The great SARS collection scam.

Can we believe all of the amazing collection stories we hear about the SARS?  I was recently both a victim and a spectator in what I believe to be an internal scam at SARS.  I initially had an amount owing to me by SARS for a tax year. After receiving an IT34, statement of account, all that remained was for them to make payment.

However payment was not forth coming, instead there was request for additional reconcilement of accounts, this was duly done and returned to the receiver. Then, a revised IT34 statement of account was forwarded to me which now indicated the full tax amount as previously paid in by me was now outstanding. On examining the IT34 statement of account (revised) it was noted that no tax paid for that year was actually reflected, having the net result of a rather large amount now due. 

Accounting sources tell me that this practice is quite widespread and that errors can take up to three months to correct and in many cases SARS demands payment before any such errors can be corrected.

So where is the scam? That took me a while to figure out, and it was only after I heard a comment passed by one of the SARS employees, regarding collection targets for March that I realized what was happening. 

If targets are not being made, the first objective is to reduce payouts, and if possible turn the payouts into income for SARS, what better way than to raise a query, disallow the payout due and until the entire bureaucratic mess is resolved, the amounts are reflected as due and part of recoveries, resulting in overstated figures due to SARS!

The SARS inspectors responsible for the inflation of reports get to claim the credit for the collections, and life goes on, with them making targets and bonuses until the misadministration is corrected. So not only is the public milked at every turn,  the public also get to fund performance bonuses which are not earned, and are financing imaginary achievements with real money!

Witchcraft and modern politics in Limpopo Province

I have now re-read an article several times regarding the proliferation of witchcraft in Limpopo province. Every time I read it, I am overcome by the same feeling of incredulity, because I don’t know what I should find difficult to accept, the fact that in the third millennium of our existence, in a digital publication, supported by cutting edge technology, a story of this genre is being flighted, or the fact that there are people who still believe in all manner of imaginary things, to the extent that they are willing to commit murder to support their beliefs.

Another severely disturbing facet of the story is that the SAPS have seen fit to lend credence to the story by adopting a matter of fact acceptance of the circumstances of the case.  Seeing the Police Alleging that this type of mentality is normal for this area, indicating beyond any doubt, that they too buy into this practice, and believe in it, and probably on occasion make use of witch craft to try to advance their own careers, makes shudder as to the approach they take to law enforcement. 

  I suppose I should not be so shocked when surrounded by so much evidence to support local beliefs in witchcraft, with stories and facts abounding, of trade in body parts and gory muti murders.  The question which begs to be asked, is that why has this practice not only been tolerated but allowed to flourish, under the guise of traditional beliefs, because by no stretch of the imagination, can any of this be termed medicine? 

We have the most sophisticated constitution in the world, carefully crafted by the best minds in our society, painstakingly written to protect the weak, and to deliver justice and equality to all. Yet we have these medieval instances where we as a society appear to be powerless to act against ignorance, and to protect hardworking citizens, from ostensibly murderous neighbors, whose only reason for wanting to kill them, is that they appear to be more successful than them?

Where in all of this has our government stepped in, and conducted extensive education campaigns, to prevent willful murder of citizens through this kind of entrenched superstitious ignorance?  Is it because they too, consult with the spirits in private and practice muti customs?  Can we entrust our future and the future of our country to people who believe in and condone these practices?

Routers, lightning strikes and tech lessons

A few days ago, our router a reliable and long lasting Netgear DG834GT expired suddenly after being reduced to a lump of useless plastic by a lightning strike in close proximity to the house. There was no spectacular flash or pile of molten plastic, or anything else like that, it just died, no whimper, no anguished scream, just a total loss of connectivity. 

A quick phone call to my local friendly computer outlet, established them as principally a low cost supplier, as they only had stock of Billion routers, and at that, only the entry level Billion, as I was without a functional router, I bought one, probably against my better judgment. My level of doubt regarding the Billion, prompted me to ask the sales person to make a note, that if the Billion did not perform according to expectations, that he would replace it with a Netgear, this agreed on, I left the store, to go home to restore internet connectivity via the Billion router.

The router was connected to the network, and I used the web interface to access the router, I was expecting some differences in menu functionality, and spent a few minutes going through all the menus to familiarize myself with the functionality of the router. My initial impressions were of a product with poor interface design and inferior logic with regard to the menu layout. I however also accepted that after some ten years of using a variety of Netgear products, my familiarity with them would influence my opinion of other competing products, so I soldiered on.

I set up the internal network, added all the wireless stations in the house, after much searching through menus, whose language was as obtuse and the instruction manual. That being done I settled down to do some tests. From the outset, the Billion router was unable to maintain a connection for longer than about 15 minutes to the network. It was susceptible to all the spying scans the network does, and allows others to do on the network, the routers internal security was inadequate. The next day it was returned to the shop, which by now had a Netgear in stock. Unfortunately, it was also an entry level device, a DGN 1000-100E. feeling a bit stung by the Billion I was returning, I  immediately said to the salesperson that I would take the entry level Netgear router on the condition that if it did not perform I would return it.

