The story of Oliver Twist retold in the context of the #RSABudget

To: All media

From: Land Party National Spokesperson

Contact: landpartysa@gmail.com | https://www.landparty.org.za/contact | @LandPartySA | 067 627 6014

Date: 2019/02/22

Embargo: None

Image credit: Joseph Clayton Clarke. Mr Bumble, Oliver Twist character; 1889 Charles Dickens.

Oliver Twist spins the tale of a pure-hearted orphan brought into a world that is riddled with poverty, exploitation, criminality, corruption and brutality. The story ends with the hypocrisy of the rich being revealed and the roles being overturned. The oppressors become slaves to the system they once benefitted from.

How ironic it is that the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, set the stage for such a revolution to overthrow a system built to further enrich the rich and impoverish the poor, during his budget speech on 21 February 2019.

The truth of the matter is that the budget of South Africa sets up those with economic influence to further strengthen their economic control over those who can only dream of economic freedom.

In turn, if you are one of the 20 million unemployed South Africans who suffer economic struggle, you might be lucky enough to get one of the 25 000 jobs that might be created over the next 3 years.

Unfortunately, nothing is guaranteed other than financial support for corrupt, failed institutions such as Eskom and SAA. Those who suffer as a result of this failed economic model, however, can look forward to an increase in social grants, the biggest of which is R80/month. This is the government’s most considered solution to “alleviating poverty”.

Thank you for reprimanding government departments who don’t pay service delivery bills incurred by those departments. Thank you for freezing the ministry salaries and refusing wage increases for the first time since ’94.

Thank you for not being able to say the words “cannabis”, “weed” or “marijuana”, and for omitting the fact that this is a multi billion rand industry that would benefit our economy on a massive scale. Thank you for reminding us, although you didn’t intend to, that alleviating poverty is not that difficult, if we can only get over the archaic stigma that you attribute to this agricultural mega industry.

Thank you Minister Mboweni, for shying away from economic reform to further pave the way for our socialist revolution.

Aluta Continua! Viva Revolution!