Julius Malema and Al Capone

Who would have thought that Julius Malema and Al Capone would have more in common than both being overweight and delusional and seeing themselves as latter-day Robin Hoods and completely above the law! The other similarity that screams out to me is that, while the FBI (in the case of Al) and the NPA (in the case of Julius) both battled and are battling to convict these two, both Julius and Al were both eventually nailed for tax related contraventions.
Watching the debate on TV following the President’s address, I wondered how many of the other 399 members of the National Assembly are tax compliant.
I have noticed that in order to do business with any state institution one has to have a valid tax clearance certificate and suggest that, for the sake of consistency, all elected representatives at national, provincial and municipal level and political “deployees” at other state institutions (eg the IEC) should be required to furnish a valid tax clearance certificate before election and annually thereafter.
As SARS is arguably one of the few properly functioning state institutions in South Africa, I suggest that they should manage this process and send a bi-annual report to the head of parliament and the other structures and copy the Public Protector who should monitor compliance and remedial action.
As a second phase of this accountability exercise I suggest that outstanding traffic fines and arrear amounts owed for rates and municipal services should also be monitored and those that deviate should be named and shamed.