For whom the tolls swindles

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main...
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee
- John Donne

We were at peace for a while. The furore surrounding the intention by government to enforce e-tollling had died down when the courts slapped an interdict on the contemptible scheme. A divided nation had been united on a common issue for a precious period of time.

A population already buckling under the cost of living were contemplating how to use the money they had been forced to budget for, in other more useful ways. And then it came…

The crooks in government woke up to the reality of losing a very lucrative source of funding to sustain their corrupt and ostentatious lifestyles. They decided to fight the interdict; they decided to push ahead with their vile plot to make the taxpayer their bitches.They had only dallied long enough to fire the pathetic stooge who headed the organization tasked to implement this massive swindle, for failing to threaten the population into submission.

They have chosen a path of confrontation which they will regret. Fascism will not be tolerated. They will learn for whom the bells toll…

Freedumb Day

Tomorrow South Africa will celebrate Freedom Day. I wrote the same thing exactly two years ago.

Little did I know [perhaps I did, but didn’t want to believe it] that celebrate would not be the appropriate word to preface Freedom Day. Yes, people will be celebrating, but they would mostly hail from that elite group that have managed to connive their way into positions of political and economic power. Any others would have to be either monumentally stupid or ignorant, or both.

Perhaps you’ve guessed by now that things have not gotten any better. No, they most certainly haven’t. Government corruption has reached alarming levels, only dwarfed by government arrogance and incompetence.

We now have democracy, the right to vote, and although under threat, the right to free speech. But tomorrow when the people of Diepsloot queue up once again to dispense and carry water from distribution points back to their shacks, these rights and privileges will be hardly comforting at the onset of Winter, perhaps hardly in their thoughts. Diepsloot is but a microcosm of service delivery problems across the country – problems that have forced the very people who voted these government goons into power, to break out into riots.

An informal township in Diepsloot, Gauteng Province, South Africa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But on the eve of Freedom Day, another burning issue has got the attention of the people, like never before. E-tolling!

This vile word represents nothing more than a crass, calculated scheme by government to defraud the people of their hard-earned and ever diminishing cash supply. The opposition to the implementation of this cruel and wicked plan to relieve people of their money, has unbelievably united all the estranged races on a common social issue for the first time, in really large numbers. Only sport has ever managed that feat before. The concerted efforts of business and consumers alike, manifested itself in the form of a legal challenge to stop the implementation of this cowardly act to enrich politically connected individuals. At the time of writing, the news reports indicated that the courts will present a ruling over the weekend.

e-toll gantry Business Day

The arrogant manner in which the government tried to railroad this abberration into our already over-taxed lives, has left a bitter taste in the mouths of even their most ardent supporters. What will be the outcome of the revelations that many high-ranking politicians stood to benefit financially from this preposterous taxation scheme, remains to be seen. It is however now clear that government will be forced to postpone the implementation yet again.

More important however will be the fact that this self-serving government has been taught a grudging lesson; that power invested in them by the people is temporary. The people shall decide what is best for them, not government goons.

But will they learn? Will I be writing again next year this time, about further levels of government deprivation? Will I be allowed to write at all?

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 #3

Democracy for the ignorant masses

Not so long ago [oh! lets cut the crap, 18 years is a friggin’ long time], the world was celebrating South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy, or what we all thought was democracy back then.

As it turned out, the new system of government was just an improved form of apartheid – only now non-white people also get a chance to wait in long queues to vote for assholes of a different hue who take your money and fuck you.

Yes folks we traded White domination for Black domination. Now they fuck you at every opportunity and tell you how good it is for you; how it’s progressing democracy – that magical word that has the ignorant masses in awe.

Back then the ANC looked like knights in shining armour, delivering the down-trodden from the fury of oppression. Over the last 18 years  or so, the armour has rusted, revealing the apartheid we knew so well.

You can gauge the level of moral and intellectual decay in the ANC just by the spokesmen [spin doctors] that they employ to inform the masses about government’s bewildering policy decisions. These same spokesmen are used to placate the masses whenever government gets caught with its hands in the cooky jar. Yes, you guessed it – telling them how good it is for them and democracy.

Road to democracy? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One such specimen is Jimmy Manyi [click here if you need to find out more about this bigot].  He’s been caught with his foot in his mouth so often, it’s become his favoured position. Today he told South Africans that e-tolling of our national roads was “quite simply a roll out of democracy.” You could argue that it was meant for the voting fodder, because sensible people see e-tolling for what it is – just another [arguably their most elaborate] nauseating government scheme to steal from the people.

Yes, people, Jimmy and by extension the government want you all to believe that the roads that were built with your taxes, should now be tolled as well, and at seriously exorbitant rates. Yep, it really is fun paying for something twice, right? And you just have to believe that it’s good for you and democracy, to boot.

If you still don’t realise the cost of “rolling out of democracy,” I expect I’ll be seeing you again at the polls… voting for more tolls.