On Wednesday, most of us will hopefully stand in a small cubicle to cast a vote for our political party of choice.
I haven’t made my choice yet, because I haven’t heard anyone commenting on any of the things I want to happen over the next five years.
First and foremost, I want to see some change in the police force. I want to see properly trained police officers and I want to see a few get fired for corruption. You always hear of police officers taking bribes and intimidating people, but you never hear about one of them getting booted out the door.
This happened to me recently. I drove into a park we often visit, because it’s close to the office and it’s a nice place to eat lunch. Upon entering the park, I was approached by two plainclothes police officers, which told me they were going to search my car and me. It was plainly meant as intimidation, because they made it very clear that I would be arrested if they found something even remotely suspicious.
They found nothing in the car, because it was brand new and on me they found a wallet, which they rifled through for no good reason other than to check for cash, a cellphone and a microphone. One of them asked me what the latter was and I told him.
“Why do you have a microphone,” asked the one.
“Because I’m waiting for my film crew,” I told them.
At that very moment, my film crew arrived, at which point the two police officers retreated to find some other poor soul to torment.
The next thing on my list of things for politicians to do is either remove the fuel levy, or tear down those blasted e-toll gantries.
I’m hoping for the latter, in which case I also want a proper breakdown of how the fuel levy is spent every month. I want to see where every single cent went and I want a document justifying every single spend out of the fuel levy coffers.
While we’re at it, I want to see the same thing for the emissions tax. A while ago I tried to get the treasury to tell me what that money is used for, but the best answer I received is that it goes into the general account, which is used for whatever. When pushed for an answer, I was told that the money is used for various purposes.
That’s not a real answer. Filling the fire pool at Nkandla is a various purpose. I want to know that emissions taxes are used to actually decrease so-called harmful toxins from entering the atmosphere.
So far I haven’t heard any party talking about the plight of the motorist. That’s what I’m after.
I’m fully aware that there are more important issues that need to be addressed, but asking for some transparency concerning tolling and taxing and some discipline from our police should be somewhere near the top of every politician’s list.