Wesley Gabriels

Ecosystem builder across Africa | Finance, AI, sport & strategy | Growing badminton and better systems

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@audible_com please help fix my account. I am paying for premium account but get no credits.

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@talkcentss Take this down, David.

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@markmywords The system achieves what it sets out to achieve.

[Khangisa (Prof. ) @Siyakhangisa]

48%.

That is the effective tax burden on someone earning R30,000 a month in South Africa. Same rate as someone earning R432,000 a month in a top European country.

The numbers sound wrong. They are not.

​​Where the 48% comes from.​​

PAYE is what people see on the payslip. It is not the whole picture.

VAT - 15% on almost everything. Every swipe. Every fill-up. Most people do not think of VAT as a tax. It is the largest single source of government revenue after income tax.

Fuel levy - built into every litre. Petrol at R26.92 inland includes roughly R3.80 in fuel levy and Road Accident Fund levy. That is a tax on getting to work.

Then there are the charges that look like fees but function like taxes. E-tolls. Municipal surcharges. Electricity tariffs with embedded levies.

Add the visible and the invisible - you get 48%.

​​The key difference with Europe.​​

In the Netherlands. In Denmark. In Germany. High taxes come with a social contract.

Free tertiary education. Universal healthcare that does not require medical aid. Childcare subsidies. Paid parental leave that covers an actual year. Robust unemployment support.

You pay 45%. And you get services back.

In South Africa you pay 48%. And then you pay again - privately.

Medical aid because public healthcare is collapsed. Security because policing is broken. Private schools because public education cannot be trusted. Solar panels or a generator because Eskom cannot guarantee power. Water tanks because the municipality cannot guarantee supply.

The middle-class earner pays twice. Once in tax. Once in escape.

​​Who actually pays.​​

There are about 8.3 million personal income taxpayers in South Africa. A relatively small slice of the population. The top earners supply most of the revenue.

Corporations optimise. The wealthy structure. Offshore trusts. Semigration. Emigration. The R30,000 earner cannot escape - it comes out before they see the money.

The base is narrow. The burden is concentrated. The services are not.

​​Why it accumulated this way.​​

No one designed this system. It grew.

Income tax funds the general budget. VAT funds the general budget. Fuel levy funds roads and the general budget. Each mechanism made sense when it was introduced. Each one expanded quietly.

Raising income tax visibly upsets people. Raising VAT is less visible - it is embedded in the price. Raising fuel levy is buried in the pump price. Municipal charges are non-negotiable.

The objective was not fairness to the middle class. It was revenue extraction with minimum political friction.

​​The uncomfortable part.​​

This is not a policy failure. It is a policy success. The system extracts efficiently. It offends quietly. And the people who carry it do not have the means to opt out.

The question is not whether 48% is too high.

It is how long the R30,000 earner can pay twice - once in tax and once in escape - before something breaks.

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@TimesLIVE Too late. They approved the sale to Canal+. A bone headed decision.

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@theiaincameron Not weird. Ugly.

[Cash N Sport @CashNSport]

The New DSTV Packages Explained

A Comprehensive CNS Deep Dive. Do you agree with our view that DSTV is still the best sports package around?

#DSTVExpectMore

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@sandileswana The system achieves what it sets out to achieve

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@John_C_Robbie Looks decent enough.

[Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag]

Wake me up when AI can write like John Steinbeck to Marilyn Monroe 😂

[22Ours @22Ours]

This was recorded 📽️ before the Springboks 🇿🇦 lost to New Zealand. 🇳🇿

The reaction afterwards only reinforced the point. 🙃

New Characters & Campaigns, out now! 🚨

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@motion_so Motion

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@theiaincameron Sounds like a living case study of Taleb’s Antifragile — the tree doesn’t just survive the stress, it requires it.

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@ajassy @elonmusk The Audio Book is amazing.

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@GaytonMcK Based on the Vilnius international definition of Sports contribution, it’s R500m. Here’s the calculations. https://t.co/BJb4bT9lSw

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

Agreed. However, something needs to be done to stop cash hoarding by companies.

Naspers/Prosus has bought back R1tr* shares over the past 5 years. It creates value to shareholders. But no real benefit for SAns.

Foundry, the R1.4bn Venture play was quietly shut down.

Yes, I was also shocked to see that amount.

[Cash N Sport @CashNSport]

No bonuses for the Proteas Women at the #T20WorldCup

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@smalltalkdaily @WOOLWORTHS_SA Disgusting.

[The Players’ Tribune @PlayersTribune]

“I wrote this because I can’t speak about it.

I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on.”

@RBLeipzig and @equipenatciv winger Yan Diomande on the life of his sister, Roxane. https://t.co/6wQmpdWTSi

[Wesley Gabriels @Wes_Side_Masiv]

@MfingoK @News24 @grok https://t.co/osStkletGg