Dear Editor,
What little sympathy I might have had for the plight of the Georgetown city administration evaporated yesterday afternoon about 6 pm when I was handed a notice at my gate demanding payment of the general rate for 2010. I told the worker I had paid it since January, and I asked, would she like to see the receipt? No, she replied; she was only doing her job, which was to deliver the demand notice.
This was the last straw in the mindlessness with which workers in government and other injurious organisations excuse the grief they cause the ordinary law-abiding citizens in the name of “doing their job.” Did not someone teach them some time in their lives that everyone has a choice whether to use their position and or knowledge to the detriment of others? The last time I was told that was by my professor of chemical engineering, who warned us that it is we who must exercise our consciences to choose to employ our skills to make chemical weapons or enrich nuclear fuel for warfare. Must ‘mekkin a livin’ justify the perpetration of nonsense by the Ministry of Local Government on to the city council on to the workers on to the law-abiding citizen? I am afraid that the children who run this country have not learnt the causes of anarchy, which is what breaks out when the buck stops at ordinary people, because their government cannot govern.
My neighbour across the road said she was told that since she paid already, she “only” had to take in the receipt and clear up the matter. It took me over an hour to pay that bill in January. I have no intention of wasting time in another line of irate ratepayers. Let them institute legal proceedings against me after the 14 working days!
I attended a useless meeting called by the city council some years ago at the Campbellville Government School to discuss drainage. We were notified of it by a letter-sized (8½”x11”) flyer printed on one side. I suggested that in future the opportunity be taken to put a diagram of the drainage on an empty side so that at least citizens can be informed and thus be in a better position to monitor the flow of water, as we were being asked to do.
They never seem to learn. The demand notice and the threat of legal proceedings were on one side only of 2 separate letter-sized sheets. So here we have a city council, which cannot pay the garbage collectors, finding money to wastefully print and pay people to distribute such rubbish. Must not the tax dodgers also at least know what they are supposed to do in order to dodge?
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Mr Royston King, the PRO of the Mayor and City Council for any comments he might wish to make.
