Cape Town - According to the South African Citizens Surveys (Sacs) most people are not aware or even interested in the Budget speech.
The data shows that just over half (54%) of all South African adults aged 18 years and older watched, listened to, or were aware of the February 2019 Budget speech, but this number dropped significantly to 36% when it came to the Mid-Term Budget Speech (MTBS).
Citizen Surveys’ strategic research director, Reza Omar, said more than half of South Africans who were aware of the Budget speech said it had a positive effect on their views of the country’s direction, but the MTBS had a muted effect. More people said it had no effect on them (40%).
“After the MTBS, only 44% of South Africans felt positive about the direction in which the country was heading, which was significantly lower than the effect seen in February, of 53%. That said, it did not increase the number of South Africans who felt negative; instead, those who said it had no effect grew by 10%. In fact, the proportion of those who said it had a negative effect dropped by 1%, which helps to explain Mboweni’s favourability rating,” he said.
Omar said a critical element of the Budget would be solutions to the challenges faced by the country, many of which involved the widespread
historical and present corruption being exposed.
The survey also noted that in July last year, fewer than two in three South Africans (64%) believed it was wrong to evade or avoid paying tax, and such people should be punished under the law. “The financing of unnecessary and wasteful state expenditure, corruption, and state capture are a strong disincentive for paying taxes. This helps to explain why one-third (33%) of South Africans sympathise or believe there is nothing wrong with not paying tax,” Omar said.
@Mtuzeli