Only 49% of voters in South Africa are registered taxpayers
Gauteng and the Western Cape, where the DA performed well, are the only provinces in South Africa where over 50% of voters were registered taxpayers.
This was one of the findings of an analysis by Newsday using South Africa’s latest Tax Statistics and the 2024 provincial elections data.
Last month, the National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) released their annual edition of tax statistics.
The 2025 tax statistics report reviews tax revenue collection and tax return information for the 2021 to 2024 tax years.
Newsday used the 2024 tax statistics and compared them with the number of valid votes in South Africa’s 2024 provincial elections.
The data showed that South Africa had 7.7 million registered taxpayers. It further showed that 15.8 million people cast valid votes in the provincial elections.
This means that South Africa had a registered taxpayer-to-voter ratio of 49% based on the latest taxpayer and election data.
It also revealed that Gauteng had the highest percentage of registered taxpayers per voters, at 74%. The Western Cape ranked second at 67%.
Gauteng and the Western Cape were the only provinces in South Africa where the majority of voters were registered taxpayers.
All the other provinces had a registered taxpayer-to-voter ratio below 41%. The worst province was Limpopo, with a ratio of only 25%.
It is also worth noting that while Gauteng and the Western Cape accounted for 55% of registered taxpayers, they accounted for only 37% of voters.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) performed well in Gauteng and the Western Cape, which had a high ratio of registered taxpayers.
This confirms that the DA is popular among rich and middle-class residents in South Africa’s major cities – Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria.
The ANC dominated all poorer provinces, which had a much lower registered taxpayer-to-voter ratio. The only exception is KwaZulu-Natal.
Here, the Zulu nationalist party, uMkhonto we Sizwe, dominated the 2024 South African provincial elections.
The chart below shows South Africa’s registered taxpayers-to-voters ratio across the country’s nine provinces.
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The ANC’s continued hold on power is heavily dependent on non-taxpaying registered voters, many of whom rely on SASSA grants for survival.
For many non-taxpayers, government corruption does not feel personal, because it is not seen as money taken from their pockets. The result is a dangerous political dynamic where corruption can flourish with limited electoral consequences, because those funding the state are a small minority, while the majority depend on the state.
A population trapped by limited education, high unemployment, and long-term dependence on government handouts becomes easier to control and harder to mobilize for change. This creates the perfect environment for an incompetent government and corrupt individuals in senior positions to remain in power, while accountability and service delivery continue to collapse.