It is time somebody told the truth to power: the government takes its hardest working people for granted. There’s currently a proposal on the table to increase MPs’ pay packets to R714 618 a year, while the earnings of a member of a provincial legislature will rise to R691 641. I cannot begrudge these honourable members a penny of this money.
But somebody must explain why, in the same vein, the government is not considering reviewing the salaries of our metro police officers, specifically Johannesburg Metro Police, to the same level if not better than those of parliamentarians.
So, you think the duties of our lawkeepers are less important to society than the duties of our esteemed lawmakers? Well, you are wrong. And I will demonstrate it to you beyond reasonable doubt.
If you are a regular road user like me and, more often than not, you use the M1 North and South in Johannesburg, you must have noticed a dedicated team of metro-police officers between the Parktown and Houghton off-ramps, trapping delinquent drivers.
These hard-working officers have gone to the lengths of creating a makeshift shelter between the two highways using cardboard boards. From a distance and to the untrained eye, all you see is cardboard attached to a lamp pole, a typical feature in Johannesburg just as Table Mountain is in Cape Town. But lurking beneath the cardboard is the sharp eye of an officer braving the unpredictable weather conditions in Johannesburg to make sure that the laws passed by our well-paid parliamentarians are observed. These boards are blank.
Instinctively one thinks the writing is on the other side. But on closer inspection the only thing on the other side is trouble.
You can imagine what it takes to do this job. First you have to be scientifically inclined. I mean it cannot be easy to suspect that a specific car is over the speed limit and then fix your radar trap on to it while using the cardboard as your cover.
Contrary to popular belief that metro cops are uneducated, I suspect most of these guys were math and science boffins at school. Clearly, it was apartheid or lack of financial support that stopped them from going to Nasa. Such agility with the eye and an amazing understanding and operation of heavy duty gadgets like radar speed traps belong only to a gifted few.
And while parliamentarians have access to the best toilet facilities between their naps, our metro police have to relieve each other to relieve themselves, if you catch my drift. The sound of thousands of speeding vehicles is another sign that our officers are a disciplined mob. They can simply switch off to the deafening noises of the highways and focus solely on those speedsters. And this they do without the luxury of a tea break with choice assorted biscuits.
But that’s not all. Our metro officers also have the most amazing single-mindedness of purpose.
Every Monday I attend an early morning meeting in the Johannesburg CBD. On the corner of Diagonal and President streets, our industrious people-centred taxi drivers would be occupying both the lanes going in opposite directions, causing havoc and mayhem. To the chagrin of other helpless motorists, this goes on for hours.
But only 200 metres from the chaos, on the corner of Diagonal and Pritchard streets, several metro officers are stopping cars to check seatbelts, licences and drivers illegally using cellphones to request extensions and cancellations to their meetings.
Often these traffic officers are simply looking for lunch money, which is easier to collect at a calmer intersection than one brought to a standstill by taxis.
Another example of hard work has to be the roadblock, normally erected on a busy road at peak hours or on a Sunday morning when the God-fearing among us are rushing to ask for yet another divine pardon.
Forget that some of the cars they stop could be carrying arms enough to put brakes on George Bush’s bully tactics in Iraq. All the metro police want to know is if you have outstanding fines.
So why do we need to pay 400 or so legislators to heckle each other on our behalf daily, when the dedicated and selfless metro cops do what the best economic brains cannot — swell the state coffers with money.
With their revenue-collecting skills, I reckon most metro police chiefs are candidates to consider next time the country is searching for another CEO, say for the Land Bank or the Umsobomvu Youth Fund.