Imbeciles abound in e-tolling lobby

taxes (Photo credit: 401K)

The plot to defraud the South African public by way of sustained taxation continues…

Because it’s getting more difficult to dip bling-hungry fingers into the cooky jar without being caught, the latest attempt to filch legally by the South African government comes in the guise of e-tolling. This repugnant scheme involves coercing the already over-taxed public into paying criminally exorbitant tolls, to use South Africa’s national roads that have already been built and paid for with the public’s taxes.

When the scheme became public knowledge, the resultant outcry forced the SA government to put it on hold. However the lure of easy money could not be resisted, and they persisted in proceeding with this ruse of self-enrichment, arrogantly buoyed by the knowledge that the ignorant people who had kept them in power for nearly 20 years, would let it slide, like they did with so many other indiscretions by government.

Not this time however. Even the perpetually ignorant could not be forced to buy into this outrageous scheme to part them from their hard-earned money.

So the SA government tried the incentivizing approach by offering discounts to those who registered to hand over their cash willingly. When that did not work, they resorted to blackmail, threatening the public with surcharges for non-registration and punitive costs for late and non-payment, including threats of arrest and incarceration.

In between these extreme measures, government spin doctors such as Jimmy Manyi incredibly tried to convince the unwashed masses that paying the e-tolls was a method of “rolling out democracy.”

Not to be outdone, Nazir Alli of Sanral, the roads agency charged by government to administer this fraud scheme, pleaded with the public:

We appeal to all to obey the laws of our country . I encourage you to register so that you can enjoy these discounts.

This is how, we the public interpret this statement: Please don’t fuck with the laws we created to screw you. If you register, we’ll give you dumb fucks a discount for being such ignorant shits.

Nazir is on par with Manyi for being the biggest morons in South Africa at the moment – only Julius Malema tops that honour.

I have only one thing to say to Nazir and Manyi: Fuck you, your democracy, your toll roads and your government. I ain’t paying one red cent.

The shit they’re saying in politics #2

Another Brick In The Wall

*PA - The Telegraph, 31 March 2011

Mamphela Ramphele, a well-known South African academic reckons that our education system is worse now than under the “bad old” days of apartheid. Off course, a fair measure of ordinary South Africans with little to no academic qualifications, have been saying the same thing [more or less] for some time now.

Now that it’s being backed up by a respected academic, gives this contention more bite.

However Angie Motshekga, the latest in a procession of ANC Ministers, under whose tenure the education system has been steadily putrefying, prefers to keep her head lodged firmly up her ample butt, by insisting that that’s not the case. This jewel in the ANC’s illustrious line-up of incompetent Ministers, claims that the problems in education are:

…not because it’s worse than during apartheid but because it’s not in the level that we want it to be.

We may not be where we want to be. But it’s wrong — I think treacherous — to say we’re going back to Bantu education…

No! no! no! you pompous political prat. You, Angie are not at the level required to administer something as important as education. You are the traitor here; for stabbing your own people in the back and preparing them to be little more than voting fodder. You deserve to wear the dunce cap for the rest of your miserable, deceitful life.

Shame on you for being just another brick in the ANC wall of incompetence and denial.

*Fair usage. Source

People aren’t smart: just look at the calibre of politicians that win the votes

I’m not alone in maintaining that democracy is not the best political system; just the best

system we have currently. And politicians who work within a democratic system do so knowing full well that it serves to give them a veneer of respectability, in a lifestyle of villainy.

Not so with common dictators, monarchists, personality cultists and theocrats. They dispense with the niceties of democracy because fear works better for them. You could say this lot are honest rogues.

However politicians don’t exist on their own. They need people. Preferably not so smart people.

Now there’s a scientific study that confirms that people are not so smart when it comes to choosing the right candidates, and that’s why democracies invariably don’t elect the best leaders.

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.

The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people’s ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments. [People Aren’t Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say]

It all simply boils down to the unfortunate incidence of people giving/conceding power to politicians in ways they neither comprehend nor bother to take responsibility for. And that’s never a good thing.

I know; I live in South Africa, where this is amply demonstrated.

Bend over, there’s more to come after the highway robbery

Image via Wikipedia

Toll roads! If there’s any motorist who likes the idea, you’re on the wrong side of the fence of a mental institution.

We pay taxes so that roads, among other essential infrastructure can be built. When the roads are tolled, after being built with taxpayers hard-earned cash, that’s highway robbery.

But don’t expect politicians to pay heed or understand that; they’re really useless at generating wealth; just spectacular at expropriating it.

The initial toll proposals for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) up here on the Reef in South Africa, were greeted with derision and indeed howls of laughter. Did these morons in government actually think we the citizens were going to pay those absurd tolls for a road we had already paid, many times over?

