Special Hearings — Business Hearings — 1997-11-13

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Prof Simkins.  Is there anything - Prof Terblanche?

PROF TERBLANCHE: Mr Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to make a short statement.
 My proposal for a wealth tax has caused quite a roar.  As I could have expected the proposal was made suspected by some, by deliberately concentrating only on the disadvantages of such a tax without acknowledging the dire need to restore ...(indistinct) and social justice after 100 years of structural impoverishment and enrichment.
 The TRC should take note of the fact that the anti-tax lobby is in all probability the best organised and the strongest lobby in South Africa.  Let us picture for ourselves two groups of South Africans. 
 On the one hand the mainly group of million people, the million richest people, mainly White South Africans with their learned tax advisors.  On the other hand the poorest 20 million South Africans, mainly Africans, people living in (indistinct) poverty and depravation.
 Although the two groups are standing in many ways miles apart their past, their present and especially their future, are structurally closer linked than many business people were prepared to acknowledge during this week.
 Luckily many people understood the purpose of my proposal correctly.  By raising the issue of wealth tax, my purpose was to focus as sharply as possible on the close and structural interdependence - the close structural interdependence between undeserved wealth and undeserved poverty in South Africa.
 It is between what Prof Mandani called beneficiaries and victims in the broader sense to word.  It is high time that especially the rich should realise that the South African poverty problem and the South African wealth problem, are not two separate problems, but two sides of the same problem.
 The socio-economic transformation that has to take place during the next 10 to 20 years are hold towards a sustainable system of democratic capitalism, must be of such a nature that the legacy of racial should be removed as completely as possible out of our capitalistic system.
 Only in this way can we restore (indistinct) justice.  Perhaps the economic miracle will not be as easy obtainable as Mr Gavin Relly like us to believe this afternoon.  I agree with Prof Simkins, the development of a proper democratic system and a proper capitalistic system and to link the two will not be easy and will take a long time.
 The popular opinion that South Africa can grow out of its ugly legacy of Apartheid while the concentration of wealth and economic power mainly in White hands remain more or less unaffected, is nothing but a pipe dream and a dangerous one.
 Greater social stability and social justice are pre-conditions to create conditions for growth and job creation.  Let us not confuse means and end.  The main aim must be to restore social justice.  If it became apparent that a wealth tax is too disruptive and too costly to collect, let people come forward with practical proposals how to address the structurally linked problems of undeserved wealth and undeserved poverty jointly.
 Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Professor, you've seemed to have gained a lot of support in the last three days.  Prof, it's only appropriate that as you started, we finish the session with you.  Thank you.
 That brings to the end these three days on the business hearings.  We as the Commission now have the difficult, onerous task of actually putting all this information together and to give substance and meaning to many of the recommendations that have been made here today.
 We thank you very much for coming here today.  Can I also thank my team, the panel who've been sitting here as  well as the researchers and the many administrative staff who've been running around and making sure that everybody gets copies throughout these last three days. 
 It's been a very difficult task.  It's been a difficult hearing to conduct.  I hope we'll be - we'll be able to give more meaning to this in our report.  Thank you very much.