Pink Tax?!

First thing's first.

This has no connection to the previous post I have written about Feminism being not so bad.

But seriously who made this rule about tax being higher on feminine hygiene products, female clothing, shoes etc???

According to SARS the current standard tax rate for all vendors (people selling products) is 15% as of April 2018. This is then called VAT which stands for Value-Added Tax. This money is sent to the government and they use it as they see fit.

And now that we got that out of the way let's start some investigation into the world of tax in South Africa...

South African shoppers all contribute to about 26,4% of all the tax that is collected through out the financial year. This adds up to a rough R215,02 bn. That is a hella lotta money being given to the government to use as they see fit. The South African regime decided that wait, since we have a tax increase we will need to find a way for people to keep their stomachs full. They then created a list of 19 food items that has zero tax attached, so no string attached when taking this bread loaf home (sorry for the bad pun).

But they did not consider that people still need to clean, wear clothes, bathe etc etc. Even more so, do they even consider the fact that women need feminine hygiene products EACH MONTH?! And these things do not come cheap.

About 30% (adds up to about 7 million) of all female pupils lose out on school days as they are menstruating and cannot afford Tampons or pads and therefore have no way of leaving the house in such a state. This then adds up to about 60-90 missed school days because of, well periods.

And we thought periods couldn't get any worse.

In an article I read while doing some research they found in 2011 that the average woman would use about 22 sanitary products in one period round, meaning in one month. This costed about R1,50 for each Tampon and R18 for a pack of 10 sanitary pads. This added up to about R33 for tampons and R36 for sanitary pads. This ads up to between R33 and R69 a month for bleeding unwillingly.

And let me tell the people who do not understand what heavy flow means. The flow would be so heavy that you have to wear both a tampon and a sanitary pad and change them about every 2-4 hours meaning that you will go through about 6 tampons and 6 sanitary pads a day for about 3-7 days. Can you do the math??

With South Africa being a country that is considered in it's most parts to be rural, quickly imagine this scenario:

You are a young girl who is on her period. Your family earns only a small amount of money each month which barely covers all the basic expenses like food, medicines, travel, school, clothes, hygiene product etc. Now they have spend extra money that they do not have on a situation that is stowed upon them because of lovely mother nature. This is just great. So what do you use instead because you have to be out and about. Do you stay in the house for the next 5 days and hope no one will notice? Do you use old rags, towels, grass, leaves, notebook paper, toilet paper etc to try and manage your period?

This is the case in many young South African female's lives.

But ladies and gentlemen we have a winner in country of the year for all females. In 2004 Kenya became the very first country to abolish Tampon Tax! (and the crowd goes wild).

So let's dive head first into the world of Pink Tax also known as Tampon Tax and it's place in South Africa.

In our beautiful country do we not only pay for sanitary products but we are also being taxed on them. Shocker I know! And not only are we being taxed on being a female with natural monthly feminine uterus cleansings (periods) but our sanitary products are also being rated as luxury and non-essential goods. Which is great because you know we definitely do not need these things to help us function as a normal human being once a month (please note sarcasm). These little cotton sticks that we need are also taxed at 15%..

I think I want to sit in a corner and cry now...

But luckily for us there are companies that actually do understand what a woman is going through on her period and understands the need for comfort and to feel a little less like a fat bleeding monster and more like a spring fairy.

Lil-lets has since 2013 donated abut R5 million worth of feminine hygiene products to an organisation called Caring4Girls. https://www.givengain.com/cause/6203/campaigns/17047/

Wits University also had a petition and march against Tampon Tax to help females fight the fight against the cost of sanitary products and to also help spread information regarding the myths and all the taboo's that should be forgotten as a period is not something that is vile and dirty and that it is just a natural way of being, for us females.

KwaZulu Natal hands out free sanitary products to all females. According to an article I read on IOL. https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/suffering-for-our-sex-drop-tampon-tax-15784424

But hey guess what?

No it doesn't get any better.

We are not only taxed on sanitary products but also on other "pink" items that cost more than their male counter part.

Like hygiene products, deodorant, roll-on, clothes, shoes, soap, body creams etc.

Females tend to spend about 50c more on deodorant than on men's deodorant.

We also spend more on razors sometime even a couple of Rands more just because they are made for women , and I am not talkin about expensive 5 razor cutting edge Ferrari razors. (I prefer men razors anyway as they give a smoother shave).

We as women are being burdened by even more taxes and larger price tags just because they are made for women even though the two share the same exact formula and ingredients, with the only differences being that the female one has flowers on them.

This is absolutely bonkers to be honest as it is quite unfair to be a woman in a shopping mall now a days.

But like I said luckily for us there are people raising their voices out of the crowds to get the attention of those that need to hear our pleads. So if you want to join the crowd and raise your voice please head over to this petition together with Cosmopolitan South Africa and help raise your voice against Tampon Tax.

https://www.cosmopolitan.co.za/health-fitness/tampontaxmustfall-sign-our-petition-now/

As always thank you for reading.

P.s

This is not the end as I became engulfed in the research and there is TONS more information to follow.

Lots of love

Lelani