Ferial Haffajee: How much more pressure can the middle class take before it cracks?

Under the cosh, the SA Revenue Service opened tax filing season with a bang and with a promise to come after taxpayers like Julius Malema goes after Pravin Gordhan. In the same week, electricity, waters and rates tariffs all went up, often in double digits.

Why is this? Because the failed state also means that the middle-classes pay their own education, health and security bills, and increasingly their own water bills, as boreholes become a more common feature with a creaking water supply. If the investments in water infrastructure are not made now, South Africa could very well face a scenario similar to load-shedding, where a localised water crisis becomes generalised. Fin24 reported that the petrol price cut will be almost immediately absorbed into paying off higher utility and property rates bills.

The cracks are already beginning to show: there is a movement out of private schools back into the Model C , but bigger than that was a report in Business Times last Sunday, which suggested more South Africans were using their credit cards for necessities rather than for luxuries or entertainment.

ferialhaffajee And you just had to slip in Julius’ name in your rant 🤷🏽‍♂️

ferialhaffajee We can’t take it anymore, also stretching our hard earned salaries to the max

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