OUT OF AFRICA
The Commission,
comprising a team of wise men and women supervised by Minister in the Presidency, Mondli
Gungubele, is tasked with ensuring the much-heralded National Development Plan
is carried out.In
any rational country, an outburst like that would lead to the Government
resigning and an early election, but there is faint hope of that. The best we
can hope for is an ANC, with a greatly reduced majority, dragging down a coalition
Government. For the ANC to change for the better would mean a radical redesign
of the party.
Invective
aside, the lack of a coherent strategy has always plagued the ANC and the
reason is simple. The party likes to boast about it being a “broad church”.
This means that it must, by definition, please every schismatic faction to hold
together.
We
don’t have to look any further than the Tripartite Alliance between the SACP,
Cosatu and the ANC to spot the bind the party’s dogmatic approach to consensus has
got us into. While the SACP has done a fair job of acting as the alliance’s
conscience, its outdated policies make it impossible to implement the steps
needed to get South Africa back on course. So, the ANC compromises by doing
nothing. Similarly, Cosatu’s job is to look after the interests of the workers.
The Government’s job is to look after the poor and unemployed, but it cannot
allow the wage levels which would bring prosperity and full employment because
Cosatu won’t have it.
Now
the ANC faces being reduced to a powerless cypher by the gains of two parties.
The Democratic Alliance which has a clear idea of what the country needs and
the brains to achieve it and the EFF which has a clear idea of what Julius
Malema needs and pursues it single-mindedly.
The
ANC has a vision of what the country needs that would probably be acceptable to
most of its voters, it is just that it is so paralysed by the need to please
factions, and the need to play politics instead of running the country, it
cannot achieve anything. The problem is lit up by the number of patently
useless Ministers President Ramaphosa tolerates in order to achieve unity.
In
fact, with the possible exception of beleaguered Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana,
there are none who have the ability to hold down any sort of job in the real
world. Most have shown such abysmal performance in their portfolios that their continued
employment only demonstrates the weakness of the President.
Not that firing them would help much for the ANC is markedly lacking in talent. Unkind commentators have said the definition of gross inefficiency is the 144 top members of the party’s national executive.
September 15
Wanna buy a share in ANC inc.?
Do not be surprised if investors are far from thrilled at the news
that a new Bill, brainchild of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, will
pave the way for them to take shares in state companies. Imagine. “How are my
Eskom shares doing today/” “Oh shit.”
The Bill is apparently modelled on similar legislation in Malaysia –
but there is a key difference. In Malaysia SOEs are run by properly trained,
fiscally aware, professionals. In South Africa? Well….
It might be a cause for rejoicing if we were sure the Government was
planning to take only a minority share in the SOEs in question. Fat chance,
they will want 51% and that means their cadre of choice will become chairman,
backed by a bunch of jaa baas know-nothings. Situation normal except they have
some private money to burn or steal.
But do not be surprised if this is not part one of a two part
Gordhan plan. He is not the thickest member of a pretty thick Cabinet and he
will be fully aware that private enterprise has far more sense than to hand
vast sums to ANC cadres.
For a long time, the Government has been laying covetous eyes on the
nation’s pensions schemes. To the rage of our Socialist masters, they insist on
only investing in shares that will bring value to their stakeholders. President
Cyril Ramaphosa has been quoted as saying that pension funds should be invested
in development work – which in our country means handed over to the cadres to
loot.
So far, its greedy eyes have only been focused on work-related pensions
funds. But what about all that lovely money prudent people have put away in
equity funds and the rest to see them through their old age? A nice new law
obliging the funds to invest 50% of their assets in SOEs would solve the
problem of private enterprise not wanting to take up Gordhan’s offer.
Gordhan’s Bill has still to be published for public comment – which
is liable to range from the sarcastic to, in the case of the EFF and the like,
outrage.
Probably the best news for the saving public is that, as usual, the
Government has left things too late, and it will be almost impossible to get
the Bill through before the next election. In that case things will have to
start all over again. With a bit if luck we might even have a Government that
is not based on the principle that what is yours is ours
September 13
Stay safe Andre, it’s not over yet
Andre de Ruyter is
alive and well and somewhere. The question South Africans should ask, as they
watch the ham-handed attempts of the State to tarnish his whistle-blowing, is
whether that would be true if he was still in South Africa.
De Ruyter had certain
advantages over your run of the mill whistle-blower. Plenty of cash and the
ability to write a book which ensured, if anything untoward should happen to him,
the blame would be laid squarely at the Government’s door.
Lucky for Andre. He
had already found staying in South Africa could well be fatal when his coffee
was laced with cyanide. Any doubts he had about who was responsible must have
evaporated when two cops of abysmal ignorance were tasked with finding the
culprits. They have never done so and it is doubtful that they ever tried –
acting on the orders of those on high, we all suspect.
Now there is no direct
evidence that our Government goes in for the assassination of whistle-blowers,
but there is plenty of evidence that both it, and the ANC, will move heaven and
earth to protect anyone, politically connected, who is accused of criminality.
