Dog tax has reared its ugly tail once again. Back in 2021 before they decided the then bean counter, Honourable ThapeloMatsheka was not proficient in counting money a tax for dogs was mooted.
This was an answer to the call to local governments to come up with new avenues of revenue collection. So the smart Gaborone City (GC) civic leaders decided that dogs should pay tax.
They beat a hasty retreat when GC residents picketed against this. Many will dispute this picketing actually happened but this was a modern type of picketing that happened on-line. GCians took to Facebook and trashed the thought and a deeply repentant mayor decided to withdraw the tax. However, the adage don’t insult the alligator until you cross the river seems lost to most GC folks. So the civic leaders nicely put on the ‘Batswana forget easily’ cloaks and when everyone had forgotten about the tax for dogs, they threw it again on the laps of the unsuspecting public. GC civic leaders are like sloths except sloths are way more productive.
At least sloths get things done, like sleeping for 15 hours a day. GC civic leaders just sit in their offices and stare at their laptop screens all day. This assessment was done by an irate GC resident drowning in uncollected trash in a very dark side of GC where streetlights had not been fixed for more than a decade. But I think much as many of them could be residents of Slumpville, this is a tad bit overboard and unfair to our leaders. I believe they are trying very hard - like coming up with ordinances like Dog Tax. This means very soon dogs will be paying tax. Well, not many dogs are capable of paying for anything. Their only currency is loyalty, which is not legal tender.
This means that this tax bill will land on the dog owner’s lap. Now most dog owners’ are struggling to pay their own tax. This means dog owners will be busier than a one-legged person in a butt-kicking contest trying to paper the tax fissures. It will be interesting to see the election candidates trying to justify something like this to a group of blood thirsty voters who don’t want to pay tax for anything. The average person around these shores actually doesn’t want to pay for anything. In the grand scheme of things, the elections are too close to be taxing our dogs and this might come to bite those who came up with it. Such drivel billowing out of politicians’ mouths around this time is akin to sabotaging one’s chances. This is also a cue for dog owners to start coming up with better names for their mongrels. The days of giving dogs names that are a direct insult to neighbours are quickly getting in the rearview mirror. Dogs are now paying tax and this means the level of respect for the mongrels must and should push up. In our culture, our fights with neighbours usually peter as a dog’s name. We have dog names with vernacular equivalent of Let Them talk (Bakadibua), Haters (Bantlhoi), Witch (Moloi) etc. Now that dogs are paying tax, the nomenclature must and will improve. I hope! (For comments, feedback and insults email [email protected]) Thulaganyo Jankey is a Rapporteur and training consultant who runs his own training consultancy that provides training in BQA- accredited courses. His other services include registering consultancies with BQA and developing training courses. Contact him on 74447920 or email [email protected]