Fast forward to testing phase,  as the setup only took a few minutes due to intense product familiarity. The internal wireless station control functions could not cope with my home network! Too many users! 4 laptops and 3 Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices could not all function on the network. Moved on to the next tests, which consisted of bandwidth speed measuring via various methods, including http, ftp and torrent downloads.

The routers once again could not cope with the network attacks once the torrent test was underway, and the ISP was able to jam the downloads. This resulted in systematic loss of connection to the ISP servers. Security was as poor as the Billion router’s. Although the Netgear was easily set up, due to its logical and easy to follow menu structure, it failed just as fast as the Billion when placed under stress. I repacked the router, returned it to the computer shop, and drove to the Incredible Corruption and paid an inflated price for a Netgear DGN2200 router with the alleged capability of 300 Mbs wireless connection speed on an internal network.

Fast forward to results! Everything works, the security is good, the ISP is kept at bay, with all the spy sweeps that they do, they are not able to pingflood the router, so the connection remains steady and live and has been uninterrupted for three days now. Most people who pay an ISP for internet connectivity don’t realize how much of the bandwidth they pay for is consumed by the ISP and other ISP’s in spying on the customers, good quality equipment and some knowledge will reduce that to a minimum. 

If you’re wondering about the WiFi speed on the Netgear, a simple file transfer test within 10 metres of the router resulted in transfer speeds of 95 Mbs, which I believe were limited by the bus speed on the external hard drive it was copying from. So it’s back to connectivity as usual, until the next lightning strike.

The state of our nation

Mr. President,

A lot has appeared in the media recently about the state of the nation address later today, it’s been a year since your last effort at the addressing the nation thing, I must say, however that your last effort did not stick in my mind, or shape my thinking for the year past. Perhaps you could start rather by stating what was achieved last year that resulted directly from your last State of the Nation address, rather than launch into lengthy proposals for the coming year, that way we could look at achieved objectives and use them to motivate achieving any new ones you may propose or introduce. In fact as I sit here, I can’t recall anything constructive arising out of last year’s State of the Nation address, and it makes me sad to have to tell you that the only salient events of the last year, are to me quite negative. The negativity of my perception has been created and reinforced by the numerous incidents of the abuse of taxpayers’ funds by the various government and quasi government bodies in the last year. Uppermost in my mind is the government sponsored proposed gagging of the media, through the thinly disguised Media control legislation, what’s next? Instead of dwelling on the negative, although your administration has made this an entirely easy job, can we rather discuss some things that every taxpayer (your employers) would like to see done?

We have a national tax revenue of around R400 billion, so to expect the nation to carry the cost of a National health Scheme costing R200 billion in the first year, is not only dangerous, it’s plain downright stupid. While I agree that every South African should have access to acceptable health care, I also recognize the folly of making sweeping statements regarding this purely to win votes. And without being unduly critical, it appears that you have a penchant for making sweeping statements just when the party needs critical votes. It would be appreciated if you took this into account before making any more flamboyant statement s or promises, which the taxpayers (your employers) will have to fund. It would also be appreciated if you stopped to consider that in a nation of 48 million people; only some 5.8 million are actually registered, contributing taxpayers. You may well be alarmed at the ratio, but the figures are from SARS reports. In most industrialized countries, the ratio of taxpayers to non-taxpayers is above 50%, you might want to look at ways of addressing this severe imbalance, because we need more financially active people in our country to drive development. And to pay taxes of course, so we can continue to afford to keep you in the luxury you have grown accustomed to.

The other thing you could perhaps address is the new form of covert tax that seems to be creeping into our economy, the concept of user pays, or toll roads to you. There are millions of liters of fuel sold every day in South Africa, each and every liter of fuel carries a tax burden, this tax was ostensibly to build new roads and maintain older roads so that taxpayers could travel on our roads with relative ease, the new toll road network, endorsed by your administration, seeks to impose a double tax on road and fuel users. Perhaps you could indicate where the billions of Rands in fuel tax have gone to? And perhaps you could also look into the tenders which have been granted to develop those new toll roads? You may well be very surprised at what you find. I know your state of the Nation address will be quite lengthy; perhaps you could squeeze just the above points into it?  We would really appreciate real answers for a change.

Becoming a minister confers god-like status on thugs

We as people are very tolerant of the fools we propel into government with our bad choices.  We have for years condoned corruption, nepotism and gangsterism under the guise of national government. We have stood by while innocent pedestrians have been mowed down party political convoys, we have stood by while motorists have had their tires shot out by gangsters in uniform, or at least in ill-fitting expensive suits, under the guise of protecting some thug who had managed to get deployed to apposition which to him dictated the use of his own personal gangsters. No doubt to protect him from other criminals in positions similar to his own, honour among thieves here being restricted solely to the metaphorical ranks.

These people who purport to support the struggle of the people, but in the same blink of an eye, unflinchingly spend millions of taxpayer funds on unwarranted, undeserved opulent hotel accommodation for months on end, and In some cases even years, based on nothing more than the thinnest of excuses, never for one moment consider the plight of the very people they are supposed to represent. Rather they treat their voters (suckers) with a contempt that borders on human rights abuse, because once they have arrived, human rights only apply to them. In their mind, they have the right to abuse every human they want to, from killing security guards, who witness indiscretions, to riding roughshod over domestic workers who object to working free of charge.

