Who pays for all this stuff? Last Monday Icasa ordered the SABC to withdraw its decision to ban the showing of violent protests and the destruction of property during protests on its news bulletins. It gave the SABC five days to comply and institute the order "retrospectively".Even before Icasa had published its full finding, Hlaudi Motsoeneng - the SABC's de facto leader, and the man who apparently our president "loves so much" - was declaring that the public broadcaster would approach the highest court in the land if necessary to challenge the decision."We are challenging that ruling . we are equal to the task," Motsoeneng told reporters.There isn't a single legal opinion - except those paid for by the SABC when and if the SABC does actually consult them - that indicates that the Icasa ruling can be challenged.But what makes me stop to ponder is this: who pays for these frivolous legal challenges to every single ruling made by institutions of accountability such as the public protector?Let me just say outright that the right to seek recourse from a higher court is one that every Tom, Dick and Hlaudi should exercise. That is how our democracy becomes stronger. Yet it seems to me that even cases that do not have any hope whatsoever of success are now being taken to higher courts.And why? Because the people who are making these decisions do not have to pay a single cent for this wastage.On Friday it was reported that the NPA applied to the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal a high court ruling to restore fraud, corruption and racketeering charges against President Jacob Zuma.Zuma has said on numerous occasions that he wants his day in court, but boy the man is fighting hard - using state institutions like the NPA - not to see the dawn of that day.Here is the question. Who pays for these endless appeals that every first-year legal student knows have no hope of success whatsoever? It is you, dear reader. The money that is supposed to go to the poor, to education, to roads and other pressing societal problems is being wasted daily to protect Zuma and his cronies such as Motsoeneng.Think of the Nkandla matter, for example. After various frivolous inquiries led by the hapless ministers Nathi Nhleko, Thulas Nxesi and various others after the public protector had said Zuma should pay for undue benefits, the president has now finally been ordered to pay for the Nkandla house by the Constitutional Court.The price tag is something like R7.8-million.It should be a lot more. It should be a lot more because the past seven years have seen wasteful expenditure on a massive scale by Zuma and his cronies to ensure that he does not pay his fair share.Nhleko should pay. Nxesi should pay. Zuma should pay. Zuma should pay because he is the one who led us on this merry dance and when push came to shove he rushed to the Constitutional Court with his tail between his legs begging to pay for the upgrades.He should have personally been burdened with all the legal bills for that monstrosity. Instead, the taxpayer is paying for it.There have been so many other appalling examples of this sort of wastage where it is absolutely clear that the challenge by government ministers and officials to court and other rulings against them have absolutely no chance of success.Think of the shameful events of last year, when the Pretoria High Court ordered the state to keep the Sudanese dictator and fugitive from the law Omar al-Bashir here.Not only did the government challenge the ruling in court, it brazenly and illegally defied the courts of our own country by aiding and abetting that criminal to leave our shores instead of being handed over to the International Criminal Court.This is the story of our state officials. They can spend wantonly against all sane advice because the state's coffers are a piggy bank for them. If they lose the attorneys and advocates get rich. And the politicians just keep going without consequence, while happily drawing their salaries. It is outrageous.Now think of what the NPA is doing by going to the Constitutional Court. In June, the full bench of the Pretoria High Court dismissed the same NPA's application for leave to appeal against the ruling setting aside Zuma's prosecution. It said the appeal had no reasonable prospects of success.So, what's going to happen with the NPA's Constitutional Court challenge? It's going to be thrown out because it's laughable. Zuma's protectors at the NPA won't feel the pain of that decision at all.You, my dear taxpayer, will pay for it all...