Trade union federation Cosatu has called for a delay in the implementation of the tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, saying a comprehensive transition and jobs plan has to be developed first.
The plan should include tariffs on sugar and sugar-related imports, support for sugar exports. and for emerging and vulnerable sugar farms and mills, as well as the fast-tracking of bio-fuel and co-generation of energy, Cosatu said in a presentation to a joint sitting of Parliament’s finance and health committees on Wednesday.
It argued that the tax should be ring-fenced so it can be used to provide dedicated support for the transition process and later for the Department of Health to help fund the national health insurance scheme.
While Cosatu agreed that diabetes and obesity were contributing to a national health crisis, it was concerned about the loss of jobs that would result from the tax which is intended to reduce the consumption of sugary drinks.
"Obesity, diabetes and many other diseases caused by over consumption of sugar have a terrible and devastating impact on working-class families. Our status as the most obese nation in Africa encapsulates this crisis," Cosatu’s parliamentary liaison officer Matthew Parks said in a presentation during public hearings on the proposal.
"Reducing our consumption levels of sugar will save lives and reduce health expenditure," Parks said, but noted the government has not developed a comprehensive package and programme to cover the country’s over consumption of salt, meat and pap, among other things.
Parks said Treasury estimates that the tax would result in 5,000 job losses while the South African Cane Growers Association estimated that 5,817 jobs would be lost, and that sugar farm incomes would fall by between 15% and 30%.
"Government estimates up to 3,000 emerging sugar cane farmers in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga are at risk of collapse. Industry estimates up to 20,000 emerging farmers are at risk. This follows on approximately 15,000 job losses in the sugar sector due to lower global prices in the past few years," Parks said.
He added that Cosatu did not have confidence in the government’s ability to protect and save jobs.
"Government’s lack of a plan to save 5,000 jobs is clear evidence of this. It’s shocking that the government can go into great detail about how to raise billions of rands through the sugar-sweetened beverages tax, yet it cannot produce a plan to save 5,000 farm workers’ jobs," Parks said.
A further concern was that government had not completed its socio-economic impact assessment of the proposed tax.
BDlive
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