We did say this morning that Malusi Gigaba’s maiden Budget Speech was met with mixed reaction, and one man who wasn’t at all impressed is political commentator Eusebius McKaiser.
Today kicked off with a look at an infographic breaking down some important aspects from the speech, but over on Facebook McKaiser’s post, titled ‘Taxing thoughts on the 2018 budget’, is racking up the shares and likes.
You can read that post in full here, but let’s pick a few points that stand out from the rest:
I cannot imagine more than a very small – negligble [sic] – minority of South Africans thinking that it is immoral to pay taxes…
What REALLY pisses us all off – or should – is that our taxes are not collected for the right purpose. Our taxes go into a looting fund for the former president Jacob Zuma and his cronies and keepers who remain deeply embedded within the captured state despite Zuma’s recent resignation…
I would have no problem giving even 50% of my salary to the state if I did not need to send my future gayby to a private school or take out private medical insurance for the family or needing to pay for private security or needing a family car or asking the car manufacturer to add anti-hi-jacking features, and other cost-escalating safety necessities…
This state is anti-poor, anti-working class and anti-middle class. You have to be truly wealthy or a successful big time thief to not feel the effect of these traits.
We break briefly to show you the moment Gigaba quoted Kendrick Lamar in the midst of his speech. Oh, and he made light of being caught playing Candy Crush, too.
This video via Times LIVE:
So lit, fam. Way to prove your street cred, Malusi. Back to McKaiser about to really hit the nail on the head:
We will not get more South Africans working and economically self-sufficient for as long as too many private sector players and wayward civial servants and politicians are wilfully caught in a web of looting from society.
And THAT is why this budget today is hard to swallow. Not because most of us are callous and do not care for doing our bit to enable a developmental state to flourish in pursuit of the goals of the National Development Plan.
We are fed up because government contains odious humans like Lynn Browne, Bathabile Dlamini, Malusi Gigaba, and many others along the vertical structures of critically important ministries who do not use the taxes we pay to facilitate economic growth…
Those are just three of the ministers Cyril needs to boot to the curb ASAP, and we won’t really be able to wrap up the Zuma error until we have rid this country of public servants that routinely take the piss.
To finish:
The state is in a moral crisis. And that crisis has a human face: the thieves on the one side, many wearing expensive suits and living large; and the faces of citizens who are languishing because an unresponsive and uncaring state kills human potential.
The numbers isn’t the main story of the budget. The rogue behaviour of the gang of looters is the real story that occasions the numbers we heard today
Hear, hear.
Having ranted, as a nation, about Zuma’s midnight cabinet reshuffles, it’s hard to now ask for immediate action on eradicating those ministers from our government institutions.
That being said, our patience will only last so long.
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