This country has many rich people some of whom conveniently ignore their obligations and duties inspite of the age-old injunction on all citizens to "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar". We are privileged to welcome BURS to waking life!
Two weeks ago, the hateful taxman locked up popular Gaborone nightclub owner, Chez Ntemba, for failure to pay his dues over several years. This past week, the bogeyman of artful dodgers leaned hard on a panel beater's company for similar offences. However, we note that in a country that is often unwilling to punish the rich, these two cases are the tip of the iceberg. Many more are out there who continue to cook their books in order to present only a fraction of the shinplasters they rake in to the taxman, while much of the loot is squirreled away in overseas bank accounts or the native countries of foreign investors. Well, the scoundrels should benefit from this fair warning, though they do not deserve it. They would do well to plug the gaping holes against their bad names in the taxman's book and so redeem themselves and their businesses.
Once again, we applaud the taxman and say more power to your elbow! But even as we say this, we cannot ignore a nagging fear that these praiseworthy efforts could be short-lived. Yet BURS cannot afford to let this happen because there are much bigger fish out there to catch. And catch them the taxman must, for therein lies a measure of relief for the countless Batswana who sleep under the stars on a hungry stomach.
