Honeymoon never existed

SPANKING new President Cyril Ramaphosa has certainly been on a charm offensive since the departure of Jacob Zuma from the country’s political landscape.

Jogging on the Sea Point promenade, early morning walks down Klipfontein Road, from Gugulethu to Athlone, hitting sweet spots at a golf day, and of course his inspiring Sona, invoking the lyrics of Hugh Masekela, and making us all feel that the Magic of Madiba is back.

And then the confetti settled, the Budget was presented… and then we discovered that the honeymoon that we thought we were on never actually existed.

The fuel levy was increased by 50c per litre, and unbelievably, the poorest of the poor were being throttled through an increase in VAT; all this to compensate for the disastrous mismanagement of the country by Jacob Zuma, including unilaterally announcing free university education for the not so poor, those households with an annual income under R350 000.

The supreme irony of this disastrous Budget cannot fail to miss us.

The same ministers and MPs who so feverishly defended Jacob Zuma and his wrongdoings, failing their oaths of office to hold the executive to account, now impose a Budget on the people that can only be described as without scruples.

The poor must now literally pay for the folly of the ruling party in its nine-year ineptness in dealing with a president that had actually gone rogue…

He had managed the state-owned enterprises with one purpose in mind: to siphon off billions of rand to an immigrant family so that they can in turn pass on some of these proceeds to family members of politicians in high office.

Then there was the folly of the bloated Public Service Wage Bill, as so accurately described in Justice Malala’s book, We Have Now Begun Our Descent.

Here it is described how in fact Jacob Zuma effectively bought the support of public sector unions by giving them increases that the country could not afford. So where do we go from here? The first step must be that the law must take its course, that all those implicated in state capture need to be prosecuted without fear or favour and removed from office.

And most importantly, all those stolen billions must be returned to the fiscus to address the needs of the poor, and who knows, even reverse the decisions in respect of the fuel levy and the increase in VAT.

Otherwise all the bluster of the ruling party being pro poor will just be a lot of hot air.

GEORGE HECTOR