Editor’s Comment
It’s a disgrace – a real, proper, heart-breaking disgrace. No-one is governing this country? The politicians are certainly not doing so. They’re spending all their time in various courts fighting each other. And when they’re not doing that, they’re deviously devising ways of stabbing each other in the back so as to get back into the courts. The only people making money in this country are the lawyers. They’re laughing all the way to the banks making a fortune out of this bunch of so called leaders who are driving this country deeper and deeper into a dark hole. While the politicians continue with their self-centred antics and power plays, the rest of the country suffers. But this doesn’t matter to them. With their fat salaries and endless perks, they don’t give a damn about the good or bad fortunes of the average man in the street – although they constantly spew out pathetic and blatantly false utterances about “caring for the poor”. It’s become almost standard practise to end every statement with the words: “we don’t want the poor to suffer.” C’mon. Who you trying to kid? You don’t give a damn about the poor. And just in case you haven’t noticed Mr Politician, the demographics of the ‘poor’ – if that is the right phrase – have changed. The middle class has moved down a couple of notches and could, in the absence of some official sub-section, now be classified as the ‘in-between-poor-and-middle-class-with-a-definite-move-to poor-class”. In other words Mr Politician: The rich are getting richer (you’re well acquainted with that), the middle class are getting poorer and the poor, well they’re staying as they are since they can’t get any poorer than they already are. This trend can be gauged by the fact that the middle class can no longer buy the cops KFC. Nowadays, they hand over a couple of Vienna sausages.
I understand if you haven’t noticed all this Mr Politician. After all, you can’t waste time attending to the hardships of the man-in-the street primarily brought on through your lack of good governance when all your time is taken up with issues that are vitally important to only yourself. The middle class – now ‘in-between-poor-and-middle-class-with-a-definite-move-to poor-class” – will never understand the pressure you are under. The poor won’t understand either. In fact, they may even support you based on the false promises you throw to them as carrots every now and again. When you have nothing, you’ll grab any carrot that comes your way – even if it’s rotten to the core. Ya bra. No-one will truly understand the enormous amount of time it takes for you to find another way of stabbing someone in the back. And then you have to spend time preparing for the court case brought on by the person you’ve stabbed, then attend the blinking court case (phew! not another one!) and thereafter, spend days preparing for a hearing in a higher court in an effort to over-rule the judgement made in the lower court. Wow! It’s a tough life when you only care for yourself but I understand that those issues take much higher precedence over the small things like creating a better environment in all South Africans can thrive. You’ve probably forgotten but just to remind you, that’s why you’re in the position you are in. You are supposed to care and look after the interests of South Africa as a whole – not just those of yourself, your family and your close mates. Given all the above, I have come to the conclusion that you, Mr Politician, are without doubt, a curse on South Africa. Please note that I refer to ‘Mr Politician’, not any individual or political party. ‘Mr Politician’ encompasses the whole bunch of you. Am I being too hard – too condemnatory and disparaging? I don’t think so. In a recent interview with SA FM, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng – a highly respected man – said he believed key public institutions were not being politicised by their public office bearers but instead, they were being politicised by politicians who had their own vested interests. There we go – own vested interests.
I am part of a hard working industry sector. It’s called the trucking industry and is made up of salt-of-the-earth types who work their butts off to keep the wheels of South Africa turning while you bunch play your fiddles – irritatingly out of tune – in Parliament, in the courts and in various Commissions of Inquiry. This sector has suffered tremendously under you lot for when the economy suffers, so too does the trucking sector. Margins are down, volumes are down and to top it all, trucks are being looted all over the country by the ‘poor’ while many others have been burnt to ashes in service delivery protests causing many millions of Rand losses to already hard-pressed transport companies. That’s outside of the spate of truck attacks relating to the foreign driver issue. The daily service delivery protests staged all around the country have become a nightmare for truckers and have, sadly, resulted in the death of a number of truck drivers. The trucking sector is facing many challenges and is operating under enormous stress yet, when reading through the budget speech given by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula – Mr “Fear Fokal” – not once did he make mention of the trucking sector. It was mostly about passenger transport and especially about PRASA – which has been riddled with corruption over the years – but nothing about the trucking sector. This is in spite of the fact that in the absence of an efficient rail network, it is the trucking sector which has kept South Africa going.
My advice to you Mr Politician is to stop your back-stabbing and destructive factional in-fighting, get out of the courts and do what you are there to do, namely, create a climate which is conducive to growth and the well-being of all South Africans. We don’t have much time left to get it right – some say we have actually run out of time – so I ask that you start by going off quietly, on your own, into your bathroom and look into the mirror. Stare into those eyes and ask: “Through my actions, am I building or destroying South Africa?” It will be a useless exercise if you aren’t big enough to allow for an honest answer. Up to now, Mr Politician, many see you as having destroyed South Africa. It’s up to you to change that by focussing your attention on South Africa as a whole rather than on narrow, self-defined interests. And in doing so, I ask that you pay close attention to the trucking industry. If it goes, South Africa goes. As the slogan of the Road Freight Association says: “Without trucks, South Africa stops!” As an incentive, click here to experience the upliftment that can come about by doing the right things. The conductor – read ‘leader’ – inspired hope in these kids and lifted them out of their sad and sorry circumstances which so many South Africans find themselves in today. Can you be such a leader Mr Politician?
