With our second State of the Nation Address taking place on Thursday, I was daydreaming about what I would like President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce this time around.
I have been reading about how Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is forcing ministers to cut down on wasting taxpayers’ money on fancy cars and travel.
For example, their partners are now restricted when it comes to going on overseas trips with them.
They also have to look at much cheaper cars for official use.
Meanwhile, his Co-Operative Governance counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma wants municipalities to buy cheaper furniture for officer bearers.
Most importantly, the pair wants the country’s 257 mayors to stop hiring expensive cars and rather make use of pool cars, public transport or shuttles.
And then I read about how political perks in Sweden are more designed to dissuade you from entering politics than clamour to be an officer bearer.
Only the prime minister has an official car.
All MPs and ministers get bus and train clip cards, where they crowd and cram along with the people they serve.
They have no private secretaries, live in tiny apartments and earn only fractionally more than the average worker.
City councillors work on a voluntary basis and they do so from home.
Any citizen can access the tax returns of any public servant at any time to check their lifestyle. Which is how in the 1990s, the deputy prime minister was caught out for having used a government credit card to buy groceries for herself.
It was a scandal that left her disgraced and jobless for a while.
Considering what Mboweni and Dlamini-Zuma are initiating, I can just imagine that all happening here someday.