Day 22 - Neo Apartheid: Steal from the Poor and give to the Rich

Recently in the Gauteng Province in South Africa the government has been pushing for a new road tolling system called “e-tolling”. My main focus in this blog is not going to be about the system of e-tolling, but rather the speed that the government has used in pushing the system. The government says that the money from the new tolling system would be used to implement road upgrades. The cost of these upgrades would be around R20 Billion, but the expected profits from the new tolling system would be around R70 Billion. The article compares how the government is pushing this new system with a lot more due diligence than – for instance – the slow pace of restricting labour brokers.

"When it comes to the capitalist class, the government had speed in its legs. But when it comes to the interests of the poor the government moves very slowly,"
This quote from the article pretty much describes the whole point of Neo Apartheid, steal from the poor to make the rich richer.
“Vavi said money lost through corruption had to be retrieved and put towards building roads."This e-tolling thing is another way to steal from the poor." "Don't be arrogant with power, because we as workers will take that power and then you will be ordinary people," Vavi said.”
There is a planned protest march against this new system, where the main speaker and instigator of this protest has asked the people to drive to the nearest toll gate and park their car in front of it for the whole day in protest to this system.
"Comrades bring along your cars, bicycles, and horses if you have one, to close down the freeways on Thursday."
I wonder though if any of these protests would make any sort of a difference as the upper class will always find a way to secure their own position. The only way to really change the point is to change the system, to change the rules of the game. To help redesign the system for what is best for all come join us at www.equalmoney.org 

Sources:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Vavi-Govt-moved-fast-on-tolls-20121130
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Cosatu-threatens-to-destroy-toll-booths-20121128
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Toll-vandals-will-be-punished-govt-20121129-2
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Anti-tolling-marches-under-way-20121130

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Day 20 - ANC Squanders Taxpayers Money Under NeoApartheid

I read an interesting news article recently about how the two main international airports in South Africa have not been doing health checks for travellers from the rest of Africa. They specify that they should have been checking for “Yellow Fever” which according to the WHO is a virus that kills on average 30 000 people a year in Africa as there are no specific treatments for the virus. The WHO also said that the virus is usually transmitted by mosquitos.

The reason that they have not been doing the health checks due to – in part – the lack of staff, also the staff has not been willing to work on public holidays and weekends as they do not get paid overtime. The provincial health department and Airports Company SA could not be reached for comment. The Information was brought forward by the Democratic Alliance.

From my perspective one of the points that I saw within this article is that the current government is using state funds for personal reasons rather than putting the money where it should go. For example: The UK annually sends 19 million Pounds of aid to the South African government mainly aimed at reducing HIV. The reason I say this is because of the fact that there has been a recent scandal around President Zuma concerning the upgrades to his personal “palace”. The South African government spent around 17.5 million Pounds on the Presidents family home and about 40 million Pounds on upgrading the roads around and in his Palace, all of this money came from taxpaying citizens. Another point is that President Zuma asked many companies, mainly in the mining sector to “tighten their belts” so that they can pay their workers more. All the while he is doing things like this where he throws taxpayers money around like it is nothing and the government stops allocating the money that should go to things like public transport, public healthcare, job creation, education and food security. What this is saying to South African citizens is that the government has a lot of money but it is used for the betterment of the ruling party and its members rather than the people who the ruling party are supposed to be protecting and empowering.

To read more click here

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