Traffic came to a standstill in Pretoria on Friday this follows DA Democratic Alliance protest to the office of finance minister to demand that the minister expand the zero-vat rated food basket by adding the DA’a proposed list of items.
More than 500 members of DA and public joined the protest.
They were holding the placard and singing in the street of the capital city.
They hand over the memorandum to Deputy Director General Stadi Mngomezulu.
DA shadow minister of finance, Dr Dion George MP, leads the protest and was accompanied by the chief whip of the official opposition, Siviwe Gwarube MP and the leader of the da student organization (daso), Liam Jacobs.
DA shadow minister of finance Dr Dion George address the members of DA outside the office of the minister that we came to hand a memorandum to the minister of finance before the mid-year budget. We came here because South African families are going hungry and cannot afford to put enough food on the table. We came here to ask government to do its job and we gave them a way to do it.
We asked government to help hungry South Africans. We asked the minister to remove vat on more food and that would mean that families across South Africa could put more food on their tables.
“South Africa is a rich country, and nobody should go hungry, yet millions are starving, and government does nothing about it,” George said.
He said our economy is on its knees because the ANC government made the wrong policy choices. It placed an incompetent, incapable and corrupt government at the Centre instead of encouraging the development of a strong and vibrant, enterprising economy.
The ANC government has mismanaged our money; crushed economic growth; driven workers out of jobs; and caused unemployment and poverty. They have failed and all South Africans are getting poorer.
The Minister must table a money bill, which is a specific type of legislation focused on financial matters like taxation and public spending. Only the minister of finance has the constitutional authority to introduce such a bill and he can do this on Wednesday when he presents the mid-year budget.
“The cabinet mandated the economic cluster to develop an action plan to curb food prices and enhance food security and accessibility, yet there is no plan.
Government did nothing and the cost of living crisis is getting worse. People are starving while government ministers look after their own pockets,” he said.
George concluded that the DA will not rest until South Africans get the concrete changes we need. We stand firm in our resolve.
We will alleviate the hardship that this uncaring government has inflicted.
