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Save yourselves the trouble and get e-tags, you are going to do it anyway, says the writer.
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We have given government the impression that we will get annoyed, but soon get over it and move on, says Zola Mbulawa.
Johannesburg road users, get the e-tags and move on, you always do! As of December 3, motorists using the roads in Johannesburg will start paying for using the roads.
This will mark the start of e-tolling.
This has obviously incensed most motorists in Joburg, with some threatening to break the law by not getting the e-tags that are necessary for government to levy the toll fees.
Let’s be clear on one thing, there is a difference between protesting and breaking the law and refusing to pay toll fees is breaking the law. In all this mêlée, I cannot help but comment on the collective schizophrenia that this seems to suggest.
Let me explain this in simple terms. Last year, the government wasted R30 billion of our money. All we could muster was a murmur – we didn’t even protest against this.
Simply put, the government wasted about R586.05 for every citizen.
This is the same government that spent over R200 million on Jacob Zuma’s private residence – and we haven’t protested about this.
It seems schizophrenic to me that people are ready to protest when a certain portion of our population perceive themselves to be ripped off – and yet we have been inactive when we have been ripped off as a collective.
For me the issue here is that we have given government the impression that they can do as they please, and we will get annoyed, but soon get over it and move on.
In some countries when citizens are upset with government they stage protests that last for weeks and camp at seats of government. But in South Africa we take to Twitter and Facebook and go on as if all is well.
This has borne no results at all.
You only have to think back to the Scorpions to realise that displeasure alone doesn’t change things, action does.
There are a number of things that the government has done that have annoyed the people but we have chosen to take it on the chin and move on. What better way to tell government that we are resilient and they can just ride roughshod over us, we will be fine.
Come next elections the same government will be re-elected and the message there is simple. We may not like the e-tolls, the Guptas landing at Waterkloof, the millions spent on Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home but, you know what, we like these guys. They may annoy us and treat us like imbeciles and disrespect us but they are fit to govern us.
This is where I find us as schizophrenic and irrational.
One might argue that the way we have become an individualistic society in that only when it becomes seriously uncomfortable for us at a personal level, do we act – but I contend that spending R586.05 of my money should incense me just as much as asking me to pay the e-tolls for using a road.
If we are the same citizens that seem to complain about lawlessness and people breaking the law and not facing the consequences, it baffles me that we would resort to breaking the law to try and raise our concerns to government when we have other avenues that could be more effective.
The reality is that when the summons come, they will come to individuals and people will have to make a decision on whether or not the inconvenience of going to court is worth it. And I can assure you, most of those who will be faced with this will choose to pay and skip the inconvenience.
Come next elections, we will vote as though we have not been upset or disrespected by the ANC – and we will effectively vote them back into power saying, “go ahead, annoy us for another five years”.
Our actions on e-tolls will be no different from how we have always behaved and my suggestion is: save yourselves the trouble and get e-tags, you are going to do it anyway.
* Zola Mbulawa is a Cape Town-based commentator.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.
The Star