We paid for the advertisements

‘Voter’ writes:-

IT DOESN’T matter anyway because by the time you publish this letter (if you publish it) it will make no difference, because the Vryheid Herald comes out on Thursday and the election is on Wednesday. But maybe for future reference.

I think that this election has been marked by deceit on the part of the government. Time and again we were told on the SABC and e-tv that the election advertisements were paid for by the parties concerned, and were not the opinions of the television station. This is fair enough.

But for the past few months there have been numerous advertisements from government departments telling us what a wonderful job the departments have been doing. These adverts were, in effect, extensions of ANC propaganda since the departments concerned (even provinces concerned) are controlled or run by the ANC’s faithful stalwarts.

But who paid for these departmental adverts? The taxpayers did, of course! In effect, the taxpayer paid for an extension of the ANC’s election campaign.

And then, after the election, in the next few months, all the politicians will disappear back to their air-conditioned offices and cars, the bragging departments will slip back into their lethargic programme of go-slow service delivery, and we’ll have another five years of decline of standards and corruption to the detriment of the voters. Why are we so forgiving?