Their efforts seem to
have met a road block in the form of retired police Brigadier General Jap
Burger. Burger, who was investigating de Ruyter’s claims, was ordered by his
boss, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola to tell all to Parliament’s
Standing Committee on Public Accounts. He didn’t turn up, and Masemola hinted
that it was because he was scared.
Burger subsequently retired
and has again refused to brief Scopa. But it appears he had already written to
the Speaker pointing out that the Eskom investigation was a matter of national
security and he was not prepared to discuss it in the open in front of the
notoriously talkative Scopa members.
Burger wrote that “an
integrated national security resolve of Eskom” had to be activated, and the
executive held to account, as the power utility was “not served or protected by
the security sector”.
“The national commissioner,
however, appears not to have communicated my position to the Scopa meeting …
but alluded to Scopa that he does not know where I am and that I was scared to
appear before Scopa.”
Masemola apparently has refused
to comment on this. Nor has he explained why, what is probably the most vital
police investigation the country has ever known, was handed to a cop who was
about to retire.
Meanwhile, cyanide having failed
whoever tried to get de Ruyter, the Government appears to be resorting to slow
poison in a bid to kill off accusations that might soil the beloved party.
The SIU, whose proper role is
to claw back the money that was stolen from Eskom by mysterious syndicates,
headed by senior ANC men, is instead on the hunt for the de Ruyter scalp,
telling Scopa that while he might have meant well, the ex-Eskom CEO was guilty
of maladministration by authorising a clandestine investigation into the power
utility and should be held accountable. Tutt, tutt Andre.
Having thus hinted that De
Ruyter was committing a felony, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, the SIU head Andy
Mothibi grudgingly admitted that top politicians had been named. Despite the
report being unauthorised its value, in terms of matters that should be
investigated, can't be ignored, he said.
What he didn’t
tell Scopa, probably to the great relief of the ANC members, was why in the six
months or so since the Fivaz report was unleashed, it has been ignored. No
police raids, no confiscation of hard drives, no formal interviews.
But plenty of
time for the destruction of evidence. Stay where you are Andre, being paranoid
doesn’t mean they aren’t still out to get you. And under this Government, a
whistleblower’s life isn’t worth a penny whistle.
September 11
Was there a coup when no one was looking?
Has here been a silent
coup in South Africa? Has Cyril Ramaphosa been replaced as President by someone
competent and intelligent – and willing to act? Have the rest of his dumb
puppets been sidelined, to wander around powerlessly, chanting “its apartheid’s
fault”, while a new regime tries to rebuild what they have wrecked?
It would seem so after
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana ordered the departments and provinces to cut
their spending by R25 billion. A howl went up from the unions, but not a murmur
from the free-spending ministers and provinces.
Enoch, the quiet man
of South African politics has gone further. Ramaphosa and his wrecking crew
have been wittering on forever about getting help from private enterprise. Enoch’s
Treasury is taking that radical move over and wants it to happen in a hurry.
The problem is that
South Africa’s tax revenue has nosedived sharply because of Eskom and Transnet,
two disasters which have impacted every corner of South African life and which
have been caused, not by apartheid, would you believe, but by Government’s
failures and eagerness to deploy the corrupt.
The bulk of our
fiscally ignorant Cabinet doubtless fail to understand why the problem cannot
be fixed by simply printing more Rands, but our Minister of Finance is made of
stronger, and more intelligent, stuff.
It is unlikely that
Enoch will find it easy once Cabinet wakes up to the fact that Treasury has
demanded they cut back on travelling, catering, conferences and workshops, all the
fun things that make Minsters feel like proper politicians.
Treasury has also
called for a block on hiring and infrastructure projects.
According to the Daily
Maverick, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde this will “fundamentally compromise
his province’s ability to deliver frontline services in health, education, and
criminal justice. What is needed, he said, is urgent reforms to grow the
economy and government tax revenue. Like a bit of stealthy privatisation,
perhaps.
One place where there
will be long faces is in the ANC’s election war room. In every election so far,
these strategists, devoid of any triumphs they can point out, have resorted to
bribes – nothing like a few freebies to keep the sheep in the pen.
Now it looks as if any
social security hand-outs will be off the table as will tax cuts on things like
petrol and liquor. Enoch the Scrooge might be able to pick some low-hanging
fruit there. Treasury long ago announced that if Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe
ever managed to do his job and produce a new fuel pricing formula, we would
start paying over a rand a litre less. If Treasury take that project over from
Gwede the Unready, every worker and industry in South Africa will benefit
immediately.
Doubtless Uncle Cyril
is waiting in the wings to claim the credit if the nasty medicine works. So
what, if Godongwana’s power grab continues and he turns South Africa around?
September 10
Don’t curse the darkness, curse the ANC
If the power goes off
when you are watching the start of the Rugby World Cup tomorrow, or the Boks’
first game on Saturday, don’t curse the darkness, curse Gwede Mantashe. Curse
him twice in fact. The first time for his pig head determination that only coal
can save the country and his willingness to obstruct any other solution.
