The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again

Our election results have brought a new era of politics into our country.

“In many ways, SA is a different country this morning and in many ways it is the same old confusing and disturbing mess”  This is how Peter Bruce in his opinion piece in the Sunday Times started his column on Sunday, telling us that now is the time for the ANC to be brave. We need jobs to make the economy grow and attract investment and Bruce questions the ability of the ANC to be brave enough to torpedo BEE (black economic empowerment), to assist in getting work for so many unemployed and thereby to attract that (foreign) investment again.

Cyril just can’t sit back and do nothing. We need action.

But does Cyril ever do anything and does he read the Sunday Times?

The signing of the agreement between the two main political parties came at the nail-biting 11th hour. On Friday, the first  parliamentary session of the new administration had already begun, members of parliament were being sworn in by the Chief Justice and the EFF called for a pause in the proceedings. During that break the ANC and the DA signed their agreement of working together for the good of the country. 

The signing of the agreement between the two main political parties came at the nail-biting 11th hour. On Friday, the first  parliamentary session of the new administration had already begun, members of parliament were being sworn in by the Chief Justice and the EFF called for a pause in the proceedings. During that break the ANC and the DA signed their agreement of working together for the good of the country. 

An immediate reaction to the announcement was that our currency and the stock market strengthed almost instantly. Unfortunately in the First Stabilty Report of the year our Reserve Bank revealed that an alarming amount of investors are taking significant sums of money out of the country. Even Government bonds are being sold off despite their very favourable yields. One hopes that from now our country will again become attractive to foreign investors.

Lots has been said about the recently formed Government of National Unity (GNU) and one wonders whether the two largest parties who are diametrically opposed to each other can work together. When one understands that the ANC is pro-Hamas, pro-Russia & Iran to name just 3 key issues where the DA is pro-Israel, and anti the far Right communist countries one wonders whether the whole thing can work.

Somehow I doubt it.

What could happen down the line is that thinking members of the ANC could break away from their ‘mother political home’ and join with the DA. Then will those remaining go to the MK? And which break will come first? 

Typically liberation parties fall apart once they lose power.

Zuma says the GNU is nothing but a white run unholy alliance meant to stimulate the markets. This is Brandan’s view from Business Day on Tuesday of our current political situation:

Yesterday Cyril was sworn in for his second term as President–with 18 heads of state present– and with all the pomp and ceremony that is totally unnecessary. Zuma was a no show. Now we all await the appointments of his cabinet. It really must shrink from the disgustingly over-bloated cabinet that he was too weak to shrink despite his promise to do just that. But………does Cyril have the backbone to fix this important issue?

As I write the cabinet has not yet been announced but there is speculation that John Steenhuisen will become a minister in the Presidency.

Two or three of the smaller parties have joined the GNU. The largest one of these is the seriously shrunk IFP, then the PA and the Good party with a single seat and yesterday the Pan African Congress (PAC) also joined . Together they control almost 280 seats (about 68%) of the 400 MPs in parliament.

The EFF has joined up with MK and some of the other small parties to form a “progressive caucus” in opposition to the GNU. With so much sympathy and similarity between these two far right parties could this agreement as opposition forecast a single opposition party in the future?

You know that Zuma cannot stay out of the courts. After having been knocked down twice in the last three weeks in our courts he has now, with his MK party, gone to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)–there to plead for a cancellation of our general election results because he says it was rigged.

He wants the Court to believe that 9 million votes are unaccounted for. He will lose this case too.

This is how Rico in Business Maverick, sees the matter:

The State Attorney wants Zuma to pay interest on the R28.9 million that he owes for legal costs in his corruption cases. Good.   Of course, he owes the state much more than just that.

Where we live we were warned of two days of planned water outages due to maintenance work having to be done. Parts of Johannesburg and surrounds have been without water for more than a week. All because the ANC simply was too slack, corrupt, lazy, incompetent– you choose–to properly service and maintain their plants.

I have been remiss in not writing about my notable coffee catch-ups. Rene & Jeffrey were at their holiday home in Gordon’s Bay last week and we spent a lovely afternoon just catching up and hearing of their luxury travels. The world champion and I always enjoy their stories.  Then Joe was at a talk at the Metropolitan golf club where coffee (not beer, at a golf club?) was served and he wanted to know why he is never mentioned in these newsletters, he also asked about our couch. So, Hello again, Joe. The couch is still available for rugby and Spur’s football games.

My talk was all about the Boerejode. I knew many of the fellows at the meeting and I was hardly surprised by all the responses after the chat. The connection to some of the fellows to what (who) was discussed was amazing. What a lovely meeting!

Most parts of Somerset West had no electricity from 8 in the morning until well after 7 on Saturday evening. It will happen again this Saturday because of necessary service to a substation. Thinking my inverter might not last through the entire day and then of the game the coach and I walked next door to Oom Dawie’s house to watch the semi-final rugby clash between the Bulls and Leinster. I had warned Dawie not to turn on his TV or too many lights before we got there. Fortunately his inverter worked beautifully and we could see the whole game. The Loftus Versveld field was packed with internationals on both sides and we were looking forward to an entertaining game. It turned into an absolute classic. The Bulls with home ground (at altitude) advantage played their hearts out to secure a 25-20 victory. All three of us agree that it was the clash of the titans and a wonderful win. Now this weekend the Bulls will meet Glascow Warriors, who forced an unexpected win over Munster in the other semi-final of the United Rugby Championship.  The final will be played (again) at Loftus Versveld in Tswane (Pretoria to you).

As always,                                                                   

Gerald

PS.

I must again thank with those of you overseas for sending on the articles on in your press to me. I very much enjoy reading what your people think of our situation. Not too different what we get to read here, really.

Gerald

PPS  My computer is playing up. Here’s hoping this get through to you albeit somewhat earlier than usual.
G

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