SONA 2023 | Calls for SRD grant to be increased

JOHANNESBURG - Tax the rich to fund the poor.

That's what the South African Federation of Trade Unions would like to see happen.

Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi wants to see the introduction of a basic income grant.

He says this can be funded by putting a stop to profit shifting by transnational corporations and creating a wealth tax of the top 1 percent of earners.

READ: Basic income grant on the cards

"Government must introduce some kind of a tax on the 1 percent richest population that owns 90 percent of the wealth and a small rate of tax," Vavi said.

"We have calculated through the research, [we] can introduce what we have called for ... a wealth tax. A solidarity tax between the rich South Africans and the poor marginalised South Africans.

"And the introduction of that mode of tax on the 1 percent, we have calculated can bring another R140-billion in every year."