How Ramaphosa’s VAT Hike Revives Apartheid’s Economic Chains

By Sipho Tshabalala 

South Africans, wake up. The government that once shouted about economic freedom has stabbed you in the back. A VAT increase —  another nail in the coffin of the working class.

The ANC, the supposed party of the people, has become the very thing it once fought against: an enforcer of economic oppression, a custodian of the same economic chains designed during apartheid.

Let’s be clear — VAT is a tax on survival. It doesn’t care if you’re a billionaire or barely affording a mealie meal; it takes from all. The poor, who already spend the bulk of their income on basic necessities, will feel this the hardest.

It means less food, fewer transport fares, and more impossible choices between electricity and a meal. The cost of living is unbearable, but your government’s solution? Make it worse.

The ANC once called VAT an unfair tax that disproportionately harmed black South Africans. In 1991, they condemned it as unjust. When the National Party raised VAT  to 14% in 1993, the ANC protested.

The party of liberation knew then that VAT was a weapon — an economic shackle meant to keep black South Africans in perpetual struggle. Then, when the ANC took power in 1994, they did not touch VAT for nearly 25 years. Presidents Mandela, Mbeki, and Zuma all recognised the devastating impact it had on the poor and left it unchanged.

Then came Ramaphosa.

In 2018, his first major economic move as president was to raise VAT from 14% to 15%, the country was not impressed. He clearly did not care because now in 2025, amid mass unemployment and a crumbling economy, he wants to push it up to 17%.

The very system that the ANC once fought against is now the very system it perpetuates.

In 2018, Ramaphosa addressed the celebration marking 100 years of the Broederbond, the secretive Afrikaner organisation that masterminded apartheid. This was no accident, it was sending a message.

The very same economic structures designed to subjugate black South Africans remain intact, and under Ramaphosa's administration, they are being reinforced rather than dismantled.

Ramaphosa isn’t governing for you. He is governing for his funders — the billionaires and corporations who bankrolled his CR17 campaign. He protects their interests, shielding them from tax hikes while squeezing every last cent from the poor. Corporate tax remains untouched because “investors might leave,” yet the poorest South Africans are expected to absorb another increase in VAT. The priorities are clear: profits over people.

And it’s not just VAT. The systematic dismantling of state-owned enterprises has left millions jobless. Eskom, Transnet, SAA, Post Office, Ihala, Denel — once pillars of economic empowerment, now casualties of privatization. These institutions were created as a means to uplift and employ South Africans, but they are being destroyed.

The ANC claims to care about economic transformation, yet it is handing these institutions over to private interests, betraying the very workers who built them. The apartheid architects could not have asked for a better steward of their economic system.

Meanwhile, SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said the South African Revenue Service (SARS) loses up to R800 billion annually due to tax evasion. There is money — just not for you.

Instead of fixing this, the government chooses the easiest route: tax the poor, punish the struggling, and let the wealthy escape accountability. Kieswetter also warned that increasing VAT is not the answer.

But does this administration listen? Of course not. The ANC of 1993 would have rebuked the increase The ANC of 2025 enforces the increase with cold indifference.

And where is COSATU? Where are the unions that once brought the country to its knees to fight against VAT in the 1990s? They helped Ramaphosa rise to power, and now, under his leadership, workers are suffering the worst job losses in post-apartheid history. We no longer hear “an injury to one is an injury to all”. The silence is deafening.

This government has abandoned its people. It has chosen big business over the working class, privilege over poverty. It no longer seeks to end economic exclusion—it enforces it. The betrayal is complete. South Africans are being driven deeper into desperation, all while the elite celebrate their tax breaks.

Apartheid’s legacy was economic exclusion, and the ANC is making sure it lives on. It is no longer about political power — it is about maintaining the same structures that once benefited the white minority, only now with a new elite in charge. The betrayal is not just in policy, but in principle.

The question remains: how much more are we willing to endure? The people deserve better. But will they demand it?

* Sipho Tshabalala is an independent writer, analyst and commentator.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.