Dear Mr Ramaphosa,
I trust that you are well.
I write this letter as I am truly disturbed by the latest budget speech delivered to South Africa. My heart burns with a slow burning anger as every word from Finance Minister Gigaba hit me full in the face. As a taxpayer (like all South Africans who purchase anything with a tax on it) I feel an anger that is hard to explain. It is not one of those hot angers that go away in a flash… it is an anger that is like a hot bed of coals, burning without a flame, waiting to consume any piece of fuel that may come close.
I wouldn’t even begin to pretend that I speak for the rest of the nation, but I am sure there are others that feel the exact same anger that I feel.
For decades citizens have had to watch as the South African government has taken our tax money and squandered it on bridges that collapse, frivolous trips to Milan and other destinations, expensive cars, expensive houses, expensive parties, fraudulent tenders, blatant looting of the public coffers and it all culminating in our last president who has sold our nation to various friends and relatives. All of these activities have been paid for by us, the citizens on this nation. It was not only paid for with our tax money, but with our hopes, dreams and in many cases, lives.
This government of ours has failed to stem the flow of public money into the black hole created by the very same government. For years we have had to sit and watch how government passes blame for their failure which is to ensure that our tax money is spent on our citizens.
We have had to endure paying for services which are always delivered in a fraudulent, inefficient manner, or not even delivered at all. We have suffered for years being forced to watch as our government laughed at us and our needs. We are taken for fools and fools we are for expecting something different from our government when experience shows us that the government couldn’t care less.
Yes, I said it, the government does not care. We watched as chance after chance to remove our obviously compromised president just went by. We had to endure the laughter when again and again the leader’s misdeeds are shown to the world. All the while still being expected to pay for his and his cronies’ misdeeds.
No, Mr President, I am very angry indeed, because after paying for well over a decade for the misconduct of our government… Mr Gigaba explained that I am expected to pay even more and that this somehow gives us hope. I was not filled with hope, I was filled with anger as I looked at the husk that is left of my small company and the words came out of his mouth that I am expected to pay even more.
For Zuma’s theft I have had to pay with more than just money. I have had to let go of amazing people who worked for me, I have had to watch a company that I took pride in shrink month after month as the economy worsened and Brand South Africa was destroyed. No, I have paid so much already, yet more is expected.
No, Mr President, YOU should have gone before the nation on your knees and apologised on behalf of the government for years of the people being forced to pay for the government’s misdeeds and now having to pay even more to fix it.
There is no other action that you could take that would quell my anger. I deserve such an apology… the nation deserves such an apology. But I honestly doubt that we would get it. It’s not in the nature of our government to give the people what they deserve.
