/ 14 July 1999

CALL FOR APARTHEID REPARATIONS TAX

A once-off reparations tax should be levied on people of a certain income bracket to assist the victims of apartheid, the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, said on Tuesday. He was speaking in Durban at the 29th session of Provincial Synod of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa. This tax should be utilised for individual as well as communal forms of reparations, he said. “In particular we believe the priority should be to help the elderly, the disabled, and families who have lost their breadwinners, and to provide for the education of children who have lost parents.” He said one of the major factors hindering development in the southern African region was debt incurred by the former apartheid government. These were odious debts and therefore had to be cancelled outright.