Unless of course it is
Kapowerships. He has a strange fascination for that Turkish company. Many wonder
why.
The second time you
curse him, curse him for being an incompetent do nothing who can’t even be bothered
to try to do something about the fuel price which affects everyone in the
country, whether they have cars or ride taxis.
For the latest
swingeing rise in the cost of diesel means that Eskom will be unable to burn so
much to keep the lights on, Diesel has gone up by a whopping R2.84 a litre based
on the archaic formula on which our fuel prices are based.
An urgent matter, you
would think. But Mantashe was told, back in 2018, to find a revised price
mechanism which would lessen the burden. The task is, unarguably, part of his
department’s duties. But nothing has been done. Treasury have done sums which
suggest a new formula could drop prices by more than a rand, but the man who us
supposed to do the job has still to report back.
In fact, curse him
three times, for his third example of uncaring stubbornness is his refusal to
allow Eskom to buy diesel at wholesale prices. It must operate through third
parties, who add nothing but cost to the equation. Why he is so enamoured with these
third parties, we can only speculate.
In a normal society, with
a normal Government, the President would fire a Minster who couldn’t be
bothered to drag himself away from his nice coal fire to do what he was told to
do. But not our President. Firing incompetents would cause rifts within the
ruling party and the party is far more important than the country and its
wellbeing.
“We should think positively
about the power cuts,” he croons on TV, sounding just like a mother trying to
persuade a toddler that the medicine doesn’t taste horrible. But be aware,
President Ramaphosa, that the toddler is about to throw an almighty tantrum and
start kicking and screaming.
This time no amount of
lies about how good things are under the African National Catastrophe are going
to make it continue to swallow the nasty medicine Uncle Cyril seems to believe
will only do us good.
So add a curse on him
as you struggle to get live scores on your laptop.
And pray hard that the
Boks are better at rugby than the ANC is at governing. And pray that Minsters
who knock on every time they get a pass are dropped from Cabinet.
No need to pray for
the Boks to win. They will.
September 7
The ANC drops its mask of democracy
To hell with the Constitution,
to hell with the Constitutional Court, to hell with the Bill of Rights, we’re
the ANC and we will do what we like otherwise our policemen will come and bash
you over the head with their truncheons and you won’t be able to do anything
about it because we have made sure IPID can’t interfere.
That is the effect, if
not the words, of Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale, in a triumphant
statement after the Directorate (IPID) Amendment Bill was forced through the
Portfolio Committee of Police. The Bill, if it goes all the way through
Parliament, will allow our revered Minister of Police Bheki Cele to appoint any
puppet he likes as IPID’s executive director.
That of course would make
life a lot easier for Cele and the ANC. For a start any nonsense about
disciplining the Blue Light thugs from Deputy President Matishile’s convoy for
merely kicking over a couple of innocent soldiers who apparently annoyed them,
would disappear. Given Cele’s erratic behaviour in his role, this is bad news.
But the worst news of
all is that, for the first time, a Parliamentary body has deliberately defied a
Constitutional Court ruling. The court expressly ordered Parliament, as our
Constitution allows it to do, to produce amendments to the IPID Bill which
removed the Minister’s power to interfere with the key appointment.
Mathale, a man in
keeping with the ANC’s policy of appointing the unqualified in key roles, was
fully aware the new Bill will be illegal, because the State Law Advisor had
told him so. But what does he know, ruled Mathale, glorying in his degree in
sociology, the fact that it is unconstitutional is not “reason enough” to block
its further progress.
Obviously, the
opposition is not going to sit still for this, so the ANC is leading us straight
into a constitutional crisis. To put it simply, Mathale has decided that the
party is above the rule of law.
This seems like a very
bad strategy with an election looming. The government is clearly going to lose
any court cases and therefore lose face at a crucial time. Or should we put the
worst possible interpretation on it – that the mighty ANC has decided it will
no longer be constrained by silly pieces of paper like the Constitutional Court
ruling. And like the Electoral Act.
The Constitution has
been maligned because evil lawyers have twisted its purpose, but it is still
the only thing which stands between us and a draconian Party which would love
to be returned to Parliament with a majority which would enable it to rewrite
the Constitution to its own malevolent benefit. Its only hope of achieving that
would be to have policemen, batons drawn, at every polling station with orders
to crack the skulls of anyone who tries to vote without an ANC membership card.
So we should all worry
about Mathale and his Bill. Has the ANC finally decided to throw away its mask
of benign democracy so it can create the corrupt socialist heaven it believes is
possible?
September 6
Stage six and Government fails us again
Back to the miseries
of Stage six load shedding and all because our Minister of Electricity thinks prancing
and dancing about on the supposed world stage of a nothing conference in East
Africa is far more important than signing off an agreement with Mozambique to
supply 100MW of much-needed power.
