Gill Marcus, the Deputy Minister of Finance, has personally committed herself to opposing the introduction of any new taxes until the taxman can track down and get everyone possible to pay existing taxes.
Marcus, who was speaking at the Saturday Argus/Seeff Trust Investors Club meeting in Cape Town, said she may not be successful in opposing new taxes but she was committed to doing so.
She said taxpayers were "paying for" the neglect of the tax office over the past 25 years. This neglect had resulted in the taxman's inability to collect taxes due.
Marcus said in some cases people deliberately evaded paying tax but there were a lot of people who did not pay simply because they did not know how to fill in the forms.
She said the government had to ensure that everyone was paying their fair share before decisions such as ratios between individual taxpayers and company taxpayers or direct and indirect taxes could be adjusted.
Referring to the recent turmoil in the markets, Marcus said this underscored the fact that South Africa "is part of the global market whether we like it or not".
What had happened in East Asia to spark the current crisis was not a new experience. Mexico had been tested by the markets, as had South Africa and a few European economies in 1996.
The message then and now from the markets is that macro-economic equilibrium must be restored. South Africa was vulnerable because of its need for foreign investment.
Marcus said she believed that the government's macro-economic policy was positioning South Africa correctly to deal with the challenge of being part of the global economy and the targets of the GEAR plan were now being met.