Yesterday Pravin rained on the parade.

An ostrich sticks its head in the sand to ignore issues and previously when comments were made about the economy on this forum some nasty comments were passed. But who cares....so here are some of my thoughts and observations.

There was no relief for inflation in the tax brackets. Sin taxes (alcohol and tobacco) up. Fuel levy up. Then the gentlemen who are the big earners and spenders got a nasty surprise....earning in excess of R1.5 million previously was at 41% tax with the new brackets it is 45%. This takes a whopping R60k per annum in taxes away. R5000 less a month in punting budget or Woolies foods etc.

Looking at the purple world the last couple of weeks I noticed that at any given moment during the middle of the day and early evening an average of 63 to 45 plus advertisers are available in Pretoria. Then we have numerous specials and we have girls available till late at night (not only Centurion druggies).

Winter is upon us with stories of loans, scams etc.

People are feeling the crunch, the anxiety levels are visible and looking at financial results Distell has sold less alcohol, BAT stated South Africans are buying cheaper smokes and SPUR states that people are more cautious about what they spend.

Back to the purple world I doubt we will see the end but we will see more competition, hear of more scams and the survivors will be the ones who up the game as punters with disposable income will become more conscious of cost and will want better service and a better experience.

South Africans are innovative and resilient but the winter may last a while and may become fairly cold....

Me and punting, I have given it a long thought and I think rather than frequently I will save up and do a weekend or a few days away time and funds permitting and provided I get a reasonable rate and a great lady to join me for break....

I will need to be more discerning and more mindful of how I spend and what I spend. But I would still prefer quality to quantity...

Have to agree quality to quantity. Been doing it for s very long time.

@jasimo. And there are some real quality to be found in Centurion. Druggies are not limited to Centurion. They are all over the purple planet of Esa. To single out Centurion is a diservice to those fine ladies that do ply there trade their.

@yewrev - Acknowledged there are some gems in Centurion. I generalised and that is a disservice to the ladies that are good...but Centurion have more fake profiles than elsewhere.

It might be the case. I unfortunately are not in a position to comment on that statement.

To get back to your original comment Pravin did more than rain on our parade, but given what situation he is in he did deliver an excellent budget just hope brain molefe will not spend most of it at the shebeen seeing that he is now also been promoted to travel 1st class on jacobs gravy train

I don't think we South Africans grasp the enormity of the debt we owe to Pravin Gordhan.

He truly cares for the welfare of us all which is why he puts up with all the crap.
One day he will emerge from that nest of vipers and inform the world what really went on within the inner sanctum of the ANC.

On 2017-02-23 19:53:25 Ben Layden said:
I don't think we South Africans grasp the enormity of the debt we owe to Pravin Gordhan.

He truly cares for the welfare of us all which is why he puts up with all the crap.
One day he will emerge from that nest of vipers and inform the world what really went on within the inner sanctum of the ANC.

I do believe he is aging by the hour...love the analogy of a pit of vipers Ben!

He cannot do much and did well....but you cannot tax a country into prosperity...

Thanks for your remarks.
They are both besides the point made by me.

Not that it matters, but the tax impact is not R60k on R1.5 mil. You pay 4% more tax on income above R1.5mil. Up to R1.4999 you in essence still pay same amount of tax - in fact slightly less as there was a tiny bit of bracket creep adjustment (though not nearly enough for inflation compensation).

On R2 mil TAXABLE income, your tax will increase by about R20k per year - or around R1700 pm.

But i agree as long as we keep these thieves in power, it will get a lot worse. But then they could not care less about the people, it is only about them and their cronies.

They say you get the Goverment you deserve.... If you do not want to vote them out, you deserve all the missery. For 90%+ things will get considerably worse. And the pace of deterioration will pick up speed. It can still be fixed and turned around, but has the populace the will to take their future back?

Btw, it may be politically clever to take on the rich. But it is economic suicide. Most people in the 45% tax bracket create jobs f for others. And they can probably work anywhere in the world. Piss them off and they go. Taking with them the jobs and the tax base that pays for 1 million civil servants, SOE employees which will quickly fell poverty.

Like with a pyramid scheme, unless you are at the top, everyone else will be hard hit. Those newly empowered with a cushy Govt job will soon find out there is no money to prop this up. Go look in Africa, PHD's in Govt having to work for $100 - $150 month when everything just falls apart.... Sad, but if we are not willling to vote corrupt politicians out, thats where we will end up...

Fuck gordham and his pack of thieving communist shithead friends, he cannot tax punting, so go out there and give the independent ladies something to smile about, your cash,and remember while pomping you ain't paying no vat, no sales tax,no business tax and no sin tax in some way you are not just shagging the lady , you are also fucking that communist gordhams fat bold head too, yeah fuck you ANC scum, do you have a cum once policy?? ..

On 2017-02-23 22:46:56 Doubleslappedass said:
Fuck gordham and his pack of thieving communist shithead friends, he cannot tax punting, so go out there and give the independent ladies something to smile about, your cash,and remember while pomping you ain't paying no vat, no sales tax,no business tax and no sin tax in some way you are not just shagging the lady , you are also fucking that communist gordhams fat bold head too, yeah fuck you ANC scum, do you have a cum once policy?? ..

How sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful nation.
Gordhan is not one of them!
He's fighting an losing battle with thieves in the ANC for control of the Treasury.