The Sheriff of Nottingham Rides again

[Marq]

Once again, I was reminded today by our municipality, that it is a general trend in this country, and the world, to penalise the good guys and reward the bad guys.

I first really thought about this scenario in the late 90's when the government was trying to turn around the trend of non payment of rates and finance accounts that had been instilled in SA people. The answer was to give the bad and non payers, incentives by reducing their interest, reversing charges, reducing their capital amounts while the good guys who had been paying all the time were given nothing except increased interest charges, more admin fees and a hard time. When the good guys turned into bad guys so they could also receive a better deal, there was a big surprise and 'how dare they' attitude. So they were penalised some more and sued for the balances, while the original bad guys were 'ringfenced' and held in special accounts. Not surprising the whole organisation went down the tubes. Our government just floated another organisation and started all over again. I wouldn't be surprised if the accounts look similar and the same problems exist today as they did then in the old organisation.

So here we are in our business, trying our best to follow all the rules, laws and taxes imposed while our competition (and there are many of them) are not doing anything or have yet to be 'caught'. The result is that the good guys are paying double the amount of rates and municipal charges that everyone else is having to cough up and have to find a lot more business to finance this unbalanced scenario. Instead of using the resources and making an effort to bring all into play, our muniscipality just imposes more restrictions, paperwork, proofs and 'fines' on the good guys, while doing nothing to police and carry out the threats of non compliance. Problem now is that we are on their books and cannot just go away and be a bad guy.

Nothing has changed from the days of Cromwell to the Sheriff of Nottingham to the eThekwini Municipality. Society teaches us time and time again to keep your head down, not get involved and wait for life to catch up with you. As soon as you look like you are making life work for yourself, a bunch of parasites come out the woodwork. The bigger ones being government or the mafia. There is no difference in their approach, methodologies and the end result is usually the downfall of the host.

When Government and those in charge realise the advantages of working with the positive aspects of society and those who do contribute and not bending to arrange their world around organised crime and shirkers, will we will see a change towards a positive world. History of the human being shows that this has not yet been the case.
Do you think it can ever be changed now or within the foreseeable future?

Seems to me that the Robin Hood story has an incorrect byline that has been taken to heart. Robbing the rich to give to poor - is not actually what he was about. It should be Robbing back from the Corrupt to give to the poor. But this still instills a scenario of allowing the poor to be poor and taking something from somebody and being the judge and jury on what is corrupt and what is not.
So what should the Robin Hood story be about?

All I know is that right now, a bitterness and resentment towards authority is growing as a result of unfairness and parasitic activity. It purveys throughout society and will create further unlawfulness and restlessness which will result in the ultimate demise of the country unless corrected by the current Government from the top down to lowest civil servant.

[Alan]

Well said
You are so right, wonder where it will end up......turn all of us into 'bad guys'.

[Dave A]

Something every industry regulator should read!

It's all to easy to get caught up with enforcement of the known and collecting the taxes - and ignore the real problem they were supposed to solve.

[Alan]

Well after my last electricity bill i am seriously thinking of going the pre paid meter route, then i can also bypass the meter and get my electricity for free like millions of installations do already. I dont see any effort being made to catch these consumers but we the honest consumer get hit with the increases to subsidize them.......

[wynn]

In England it was 'Robin Hood' in this country it is 'Robbing Good'

My explaination is that the 'Wabenzi' think that it is not wrong to steal, it is wrong to get caught.
Then you are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, no morals enter the equation at all.
And anyway they are stealing money from the taxpayers not the poor

The fact that 'Blades' car cost 26 RDP houses, nothing wrong with that
a roof over the heads of possibly 156 poorest of the poor WTF?

[Sieg]

Some 2000 years ago, the Romans had a similar problem. "Who will guard the guards?" was asked.

And with passing time, as all this nonsense continues, our attitudes change. From being "sympathetic" to the plight of the poor, we now become cynical and inured to the hardship of others. We don't care anymore that some poor schmucks lost all they owned because the shacks they were living in burnt down because one of their number had "bare wires" in his shack, which caused a short [no, really?], which in turn caused a fire. [And he was getting the electricity that I pay for how?]

My reaction to this story in yesterday's Highway Mail was: they should catch the bastard who was stealing electricity and caused all this misery and lock him up. But the story was slanted along the lines of "what are these poor people going to do now, they have no homes, etc". Maybe a few years ago my heart would have gone out to them. No more; they are the makers of their own misfortune and I point the finger of blame squarely at the likes of Nopeddal Molaba, No-gear Liedoo and cycle Mutcliff. When I am asked to "donate blankets", my reply is: go ask Julius Malema - he will give you what you want.

Sieg