TOM EATON: This government is a road accident fund waiting to happen
'As for our RAF, well, let’s just say that seldom in the field of human taxation was so much owed by so few to so many'
EXTRACT
As reported by the Sunday Times on the weekend, the RAF helped itself to R33-billion last year. It is also bankrupt. Go figure.
Still, not being able to pay for stuff has never stopped anyone in this country from buying more stuff. And why would it, when they never use their own money? Why pause for even a moment when you can just help yourself to more taxes?
Hence the revelation on Sunday that a bankrupt agency is currently renting 300 office chairs for R500,000 a month.
There’s a picture that does the rounds on social media every few weeks, showing 15 lanes of gridlock, with hundreds of cars going nowhere. Basically, it’s Cape Town when it starts to drizzle. Under this startling image is a caption: “In Germany the government has increased fuel price [sic]. In just one hour of time [sic] people abandoned their cars on the streets and avenues and walked home. Over a million abandoned cars. They had to lower the price. When the people are smart the corrupt can’t accomplish their goals.”Every time the petrol price is about to rise in South Africa, that picture is everywhere, usually accompanied by enthusiastically revolutionary comments. Yes! We should do this too! If it worked for the Germans it can work for us! Unfortunately, it didn’t work for the Germans. The photograph was in fact taken about 10 years ago, in China, and showed an immense traffic jam, not a protest. There is also no evidence that a mass car-stranding ever happened in Germany. Still...
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