Change Starts Now leader Roger Jardine will announce his big idea for a Reconstruction and Growth Fund in Kliptown, Soweto, on Monday, 19 February.
The banker turned party leader of Change Starts Now, Roger Jardine, says the only way to ward off future disaster in South Africa is to capitalise a R500-billion Reconstruction and Growth Fund through increased taxes on people who earn more than R1.8-million a year, as well as on corporations and pension funds.
Jardine will unveil his party's charter, or manifesto for the change he hopes to bring, in Kliptown, on Monday, 19 February.
The business leader and former FirstRand chairperson says South Africa needs a Marshall Plan because it is in a post-war-like condition. And that Marshall Plan must be funded by what Jardine calls a "Social Solidarity Fund" of R500-billion to kickstart the economy and plough resources into the poorest communities to close South Africa's yawning inequality gap.
It will be funded through a wealth tax for three years, with the following increases:
- A corporate income tax increase of 4.2 percentage points for three years (from 28% to 32.2%);
- A tax increase for top earners (more than R1.8-million a year) from 45% to 49.5%; and
- A 1%-a-year charge on retirement funds for three years.
In an interview with Daily Maverick, Jardine said there was support for the idea among business leaders...
