Don’t worry it’s November!

Today, seven years ago, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini delivered the ill-fated November statement that took the country 100 years back. It ushered a judiciary blackout and gross violation of human rights.

It was the November statement wherein government made a commitment to listen to itself only. Courts were made non-existent.
In 2009, during the dreaded month of November, Finance Minister Majozi Sithole is brandishing an axe inscribed tax. Why is it always that November becomes suitable for unpalatable stunts?

Former PM A.T Dlamini attempted to fast-track the country back to normal ways but I was not convinced. Some of the evictees of Macetjeni and KaMkhweli remain in the wilderness despite claims that we are back to normal.
However, before I delve more into today’s topic, if you may allow me to call to order one Macford Sibandze.

Macford works as Tourism Minister. In a nutshell he is part of the team that normally calls for belt tightening.
I have been watching Macford bring tourists in the country like never before (good boy) but I get annoyed when he speaks like a loose cannon. There is a European tourist that claimed harassment at the hands of our local police. The tourist’s complaint revolved around being charged or almost charged for a traffic offence he claims he did not commit.

Now, my concern is that the tourist did not specifically disclose in his complaint where around the country he was harassed by cops. That, to me, made his argument extremely weak but loaded with colonial bravado hangover. Things have changed poor tourist. Macford who is currently swinging in a wave of success with his ‘Visit Swaziland’ campaign did not see that, instead like an African entrenched in some regal balderdash offered a misguided apology that I am sure tastes like cow dung to cops.

Clearly, Macford who recently sold a piece of land, ironically to a cop, without a title deed needed to consult extensively on the complaint before offering his divisive apology. It should have been a joint apology involving the cops or alternatively the cops alone. I must say that Macford’s shooting from the hip would not make us the best destination for tourists that we aspire to be but rather a humble and warm abode for traffic offenders from all over the world, all in the name of tourism.

That said, I now as I hereby do declare the Macford’s headless apology null and void until someone clarifies if cops were involved. Everyone driving in this country, tourist, idiot, clown, prostitute and a minister is expected to abide by our rules. No tourist will come tell us what to do.

That said, I must warn cops not to mess around with people on the roads if the mysterious tourist is to be believed. Again, I must congratulate cops for their visibility on the roads lately, in particular during peak hours. I wonder what happens to them when it rains because that is when we need them the most. Crack the whip Isaac Magagula. So far so good!

The bigger issue today is the tax axe Majozi is wielding carelessly. Religious readers of this column should be aware of the warning I issued early in the year on pending heavy taxes. To recap, I said I smell inunu.  This was when the business unusual animal came out of the maternity ward.

I don’t know where to start. However, I have three choices, to start from the beginning or at the end or both. Bottom line is we are submerged in a quandary. We are faced with the problem usually faced by young lovers; after the orgasm, what?
The pending taxes on our income as stated by Majozi looks like an orgy scenario, at least to me. In any event, it had to end like this. Never mind how it began, assuming it did. Things are crazy in this country. Majozi, in a nutshell says government would be introducing tax for free education and cattle among other things.

Clearly, I am not against being taxed because logic dictates that when government gives to its people it must first take away from them. I have always known governments the world over to be keen collectors of fines and taxes. Swaziland happens to be part of the said governments.

To simplify the jargon on tax and fine; a fine is the tax you pay for doing something wrong while tax is the fine you pay for doing everything right. The unfortunate fact is that we cannot do anything about it.
However, we have all the right to protest when our government’s only way of communication becomes flooding us with taxes.  Clearly, to force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed toting up insult to a gaping injury.

To a large extent we have to accept that for government to deliver free education someone had to pay but surely not in a rash and irresponsible manner as it appears. From where I am sitting, I get the impression that somehow government is getting back at its people for demanding free education.

Another put off in the whole tax mess is that it comes while we are trembling from shock over the hefty pay rise given to legislators. The country needs about E50 million to cater for politicians’ new salaries. It gets difficult to swallow such a heavy and bitter pill that Majozi is administering on us.

It has reached a point where I feel no man’s life, liberty, money and property are safe in this country while the legislature and the executive arm of government are in session. Cabinet meets on Tuesdays or any other day when necessary while MPs meet almost daily, at a fee.

