The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

Local news paled after the Trump-Zelensky row. Nothing like that has ever dominated news so completely in our time. Ramaphosa’s desire to go and “talk” to Trump to do a deal after telling all at a Goldman Sachs affair, last week, that he wants to change Trump’s mind on a whole span of issues, does not seem like such a good idea. Especially now, since Ramaphosa upset the Americans even more by siding with Malaysia and Colombia in an article in Foreign Policy, which sharply criticized Trump’s attitude to Israel in its war with Hamas. America has now threatened to stop all aid to Colombia as it has to Ukraine.  Peter Bruce in his Sunday Times op-Ed asks what Ramaphosa had to offer at such a meeting with Trump. Bruce would like to know how Cyril will explain his attitude on land expropriation or our relations with China, with Russia and with Hamas to Trump.  Also Donald Trump will want to know why Cyril would like an alternative currency to the dollar. I suspect he may not even come out of the Oval Office once Donald is finished with him.

This is Brandan’s cartoon from Business Day on Monday:

The front page of the Sunday Times this weekend carried a worrying story. It is about the ANC getting the EFF to support it in the budget which is scheduled to be delivered next Wednsday, the 12th. The ANC believe that the EFF will allow an increase in VAT because the DA have been dead against against it from day one and are not even prepared to consider a .5% increase. This is seriously worrying. If the GNU collapses and the ANC get into bed with the EFF and with one or two of the ‘outside’ parties there could be a new GNU and then, as I have said before, we can kiss SA goodbye.

The DA believe that this back-door love affair between the ANC & the EFF will not last and they have proposed several ideas to the Finance Minister how to get the money he is looking for without raising VAT.

Cyril called a cabinet meeting last Friday to discuss the budget but clearly no conclusions were agreed because another meeting has been called for next Monday.

The DA wants to eliminate wasteful expenditure and ActionSA, the party of leader Herman Mashaba, wants the government to get rid of ALL 43 of the Deputy Ministers. Think how much money that would save. But it won’t happened because then the ANC would not have the control it now has.

With regard to the budget, Ann Bernstein of the Centre for Development & Enterprise (CDE) published a review and costs of the Dept. of Small Business. Her conclusion: it must be scrapped. It costs a fortune and it achieves nothing and the money can be far better utilised by supporting entrepreneurs to start and run small businesses. That saving would substantially help reduce the R60 billion that the Finance  Minister is looking for.  

The government is spending more money than we have. There is wastage in far too many departments and corruption is an ongoing blight. The government must get tougher with the rogues otherwise we are doomed to becoming a failed State. Rob Hersov thinks that is a given (becoming a Failed State) since our GDP growth is too low and we owe too much. He blames Cyril for the financial mess we are in.
 

In an editorial in the Burger, I read how the ANC is trying to restructure its leadership in the provinces where it did so badly in the general election. They have appointed well-known old cadres to try to steady the ship. This, as the Burger writes, creates just more factions and it ends its piece by saying the only thing that the ANC runs worse than the country…… is itself. I agree!

John Steenhuisen, DA party leader has taken flack this week for backing the ANC in two controversial policies. They are the Land Expropriation Act and BEE.  According to William Saunderson-Meyer, Steenhuisen vanishes from his party to align with the ANC and he shouldn’t last long in his position as leader of the DA. 

I had never heard of John Lamola but now he is known to almost everyone in SA. He is a professor of theology with an airline security curriculum studied in America. He has been appointed to head-up SAA our National Airline, a State Owned Enterprise (SOE). What makes his appointment newsworthy is that of those interviewed for the top job, he fared worse than two others. This is glaringly another example of cadre-deployment by the ANC —which, according to the learned Judge Zondo (and Paul Hoffman) is unconstitutional and illegal. The press have had plenty to say about this matter, but Business Day on Tuesday argues that Lamola should be given the chance since he is the acting CEO and knows how precariously the airline exists. They argue that outsiders are often too expensive for our cash-strapped entities. Mind you he is on a multi-million wage packet. But then the ANC always pays its cadres well.

Hilton College is in the news this week. Not because it is the most expensive private school in the country but because the land which it occupies in Kwa-Zulu Natal belongs to the Nxamalala tribe. Well, anyway, that is what the tribe is claiming.  Almost 20 years ago this matter came before our courts and the matter was left unchanged but now the tribe have got permission to proceed with their land claim. And you did guess, didn’t you? Yes, Jacob Zuma is a member of the tribe.

Cape Town is just better. Not for nothing do the compliments/awards keep coming. Now ‘the best city in the world to visit’ is going to switch to green energy. A deal has just been signed for 150 million Euros (R2.9 billion) with Germany’s KFW Development Bank to help generate more power. This will help us reduce our reliance on Eskom and will even allow our municipalities generate more power on their own.

Making big news this week has been the sad ongoing story about the lack of comprehension our scholars possess. Most primary school children cannot read for meaning, in any language, not even their home language. In his weekly newsletter Cyril wrote about this sad state of affairs. 

This has been a problem for years, but it is getting worse. At the current rate of progress it could take kids 86 years to achieve basic reading proficiency. The good thing is that it is now highlighted and hopefully, new plans will be made to improve the situation. This is Siwela’s take on the situation from today’s The Citizen:

Bloomberg Sachs, the American Bank and financial media company has indicated that they are staying in SA. For them there are opportunities in emerging markets and they believe they are well positioned in SA.

In spite of the holiday season and our magnificent weather coffee catch-ups have, for me, been rather rare lately. But today made up for that. I had a wonderful catch-up with Michael & Jenny from Toronto. Michael and Jenny were at UCT when I was at Stellenbosch but for almost the last 50 years they have lived in Toronto. We toured together about 10 years ago and have kept in close contact ever since. The coffee (they don’t drink coffee???) & milkshake turned into a walk along the Camps Bay beach-front and then onto a lunch at Kleinski’s in Sea Point.  What a lovely catch-up, even though Michael is an Everton supporter.

The sport was OK this weekend. The coach and I watched SA klap England in the World 50-over championship in Afghanistan and so to go through to the semi-finals against New Zealand.             The winner of that will go on to face India in the final.  Unfortunately, we were beaten by New Zealand. Then the rugby was delayed by rain but the Stormers pulled off a great, if unexpected, narrow win against the Bulls up north. Spurs play AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday evening.

As always,

Gerald