A week ago, I received a notification from TRSS, a private security company, informing me of an increase in monthly fees. As a resident in a relatively safe neighbourhood, I had no choice but to accept the added cost, knowing private security is essential. This got me thinking about how much I already pay for security, other essential services, and, most significantly, taxes.
As a well-earning South African, I am taxed over 40% on my primary income and 25% on freelance earnings. I understand the necessity of taxes, having grown up in a household that benefited from state support. Taxes funded the food aid my family relied on, the public schools that gave me an education, and the healthcare my late mother received during her battle with cancer. Even today, taxes help sustain my grandmother’s old-age pension, easing my financial responsibilities.
Yet, as much as I value taxes, Johannesburg residents are unfairly burdened by what can only be described as a ‘double tax.’ Despite paying high personal income tax and VAT, we are still forced to pay privately for services the state is failing to deliver.
I pay taxes that fund the police and Gauteng’s community safety initiatives, yet I also pay for private security. I contribute to public healthcare but still need medical aid. I pay for municipal road maintenance, yet special levies go toward private contractors to fill potholes. Even the simple act of driving requires extra cash to tip unemployed young men who manage traffic at broken lights.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently acknowledged Johannesburg’s decline, forming a special task team to address the city’s deterioration. But rather than solving the issue, this intervention highlights the government’s institutional failures. Instead of strengthening existing departments, power is being centralised, while residents continue to pay twice for essential services.
Johannesburg’s ‘double tax’ is crippling households, and its residents are bearing the financial burden of a government failing to deliver on its most basic obligations.
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