We think that every minister, deputy minister, provincial premier and mayor should, before swearing an oath to commit themselves to the service of “our people”, be obliged to study the life of José “Pepe” Mujica, the 40th president of Uruguay.
Serving from 2010 to 2015, he often drove himself around in his sky-blue 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.
His personal residence – his wife’s flower farm outside Montevideo, not the presidential palace – was often guarded by only two plainclothes police officers and his famous three-legged dog, Manuela.
Not that our ruling class, ensconced in their massive limos and SUVs, surrounded by the black sunglass-wearing, gun-toting “close protection” operators, would be inspired by Mujica.
Nobody joins politics to be humble, or poor, not so?
On the contrary, taxpayers in this country are about to be stung even harder to ensure our politicians are further cocooned from those around them.
Nearly R2.5 billion could be spent on VIP protection services for the president and his Cabinet ministers in the 2026-27 financial year, says Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia.
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Cachalia did go into excruciating detail about what the money would be spent on but even those numbers gave no indication whether we are getting real value for our spend.
Nor, even more importantly, did it address the elephant in the Treasury vaults: What is the threat?
We can understand that when ANC leaders like OR Tambo came back to the country from exile and Nelson Mandela was released from jail, they actually needed protection.
There were supporters of apartheid and virulent anti-communists who wanted to get rid of them.
Yet, they had nothing like the number of armed bodyguards, nor the ostentatious “blue light” motorcades that our current leaders do.
Comrades, you are either scared of your own people or you fancy yourself as royalty.
Neither is a very good look.
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