The small Western Cape town where South Africa’s poorest people live

Residents of Laingsburg in the Western Cape have the lowest average taxable income of any municipality in South Africa at R154,385. 

This means that the average taxpayer in Laingsburg earns less than R13,000 per month, nearly four times lower than those in South Africa’s richest municipality, Gamagara in the Northern Cape. 

SARS revealed this in its 2025 Tax Statistics, which are published annually to provide greater context on South Africa’s tax base. 

These statistics are distributed to the National Treasury and government departments to give them an understanding of where the state’s revenue comes from. 

This is of particular importance to the National Treasury, with these statistics providing the basis of its budget preparations for the coming financial year. 

The National Treasury will use this data to inform its decisions surrounding tax changes in the budget, with SARS focusing on the three largest sources of government revenue – personal income tax, value-added tax (VAT), and corporate income tax. 

Apart from VAT, SARS’ data shows that the country’s tax base is highly concentrated in a few million people and around 1,000 companies. 

This makes it very difficult for the National Treasury to raise taxes, with its efforts to squeeze more juice from the same lemon likely to result in less tax revenue. 

If the state increases taxes, wealthier South Africans are likely to invest heavily in reducing their tax liabilities and potentially move their money offshore. 

South Africa’s highly concentrated tax base also makes it very vulnerable to external shocks and tied to the success of a tiny proportion of its population. 

SARS also breaks down the data according to where taxpayers live, releasing information about all of the country’s municipalities. 

This data focuses on the average taxable income of South Africa’s provinces and the underlying municipalities to understand where the country’s taxpayers live. 

In this regard, Gauteng remains the country’s economic powerhouse, with the most taxpayers and the highest average taxable income at the provincial level, at R414,000. 

This is driven by the province’s relatively high levels of industrialisation compared to its peers. Gauteng is also the country’s financial services hub, resulting in many lucrative jobs on offer. 

In contrast, South Africa’s poorest provinces tend to be dominated by those with economies heavily reliant on agriculture, mining, and other primary industries. 

South Africa’s poorest province by average taxable income is the Free State at R297,000, followed by the Eastern Cape at R292,000, and the Northern Cape at R308,000. 

The municipality where people are poorest

Laingsburg is on the wrong end of the equation when it comes to average taxable income, with the lowest of all South Africa’s municipalities. 

Located in the Western Cape, Laingsburg is a relatively large agricultural town in the Great Karoo, with its economy based on farming goats, sheep, and some fruits and vegetables. 

Thus, despite having only 1,279 taxpayers, there are relatively few lucrative jobs for them to fill, resulting in a low average income. 

In contrast, many small municipalities find themselves among the country’s richest due to the advantage of having a small number of taxpayers. 

Small mining towns in the Northern Cape, such as Gamagara, have some of the highest average taxable incomes in the country. 

These towns have a small tax base and highly lucrative employment opportunities, with jobs in mining towns often well-paid and skewed by a small number of good earners. 

In contrast, Laingsburg’s economy is dominated by farming, meaning many of its employment opportunities are seasonal and poorly paid, reducing its average taxable income. 

The area that became Laingsburg was first settled around 1727 or 1728. A town, then called Buffelsrivier, was established only when a train stop was built in 1878. 

The municipality of Laingsburg came into being after Stephanus Greef and his wife, Martha, named the town after John Laing, who was the commissioner of Crown Properties at the time. 

The town is strategically located at the gateway to the Great Karoo, and became a popular stopover for Afrikaner families in the Great Trek. 

To this day, because of its location on the N1, the town remains a popular rest stop for travellers between Cape Town and South Africa’s interior. 

Much of the old town, apart from an Anglo-Boer blockhouse and some historical buildings from the 1800s and 1900s, has been swept away by damaging floods. 

The most severe flood, which almost destroyed the entire town, occurred in 1981. This flood washed away much of the original town, including its Dutch Reformed Church. To this day, high water marks are still visible on lamp posts.

Apart from these floods, the town also struggles with a water shortage, with much of its supply coming from a fountain in the Moordenaars Karoo area. Although the Buffels River runs right through the town, the river hardly ever has any water.

The ten poorest municipalities in South Africa, ranked by average taxable income, are shown in the table below. Many of the towns on the list share Laingsburg’s characteristics as small, farming-dependent communities. 

Municipality	Average taxable income
Laingsburg Local Municipality	R154,385
Sundays River Valley Local Municipality	R184,664
Kai !Garib Local Municipality	R185,809
!Kheis Local Municipality	R188,874
Thembelihle Local Municipality	R199,691
Letsemeng Local Municipality	R201,046
Maphumulo Local Municipality	R207,514
Mandeni Local Municipality	R210,185
Dipaleseng Local Municipality	R210,953
Kareeberg Local Municipality	R213,127