We may not see too many social protests now, but there is no doubt that we are going to see more in the years to come.  How the government reacts at that time will determine, to a large extent, what sort of country we live in and hopefully we don’t go down the route of Zimbabwe, where President Mugabe started blaming a minority section of the population for all Zimbabwe’s problems.  

I was shocked to read in the City Press recently that the government budgeted an extra R500 million for food parcels, vouchers and cash grants for social relief in 2008 when we had an election.  By 2011 this amount was down to R118 million and surprise surprise, with 2013 being an election year, the amount is back up to R479 million.  City Press interviewed a number of people in various townships who basically said that ANC members promised them food packages before elections if they registered and voted.  Things must be pretty desperate in many parts of our country if people are voting so that they can get food packages and what makes it worse is that actually after the election the people claimed that the groceries they were promised on a monthly basis were not delivered.  The food parcel apparently amounts to R1 200,00 and the complaints have been made with the Public Protector, by the DA, about previous instances of this in Tlokwe.  In almost all instances the food parcels had only been delivered just days before an election.