South Africans will be gouging another notch in their belts this morning in anticipation of a national Budget speech in which pain will be a key theme.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, with a R28-billion hole to fill, will have no option but to raise taxes for households. He has little more to offer in a stagnant economy where incomes are barely keeping pace with inflation.
So it is particularly galling to read that two cabinet ministers - Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and his deputy, Godfrey Oliphant - have seen fit to furnish themselves with two new luxury cars at luxury prices.
If that wasn't bad enough, the price tags leave in their dust the R750,000 limit that the Treasury had placed as a cap on new ministerial vehicles.
Zwane doubled-down with a Mercedes-Benz for R1.35-million and Oliphant picked himself up a Porsche Cayenne for about the same amount.
Of course we have the usual retreat to the sacrosanct Ministerial Handbook for justification for the purchases - which, alarmingly, were signed off by the Treasury, calling into question its own commitment to cutting the fat.
While we have every sympathy with Gordhan's budgetary challenges, it's a little hard to swallow bitter medicine with cabinet ministers rubbing our noses in the bespoke leather finishes of their new wheels.
It's time our leaders said austerity is a game that everyone must play, not only the voters who elected them. Cutting back on travel and office snacks is not enough any more.
Now here's a thought thanks to Ireland, facing its own fiscal cliff in 2008. It slashed 19% off civil services salaries (28% at the top end).
With civil service salaries now consuming 45% of our budget this would be a good place to start spreading the pain around. Cabinet ministers should be first in line.
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