‘President Zuma must effect drastic savings now’

Sir
The announcement by President Zuma to have one capital is a red herring. If it happens, he will no longer be President.
His attempt to assuage the anger of taxpayers, who will be incensed with tax increases in 11 days’ time, will not work. Everyone knows how extravagant he has been in using extreme patronage to keep his power base. COPE has repeatedly asked for a massive reduction in the size of government through all three spheres. The richest countries in the world cannot afford to carry as many public representatives as we have in all three spheres of government. This must be corrected. While contemplating a move to have one capital, President Zuma could have announced that cabinet would be immediately slashed to 20 ministers and 10 deputy ministers. Such a move would remove the need for houses, cars, offices, staff, and so on for 15 ministers and 28 deputy ministers who will no longer be needed. In effect the savings would be greater than consolidating the two capitals. The beauty is that this could be done at once.
Last year we pleaded with President Zuma not to accede to salary increases for himself and for public representatives. He shut his ears so tight no sound could penetrate that barrier. He knew there was no money in the treasury but he signed off on the increase.
The national debt has soared to over a trillion rand. As a result, between R130 – R140-billion will have to be taken out from the revenue government has collected to service the national debt. This reduces fiscal space considerably.
On top of that, having an obese government, too big to keep awake and too big to keep mobile, erodes fiscal space even more. The excessively extravagant Zuma administration must not look to taxpayers to meekly dig deeper to bail out his government. He will soon see tax protestors joining the rank of other protestors. The government must begin with a 60% reduction in the size of government immediately.
President Zuma can no longer have his cake and eat it. Even if the ANC comes first for him, he can no longer pamper his supporters at the expense of the public. Forty-three ministers and deputy ministers must go at once. Other tiers of government must also downsize.
Ruling party MPs and ministers have been guilty of allowing a monumental increase in the size of government. They refused to exercise scrutiny over him or to call him to account. They have eaten too well and satiated themselves while the poor have grown hungrier all the time. The so-called “better life” has been a phantom except for selected cadres.
The transformation that was promised never happened. Inequality has widened. Society is fracturing. Government has to downsize.
Voters will need to do what ruling party MPs and Baleka Mbete have refused to do: call government to account. They can do so by creating voter blocs in each ward and for such voter blocs to demand proper service delivery. By applying voting pressure, during the local government elections, people can take back government and prevent the ruling party from continuing to be the self-serving oligarchy that it has been since 2009.
If society fails to act, as ruling party MPs have failed to act, our sovereign bonds will be reduced to junk status and the hardships that will follow for people will be “too ghastly to contemplate”.
Dennis Bloem
COPE