News 24 disclosed
today that, while the Government crowed about how clever it was to negotiate the
agreement, three months ago, it has done nothing to finalise it. Something that
has even angered Mozambique’s energy minister Carlos Zacarias, who doubtless
feels that he is being treated with disdain by a country that arrived with a
begging bowl and can’t be bothered to pick it up when he filled it.
But never mind, we patient
South Africans will endure Stage six, basking instead in the proud knowledge that
our Minister of Electricity was making GLOBAL sound bites on a WORLD platform –
just like those important people like Putin and Xi. It makes you feel so good.
Anyway, Minister Ramokgopa
has explained that Stage Six is because Eskom is doing extra maintenance, which
is GOOD. Unfortunately he did not explain why he was doing nothing, which is
BAD.
Fortunately, some
politicians are prepared to buckle down and get their shoulders to the wheel.
Like the Johannesburg city councilors who overcame years of strife to speak together
with one voice. Well more or less as the EFF and ActionSA voted against it.
What was it they said? WE DESERVE A PAY RISE FOR OUR WONDERFUL WORK IN RUNNING
THE CITY!
Of course they do,
especially as they are all going to have to get their dark suits dry cleaned 76
times as they attend 77 funerals for the victims of the Marshalltown fire. You wouldn’t
believe the cost of dry cleaning these days.
Are the councilors
going to attend the funerals? Well one would hope so, if only as an admission
that the people died because the councilors were all playing a fascinating new
board game called “Kill the Coalition” instead of doing the work the ratepayers
expect of them.
The game involves
rolling the dice to see who has the right to elect a nothing mayor from a
nothing party. The really exciting bit is that as every participant passes go
he is allowed to dip his head in the swill and snuffle up as much as he can.
The game has replaced the previous council favourite, a boring game called “Service
Delivery.” That involved councilors doing lots of work after rolling the dice,
and never really caught on.
Correction, not all
the councilors were so anxious to vote themselves a pay rise. The meeting had
to be postponed because more than half the councilors hadn’t bothered to turn
up and therefore there was no quorum.
The voters might wonder
if so few will turn up to collect their pay cheques at the end of the month.
September 5
Pity the poor prosecutors
The regrettable fact
that crime often does pay in South Africa has been laid at the door of the Police
and the National Prosecuting Authority. As far as the police are concerned, the
incompetence of Police Minister Bheki Cele is legendary. But they have shown
their fangs lately.
First in sleepy
Machadorp where a large gang of cash in transit robbers had taken up residence.
The police stormed their house and all 18 were killed. One policeman lost his
leg while the others were unscathed. No doubt gentler readers will raise their
eyebrows at the uncanny accuracy of the police shooters, but the robbers fired
first and if you can’t do death, don’t do crime.
The other big crime story
of the week puts the spotlight on Justice Minister Ronnie Lamola. His main sin
is in failing to persuade a Cabinet that earnestly trumpets its anti-crime
credentials to give the NPA proper funding.
KZN’s NPA staffers
must have blanched when they heard the news of the success of Operation Shanela
which was launched last month by he KZN cops. Shanela means “to sweep” in isiZulu
and the operation has swept up 10 843 suspects, 241 of them alleged murderers
and 140 wanted for attempted murder. Serious contact crimes are blamed on another
3 295.
Ronnie’s hard-pressed
magistrates and judges are going to have their hands full for weeks and how the
NPA can be expected to cope with the rush without emergency assistance, only
Ronnie can tell us.
There is no doubt that
many a criminal will slip through the Shanela net because courts and prosecutors
cannot cope with the enormity of KZN Crime. Not to mention the hard-pressed detectives
who will have to gather further evidence to present to the courts.
The Government will
not mention these failures when they crow about their crime fighting credentials,
but the truth of the matter is that the ANC has a marked disinterest in getting
detective and prosecution levels up to scratch.
Given the ruling party’s
refusal to take any action against its members who were named as corrupt in the
Zondo Commission report, many may wonder whether the lack of enthusiasm for strengthening
crime prevention areas is a question of guilty consciences at work. After all,
you cannot expect the porkers to gallop to the bacon factory.
But the more likely
answer is that it is just another manifestation of the ANC Government’s conviction
that they are there to play politics, not govern. Wrecking municipal coalitions,
for example, is far more fun than the hard grind of reorganising struggling departments
and making sure they are properly funded.
September 4
REAL statesmen don’t fix problems
Another incompetent
springs into action after years of believing a Minster’s job is to play
politics not to govern. This time its Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin
Gordhan, who has descended on the Transnet board, full of sound and fury,
demanding that they do something about their R5.7 billion loss.
Commendable? Well it
would be if it wasn’t two years too late. Transnet lost R5.1 billion in 2021 while Gordhan was totally engrossed
in a turf war over Eskom with Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe.
That war, as the
country knows to its cost, had little to do with fixing Eskom’s woes and much
to do with the egos of two Ministers who run neck and neck in the incompetence
stakes.