After the citizens demanded a rethink by government, the new toll structure announced over the weekend are really no better. One government spokesperson had the audacity to speculate that the new proposal was fair to everyone.

That is everyone who stands to benefit from the tenders involved in the project, not to mention the grubby self-serving politicians themselves who are without doubt involved somehow.

Bastards!

This comes fresh on the heels of the announcement that government intends to tax us even further to sustain their latest hair-brained scheme known as National Health Insurance (NHI).

Yes folks, prepare to bend over after being robbed at a tollbooth, so that the swines’ in  government can reach up your ass and wrench out whatever is left, to pay for the health insurance you’re going to need after becoming destitute.

Public health is currently a cesspool of corruption and incompetence. We don’t need to feed this monster with any additional taxation so that it becomes bigger and more uncontrollable.

Taxpayers who are already overburdened by government extortion to fund their lavish lifestyles, feed those hungry tender machines, keep their cronies happy, and sustain those extravagant post-apartheid pipe dreams, should refuse to be treated as cash cows, and fight this tyranny with all they’ve got.

No more, please! Or we’re going to take this to the street…

Bring back the death penalty…

Bring back the death penalty…not for citizens, but for public servants who abuse their temporary power and authority.

Yeah, that means you, abusive cop…and you, you scumbag politician. Here’s a video made especially for you:

This is for everyone who is tired of living in fear, not of criminals, but of the police. And this is for everyone tired of paying taxes that are stolen by politicians.

My decision to vote again: Conclusion

Yes, I’ve done it – cast a vote again after 17 years of watching in dismay as the politicians slowly set about ruining the country.

Only now I’ve voted AGAINST the main culprits, the ANC. Somehow that feels so liberating. It’s probably not going to hurt the ANC, but it’s my way of telling them to fuck themselves.

There is a glimmer of hope from what I’ve seen thus far, that the party I voted for will turn things around. But it also hinges on many others also favoring them – hopefully enough votes of confidence in enough local councils across the country to give them the required majorities to run local government the way it should be.

However, I now also realize that my responsibility does not end with just voting. Now comes perhaps the most important part of democracy – holding the successful office bearers responsible and accountable for delivering the services for which we pay taxes. This will require a little diligence and some snooping around to find out what the elected councillors are NOT DOING. Then it’s a matter of exposing their failings and demanding redress, using whatever legal means available.

The candidate I voted for is in for a nasty ride should he win the election in my local district. I’m going to ensure that he understands that he is a civil servant and his candidacy means that I basically “own” him for his term of office. He’s going to know who’s paying his salary because I’m going to remind him frequently. He’s going to know that he’s expected to be a councillor from 9 to 5 every day, and not a part-time manager of a football team while he’s in office. He’s going to get phone calls even at night…when services are not delivered on time.

It’s time that we all made sure that elected officials know that they will not be getting fat on our watch. Let’s put them to work…

Real Toilet Politics

Lavatorial politics is common all over the world; politicians are compared to the stuff found in diapers, for good reason after all. But you can’t beat South African politicians for talking crap, especially the stinkers who belong to the ANC.

Recently the Democratic Alliance (DA) controlled local government in the Western Cape came under heavy fire from the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) for constructing toilets without enclosures in an informal settlement. The ANCYL went on to take the DA-led council to court to demand that the offending structures more commonly referred to as open toilets, be enclosed. However, they did manage to first organise some of the thugs that belong to their shady organization into destructive gangs who set about demolishing some of the structures, quite a while before dreaming up the court action.

Although there was what seemed an amicable agreement in place between the council and the locals over the construction of the toilets whereby the residents would self-enclose once the council provided the plumbing, the ANCYL won the case, citing a great victory for human rights and dignity.

Off course anyone with an ounce of intelligence in one hand, balanced with an ounce of decency in the other knows quite well that the ANCYL were merely taking advantage of a stupid lapse on the part of the DA, and were milking the situation thoroughly to score political points for the upcoming local government elections. Human rights and the dignity of the people have not exactly been the focus of the ANC since taking over power from the previous apartheid government; looting, hoarding, lying, cheating and generally fucking up, has.

Barely a few weeks passed, when the ANC-led council in a Free State Municipality were literally caught with their pants down in the same toilet scene. They had constructed open toilets for an informal settlement there, more than 7 years ago. Yesterday the ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, told reporters that the ANC “didn’t know” about the toilets, notwithstanding the fact that a local newspaper broke the story nearly a year ago.

You’ve got to give credit to this bunch of so-called public servants. They’re consistent, very consistent – in denying and lying. They’re very good at it too. Perhaps they practice, while riding about in their chauffeur driven flashy expensive cars bought with taxpayers money, or while lazing on their fat arses, doing NOTHING for the people.

