The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

The drama of the delayed, disputed budget three weeks ago heightened interest in the Finance Minister speech in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.  The key point of his budget is that VAT has been increased by .5%  and next year (unless there is a substantial saving—there won’t be) by another .5%. Sin taxes have gone up a little. Mostly up 2% each for wines and cigarretes.

Ryk van Niekerk, editor of Moneyweb, after listening to the budget speech is not optimistic. He makes the point that unless spending cuts are enforced we will find ourselves in the same position next year and we will then be closer to being a ‘failed’ State.

This was Zapiro’s take on the budget speech…..i.e. the first budget speech in Daily Maveric that wasn’t delivered, but it is still pertinent today:   

At the end of last week Ramaphosa “visited” Johannesburg. His “visit” is in inverted commas because he lives there and this “visit” shouldn’t have been necessary at all. But what he found will not surprise you. Johannesburg is a filthy, decaying dump where nothing works. Again Ramaphosa is shocked just as he was when he took a train trip a year or two ago to see how our rail service wasn’t working, then he was shocked. Well, he is shocked at the level of disrepair and filth in our Golden City. And it is all the fault of the ANC. 

Downtown Johannesburg is a crime scene and a dangerous area and Luthuli House where the President visits regularly, is downtown. So why did he need the visit?

Yesterday’s editorial in Business Day highlights the horrific state of Helen Joseph Hospital. It is in Johannesburg and is one the the biggest State hospital in Gauteng. The details are depressing and it is enough to learn that the hospital is unhygienic and the care given is undignified. And the ANC wants to impose National Health on all of us and so do away with private hospitals all together. Oh dear!

Billions of Rands of tax-money disappears every year in our largest metro without accountability. The municipality is run by the ANC.

The water quality is disgusting (when you can get any in your taps), downtown buildings are dangerously falling apart and the roads are almost unusable because of the massively deep pot-holes, not to mention how few traffic lights still work. One of the very many traffic lights that have been knocked over is still working, lying on the ground, as it is. This is a case of ‘down but not out’.

A popular local insurance company pays people to direct traffic in the city centre. On the fringes of the city unemployed people try to help relieve congestion. It’s hard to believe how far Johannesburg has deteriorated. You can blame the dishonest and incompetent ANC cadres for the state of the city.

Monday’s Citizen newspaper highlighted the fact that the Deeds Office in downtown Jo’burg, where property transactions are registered, is falling apart. The building has no properly working lifts, it is a 31-story building and the staff are on strike due to their dangerous environment. There is already a backlog of more than 5000 deeds that need to be registered and the work is piling up daily. 

Johannesburg is where the world’s top countries’ leaders will be getting together for the G20 meetings at the end of this year and Cyril wants the city  fixed…….. soon. It won’t happen.

Is it too late to move the meetings to Cape Town?    Our Mayor has offered. 

A great deal of press this week emanated from Solidarity’s visit to the USA. Solidarity –actually, ‘Solidariteit’– the non-governmental organization, with AfriForum, has just returned back and the ANC is not happy. These Afrikaner groups received high-level receptions in the US to plead the case of the “marginalized” Afrikaner white farmers, whom they claim to represent.  The Americans were sympathetic. In fact Donald Trump is ready to welcome them into America and he is making it easy for them to leave here for the USA.

The ANC did not like this at all. What’s worse is that the planned intended visit to the US by the ANC to “change Trump’s mind” has now been put on hold. COSATU, the trade union organization, has slammed Solidariteit’s visit as buffoonery since by their reckoning it will inflict pain upon millions here, black and white.

Dawie in his weekend editorial in the Burger newspaper analyzes the result of the trip to America by Solidariteit and AfriForum and makes the point that all S Africans should pull together for the betterment of the country. He does not believe “white” farmers will all flock to America. But he does not blame AfriForum for Trump’s attitude. The fact that the government (ANC) hosts  Iranian and Cuban delegations, both again here this week, and it’s closeness to terror groups has got far more to do with how Trump sees SA.

Pieter Mulder in his op-Ed in the Burger points out that the elephant in the room is the ANC’s foreign policy. It is the foreign policy of SA not Solidarity or AfriForum’s visit to the US that has formed Trump’s attitude.

This is Brandan’s cartoon showing Johannesburg from Business Day on Wednesday:

On Sunday morning I went through to Stellenbosch for a coffee catch-up with Gersh and Mich. They are from Melbourne and Gersh’s father, Michael and I played cricket together in the same team at Green Point for many, many years. I had never met them before but we had so much in common that I was almost late for lunch back home. 

Then on Monday, the usual suspects got together over lunch at Westlake Golf Club to hear Paul Hoffman’s suggestions on how we can terminate corruption in this country. It is so important that we do. Paul made the point that corruption is not unique to SA but we must engage the Glenister judgement which compels the government on how to act. It doesn’t;  but bills brought by the DA are coming before Parliament soon to enforce that legal judgment.

We had David with us at Westlake, but not Henry and it was an engaging & highly stimulating few hours. It was nice to catch-up with Dennis, that character of note and Kenny. We hadn’t been together in several weeks and it was time we met with Paul.    

Microsoft is investing a further R5.5 billion into SA. Already heavily invested, the tech-gaint believes this is where to be.

A  big sporting event in our city is the annual 109-kilometer cycle race. It is the largest cycle race in the world with 28,000 participants and it raises money for charities. The weather was perfect on Sunday and Tyler Lange won his first title which his father had won three times.

On Saturday some riders cycled naked from Sea Point to Bree St in the city to be part of the annual World Naked Bike Ride as a protest against fossil fuels. This event took place in 74 cities around the world this year. As you can imagine, lots of photos made it into our newspapers. 

The coach was with me on the couch to watch Spurs snatch a draw after being 0-2 down in their Premier league clash on Sunday. It wasn’t an easy game to watch as Spurs fans. After the way Spurs played I am not too hopeful for our chances against Alkmaar this Thursday evening in the return-leg of the European league match at Tottenham.

We also watched parts of the 50-over World Cricket final between India and New Zealand on Sunday afternoon which was won by India. 

As always,                                                                              

Gerald