Tax Money for the ANC to Abuse

The ANC is doing an amazing job... of spending tax money earned by hardworking citizens on the unemployed. Here is what the poor receive in South Africa, after the political fat-cats have taken their share:

Free housing, free medical care, free education, free water and electricity, child and old-age grants, tax exemption, a lifetime of welfare dependence. The picture of the shanty on the right is not one that you receive for free from government, it is the one many people construct for themselves so that they can rent out the free house they received from government.

Here is what business owners pay for, so that the poor can get all the free stuff mentioned above:

Housing, medical, education, water and electricity, pension and retirement annuity, 29% company tax, 40% personal tax, 14% VAT, road levies, petrol levies and on and on…

White folk are lambasted on a daily basis in news articles, opinion pieces and media releases by traditionally black political parties and trade union movements for being white. We are reminded of how much we owe South Africa because of apartheid. We are sworn at by “car-guards” and “parking attendants” (see note below) when we don’t give them money for doing absolutely nothing. We are reminded how the shares we might own in mining will soon be worth nothing because a large number of blacks in South Africa have stated their intention to nationalise mines, banks and farms. There are black people who intend to take away the stuff owned by white people, with no compensation.

This might all sound rather dramatized and unrealistic, but take the time to read about it in news sources or even on the websites of various powerful political (e.g. African National Congress Youth League) and economic entities (e.g. Congress of South African Trade Unions) associated with the ANC. It seems a fanciful contention, but it is theirs, not mine. Fair enough, every lunatic is entitled to their opinion… unless it incites violence and foments intolerance and hatred.

I will be lambasted all over again for writing this article because white guilt and black entitlement have gone so far, that the truth comes in a distant second to the feelings of the previously disadvantaged. This article is a generalization, so I am quite certain that individuals from various camps will leap out of their chairs and exclaim Not all whites are like that! Not all blacks are like that! I agree wholeheartedly, but here is my unapologetic view.

To the beggars, car guards, parking attendants, traffic-light window-washers and other unemployed and lazy in South Africa: you will not get a cent more from me. If you want a job or some money, ask the political party you voted for in the last elections. If you voted for the ANC, then go and ask them. If you didn’t bother to vote, then you have nobody to ask and no right to complain.

I already pay over 60% of the income I earn to charity. That is quite apart from the income I generate indirectly as an entrepreneur and business owner; that is quite apart from the employment our business gives to forty people; that is simply from the income I personally earn. As far as I am concerned, you can all sod off. I contribute plenty every month and the 40% that remains is mine. It is not relevant whether I drive an expensive sports car and live in a house far bigger than I need. I worked for it and paid for it. Or, as I selfishly like to think of it, I earned it.

The charity to which all South African entrepreneurs and business owners donate is called the ANC. We should accept that it is our duty as citizens of this beautiful country and for being hard-working, self-supporting, risk-taking (hyphen-enslaved) entrepreneurs.

Do not argue that our tax money is well spent towards social welfare and economic infrastructure because if you do, you either do not know the reality in South Africa or you are one of the ingrates benefiting from our charitable contribution, who feels that you ought to receive more from our efforts. Infrastructure has all but collapsed in South Africa and certainly, my personal experience and enjoyment of it is declining every year, despite the fact that my contribution has increased over the years. In a first world country, tax money is rightly spent on subsidising the underprivileged, while in a banana republic the higher-earning individuals must pay for private healthcare, private pensions and private education, while contributing the lion’s share in taxes to pay for those underprivileged.

The reference to a charitable contribution is quite deliberate because you give to charity expecting nothing in return – and believe me, we get nothing, and expect even less from the astonishingly useless, unaccountable bunch of buffoons in the ANC government. Much like the proverbial pooh in a kiddie’s pool, most of South Africa’s people are as disgusted by it as they are helpless - or unwilling - to do anything about it.

I cannot pretend to understand it, but have been led to appreciate that one of the most negative results of apartheid was the reality of modern slave labour, fractured families, unstable communities and the ensuing social challenges. On many days, these seem almost insurmountable given the weight of history, familial sentiment and popular collective anger that resides within a population that is mostly capable of forgiveness and seeking interracial harmony, but is constantly stirred up by a few radical elements. With the exception of shameful media hype, this country’s people are generally not particularly interested in black and white. The quest for harmony is welcomed from all sides of the cultural spectrum, until the time comes to cast your ballot. The abhorrent physical enslavement and its consequences appear to have ultimately changed into a no less destructive type of enslavement – blind, grateful, loyalty to the liberating movement, to the exclusion of all others. Freedom fighters of old have indoctrinated their youth to vote for the ANC and never any other political party. Here lies the real tragedy because those voters should be on the receiving end of the 60% contribution we have made, but they stand in long queues to no end due to maladministration by the folk they voted for and always will vote for. Who do you blame now?

In general, black people do not seem to hate white people, and they certainly carry the historical weight in their favour to do so. The corollary is that white people do not hate black people either, despite current affirmative action economic policies that are clearly aimed at distributing wealth from white to black. This article is not written to deal with this topic, because it involves industrious, driven people of all races striving for personal economic excellence.

And this brings us to a conclusion of sorts. I make my regular contribution to the ANC charity relatively willingly, as do entrepreneurs and business owners of all colours and creeds, so that I can feel not the slightest twinge of guilt when I see another lazy car guard in my car’s rear view mirror, swearing at me as I drive off without giving him a cent.

(Note: No disrespect is meant to the genuine, industrious car guards and parking attendants earning their living like every other citizen. In South Africa, car guards and parking attendants are often unemployed people who loiter around parking lots and extort small change from motorists parking by pretending to offer some undefined and unaccountable type of security for your motor vehicle while you are in the shops. If you immediately reject their advances, your car may be inexplicably damaged, so it is best to play along. Window washers similarly loiter, but at traffic lights, and pretend to wash your windscreen while you are temporarily halted for a red light. They intimidate motorists into paying them with a threatening demeanour and playing on conscience for their 15 seconds of effort “washing” your windscreen. They are also associated with increased criminal activity.)