The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

Monday (Workers Day) was a holiday and whereas I don’t often agree with statements from NUMSA, our largest workers’ trade union, when on Monday they declared that the entire years of ANC-rule were “29 wasted years” I could hardly disagree.  They  went on to say “We are celebrating this Workers Day against the backdrop of increasing poverty, inequality and unemployment of the masses of this country,”  

How can anyone argue with that?

SA is now the most unequal society in the world with extremely high levels of poverty and unemployment.

Peter Bruce, once a big supporter of Cyril Ramaphosa (as were so many of us who were hoping for so much better when he replaced the incompetent Jacob Zuma as head of government) now calls Ramaphosa a catastrophe. Again I agree!

Then Business Day yesterday referred to Ramaphosa as the worlds most indecisive president. This was the Brandan cartoon on Tuesday in that newspaper but there have been similar ones in other publications depicting this wuss.

It wasn’t only NUMSA that criticised the ANC on Monday. Cyril was in Bethlehem in the Free State and COSATU told the ANC in very clear language that it has to cleanse itself of greed, corruption and state capture. Ramaphosa in response said that the tripartite alliance of the ANC, COSATU & SA Communist Party must work together to eliminate poverty and unemployment. 

But there are serious tears in the ruling Party. The Sec.Gen., Fikile Mbalula had a go at Cyril but he too is being picked out more and more for his own for lack of urgency in dealing with any and all matters. 

The general election next year promises to be interesting!

One of Zuma’s key players in the days of State Capture was Mosebenzi Zwane who suddenly became Minister of Resources..…obviously to help fill the Gupta trough.

Well he was called to Parliament on Tuesday to explain and apologise but did he pitch up? ……Don’t be silly.

If only we had a proper investigative service that would see Zwane and his cronies in jail for what they have done.

Some good news is that Ace Magashule’s appeal to have his corruption/fraud case scrapped was dismissed by the Court for being without merit.

He and his ANC big-shots stole from the poor and enriched themselves and their families. 

Magashule’s trial, with his cronies, starts on Friday and I can’t wait for the whole story to be splashed on the front pages of our newspapers.

This Carlin cartoon I found a little while ago but I don’t know where. Yesterday was press freedom day and I hope that this once I will be forgiven for using someone’s work without giving full title that is due. I am not sure where I sourced this cartoon.

But, I think you will agree that the more you look at this Carlin sketch the more it hits home:

Press freedom day also allows me to relax a little after being hard on some politicians who may not exactly enjoy knowing my views.

Making lots of press this week was Alan Winde’s remarks about arresting Putin should the Russian leader put a foot into the Western Cape. Winde is Premier of our Province and by all accounts is doing an excellent job of running the show in ‘the only Province that works’. The ANC’s reaction to his statement was to be expected. It was typical and jumbled but admonishing Winde for overstepping his authority.

It really is not a surprise that a Police Commander has been arrested on a charge of murder. Our Police Service is crime-riddled and sadly imperfect and crimes committed by serving police personnel are almost daily news events. The worst of this particular story, however, is that he may have killed the wrong fellow. The Commander assisted by some local police from his police station rounded up a batch of suspects and beat them so severely that a 33-year old died. His body was just dumped in the road.

The Citizen reports how load shedding is killing business. The Industrial Sector fell by 5.3% year-on-year in February, while at last count in April, it was down to 51.6% because of daily load shedding.

According to some experts we are in for another 5 years of load shedding. In a talk on TV Prof Winckler was agreeing with Chris Yelland, the energy expert when he explained our massive problems. One of the problems is that Ramaphosa unfortunately sprouts hot air every time he talks about the electricity crisis. 5 years ago Ramaphosa told the nation that load shedding would be over in 18 months and every time he talks about the problem he sprouts nothing but nonsense.

Sign language is about to become our 12th Official Language. The bill was passed in Parliament early this week but must go through the loops of being vetted by the National Council of Provinces and then the President must sign it into law. I wonder if sign language could be more decisive than the usual verbiage.

The courts have ordered Cape Town City to tidy up District Six which is rife with tents of the homeless, making the place dirty and totally unhygienic. There are big plans for this desirable central city suburb which was the heart of “mixed living” in Cape Town in years gone by.

Political turmoil is not unique to our country and my two notable coffee catch-ups this week showed how very stressful the politics of other countries are too. 

The two had much in common. Both Ivan and Malcolm started out, as did I, in Stellenbosch. As pre-teens we all played together although we are not quite the same ages. Ivan and wife Rene still have an apartment in Sea Point and they come from Israel quite often. We met during the week at Waterstone Village very near our new home in Somerset West and we chatted for hours. Ivan has strong views and his explaining of the current tense political situation in Israel was clear. What their Prime Minister is trying to bring to bear on that country is untenable. Netanyahu has brought that country to its knees with the help of the ultra-Orthodox religious political parties. It all has to do with the appointing of Judges and Netanyahu wants Parliament to make the judicial appointments. Does this mean he (with the backing of the governing far-right Parties) will be able to appoint Judges who support him and so keep him out of jail? He is in trouble for corruption and the whole thing is well-known to us here since Jacob Zuma did virtually that to keep himself out of jail when he ruled the roost.

After Ivan’s weighted lecture I was beginning to think that our situation with the weak Ramaphosa was not so bad after all, especially since the ANC is busy signing its own death warrant.

My catch-up with Malcolm in Stellenbosch on Sunday was illuminating. I hadn’t seen Malcolm for 70 years and I recognised him! Mind you it helped that he was sitting with his brother, Jeff at the table when I walked in. Malcolm lives in America and has done well in business and business-lecturing and his story is fascinating on several levels. His varsity background led him out of law (his dad Pikkie was a lawyer in Stellenbosch) and into business and how interesting his life has been. We got around to talking politics and he really dislikes Trump —he even had business dealings with him once—but he is not mad about the idea of Biden standing for the Presidency again either. We talked SA and what he left behind and how far it has regressed since he was here last.

Oh, dear. 

On Saturday (6th May) Pretty Yende will be singing in Westminster Cathedral when King Charles 111 is crowned. It will be the first time an African singer has performed solo for a British monarch. She sings magnificently and the story that is so moving is that the king heard her singing some time ago and personally went over to her and invited her to sing at his coronation. When you hear her voice on Saturday you will know why.   

The football on Sunday evening was the most enthralling game of the whole Premiership season as far as I’m concerned. Down 3-0 to Liverpool away after 13 minutes and the commentators were suggesting another massive hiding such as Spurs received last week. Well deep into added-extra time in the 4th of the 6 added minutes Spurs scored to make it 3-3!!! And the coach (yes he is  back from Oz) and I  jumped off the couch to high-5 each other. Then in the very last seconds of the game Liverpool scored. Heartbreak. Losing 4-3 like that is devastating.

Oh, it’s hard to be a Spurs supporter.

As always,    

Gerald