“HOW would we have eaten if we didn’t use taxpayers’ money?” asked Northern Cape premier Sylvia Lucas.
She was responding to enquiries by the Sunday Times about her abuse of a taxpayer-funded credit card to buy more than R50000 worth of fast food during her first 10 weeks in office.
Disgusting as it is, I like the above cited quote because it brings, in the crudest form, the reality that leaders are elected to “eat” using taxpayers’ money.
We didn’t elect them to go hungry, did we? Nor did they struggle to be poor! So, why must we be worried? We are, therefore, in the minds of those who are eating, wrong to ask probing questions about how they use our tax monies.
Their concept – if it can be called such – of the workings of the state is they own whatever it has to offer.
The notion that the state is a vehicle through which those elected into a position of power in government must use to advance the interests of the public is seen as counterproductive.
Concerns about that to which they believe they are entitled are nonsensical. They were, after all, elected to eat.
Lucas needs her space to enjoy sampling from all available fast foods outlets in Kimberley, where she lives. She must have been dreaming about this for a long time. She has seen others at the pinnacle of the gravy mountain. It is her turn.
Her attitude is based on the same “logic” that suggests there is nothing wrong in spending taxpayers’ money to build a tuck shop and a kraal in President Jacob Zuma’s private home.
To the public criticism of using taxpayers’ money to build a R206-million home, Zuma may retort: “Where would I sleep comfortably if I didn’t use taxpayers’ money?” But we, the taxpayers, are entitled to be riled by this extravagance at a time when the economy is sluggish, jobs are being shed, the South African Revenue Service is struggling to meet its target, the social welfare bill is rocketing, the auditor-general reports annually that no less than R30-billion is lost through irregular expenditure and service delivery has collapsed in many places.
But it seems the media, the auditor-general, the public protector and the toyi-toying members of the public who make noises about the collapse of our governance system have become serial complainants who can be ignored.
The outgoing auditor-general Terence Nombembe recently let out his frustration about the lack of consequences against those who continue to mess up with taxpayers’ money.
He seems to have concluded there was a lack of political will to tackle the problem.
If he is right, then we have more problems than meets the eye.
Those who are in positions of power have abrogated unto themselves the right to eat fast, as much as they want.
As if to emphasise their point they even eat in “fast food” outlets.
Thanks to Lucas , the phrase, “it’s our turn to eat” has been given a practical meaning.
It is no longer proverbial.
The eating is so perverse the beneficiaries do it with clean souls.
“It’s well with my soul,” declared former Buffalo City mayor Zukisa Faku as she protested against charges of using a municipal credit card to buy herself a KFC meal.
She could have added: “How would we have eaten if we didn’t use taxpayers’ money?”
If you thought this was ridiculous, consider the fact Nozililo Mashiya, speaker of a bankrupt and poverty-stricken Nala municipality in the Free State, used her municipal credit card to buy booze worth thousands of rands on Fridays and weekends.
As if this was not enough, Mpai Mogorosi, former mayor of that same municipality, irregularly spent R23000 to build a wall around her home.
Who knows, maybe Mashiya is asking herself: “What would we have had to drink if I hadn’t used taxpayers’ money?” Or Mogorosi could be asking: “How would I have fenced my house against the unemployed violent criminals if I hadn’t used taxpayers’ money?”
Public protector Thuli Madonsela has been investigating the service delivery collapse in Nala. She lambasted the two for irregularly spending taxpayers’ money. But one wonders how many times Madonsela will issue such reports and to what effect.
Who can forget Humphrey Mmemezi, the former Gauteng MEC who dined in expensive restaurants, had take-aways from Nando’s and bought some grocery items all at taxpayers’ expense?
He was later rewarded by being elected to the national executive committee of the ANC, and is now well positioned to eat more in future.
One wonders what qualifies people like Mmemezi to sit in such important structures of the ANC. Or could it be that the misconduct of public representatives no longer determines their fate in government.
But thanks must go to Lucas for her simple explanation: How could all these politicians have eaten if they didn’t use taxpayers’ money?
Now, it all makes ... nonsense actually.
