I have said in many instances over tea debates with my colleagues and friends that the manner in which our government is running its service provisions to its people, is raising many eye lashes and is not working to the benefit of its people who voted for it. To this far I still feel that the people of this country are still trapped within the passes of colonization in so far as the public funds are administered. I am very well aware that government is the biggest employer in the country and employ more than a quarter of the population in this country. The basis of my facts are based on the media releases that have been doing rounds lately about one Director General in on of the departments who has been placed on a precautionary suspension pending an investigation of maladministration of public to the tune value of R500 million. I am not trying to drive my debate to an uninformed conclusion that the said DG is directly involved in the scam, but it is a given fact that this public servant might be very well linked directly to the implication.
It is really concerning to learn that Government officials who have been entrusted with positions of power are in a way misusing the revenue of public to such an extent, whereas certain people in our society are still living in a high profiled poverty. It has also been alleged that one of the Ministers within the current cabinet has bought himself a fancy car to the beautiful tune value of R2.5 million with an entertainment center of R50 000. The writer herein is not sure if the ruling party’s manifesto post the election is feasible, given what is currently happening. The same amount of money which it has been spend recklessly by these senior officials within government on tangible goodies, it is well enough to create more than sufficient entry level positions within the same government. To rub a salt on the society’s wound, the same officials came into limelight to be apologetic about the fruitless expenditure to say, she has informed the government that the money given to her was big enough to spend on luxury cars, but the fact is, given her statements, why did she then continued to make such a purchase?
For the purpose of the record, I wish to emphasize my great disappointment on the manner in which the public finds are being managed. Not to mention the manner in which the mass society has been protesting against the poor service delivery in areas such as Mpumalanga, North West and the likes. And by so saying I am not condoning the manner in which the mass majority has been protesting against government, my main concern is, is it really fair for the country, particularly people living in the rural areas to be subjected to such an abject poverty condition whereas our minister can very well afford to be driven in fancy cars of such a great value? Definitely for sure, people will not be pleased given the fact that they are the ones who are raising revenue of the government through taxes on one hand; while on the other hand, they are being under paid. Probably, the allegations of Ms Hellen Zille during her election campaign to say that governance of ANC should be stopped from ruling the country were founded on those bases. If one can look at the current economic status of the country, the protest actions that have been aired against the ruling government in the employment relationships, the government has always put forward the issue of recession as an excuse on one hand, however on the other hand, irrationality of the issue is that, economic recession is well versed. But the fact is, can the government really justify the occurrence or the presence of the economic recession given their over spending and fruitless expenditure of the public revenue? It is highly reasonable to allege that, the economic recession has only affected the so hard working class and the government ministers do not fall anywhere in this equation. That fact very well justifies the total good recipe for disaster, irrespective of the excuses that have been forward by the government.
One other issue which it is been looked at with a very lighter eye, it is the salary disparities between the shop floor employees and those holding powerful positions. See the problem here is that, COSATU came out with this issue trying to address, but due to high professional ignorance of our greedy government, it has never been entertained, now the country is been hit by several unending industrial actions. I had an opportunity of hearing one of the strikers during the Municipal strikes, and he made mention of this fact. For as long as the government is failing to address this problem, the economy of this country will continue losing more money due to dissatisfied working class, whereas those holding powerful positions and misusing them at the same time, will have a continue misusing the tax payer’s money.