Under normal circumstances our hopes as tax payers should be resting on legislators’ shoulders, sadly we are alone. Our MPs are living and working like civil servants who at times are like broken cannons - they won’t work and you can’t fire them.
In this country we still need a government that would make a distinction between being a tax collector and a taxidermist. We are being skinned alive. For Majozi and team it is easy to say taxes are on their way without considering the obtaining situation in the country.

The working population in the country is dwindling and government appears pulling its feet in addressing the industrial meltdown we are languishing in. Sappi is closing shop and government stands accused of living things until late.

How I wish Commerce Minister Jabulile Mashwama would put the equal amount of effort on her job, like she does to her wardrobe. What’s the use of walking tall and in glitz above a skeletal citizenry? Her ministry stands accused of frustrating a sorghum growing project that would have seen a reasonable number of jobs created.
I have no problem meeting government halfway where public service delivery is concerned but I get worried when a government that claims to be running a starving wallet would spend recklessly and pay big salaries to its leaders, for nothing if you care to know.

History has also taught me that our government goes bananas when it sees money, thus I would be reluctant to pay any further tax than I am taxed as you read this. Giving money and power to our government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

For now, I assume Majozi is playing the game known as peekaboo. What I know though, is that this game is played on children who know nothing about tax. Are we children?
The problem with our unique Tinkhundla democracy is that it only allows a chosen few to say what they think even if they don’t think at all. Ideally speaking, a government has to lead by example. If it breaks the law, steals from its people and display stinking arrogance, it would get the same. Such lunatic stunts breeds contempt for law. Garbage in, garbage out!

My suspicion, at least for now, is that the pending taxes are tailored to fund some of our brainless capital projects, not what we are being told. This government and others before it spend money recklessly and have proven to be too responsive to transient concerns, most often than not at the expense of more important issues like the glaring erosion of our liberty and financial freedom.

Personally, I think what we are giving government currently as tax is more than good enough. The only missing link would be the commitment of spending it wisely. Our government has lost a sense of tragedy and the recognition that bad things happen to idiots like us.

My suggestion is that government creates employment because by so doing more people would pay relatively low taxes. The bigger the numbers the better! Creating more employment would cancel even the thought of taxing us more. I request commitment from government in playing her role as opposed to making us an option for generating revenue.

Does it mean our government would collapse in the event we all die? It gets scary when a government relies on pick-pocketing its people. The taxes, to me smack of organised crime where people are robbed in broad daylight, legally though.

We slept on our laurels when South Africa availed opportunities that came with the 2010 soccer spectacular, it would be hosting in just less than 200 days. It tastes sour when government only remembers its people when in financial problems. I propose that the masses are consulted on the muted taxes.

Some of us have questions to ask and propositions. I am sure it would hurt no one to suggest pay cuts for politicians, an across the board reduction of trips abroad, cut on money spent on national celebrations and buy cars only when necessary. The list is endless. Surely millions of Emalangeni could be saved if the above could be looked into with a critical and caring eye.

At the rate things are being done it shows that we are breeding a country of dunder-heads and criminals. There appears to be no plan whatsoever on how tertiary education would be funded in future at the wake of the discontinuation of scholarships.

A majority of people that used government scholarship are around, some working for the state, thus it should be easy to make them pay back. That’s one way of getting money than to punish us for being employed.
Why do we have to suffer for govern-ment’s inefficiencies in getting its money back? Why is it always easy to make us pay? Like I said earlier on, it has to be November where bizarre stunts are the order.

The mysterious scenario in this whole government orgy is what would happen to our children after Form V, assuming the free education would eventually take them there? How possible is it for one to foot a huge tax bill and the exorbitant tertiary education fees? That is why I am convinced we are headed for the dunderhead factory status as opposed to first world country status.

Children of those in power would continue to be the only ones exposed to proper education and by extension would come back and rule over us. That is why when you look around the cubicles of power in the country, on a good day you find a prince on a bad day you find a son of a prince, a former minister’s daughter, current minister’s son, a brother to someone who knows somebody in the royal family, a chief, the list is endless.

In the unlikely event, someone with a brain but has no links with any of the above connections is appointed into some high political office, whether by design of pure fluke, you would find a prince or a successful royal bootlicker chairing the board of directors. In a nutshell, we will continue to see the same people in power. Don’t worry it’s November.