The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) is planning to stage a march to the head office of the Treasury Department in Pretoria on Monday to protest against the pending introduction of the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) tax.
“The determination to mount this march was informed by admission from the Treasury and their Researchers that there will be job losses emanating from this Sugar Tax and the silly claims that those lost jobs will be will be fictitiously created elsewhere‚ say in bottled water or 100% juices factories‚ yet there is no scientific study to prove this‚” said FAWU general secretary Katishi Masemola .
He said FAWU supported a quest for a healthy nation and wanted an obesity-free population if that meant a citizenry not prone to heart problems‚ strokes and hypertensions‚ diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). However‚ te union did not believe that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverage products would be a mechanism to achieve these intended health objectives.
“We think this will simply become another ‘sin tax’ like those taxes on alcohol and tobacco products. If this tax is introduced as a revenue-raising exercise for the government fiscus we may agree‚ but if it is introduced as a health policy intervention‚ we beg to differ and we can argue with alcohol and tobacco that those taxes may not have worked as claimed as policy steps for all sorts of realities.
“If anything‚ it may well be that the issue of obesity is beyond the sugary beverages into other sugar contained products as well as other fat-intensive products. The question is will those products be taxed as well? It is precisely for these reasons that we are marching to the Treasury in order to call for a summit in getting a comprehensive discussion on obesity and the needed interventions to deal with NCDs‚” Masemola added.
FAWU to march against pending introduction of sugar tax
The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) is planning to stage a march to the head office of the Treasury Department in Pretoria on Monday to protest against the pending introduction of the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) tax.
“The determination to mount this march was informed by admission from the Treasury and their Researchers that there will be job losses emanating from this Sugar Tax and the silly claims that those lost jobs will be will be fictitiously created elsewhere‚ say in bottled water or 100% juices factories‚ yet there is no scientific study to prove this‚” said FAWU general secretary Katishi Masemola .
He said FAWU supported a quest for a healthy nation and wanted an obesity-free population if that meant a citizenry not prone to heart problems‚ strokes and hypertensions‚ diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). However‚ te union did not believe that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverage products would be a mechanism to achieve these intended health objectives.
“We think this will simply become another ‘sin tax’ like those taxes on alcohol and tobacco products. If this tax is introduced as a revenue-raising exercise for the government fiscus we may agree‚ but if it is introduced as a health policy intervention‚ we beg to differ and we can argue with alcohol and tobacco that those taxes may not have worked as claimed as policy steps for all sorts of realities.
“If anything‚ it may well be that the issue of obesity is beyond the sugary beverages into other sugar contained products as well as other fat-intensive products. The question is will those products be taxed as well? It is precisely for these reasons that we are marching to the Treasury in order to call for a summit in getting a comprehensive discussion on obesity and the needed interventions to deal with NCDs‚” Masemola added.
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