South Africans are in favour of the government setting the lowest possible tax rate. This is according to a survey conducted by the Social Research Foundation (SRF) in June 2025.

In that survey two statements were put to participants and they needed to choose with which they agreed more:

“The government should ensure that taxes are as low as possible, because people make better decisions than the government, spend money more responsibly and, with lower taxes, they would have more to grow the economy and create wealth and opportunity for all.”

OR

“Because the government needs to use taxes for redistribution it should be able to set the tax rate as high as is necessary to ensure that it is able to redistribute wealth and create opportunities for the poor and marginalised”

Amongst all participants 62.2% agreed somewhat or strongly with the first statement and 32.1% agreed somewhat or strongly with the second statement.