Not that they get much
help from our President Cyril Ramaphosa. Cyril, promoted to global statesman by
warmongering, murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, clearly finds his new
role far more exciting than fixing the country’s problems. Illegal immigration
is one of our major problems, but instead of putting pressure on the main
source, Zimbabwe, he is heading off, probably accompanied by a delegation
suitably large for a global statesman, to kiss the backside of Zim’s election-stealing,
fiscally incompetent re (sort of) elected President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Many African leaders
are sensibly boycotting the inauguration ceremonies. However global statesmen do
not care a fig for global condemnation of the recent Zim elections as being far
from free and fair. Or that five more years of Mnangagwaian corruption and
incompetence is liable to cause a further flood of desperate Zimbabweans.
It could be that our
global statesman is looking for some advice on verneuking elections. That would
be far more global statesmanlike than bothering to create an efficient administration.
Of course, that flood
could be stemmed by a competent police force and a competent Home Affairs department,
but that is governance and therefore boring. You cannot expect a global
statesman to find time to fire incompetent police minister Bheki Cele and
equally incompetent Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
Another man drawing
his salary without doing his job is of course our beloved Old King Coal, Mining
Minister Gwede Mantashe. Remember he was told to do something about the pricing
formula which is hammering South African transport users? Still nothing.
The trouble is that
these habits tend to leak into other levels of governance. Johannesburg councillors
have been having such fun playing sink-the-coalition that they have clean
forgotten what their real job is. Seventy- six people had to die to remind them.
But they did show enough global statesmanship to try to put the blame on NGOs.
Aided of course by Social Development Minister in the Presidency who has been
programmed to say “apartheid is to blame” whenever anything goes wrong.
Maybe there were
things wrong with apartheid, but the ANC has had thirty years to put them right.
Surely that is enough time for even fledgling global statesmen to sort things
out.
September 13
Stay safe Andre, it’s not over yet
Andre de Ruyter is
alive and well and somewhere. The question South Africans should ask, as they
watch the ham-handed attempts of the State to tarnish his whistle-blowing, is
whether that would be true if he was still in South Africa.
De Ruyter had certain
advantages over your run of the mill whistle-blower. Plenty of cash and the
ability to write a book which ensured, if anything untoward should happen to him,
the blame would be laid squarely at the Government’s door.
Lucky for Andre. He
had already found staying in South Africa could well be fatal when his coffee
was laced with cyanide. Any doubts he had about who was responsible must have
evaporated when two cops of abysmal ignorance were tasked with finding the
culprits. They have never done so and it is doubtful that they ever tried –
acting on the orders of those on high, we all suspect.
Now there is no direct
evidence that our Government goes in for the assassination of whistle-blowers,
but there is plenty of evidence that both it, and the ANC, will move heaven and
earth to protect anyone, politically connected, who is accused of criminality.
Their efforts seem to
have met a road block in the form of retired police Brigadier General Jap
Burger. Burger, who was investigating de Ruyter’s claims, was ordered by his
boss, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola to tell all to Parliament’s
Standing Committee on Public Accounts. He didn’t turn up, and Masemola hinted
that it was because he was scared.
Burger subsequently retired
and has again refused to brief Scopa. But it appears he had already written to
the Speaker pointing out that the Eskom investigation was a matter of national
security and he was not prepared to discuss it in the open in front of the
notoriously talkative Scopa members.
Burger wrote that “an
integrated national security resolve of Eskom” had to be activated, and the
executive held to account, as the power utility was “not served or protected by
the security sector”.
“The national commissioner,
however, appears not to have communicated my position to the Scopa meeting …
but alluded to Scopa that he does not know where I am and that I was scared to
appear before Scopa.”
Masemola apparently has refused
to comment on this. Nor has he explained why, what is probably the most vital
police investigation the country has ever known, was handed to a cop who was
about to retire.
Meanwhile, cyanide having failed
whoever tried to get de Ruyter, the Government appears to be resorting to slow
poison in a bid to kill off accusations that might soil the beloved party.
The SIU, whose proper role is
to claw back the money that was stolen from Eskom by mysterious syndicates,
headed by senior ANC men, is instead on the hunt for the de Ruyter scalp,
telling Scopa that while he might have meant well, the ex-Eskom CEO was guilty
of maladministration by authorising a clandestine investigation into the power
utility and should be held accountable. Tutt, tutt Andre.
Having thus hinted that De
Ruyter was committing a felony, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, the SIU head Andy
Mothibi grudgingly admitted that top politicians had been named. Despite the
report being unauthorised its value, in terms of matters that should be
investigated, can't be ignored, he said.
What he didn’t
tell Scopa, probably to the great relief of the ANC members, was why in the six
months or so since the Fivaz report was unleashed, it has been ignored. No
police raids, no confiscation of hard drives, no formal interviews.
But plenty of time for the destruction of evidence. Stay where you are Andre, being paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t still out to get you. And under this Government, a whistleblower’s life isn’t worth a penny whistle.