Mpumelelo Mkhabela is editor of the Sowetan
'It’s our turn to eat’ has a practical meaning now
She was responding to enquiries by the Sunday Times about her abuse of a taxpayer-funded credit card to buy more than R50000 worth of fast food during her first 10 weeks in office.
Disgusting as it is, I like the above cited quote because it brings, in the crudest form, the reality that leaders are elected to “eat” using taxpayers’ money.
We didn’t elect them to go hungry, did we? Nor did they struggle to be poor! So, why must we be worried? We are, therefore, in the minds of those who are eating, wrong to ask probing questions about how they use our tax monies.
Their concept – if it can be called such – of the workings of the state is they own whatever it has to offer.
The notion that the state is a vehicle through which those elected into a position of power in government must use to advance the interests of the public is seen as counterproductive.
Concerns about that to which they believe they are entitled are nonsensical. They were, after all, elected to eat.
Lucas needs her space to enjoy sampling from all available fast foods outlets in Kimberley, where she lives. She must have been dreaming about this for a long time. She has seen others at the pinnacle of the gravy mountain. It is her turn.
Her attitude is based on the same “logic” that suggests there is nothing wrong in spending taxpayers’ money to build a tuck shop and a kraal in President Jacob Zuma’s private home.
To the public criticism of using taxpayers’ money to build a R206-million home, Zuma may retort: “Where would I sleep comfortably if I didn’t use taxpayers’ money?” But we, the taxpayers, are entitled to be riled by this extravagance at a time when the economy is sluggish, jobs are being shed, the South African Revenue Service is struggling to meet its target, the social welfare bill is rocketing, the auditor-general reports annually that no less than R30-billion is lost through irregular expenditure and service delivery has collapsed in many places.
But it seems the media, the auditor-general, the public protector and the toyi-toying members of the public who make noises about the collapse of our governance system have become serial complainants who can be ignored.
The outgoing auditor-general Terence Nombembe recently let out his frustration about the lack of consequences against those who continue to mess up with taxpayers’ money.
He seems to have concluded there was a lack of political will to tackle the problem.
If he is right, then we have more problems than meets the eye.
Those who are in positions of power have abrogated unto themselves the right to eat fast, as much as they want.
As if to emphasise their point they even eat in “fast food” outlets.
Thanks to Lucas , the phrase, “it’s our turn to eat” has been given a practical meaning.
It is no longer proverbial.
The eating is so perverse the beneficiaries do it with clean souls.
“It’s well with my soul,” declared former Buffalo City mayor Zukisa Faku as she protested against charges of using a municipal credit card to buy herself a KFC meal.
She could have added: “How would we have eaten if we didn’t use taxpayers’ money?”
If you thought this was ridiculous, consider the fact Nozililo Mashiya, speaker of a bankrupt and poverty-stricken Nala municipality in the Free State, used her municipal credit card to buy booze worth thousands of rands on Fridays and weekends.
As if this was not enough, Mpai Mogorosi, former mayor of that same municipality, irregularly spent R23000 to build a wall around her home.
Who knows, maybe Mashiya is asking herself: “What would we have had to drink if I hadn’t used taxpayers’ money?” Or Mogorosi could be asking: “How would I have fenced my house against the unemployed violent criminals if I hadn’t used taxpayers’ money?”
Public protector Thuli Madonsela has been investigating the service delivery collapse in Nala. She lambasted the two for irregularly spending taxpayers’ money. But one wonders how many times Madonsela will issue such reports and to what effect.
Who can forget Humphrey Mmemezi, the former Gauteng MEC who dined in expensive restaurants, had take-aways from Nando’s and bought some grocery items all at taxpayers’ expense?
He was later rewarded by being elected to the national executive committee of the ANC, and is now well positioned to eat more in future.
One wonders what qualifies people like Mmemezi to sit in such important structures of the ANC. Or could it be that the misconduct of public representatives no longer determines their fate in government.
But thanks must go to Lucas for her simple explanation: How could all these politicians have eaten if they didn’t use taxpayers’ money?
Now, it all makes ... nonsense actually.
Mpumelelo Mkhabela is editor of the Sowetan
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