In the wake of the marches against the firing of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister, I wondered who the throngs of people actually were, beyond Jacob Zuma’s political opponents from opposition parties and NGOs. They were vaguely billed as ordinary people and they came in all shapes, colours and sizes in their tens of thousands.
Certainly, many were galvanised by a sense of general moral outrage at what Zuma and his cronies are up to. Their placards said so. But I suspect that many were taxpayers — out on the street for the first time, to articulate their anger at what has and may still happen to the money that they forfeit to the state as tax from salaries and company profits. For them, it is becoming personal. And it’s an interesting trend – the politicisation of the taxpayer as voice of protest. Taxpayers are a group ripe for mobilisation. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) was conceived in protest against e-tolls, but is gaining support and airtime by positioning itself as the taxpayer’s watchdog, snarling at the heels of those perceived to be looting state coffers.
Parliament should be the constitutional check on irregular spending, but given its track record, particularly since the arms deal, taxpayers don’t hold it in much esteem. And it is so very slow off the mark, ultimately held in the thrall of the ANC power brokers. Parliament’s watchdog committees simply can’t keep up with the scandals as they break successively.
Opposition parties represent taxpayers to a degree, but with an eye on a mass vote can’t indulge them too much at the expense of other interest groups.
So, the taxpayer can either look on from the sidelines of despair. Or as we saw on Friday, take the protests into a whole new world of political action.
Marion Edmunds Stellenbosch
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