September 11
Was there a coup when no one was looking?
Has here been a silent
coup in South Africa? Has Cyril Ramaphosa been replaced as President by someone
competent and intelligent – and willing to act? Have the rest of his dumb
puppets been sidelined, to wander around powerlessly, chanting “its apartheid’s
fault”, while a new regime tries to rebuild what they have wrecked?
It would seem so after
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana ordered the departments and provinces to cut
their spending by R25 billion. A howl went up from the unions, but not a murmur
from the free-spending ministers and provinces.
Enoch, the quiet man
of South African politics has gone further. Ramaphosa and his wrecking crew
have been wittering on forever about getting help from private enterprise. Enoch’s
Treasury is taking that radical move over and wants it to happen in a hurry.
The problem is that
South Africa’s tax revenue has nosedived sharply because of Eskom and Transnet,
two disasters which have impacted every corner of South African life and which
have been caused, not by apartheid, would you believe, but by Government’s
failures and eagerness to deploy the corrupt.
The bulk of our
fiscally ignorant Cabinet doubtless fail to understand why the problem cannot
be fixed by simply printing more Rands, but our Minister of Finance is made of
stronger, and more intelligent, stuff.
It is unlikely that
Enoch will find it easy once Cabinet wakes up to the fact that Treasury has
demanded they cut back on travelling, catering, conferences and workshops, all the
fun things that make Minsters feel like proper politicians.
Treasury has also
called for a block on hiring and infrastructure projects.
According to the Daily
Maverick, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde this will “fundamentally compromise
his province’s ability to deliver frontline services in health, education, and
criminal justice. What is needed, he said, is urgent reforms to grow the
economy and government tax revenue. Like a bit of stealthy privatisation,
perhaps.
One place where there
will be long faces is in the ANC’s election war room. In every election so far,
these strategists, devoid of any triumphs they can point out, have resorted to
bribes – nothing like a few freebies to keep the sheep in the pen.
Now it looks as if any
social security hand-outs will be off the table as will tax cuts on things like
petrol and liquor. Enoch the Scrooge might be able to pick some low-hanging
fruit there. Treasury long ago announced that if Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe
ever managed to do his job and produce a new fuel pricing formula, we would
start paying over a rand a litre less. If Treasury take that project over from
Gwede the Unready, every worker and industry in South Africa will benefit
immediately.
Doubtless Uncle Cyril
is waiting in the wings to claim the credit if the nasty medicine works. So
what, if Godongwana’s power grab continues and he turns South Africa around?
September 10
Don’t curse the darkness, curse the ANC
If the power goes off
when you are watching the start of the Rugby World Cup tomorrow, or the Boks’
first game on Saturday, don’t curse the darkness, curse Gwede Mantashe. Curse
him twice in fact. The first time for his pig head determination that only coal
can save the country and his willingness to obstruct any other solution.
Unless of course it is
Kapowerships. He has a strange fascination for that Turkish company. Many wonder
why.
The second time you
curse him, curse him for being an incompetent do nothing who can’t even be bothered
to try to do something about the fuel price which affects everyone in the
country, whether they have cars or ride taxis.
For the latest
swingeing rise in the cost of diesel means that Eskom will be unable to burn so
much to keep the lights on, Diesel has gone up by a whopping R2.84 a litre based
on the archaic formula on which our fuel prices are based.
An urgent matter, you
would think. But Mantashe was told, back in 2018, to find a revised price
mechanism which would lessen the burden. The task is, unarguably, part of his
department’s duties. But nothing has been done. Treasury have done sums which
suggest a new formula could drop prices by more than a rand, but the man who us
supposed to do the job has still to report back.
In fact, curse him
three times, for his third example of uncaring stubbornness is his refusal to
allow Eskom to buy diesel at wholesale prices. It must operate through third
parties, who add nothing but cost to the equation. Why he is so enamoured with these
third parties, we can only speculate.
In a normal society, with
a normal Government, the President would fire a Minster who couldn’t be
bothered to drag himself away from his nice coal fire to do what he was told to
do. But not our President. Firing incompetents would cause rifts within the
ruling party and the party is far more important than the country and its
wellbeing.
“We should think positively
about the power cuts,” he croons on TV, sounding just like a mother trying to
persuade a toddler that the medicine doesn’t taste horrible. But be aware,
President Ramaphosa, that the toddler is about to throw an almighty tantrum and
start kicking and screaming.
This time no amount of
lies about how good things are under the African National Catastrophe are going
to make it continue to swallow the nasty medicine Uncle Cyril seems to believe
will only do us good.
So add a curse on him
as you struggle to get live scores on your laptop.
And pray hard that the
Boks are better at rugby than the ANC is at governing. And pray that Minsters
who knock on every time they get a pass are dropped from Cabinet.
No need to pray for
the Boks to win. They will.
