A group of more than 30 widows in Mthatha have joined the EFF in the hope that the party will fight for them in parliament.
The group, calling themselves Freedom Fighters Widows Group, claim Sars is abusing them because they have no one to speak up for them.
One of the widows, Nomafrika Maqungo, said they had even marched to Sars but nothing had changed.
“We have tried everything and we have nothing to show for it.
“We met with the EFF leadership and now we are hopeful things will change for the better because we are suffering and our children are suffering,” she said.
Maqungo said both her salary and the monthly stipend she received from her late husband’s estate were taxed.
“Between my personal income and the inheritance money, I get taxed R16,000 a month.
“How is it fair I get taxed twice? Surely his money was taxed when he was alive?
“ Now he is being taxed even in death,” she said.
As a result of accumulating debt while trying to cope financially, Maqungo said she had had to sell her home which her family had lived in since 1991.
“This is hard for us but Sars does not care.
“Other people have had to sell their cars and go back to using public transport,” she said.
Another widow, Nolutsha Noxesha, said: “The once-off lump sum [from her late husband’s estate] that was paid out to me was apparently not taxed.
“Now Sars is coming after me to pay the tax which I do not have,” said Noxesha, who owes Sars more than R32,000.
When the EFF held their manifesto launch in Mthatha in March, party leader Julius Malema said they were prepared to fight for widows.
“They [the widows] are heavily taxed for the money they receive for their dead spouses.
“We want to change the laws.
“That money must go to them and must not be taxed.
“It is money that is meant to look after them,” he said.
In 2018, about 100 widows protested at Sars in East London and accused the revenue collector of unfairly taxing them.
Abafelokazi Base Mzansi-Afrika [The widows of SA] handed over the memorandum to a Sars boss, detailing all their issues...