Lipstick on a Pig

So the government has sweetened the Gauteng e-Toll deal. Cyril got the delicious job of being the front man for this ongoing trainsmash. (I get a feeling Zuma is going to throw more and more crap Cyril's way to see just how low he will sink to satisfy his political ambitions.)

Without going into pedantic detail here is my understanding of how it worked prior to Cyril's recent statement  ...

• You get billed somewhere around 60 cents for every kilometre of GFIP e-Toll road you travel. If you pay promptly you get a discount so that you pay somewhere around 30 cents per kilometre.

• In the brave new world of the new e-Toll dispensation you get charged 30 cents for every kilometre of GFIP e-Toll road you travel. If you don't pay promptly the rate is increased to 60 cents a kilometre.

• The maximum that a small segment of e-Toll road users will be charged is reduced from R450 per month to R225 per month.

• And if you don't pay promptly that maximum becomes ... you guessed it ... R450, the old maximum.

To the best of my understanding I can see no material difference between these two. They both seem to be structured like this: If you pay promtly you pay 30 cents per kilometre  and if you don't pay promptly you pay 60 cents per kilometre. Granted if you're a goody two shoes you get away with a lower monthly maximum.

I'm guessing that the management cost, that mysterious secret amount that the public shall not be told, remains a constant. If so, then the collection mechanism becomes even more inefficient as the management cost becomes a higher proportion of the total amount collected.

Then comes the bullying. If you don't pay then you will not be allowed to renew your vehicle license.

I sense that as the ANC trots deeper and deeper into the realms of the indefensible we will see more and more similar bullying tactics.

The whole GFIP e-Toll disaster reflects how the ANC has no concept or interest in the concept of governing for the good of the people. Government is supposed to be there for good of the people of the country, or in a reasonably adequate world they should be. The ANC is progressively less and less in government for the good of the people and the rate of gouging the citizens has accelerated under Jacob Zuma's watch.