DO NOT despair at the Pretoria High Court decision on Monday in the case brought by private airline, Comair, to allow the government to continue diverting money recklessly from what was budgeted for the poor to the rich who fly and manage South African Airways (SAA). Do not despair at ministers being free to ignore promises and policies, to entice trusting people into private airlines under false pretences, and to perpetuate bankrupt apartheid dinosaurs. You have a practical solution. Weep.
Do not despair if you are a fat-cat taxpayer. The government will not take one extra cent from you to finance its folly. Every cent will continue to be diverted from education, housing, hospitals, police, welfare and services. Do not despair if you are an ANC member of Parliament. The judgment does not require you to perform parliamentary oversight, or to stop the executive making secret decisions in smoke-free rooms to subvert your policies. It allows the executive to make you redundant by taking over your legislative and policy-making role.
Read Leon Louw’s latest column in Business Day BDlive – Don’t despair at ministers ignoring promises and policies — weep first published on 3 June 2015 to see just how bad the situation has become. Leon Louw is the executive director of the Free Market Foundation in South Africa.