The Matthews Effect

The South African black people are apathetic to the rising levels of corruption and the unstoppable gravy train of white-collar crime in the country.

I know many will say this statement has no truth in it whatsoever but I stand by it. Not a single week passes by without having heard any talk of either a government official being accused of this or that, or a politician's name being brandied about in talks of mismanagement of funds or foul conduct.

I read on a Sunday paper about how the Minister of Communications has allegedly had her boyfriend paid money to the tune of R6 million. That was after allegations were leveled against Minister Joemat-Petersen and before that we had former minister Shiceka who took to the vacation to see his jailed woman, and if that is not enough, we also had General Cele. Now it is the president with his "New York".

I find it difficult to understand that these people are in the forefront of the movement of the people. The National democratic Revolution has been betrayed and abandoned by those who claim to have sacrifice their lives for it. They walk around with the expensive watches and driving their big wheels and drinking expensive whiskey at the expense of the very mass of people they claim to have fought for.

I am not saying that our government officials must look like they are not getting paid, but what I am saying is that it is crazy that they get paid so much. Public servants should not get paid anything more than R200 000 per annum. I say this because I think politicians feel the need to give each other so much money as they do because of a deeply-conditioned belief that only they can do the jobs they do. They are arrogant about serving the people and they spend millions and billions (may be trillions too) walking the best shopping malls of the world.

Upon the success of his revolution, Thomas Sankara ensured that government officials' salaries were halved and brought down to HUMBLE numbers. Try suggesting that to the ANC and the DA led governments and you will hear all sorts of things. They would say that is not realistic. They want to keep the status quo as it is so that we, the poor, shall remain poor.

They have now endorsed the R105 a day wages for the farm-workers to please those who already enjoy all the wealth of the nation. They refuse us only R45 and threaten our brothers in the platinum mines, of retrenchments because they saw the poor held by the masses during the Marikana slaughter.
Would President Zuma go on national TV to announce his intention to halve his salary? Would the CEOs of all government parastatals do the same? What about Premier Helen Zille? None of these people would ever do this but it is them who go around the country telling the poor people, like me, that they wish to better our lives.

I mean, if we are the government, then the employees there are our employees, then we should consulted when their salaries are being negotiated but that never happens. How is it possible that a servant earns more than a master? This shows the truth in what Muammar El Gadaffi said when charged that the model of democracy employed by the western countries ( and South Africa) are practically dictatorships. People are forced, systematically, to endorse ideals and decisions they would have otherwise rejected because the "majority" agrees. Usually, in these cases the "Majority" refers to the few urban people they call in for those "public consultation" meetings.

It is unfair that those who claim to be sympathetic to us, the poor, continue to live like ancient kings of Egypt with gold and silver aplenty. It is criminal that government officials must earn so much money when those who give the mandate are as poor as the poorest. Yet, in all of this, our people are quiet. They sit in their little RDP houses, shacks (if one is lucky) and the streets where they sleep. The poor man was subjected to so much suffering at the hands of the fascist white minority which unlawfully ruled our land, yet at the very height of our national democratic revolution, it is still the poor man who faces hunger, strive and extinction in the case of the indigenous Bushmen, the Khomani, the Nama, the Griqua and the many other peoples of this beautiful land of ours.

We are being robbed, our women are being raped and our children are being raised in a politically savage and brutal society where all sorts of corruption and theft are the order of the day. Minister Thulas Nxesi came on TV the other day to try and justify why his department spent so much money in Zumaville but all that fell from his lips was nothing short of a blame-game.

To this effect, I have declared myself ungovernable by the individuals mentioned in this post, and I am, as of now, declaring that to me, until someone in government has the guts to halve their salary for the gain of the poor, certain laws of this government are inapplicable. Let them bring their forces of destruction in blue (Police), the soldiers and the grudges (not judges for none has that right over me except Jah the Almighty) to me, I have no fear.

Those who were gods shall become dogs and those who were dogs shall become gods.