Today, Julius Malema, leader of the ANCYL commented that “heads must roll,” and that someone must take responsibility, most probably without realising the pun in his statement. Will he even admit that his own ANC are now the culprits, with the shoe now being on the other foot?

And will Julius really take the scumbags in his own organization to court to demand the open toilets be closed as in the Western Cape, or will he make good on his threat to knock down some of the heads that have been left un-enclosed for nearly 8 years?

Past experience with these immoral cretins tells me that they will just let this one slide until the stink is over, just as they do with everything else they screw up.

How about a Spokespersons handbook?

Take a bow Dumisani Nkwamba. You’ve just joined a long-lost of ANC government spokespersons who are absolute masters at scoring own goals.

There must be a school somewhere in South Africa that’s churning out these idiots by the dozen. Every government department seems to have one or two of them. I’m beginning to wonder if that hare-brained political school that Malema so proudly launched a few years ago, has anything to do with the current crop of foot-in-mouth-diseased spokespersons who have been let loose in the halls of power.

Dumisani happens to be the spokesperson for the Minister of Public Service and Administration. Yes, the self-same bureaucrats who saw fit to keep the Ministerial Handbook secret for the four years since its approval by Cabinet; a document that governs Ministerial expenditure and that should have been rightfully in the public domain.

Needless to say, the only reason the Ministerial Handbook is such hot property right now is because of highly questionable and extravagant expenditure by the members of the ANC government.

The esteemed spokesperson thinks that it was illegal for the Mail & Guardian to publish the Handbook. How strange for a spokesperson of the party governing (or so it seems) this country to accuse someone else of undermining the Constitution? Presumably the ruling Party think they have sole rights to undermining the Constitution?

Dumisani’s hissy-fit about the Mail & Guardian jumping the gun in publishing the document is probably justified seeing as how the remarkably efficient Ministry of Public Service and Administration have been hard at work “in the process of declassifying the document”…for the last four years.

But seriously, these idiots in government are clueless about how the South African public and the world is laughing at their every act of utter stupidity.

Perhaps it’s time they published a Handbook for Spokespersons. They can keep this handbook SECRET as long as they abide by the rules and we are spared their silly statements.

It’s either that or STFU. Somehow I can’t picture them keeping their lips sealed for too long; that much inanity can’t be kept in.

A scum-free weekend?

I was beginning to think that we’d have a scum-free weekend, but there’s always someone itching to get his name into the annals of scumdom.

Surprisingly no South African politician has said or done anything of major asinine noteworthiness this weekend. They must all be recovering from that gaudy wedding bash held for the President’s daughter.

The National Lottery however continue to have no qualms about squandering the money they amass from the fools who don’t understand the basics of statistics. Tasked with disbursing their gains to charitable and other deserving organizations, the National Lottery continue to fund outrageous schemes designed to benefit the dregs of society.

Fresh from splurging around R40-million on the ridiculously wasteful World Festival of Youth and Students, they have now apparently sponsored R3.7-million for the staging of a concert by the washed-out band Earth Wind & Fire. And this while charitable and educational organizations are in utter despair.

So the next time you have that irrational urge to win millions on the Lotto, think about how your money is being pissed away by the morons in charge of the National Lottery. While your chances of winning millions is pretty-much near zero, your refusal to participate in this fraud scheme will help promote honesty in a country in which this simple attribute is all but deficient.

You've met SA's Police Disservice, now let me introduce you to SA's Public Disservice and Maladministration Ministry

Richard Baloyi is the man at the helm of South Africa’s Ministry of Public Disservice and Maladministration.

This department like so many others festering under President Jacob Zuma’s presidency, has a history of covering themselves in the splendour of incompetence and corruption which are coveted ideals in liberated South Africa.

Following the disclosures of wasteful and possibly fraudulent expenditure of state funds by the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka [a department which supposedly cooperates in upholding the coveted traditional ideals of incompetence and corruption it seems], the Department of Public Disservice and Maladministration were adamant in their refusal to reveal to the public the guidelines on Ministerial expenditure which they insist is classified or TOP SECRET.

Indeed, they were furious when the Mail & Guardian obtained a copy of this TOP SECRET document otherwise known as the Ministerial Handbook, and published it online.

If you’re wondering why a guideline on expenditure of taxpayers money is CLASSIFIED in a democratic country, then you’re like me also wondering what else is CLASSIFIED that should be public knowledge. And I’ll bet you also now know why the government is trying to push through further legislation such as the ridiculous Protection of Information Bill, to make the veil of secrecy water-tight.

Hopefully more departments like Public Disservice and Maladministration FAIL in their mandate to uphold CORRUPTION and defraud the public.