The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

As to be expected, after the general election with the “kindof” hoped-for results that we received, this week’s news has been ‘politics 24/7’. The ANC is trying hard to form a government of national unity (GNU). They are talking to all–well most of the parties–who won even a single seat to see what kind of unity government they can form. The worrying feature of this plan is that if all the opposition parties join the ANC who will then be the opposition in Parliament? 

The overwhelming majority of our people favour simply an ANC, DA coalition. 

The very best result that the election brought with it was the fact that very many cadres and hangers-on will now have to go out and work for a living. They have been feeding at the trough of ANC’s criminality for so long that that will not be easy. 
 

A big problem with these multi-party meetings is that everything must be done and dusted by Friday at 10.00 am when the new Parliament will be sworn in and a President announced by the Chief Justice. Otherwise a fresh, new election must be called.

The EFF have decided they want nothing to do with a GNU (government of National unity) if it includes the DA and the FF+. They hate the DA and the largely Afrikaans FF+ too. They also dislike the ANC. They really won’t be missed.  

A serious problem for the ANC is that they have created a monster in Jacob Zuma who is determined to upset things and he has told his MK elected MPs not to attend the opening of parliament or have anything to do with the ANC. He believes that by such a large bunch of elected MPs (58) boycotting the Parlimentary opening it will make the opening illegal since in his opinion there will be less than 350 MPs present and therefore no quorum. In any event he has claimed serious errors in the voting and has taken the matter to the Constitutional Court. Zuma going back to court is no surprise. That he loses there again will be no surprise either.

If MK is left to its own devices in KZN, a vital economic hub for our country is in great danger. Zuma has even threatened violence and that should not be taken lightly after what occurred in that province after his arrest two years ago, when looting, plundering and murder played out in the open with our weak police force merely looking on.  

This is Brandan’s view of the current political situation from Tuesday’s  Business Day:

Don’t think that load shedding hasn’t returned. The elections are now behind us so this was to be expected. Luckily for us it hasn’t hit us in the south yet but for the people up north it is a reality all over again. Johannesburg and districts also have a water shortage along with too many other municipalities. Oh dear. In Alexandra this week there have been road blockages and tyre burnings by residents protesting the power outages.

Some very bad news for Ace Magashule is that his former PA has been arrested in America on corruption charges and SA has asked for her extradition. There is overwhelming evidence of her dircect culpability in corruption and her extradition to SA is imminent. She is directly linked to Magashule, the former ANC big shot and she will stay behind bars until her extradition back here to face the music. She, through her lawyer, has just made a plea to the Constitutional Court to set aside her jail sentence claiming that the extradition claim is invalid.

This story will run.

News24 has also some very bad news for Deputy President Paul Mashatile. He is already tainted for living in luxury homes and entertaining lavishly in Constantia, Clifton and Midrand. He claims those homes belong to others.

In an article headlined ‘Mashatile Unmasked’ relates to when he became a member of the Gauteng Provincial Government. In 2016 the already tainted Mashatile was exposed as sourcing a contract for his close friend, the lawyer Mncedisi Ndlovu whose firm thus benefitted several hundred million Rand in a Provincial housing development project that never got off the ground. 

That seems to be a favourite practice for Mashatile. His son-in-laws’ company got a R30 million loan for a student housing project that also never got off the ground. 

Does this explain his life of excess asks News24. The rest of us wonder wether we would like him as our next president. It seems that failing any overdue protection he will be back as a MP but I doubt he will retain the post (and perks) of Deputy President. 

Mind you, with the wus Ramaphosa still calling the shots he must feel that his post is still secure.

Our container ports are amongst the worst in the world. Cape Town is ranked stone bottom out of 405 ranked ports. And the port in the Eastern Cape near Gqerha (PE to you) is not ranked very much higher.

Now the good news:

Stellantis manufacturer Os Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Opel, and Peugeot in SA have just  announced this week that they would start construction of a new assembly plant in a few weeks time in Nelson Mandela Bay (PE to you). 

Johannesburg is the 2nd best place in the world for foodies.

That comes as a huge surprise to me and I guess many others. ‘Time out’ magazine has announced the top cities for food in the world and Naples in Italy is no 1 and Joburg no 2. A point made in the article from The Daily Maverick suggests it is because Johannesburgers come from so many places and that is the clue to the food variety, according to Marie-lais Emond.

Not to be outdone, Cape Town also received kudos this week. La Colombe in Constantia has been named the 49th best restaurant in the world by the ‘World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ and was also named The Best Restuarant in Africa. To eat there is a truly wonderful experience but take plenty of bucks with you, it is expensive. 

More than 20,000 runners from all over the world started off early on Sunday morning to run the 46th Comrades marathon which is a tiny fraction short of 86 klms from Durban up to Pietermaritzburg. It was hugely successful and the men’s race was won by Piet Wiersma, the first time a Dutch runner has won. The ladies race was again won by Gerda Steyn in another record time for her for which she was handsomely rewarded.  

This is Siwela’s cartoon from Monday’s Citizen newspaper:

The weekend World Cup cricket was exciting. The SA just managed to beat the Netherlands by 7 balls and on Monday beat Bangaladesh by just 4 runs too. It was thrilling stuff.  Our players now leave New York and head off to the West Indies for their final pool game after those really nail biting finishers, leaving us unbeaten after three.

The rugby was a different story on Saturday night. The couch was packed with Oom Dawie, Corrie & Elise and her grandchild, Didi with the world champion and me. I realised during that game that I am a bad loser. Our Stormers in Scotland were knocked out of the competition by the Glasgow Warriors. A bad evening on the field but a lekker geselige evening at home.

As always,                                                                   

Gerald

PS

I just saw that an arrangement has almost certainly been reached between the ANC, DA, IFP (which used to be the largest of the Zulu parties in KZN and is now just 3rd) and the NFP (the National Freedom Party–also an IFP splinter in KZN) to form a GNU. This now looks like a likely compromise.