Downsizing in all three spheres of government can no longer be deferred
THE nation waited years for a new dawn. Then it started to count the months. Soon thereafter the wait was in terms of weeks.
Excitement mounted and anticipation grew. Then, at last, it was 8.30 on Monday night when the nation sat glued in front of the box.
Another hour was added to the interminable wait. Finally the countdown had begun in long minutes as 10pm arrived.
In a way it was not the climax and not the defining moment we had all awaited. It was half of this and half of that.
The can was yet again kicked down the road.
There is so much inertia in the ANC because it is so riven by faction and self-interest that it causes the machinery to grind to a halt.
For the past 10 years, every shortterm loan which became due for payment was kicked down the road. The debt grew by leaps and bounds.
The realisation of the NDP milestones has also been kicked down the road over the past years.
Land restitution, which needed to be done with utmost urgency and proper capitalisation, met the same dilatory fate. Now, when we finally expected the downsizing of the cabinet, seeing how urgent this matter was because of an empty fiscus, President Ramaphosa kicked the can down the road.
Meanwhile, the first phase of higher taxes has kicked in, not to benefit the nation but to keep peace in the ranks of the ANC. The season of patronage which had reached its nadir under Jacob Zuma continued. The summer of patronage still waxes strong under Ramaphosa. He has to be helped by taxpayers to do what his party will not allow him to do.
He was very tense when he came forward to make his announcement. It was clear he had to make huge compromises which he could not really stomach but had to go through with.
He is severely constrained and thus we remain severely taxed.
The outcome is that we are left with an escalating national debt. The daily cost of servicing this debt, Saturdays and Sundays included, is a massive half-a-billion rand at present – R500 million a day.
Soon this amount will rise steeply and quickly as the government borrows even more. Instead of serving the nation, the ANC is exploiting the taxpayer.
Presently nearly R18.50 of every R100 collected in tax goes to paying the interest. It’s in our interest to be properly represented and for our financial welfare to be placed above that of cohorts of ANC cadres. We cannot be tyrannised through punitive taxation.
We cannot have shoddy services and inept performance and be taxed to a standstill. Greater citizen activism is needed to ensure that scarce revenue is not frittered away on the fruitless side.
Expenditure in government is too high and it is too much on the consumption side. Government is too bloated and too inefficient. Downsizing involving all three spheres of government can’t be deferred any longer.
Ramaphosa has to seize the buffalo by the horns. We must help him, but also insist that taxes cannot be allowed to go on increasing without real value to taxpayers.
We must all do the sums and see which way the nation is headed fiscally and financially. Thereafter we must decide whether we are going to consent to what is being proposed, and if we are, let us bear the pain for no real gain.
Cassim is an educator, writer and politician (Cope)