While fatcat politicians splurge on luxuries ...

Black politicians deserve to live in luxury and to be treated like billionaires, because it sends a message that their subjects are worthwhile people. Only white people really moan about black politicians' expensive habits, because deep down they feel only white people should be entitled to such privilege.

How am I doing so far? Wait, there's more. For decades of apartheid and centuries of colonialism whites took it for granted that they should live like kings. Well, white rule was overthrown by the revolution of 1994, and now it is the turn of black people to enjoy the fat of the land. To deny them that is to desire a return to the era of apartheid.

It sounds obscene if you put all these excuses for the vulgar materialist excesses of the ruling fatcat politicians and public servants in one place.

But I have heard these excuses and versions of them many times from the likes of ANC Youth League jokers, Luthuli House apparatchiks, ANC-aligned intellectuals, BEE beneficiaries, journalists and columnists in the pockets of ANC millionaires and even from propagandists of the Communist Party.

But I've been around the block a few times. I've heard many variations of these excuses before, uttered in defence of the politician thieves of the old Zaire, Angola, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.

I have also heard accusations that whites don't criticise the American or European politicians who also get paid vast amounts of money and live in luxury, they only criticise African leaders.

Having considered all these excuses properly, I still want to make a few remarks about the way the present government and ruling party are flashing their ultra-luxurious lifestyles, homes, cars, clothes and parties in the faces of millions struggling to feed themselves and their children and put a roof over their heads. And yes, I am classified as a white person.

It is my considered opinion that if the president of the ruling party and the country, Jacob Zuma, was indeed serious about his concern for the welfare of ordinary South Africans, he would not have allowed the presidential residence in Durban to be renovated at a price of R150 million; he would have scaled down the cavalcade of expensive new 4x4s and luxury sedans accompanying him wherever he goes from in the 30s to four or five; and he would have slashed his own lavish expenditure on inaugurations, official receptions and parties.

Instead, Zuma asks for more patience from service delivery protesters and striking workers, saying it is unfair to criticise the new administration as it is still finding its feet.

No, Mr President, it is unfair of you to ask workers and the unemployed to be patient while you and your party and your ministers and senior public servants spend tens of millions on extravagant luxuries.

While your comrades in government, including those from Cosatu and the Communist Party, buy the most expensive cars and live it up like royalty, the number of citizens who have given up looking for work has risen to 1.52 million - that is on top of the 4.13 million people registered as unemployed.

That means a minimum of 5.65 million South Africans who are potential breadwinners no longer have a regular income. That translates to many, many millions of people when one takes these people's families into account.

How do you, Mr President, and your comrades sleep at night when you look at these figures?

Just this week the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs declared six district municipalities in the Eastern Cape disaster areas due to "ailing water and sewerage infrastructure".

These areas include the birthplaces of national icons Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela. The municipalities are not a lot worse off than many others.

Do you close your ears when people tell you these things, Mr President? Do you quickly turn the page when newspapers report on them?

If you reject my criticism because I'm white, let me tell you what one of Africa's leaders of the past, President Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, said more than 20 years ago in Ouagadougou.

Sankara said the problem with Africa was that Africans had gained formal political power but their minds were still colonised. They were Africans but really wanted to be like their former colonial masters. Too many Africans suffered from self-loathing, he said.

They are in perpetual conflict: they know and honour their own culture and ancestors, but part of them agrees with the European view that perhaps these are inferior and primitive. That was Sankara's take on why so many African leaders were "bathing themselves in gold".

By the way, President Sankara's official presidential car was an ancient Peugeot 404 with a cracked windscreen.