The Week That Was

Hello again,
 

I did not listen to the State of the Nation (SONA) address last Thursday evening. Cyril is boring and besides the world champion and I had joined a Zoom meeting where Joel Pollak, who will most likely be Trump’s choice for the US Ambassador to SA, was interviewed. What we watched while Cyril was on TV was engrossing and enlightening. Pollak is SAfrican born, Harvard educated and worked for Tony Leon here as his speech writer for several years when Tony Leon was leader of the DA. He is refreshingly bright and easy to listen to and I hope he does indeed get the nod. The most important SA policy that Pollak touched on during his interview was Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and until that changes Elon Musk, who sees this as a racist policy, will not bring his Starlight satellite system into this country.

From all reports Cyril was; boringly Cyril. The newspapers were unanimous about that in their summation of his address. He made all the many promises he makes every year, like more jobs, fix education and he added few new ones this year, but nothing ever comes of them. The best analysis of Cyril’s speech was not in the newspaper but in an email from Henry Kempen and here I quote : “No timelines, no accountability, no actual plans, no relation to financial reality. Then Kempen goes on to ask what many of the newspapers point out  “Where is the money going to come from to fix all that is wrong with this country?” Cyril lives in cloud cookie land. This is Siwela’s take on SONA from Monday’s  Citizen:

Daniel Silke, the political commentator believes that the SONA address could have been made without the members of the GNU in coalition. He pointed out that Cyril was promoting an ANC agenda rather than a GNU one. Opposition parties slammed the address saying it was nothing but empty promises and Julius Malema said there was no plan or accountability and it was just a lot of waffle. The MK Party believes that corruption has persisted under Ramaphosa and he has done nothing to curb it. They say he makes promises of job-creation but gives no idea of where and how. John Hlope, the defrocked Judge-President of the Cape, now leader of MK told Cyril he is the worst President SA has had. Dr Corné Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front Plus Party thought Cyril’s reference in his address  that “we will not be bullied by America” was not clever in the light of our strained relationship with the biggest economy in the world. 

It is noticeable that during SONA Ramaphosa did not mention the government’s achievements last year or even since taking the leadership. There are none. More than one newspaper referred to Cyril’s one skill; his ability to kick the can down the road.

I’m pleased I missed the address.

Peter Bruce in his op-Ed in the Sunday Times pointed out that America can cut us out of the World Bank and the IMF and other important financial institutions. The US has already made it clear that they will not be attending the G20 (the 20 most financially relevant economies in the world) pre-meeting in SA next month. The reason; S Africa’s friends.  Bruce does not believe we have ever been in bigger trouble in the 30 years of our democracy than now. This, to quote Bruce further is what Afrikaners call ‘groot kak’.          

The Sunday Times reports that Ramaphosa is sending another high-powered group of envoys to America to try to get Trump to change his view of SA. The DA, as part of the GNU has already sent three delegations to the States but there are still fears that America’s hostility could see the Rand and the JSE tank. That will have disastrous effects on our economy.

This was Dr Jack’s clever cartoon in yesterday’s Burger:

Translation. Mr Trump where is your shadow?            

Trump:   I hear it’s hanging all over S Africa’s politics.

On Tuesday MPs had a full go at Cyril’s SONA saying it was nothing more than the usual empty promises.  The focus in Parliament was, however more on Trump than Ramaphosa and Trump’s offer of refugee status to Afrikaner farmers .

That offer to farmers to have refugee status to get into America has made big news. Apparently there has been a great deal of interest in the offer and 20,000 applications have already been received. There is a caveat,  however; and that is once a refugee you cannot come back here.

The trade union, Solidarity has urged Trump to keep up his pressure on SA until all race-based laws are rescinded.

Helen Zille of the DA has launched a court application challenging the Expropriation of Land Act. She believes it is unconstitutional and she is vocal about the DA’s opposition to the law which gives the government the right to expropriate land without compensation.

The DA quietly had a marvellous victory last week when the National Health Insurance Act (NHI) was changed so as not to exclude private medical aids. Well done!

I was fascinated to hear Rob Hersov, in a interview claim that Cyril’s sudden secret signing of the Land Expropriation Bill into law, must have been a reaction to threat that he received. Does someone have something on Ramaphosa? Would his not signing have led to the beans being spilt? Does it have to do with the Phala Phala affair? Interesting.

On Monday our Minister of International Relations, Ronald Lamola refused to recall the 2000 SA soldiers from the DRC where they are not, according to opposition MPs, on a peace mission but fighting a war against the 23s rebel group who have Rwanda backing. There have been protests in front of Parliament to have all our troops brought back. Then yesterday it was reported that approximately 800 more troops are being sent to the DRC. Are our soldiers there to help the DRC or to protect SA (Ramaphosa’s) mining interests in that country.

The bodies of the 14 soldiers killed in the DRC are to be returned to SA later today. Our soldiers are not properly skilled, since they are not properly trained and then we have far too many generals in the army.  The families of each of the soldiers will have the belongings of each of the deceased returned to them at the Cape Town Castle. There has been lots of press on this sad affair.

Lamola is likely to be our next President after Ramaphosa leaves or is gotten rid of.  That presumes the ANC will still be the majority party after the next general election in 2027.

Elon Musk wants Julius Malema declared an ‘international criminal’. It has to do with Julius’s ranting on a video where he says that the DA only listens to its white leaders. Malema’s response was to tell Musk to “go to Hell”.  

The Zumas made news, as usual, this week albeit a little unusually. Father Jacob made his daughter,  Duduzile apologise for her rant against Floyd Shivambu, the new MK party General-Secretary. She told him to go F himself.

South Africa has retained a world champion. He is Dricus du Plessis who defended his title in Sydney to retain his UFC Middleweight crown. The fight was rough and bloody but he won and takes home $3.3 million. They say in Boksburg he is now up to no 3 on their ‘toughies list’. My kids were on the Sydney airport on Tuesday and my young grandson recognised Dricus. He went up to the champ and asked him if he minded having a photo taken. His Dad, Richard took the picture that we now have but talking to Rich yesterday he told me how very impressed he was with Dricus. He was charming and spoke to them realising they were ex-pats. What a great ambassador for SA!

On Saturday I was on the couch with the coach at his daughter’s place where he was dog-sitting. Our Stormers missed 5, not 1 but 5 kickable conversions to lose to the Bulls 32-33. I have written their  the coach, John Dobson to offer the two of us as alternatives to his selections. We certainly don’t kick any worse than the fellows he picks.

Spurs lost again on Sunday …..what can I say?

As always,  

Gerald