September 7
The ANC drops its mask of democracy
To hell with the Constitution,
to hell with the Constitutional Court, to hell with the Bill of Rights, we’re
the ANC and we will do what we like otherwise our policemen will come and bash
you over the head with their truncheons and you won’t be able to do anything
about it because we have made sure IPID can’t interfere.
That is the effect, if
not the words, of Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale, in a triumphant
statement after the Directorate (IPID) Amendment Bill was forced through the
Portfolio Committee of Police. The Bill, if it goes all the way through
Parliament, will allow our revered Minister of Police Bheki Cele to appoint any
puppet he likes as IPID’s executive director.
That of course would make
life a lot easier for Cele and the ANC. For a start any nonsense about
disciplining the Blue Light thugs from Deputy President Matishile’s convoy for
merely kicking over a couple of innocent soldiers who apparently annoyed them,
would disappear. Given Cele’s erratic behaviour in his role, this is bad news.
But the worst news of
all is that, for the first time, a Parliamentary body has deliberately defied a
Constitutional Court ruling. The court expressly ordered Parliament, as our
Constitution allows it to do, to produce amendments to the IPID Bill which
removed the Minister’s power to interfere with the key appointment.
Mathale, a man in
keeping with the ANC’s policy of appointing the unqualified in key roles, was
fully aware the new Bill will be illegal, because the State Law Advisor had
told him so. But what does he know, ruled Mathale, glorying in his degree in
sociology, the fact that it is unconstitutional is not “reason enough” to block
its further progress.
Obviously, the
opposition is not going to sit still for this, so the ANC is leading us straight
into a constitutional crisis. To put it simply, Mathale has decided that the
party is above the rule of law.
This seems like a very
bad strategy with an election looming. The government is clearly going to lose
any court cases and therefore lose face at a crucial time. Or should we put the
worst possible interpretation on it – that the mighty ANC has decided it will
no longer be constrained by silly pieces of paper like the Constitutional Court
ruling. And like the Electoral Act.
The Constitution has
been maligned because evil lawyers have twisted its purpose, but it is still
the only thing which stands between us and a draconian Party which would love
to be returned to Parliament with a majority which would enable it to rewrite
the Constitution to its own malevolent benefit. Its only hope of achieving that
would be to have policemen, batons drawn, at every polling station with orders
to crack the skulls of anyone who tries to vote without an ANC membership card.
So we should all worry
about Mathale and his Bill. Has the ANC finally decided to throw away its mask
of benign democracy so it can create the corrupt socialist heaven it believes is
possible?
September 6
Stage six and Government fails us again
Back to the miseries
of Stage six load shedding and all because our Minister of Electricity thinks prancing
and dancing about on the supposed world stage of a nothing conference in East
Africa is far more important than signing off an agreement with Mozambique to
supply 100MW of much-needed power.
News 24 disclosed
today that, while the Government crowed about how clever it was to negotiate the
agreement, three months ago, it has done nothing to finalise it. Something that
has even angered Mozambique’s energy minister Carlos Zacarias, who doubtless
feels that he is being treated with disdain by a country that arrived with a
begging bowl and can’t be bothered to pick it up when he filled it.
But never mind, we patient
South Africans will endure Stage six, basking instead in the proud knowledge that
our Minister of Electricity was making GLOBAL sound bites on a WORLD platform –
just like those important people like Putin and Xi. It makes you feel so good.
Anyway, Minister Ramokgopa
has explained that Stage Six is because Eskom is doing extra maintenance, which
is GOOD. Unfortunately he did not explain why he was doing nothing, which is
BAD.
Fortunately, some
politicians are prepared to buckle down and get their shoulders to the wheel.
Like the Johannesburg city councilors who overcame years of strife to speak together
with one voice. Well more or less as the EFF and ActionSA voted against it.
What was it they said? WE DESERVE A PAY RISE FOR OUR WONDERFUL WORK IN RUNNING
THE CITY!
Of course they do,
especially as they are all going to have to get their dark suits dry cleaned 76
times as they attend 77 funerals for the victims of the Marshalltown fire. You wouldn’t
believe the cost of dry cleaning these days.
Are the councilors
going to attend the funerals? Well one would hope so, if only as an admission
that the people died because the councilors were all playing a fascinating new
board game called “Kill the Coalition” instead of doing the work the ratepayers
expect of them.
The game involves
rolling the dice to see who has the right to elect a nothing mayor from a
nothing party. The really exciting bit is that as every participant passes go
he is allowed to dip his head in the swill and snuffle up as much as he can.
The game has replaced the previous council favourite, a boring game called “Service
Delivery.” That involved councilors doing lots of work after rolling the dice,
and never really caught on.
Correction, not all
the councilors were so anxious to vote themselves a pay rise. The meeting had
to be postponed because more than half the councilors hadn’t bothered to turn
up and therefore there was no quorum.
The voters might wonder if so few will turn up to collect their pay cheques at the end of the month.
