I had to supress a smile when I read reports about KZN Premier, Sihle Zikalala lamenting the ‘conspicuous consumption’ displayed by many of the attendees at the recent birthday celebrations for the organisation, held locally.
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No doubt he saw no irony in climbing into a luxury SUV and being whisked off in a blue light convoy, or enjoying his lunch in the well-guarded VIP or VVIP dining area.
Resources
The trappings of power have become the norm for the top echelons of the ruling party and apparatus, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between party and state resources.
The fact that over R2bn is spent entirely on the corps of VIP protectors from the president down to the mayor of the smallest municipality is just considered business as usual, and appears to be immune from any ‘belt tightening’ appeals from the fiscus.
The gulf between the political elite and the ordinary man in the street continues to grow unabated.
Ordinary
Sure, the president tries to portray himself as an ‘ordinary Joe’ with his morning power walks with community members – often accompanied by local or provincial politicians (who in the main cannot disguise the fact that they would rather be doing something else, perhaps brunch at some five star venue?).
The honeymoon period is surely over for the governing elite
But it cannot escape the notice of disgruntled communities protesting over non-existent service delivery, that ministers, MECs or premiers arrive in a phalanx of luxury vehicles to try and placate them.
Patience
It is clear that the patience of communities faced with empty promises year after year is wearing thin.
Beyond the barricading of streets and burning vehicles, they are now taking to the courts to force the so-called custodians of good governance, the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to place dysfunctional municipalities in administration, and clear up the rot, as happened recently in Bloemfontein.
Perhaps they have learned that burning libraries and schools that never get rebuilt is essentially shooting themselves in the foot and a more intelligent approach is called for.
Bloated
while there was some tolerance from the man in the street for the luxurious trapping of power enjoyed by them, perhaps as a ‘reward’ for delivering freedom, the unabated splurging of state resources on supporting the lifestyles of three tiers of bloated government, will no longer go unchallenged as taps run dry, streets go dark, and schoolchildren are forced to use pit toilets.
After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, he joined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.
He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.
Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.
More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.
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