So when some old woman who was a once a convicted criminal, who commissioned the murder of several people, asks someone who was doing his job, who the fuck he thinks he is, the answer is quite simple, he, and we are the people of South Africa, who are watching you destroy our country and our Nation. Some of us may not be as educated as others, but none of us are as stupid as you think, or as easily fooled as you would to believe we are.

Time and justice cannot be stopped.

Evil happens when good men fail to act.

 After few days of the Wikileaks saga playing itself out all over the world, I am amazed at how easily whole countries have sold out to global American imperialism, you may think this a harsh statement, but taken in the light that Julian Assange has yet to be convicted of any crime, the reaction of the so called democratic establishment is extreme to say the least. The degree of orchestration in the financial and legal isolation of Assange, is nothing short of shameful. What is more disturbing however is the lack of general support from a population which revels in freedom of speech and the benefits of the democratic process., which are supposed to be enjoyed by all humans. Basic human rights, like the right to free speech, have been steamrollered by corporations and banks all too keen to remain on the good side of what can only be described as the American Imperialist Machine.

Another comment glaringly absent from all the public forums is that the cables were sent by public servants, ultimately accountable to the voters whose taxes pay for the excesses which keep the same public servants in office, and supplied with a steady supply of all of the best and latest hi-tech toys with which to abuse their positions of power. No mention is made of the vested interests of government officials in strategic weapons manufacturers, which keep the war machine running at full speed, with Billions of Dollars being forked out by the tax paying public, who have not the slightest idea why it’s necessary to be at war. It has also been demonstrated that even social networking sites have been co-opted into the suppression of free expression of opinion, with Twitter actively manipulating their trending subjects to exclude the hashtag #wikileaks from the their trending charts, wanting to keep the level of interest in the topic as low as possible, to curry favour with the US authorities, who Ironically will participate in a global press freedom day in a few days’ time.

Finally the most encouraging and human reaction has come from the online community that has rallied behind Wikileaks and Assange and launched cyber-attacks similar to those launched against Wikileaks, by person unknown (yes indeed) in an attempt to take down the site by brute force a few days ago, against institutions supporting the isolation and persecution of Julian Assange, so far the bank in Switzerland that froze his defence fund and the Swedish Prosecutors websites have been attacked, as of this morning. BY now the list could have grown, and more good people with social consciences may joined the fight to keep the world a free place, where the interests of the voters should come above the interests of the elected officials.

It would be really good to look back one day, and accept that this one event had changed our future for the better by removing some if not all of the assumed power which public officials seems to assume for themselves, and ending the merciless riding of the voter by governments, who are too easily influenced and corruptible.

The most powerful weapon against corruption is disclosure

Recent events surrounding the Wikileaks disclosure of hundreds of thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables and how the writers of the cables, who were for the most part public servants, were contemptuous of so many international figures. Wikileaks has a history of consistent courage in providing the facility for anyone with a social conscience to anonymously disclose information  to the public which may reveal wholesale corruption, from disclosing land ownership in Kenya, to the secret deals made between cell phone providers in South Africa, and of course most recently the flood of documents from the USA.

I have long been a fan of Wikileaks, purely for their courageous commitment to a more transparent world, where large corporates and governments are concerned. Recently however I have looked at recent events, and noting the 78000 documents leaked regarding the USA’s presence in Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries, and wondered, how it is possible, with so much data and information about corrupt politicians and corporations, how the voters of specific countries consistently return thugs and corrupt individuals to power.

Americans have known for years, that their administrations have been corrupted by big business, that wars have been started to satisfy their need for armaments contracts, that big oil will continue to milk the American public and destroy the environment. Yet no fundamental shift has occurred in American politics to remove these warlords from power. Is American democracy, merely a tool of big business? 

What about our own situation? We are crossing an era where journalists are detained at the whim of thuggish ministers, where incompetence is rewarded with redeployment, and where truth is sacrificed for political advancement, we as a nation are in desperate need of a cataclysmic Wikileaks type event where, all of our politicians are reminded that they actually serve the people, and not as many are fond of believing, that once elected they become fêted deities. To spend and splurge public funds at the fastest rate possible. 

It would truly be heartening to see and become part of a national movement to expose and pursue the perpetrators of these excesses, to the full extent of the law, but the real law, not the currently emasculated, watery version so in vogue among the corrupt elite, where consequences are light, and the legal process long and expensive.  Rather than a manipulated flawed process, have a comprehensive disclosure to the masses and the world at large. So that the likes of the super corrupt may think twice before engaging in corrupt practices which the taxpayers have to pay for out funds which should be used to run the country, but rather are deviated into the hands and pockets of the kleptocracy.

The real winners of disclosure will always be the poor, the marginalized and the ignored voting machines so loved by the liberation movements. Disclosure will truly set us free as a united people. The alternative is what we have now, the lies, the deceit, and the criminal activities continuing unabated.