Your editorial "It's time the people and their views were shown respect" (yesterday) is a truism that might yet come to haunt a government that has paid scant respect to this ideal.
Governments shape people's lives. Everything that makes life worthwhile - family, work, education, a place to rear one's children or a place to rest one's head - depends on the decisions of government.
All of this can be swept away by a government that does not heed the demands of all its people.
Even government by the consent of the governed must be limited in its power to act against its own people.
There have often been wide and tragic gaps between promise and performance, ideal and reality - and a government of the people, by the people, for the people must never be overshadowed by unscrupulous selfishness and profit.
The great divide between the rich and poor of this land exacerbates the irony of our democracy, and the e-toll issue is a classic example of what defines the governance to which we are being subjected.
The false masks and the illusion of differences, which are the root of injustice and hate, inevitably find their way into the hearts of the down-trodden and they will rise - in time - much to our detriment.
South Africa can ill afford to ignore the poor and their input into the economic fabric of our land.
While the "elite" may feel empowered now, they must never be averse to "the Ides of March" that will ultimately be their bane.
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