Vanity projects of no help to the poor
IF ONE looks at the various items making headlines in the past couple of days involving millions of rand and all linked to government and local government, there just doesn’t seem to be any rationale in their thinking when the majority of the population are in dire need of housing and health care.
A ferris wheel in Durban that will cost R450 million while allegedly a developer is involved – one wonders with all the corruption that is going on, who this developer is and whether they are ANC-linked.
It would be so very highly unlikely that there was no corruption involved in this project.
The government to spend R22m on a huge flag that is 100m tall – is this really necessary in these times when there is a shortage of government money? Will we be the only country (poor) in the world with a flag this tall? Naledi Pandor still wants to donate items to the tune of R22m to Cuba. Will this individual please confirm to the population at large that the government has this spare money to purchase all the necessary supplies that she intends sending to Cuba? Are there not more deserving poor people in this country who could do with these supplies, or does she think it just fine to let the poor here suffer while she sends supplies to Cuba?
High-speed train from Durban to Johannesburg? With the amount of corruption still going on, it seems that this is now part of the culture in this country. It is mind-boggling to see what is being proposed and agreed to when the government does not have money to assist the needy in this country. If we had lots of money and did not owe the IMF, the World Bank and major countries billions of rand in loans, I would say great, go ahead.
As a taxpaying citizen of this country, I and many others just cannot fathom the intellect levels of some of these government officials, who seem to think that money grows on trees and that there is a never-ending supply of it. If 80% of the population were paying tax, that would be a different story, but the fact is it’s the opposite. Even the finance minister noted with concern recently that there is a major exodus of parties from the higher-paying tax bracket, which in turn will decrease the percentage of people contributing to the fiscus.