Maswanganyi comments come just a day after the country’s Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana announced an increase in the fuel levy during his budget speech before the National. Some political parties are among those who rejected the increase. Maswanganyi cautioned against protests designed to counter government plans to generate revenue.

“We should not promote a situation where we don't want the public and the corporate to pay taxes. It will not be right that every time the state talks about increasing a tax, we encourage protests. We are not going to run the state based on populism, because there is no state that can function without revenue. Otherwise, if you want to run the government and state in populism, you will never raise taxes, and you will never do that at some stage, the state is going to collapse," Maswanganyi said.

--SABC--