The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

There have been severe weather events for weeks in the northern provinces and particularly in Limpopo. It was so bad that the Kruger National Park was closed for a week (in the height of their tourist season– only opening this Monday) because of the flooding, which has been declared a national disaster. Sadly two young children, in unrelated incidents, have drowned in the flooding.  And while this is happening, Sam Shilowya, a former Premier of Gauteng,  believes that Limpopo is drowning in government neglect. The situation just gets worse and worse because the elected governing bodies do nothing to fix old, decaying infrastructure.  This is Zapiro’s take on the floods in the Kruger from the Daily Maverick:

Knysna is out of water and their taps have run dry. Cape Townians have also been asked to use water sparingly. There is a distinct possibility of water shortages here later this year.

Several political commentators this week predicted that the ANC would be irrelevant by 2009. Prince Mashele, a public intellectual and author believes that the ANC would be lucky to get 15% of the vote in the 2009 elections. He believes SAns are fed up with the incompetence of the governing clique.

Moletse Mbeki, the political economist and younger brother of Thabo, believes that at the national elections, the series of longstanding, destructive economic policies will harm the party irreversibly. He says that the ANC have prioritised enriching a narrow band of political elite and the African middle class. This at the expense of the broader population who remain suffering.

And Dawie Roodt, the renowned economist, believes the ANC has chosen outdated Communist policies like the BELA Act (Education), the National Health Insurance Act (NHI) and the ANC’s left-leaning, Marx-inspired ideology that is the driving force behind its most controversial and destructive policies. Roodt says that incompetence and corruption have weakened the party, but the central reason for its demise will be its foundational ideology. 

For the first time in 30 years the Communist Party is going into the general election on its own and not as party of the ANC.

There does not seem to be an “automatic” choice for taking over the ANC when Ramaphosa leaves. The front runners, our Deputy President (Paul Mashatile) and the Secretary General (Fikile Mbalula) are both badly tainted and not at all fit to lead the Party; let alone the country. But there are currently T-shirts in the making with the slogan of mining billionaire Patrice Motsepe on them. Motsepe is a mining billionaire and the brother-in-law of Cyril and is also a very big shot in the football world. He would make a far more acceptable candidate to lead the country than anyone else in the ANC.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, the young, competent mayor of Cape Town has changed his mind and now indicates that he is indeed keen on becoming our next State President. Having been exposed to his running of our city, I would feel confident with him in the top position. Hill-Lewis is a member of the DA and made a very good impression on us ‘usual suspects’ at the CTPress Club a little while ago. He has indicated that he will only be in the race for the Presidency if John Steenhuisen, his friend and leader of the DA, does not run. Cape Town is one of the very few towns in SA that has funds and is not subject to looting by (ANC?) councillors.

One of the stories that dominated our press all this week–& all last week– was the fact that Cyril gave instructions that Iran should not take part in the naval exercises with the other BRICS countries who had been invited by SA to come to Simonstown to practice their skills. Iran were invited to be here with the other nations but Cyril, no doubt, had second thoughts about their active participation after Donald Trump’s strong criticism of what was going on here. The US issued a strong rebuke of SA after learning that Iran was part of the naval exercise. Well, the naval exercises took place and Iran was not merely a spectator but a participant. The fall-out of non-compliance of Cyril’s instructions caused huge ructions and many believe that our foreign policy is now set by the Defence Dept and not the President. Why hasn’t spineless Cyril fired the Defence Minister? Because he is spineless. This is Brandan’s cartoon from Wednesday’s Business Day:

The multi-entry visa of political ANC big-shot, Naledi Pandor has been summarily revoked by the United States. The cancellation is due to Pandor’s aggressive pursuance of SA case against Israel at the IJC.

South African motor exports to the US have seen a sharp decline of over 80% since June primarily due to new US tariffs imposed by President Trump. Those tariffs made SA vehicles much more expensive, ending duty-free benefits under the AGOA trade deal.

A story that caught my eye this weekend was about our parliamentary secretary earning a salary of almost R5 million a year. Only in SA!

There are 609 registered political parties in SA. Granted only 383 of them are registered to compete at National elections where the others are registered to compete at provincial and municipal level.

Crime is out of hand even in the Western Cape and even in Stellenbosch and Somerset West. This week a Roman Catholic preacher was violently attacked, mid-day, in broard daylight near our Home Affairs Dept on the main road by two criminals intent on stealing his cell-phone and wallet. They were prepared to kill him to get what they were after. They said so. The matter was immediately reported but will the police do anything about it?  Don’t hold your breath. This week in Stellenbosch, a father (77 years old) was stabbed to death at the grave of his child. Both incidents took place on Monday in broad daylight.
 

The coach was on the couch with me on the weekend to watch Spurs loose in a league match again. It really is not easy being Spurs fans. On Tuesday evening Spurs played Dortmund in a UEFA league match and won 2-0. They won probably because we were not watching.

As always,                                                                              

Gerald