing research showing the viability of a wealth tax [1] Argentina successfully implemented a once-off wealth tax generating $2.4 billion in 2021 for COVID-19 relief [2].
2. Internationally, a group of millionaires and billionaires - Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity and Tax me Now - have called for a permanent wealth tax on the richest citizens in every country (2022) [3].

The world is moving in this direction. Sign the petition to help secure a wealth tax in South Africa NOW!

https://youtu.be/9UNUchUQUbo

[1] A wealth tax for South Africa, Aroop Chatterjee, Leo Czajka and Amory Gethin for Wits University, January 2021.

[2] Critics say a wealth tax wouldn't work. Argentina just brought in $2.4 billion with one, Juliana Kaplan for Business Insider, 4 May 2021 

[3] 102 millionaires, including Abigail Disney, have signed another letter asking governments around the world to raise their taxes, Huileng Tan for Business Insider, 19 January 2021.

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Updates

2025-03-07 15:09:56 +0200

Women on Farms Project protested outside Parliament on the 19th of February 2025 to demand a Basic Income Grant and an end to the austerity budget! They stand in solidarity with the statement of Black Sash, which reads: "A VAT hike would be a direct attack on the poor, worsening inequality and deepening the financial distress faced by millions of South Africans”.

Instead, WFP proposes a wealth tax to fund the expansion of the #SRD grant to a #BasicIncomeGrant that will lift millions of South Africans out of starvation.
Why are the poorest and most vulnerable South Africans having to pay more of their already unlivable low wages to a government that does not meet their needs?
#WealthTaxNow #EndAusterity #BasicIncomeGrantNow

Read more here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1PTGkh1WWE/

2022-03-08 12:43:29 +0200

Women on Farms Project (WFP) is building pressure on National Treasury, South African Reserve Bank and the Office of Presidency to act to our demand for a Wealth Tax on the richest 1% of South Africans.

Farmwomen have picketed outside of Parliament on Budget Day, 23 February 2022, and have made oral presentation to Parliament's Standing and Select Finance Committees on 2 March 2022.

The Committees recommended that National Treasury and SARS engage directly with civil society on the issue of a Wealth Tax.

As WFP we will keep building consensus, on farm at a time, for a Wealth Tax. We think this tax it is reasonable, necessary and just.

For regular updates, please visit our social media platforms:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Women-on-Farms-Project-118004724902439/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenonfarms/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Women_On_Farms/