Malusi Gigaba will go down in history as the first person in the democratic era to bump up taxation on goods and services under the ANC government – but that is the least of his worries.

As controversy continues to swirl around him‚ Gigaba announced a one-percentage-point increase in Value Added Tax in the 2018 Budget on Wednesday in order to raise revenue to fund government’s spending needs.

Raising the cost of living for all households is a hard sell at the best of times. For a scandal-fatigued and already hard-pressed nation‚ the last thing to demand is that consumers dig deeper to finance former president Jacob Zuma’s disastrous legacy.

For more on this story‚ go to TimesSelect