Don’t tax your poor little brain about the Wiese issue

When Twitter read the first three words of the headline of the media’s précis of the amaBhungane report, it spat its dummy so hard that it bounced off the wall of the echo chamber. Christo Wiese, he of the cash-stuffed suitcase, was allegedly dodging paying his taxes, and the world would never be the same.

To be fair to Twitter, R3.7-billion – the amount being sought by SARS – is a lot of money that could otherwise be used by the government. I mean, it’s a full 13% of the R28.4-billion wasted, lost or stolen by South African municipalities last year. Just imagine: if Wiese had shouldered his full tax burden they would only have had to waste, lose or steal R24.7-billion of our money.

Then there’s South African Airways, the airline that has traditionally carried this country’s hopes, its ambitions, and anyone too incompetent to be redeployed to a functioning SOE. If Wiese wasn’t so snoep it could easily get the R5-billion it asked for, to go with the R10-billion it got last year.

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