Hands off our hard-earned pensions, they’re not yours to squander, Mr President!

MR CYRIL Ramaphosa, as the president of the ANC, I wish to tell you in the strongest terms that if you take our pensions, you are inherently taking our lives!

I read with utter dismay that our government, in all its tattered wisdom, having virtually swallowed up much of our fiscal reserves, often throwing good money on poorly run state institutions, is looking for even more revenue to continue in this practice.

For well over 10 years now, we have seen how poor governance and equally poor application of foresight have gone into the management, oversight and maintenance of too many of our state institutions, resulting in the biggest meltdown of industry South Africa has ever faced.

This, as well as thinking that a less than satisfactory business approach (See Eskom, SAA, Telkom, among others), would ensure continued financial inflow, the ANC now wishes to focus on wanting to use our hard-earned securities to continue to throw money at institutions which haven’t even stopped the problems which continue to swallow up their diminished incomes.

To me this is like taking painkillers to stop the pain of rotten teeth, rather than attending to the rot.

You already tax us on our earnings, while preaching to us about how important it is to save and become self-sufficient.

When we manage to scrimp together money to invest or save, you tax us on our gains as well.

This, of course, in addition to us being taxed for everything we buy.

Where do you think you are going to get money from to squander as we see you continuing to do once our reserves have dried up?

If government and its carefully distributed allies of incompetence and rampant corruption don’t come to their senses, every institution and the pool from which you draw your taxes will be no more.

And don’t blame white monopoly, apartheid or Covid-19 for your problems, because many of the problems come from within and not without.

Yes, we have seen for too long now “how the bad workman blames everything for his failure, but himself”. Enough is already enough. Leave our pensions alone. They are not yours to squander.

JOHN KNOTTENBELT | Sherwood