September 5
Pity the poor prosecutors
The regrettable fact
that crime often does pay in South Africa has been laid at the door of the Police
and the National Prosecuting Authority. As far as the police are concerned, the
incompetence of Police Minister Bheki Cele is legendary. But they have shown
their fangs lately.
First in sleepy
Machadorp where a large gang of cash in transit robbers had taken up residence.
The police stormed their house and all 18 were killed. One policeman lost his
leg while the others were unscathed. No doubt gentler readers will raise their
eyebrows at the uncanny accuracy of the police shooters, but the robbers fired
first and if you can’t do death, don’t do crime.
The other big crime story
of the week puts the spotlight on Justice Minister Ronnie Lamola. His main sin
is in failing to persuade a Cabinet that earnestly trumpets its anti-crime
credentials to give the NPA proper funding.
KZN’s NPA staffers
must have blanched when they heard the news of the success of Operation Shanela
which was launched last month by he KZN cops. Shanela means “to sweep” in isiZulu
and the operation has swept up 10 843 suspects, 241 of them alleged murderers
and 140 wanted for attempted murder. Serious contact crimes are blamed on another
3 295.
Ronnie’s hard-pressed
magistrates and judges are going to have their hands full for weeks and how the
NPA can be expected to cope with the rush without emergency assistance, only
Ronnie can tell us.
There is no doubt that
many a criminal will slip through the Shanela net because courts and prosecutors
cannot cope with the enormity of KZN Crime. Not to mention the hard-pressed detectives
who will have to gather further evidence to present to the courts.
The Government will
not mention these failures when they crow about their crime fighting credentials,
but the truth of the matter is that the ANC has a marked disinterest in getting
detective and prosecution levels up to scratch.
Given the ruling party’s
refusal to take any action against its members who were named as corrupt in the
Zondo Commission report, many may wonder whether the lack of enthusiasm for strengthening
crime prevention areas is a question of guilty consciences at work. After all,
you cannot expect the porkers to gallop to the bacon factory.
But the more likely
answer is that it is just another manifestation of the ANC Government’s conviction
that they are there to play politics, not govern. Wrecking municipal coalitions,
for example, is far more fun than the hard grind of reorganising struggling departments
and making sure they are properly funded.
September 4
REAL statesmen don’t fix problems
Another incompetent
springs into action after years of believing a Minster’s job is to play
politics not to govern. This time its Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin
Gordhan, who has descended on the Transnet board, full of sound and fury,
demanding that they do something about their R5.7 billion loss.
Commendable? Well it
would be if it wasn’t two years too late. Transnet lost R5.1 billion in 2021 while Gordhan was totally engrossed
in a turf war over Eskom with Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe.
That war, as the
country knows to its cost, had little to do with fixing Eskom’s woes and much
to do with the egos of two Ministers who run neck and neck in the incompetence
stakes.
Not that they get much
help from our President Cyril Ramaphosa. Cyril, promoted to global statesman by
warmongering, murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, clearly finds his new
role far more exciting than fixing the country’s problems. Illegal immigration
is one of our major problems, but instead of putting pressure on the main
source, Zimbabwe, he is heading off, probably accompanied by a delegation
suitably large for a global statesman, to kiss the backside of Zim’s election-stealing,
fiscally incompetent re (sort of) elected President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Many African leaders
are sensibly boycotting the inauguration ceremonies. However global statesmen do
not care a fig for global condemnation of the recent Zim elections as being far
from free and fair. Or that five more years of Mnangagwaian corruption and
incompetence is liable to cause a further flood of desperate Zimbabweans.
It could be that our
global statesman is looking for some advice on verneuking elections. That would
be far more global statesmanlike than bothering to create an efficient administration.
Of course, that flood
could be stemmed by a competent police force and a competent Home Affairs department,
but that is governance and therefore boring. You cannot expect a global
statesman to find time to fire incompetent police minister Bheki Cele and
equally incompetent Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
Another man drawing
his salary without doing his job is of course our beloved Old King Coal, Mining
Minister Gwede Mantashe. Remember he was told to do something about the pricing
formula which is hammering South African transport users? Still nothing.
The trouble is that
these habits tend to leak into other levels of governance. Johannesburg councillors
have been having such fun playing sink-the-coalition that they have clean
forgotten what their real job is. Seventy- six people had to die to remind them.
But they did show enough global statesmanship to try to put the blame on NGOs.
Aided of course by Social Development Minister in the Presidency who has been
programmed to say “apartheid is to blame” whenever anything goes wrong.
Maybe there were
things wrong with apartheid, but the ANC has had thirty years to put them right.
Surely that is enough time for even fledgling global statesmen to sort things
out.
Do the research. Ughurs are foreign-funded terrorists employed to cause trouble. Why would Russia doubtless also urge the EFF to press for the Zimbabwe model of land and business grabs? Gift of the Givers supports the FSA rebels, ISIS, and Al Qaeda in Syria. Do some more research. Good day.
ReplyDeleteNew24 are on the very deep left of wokeness. Do not listen to then as there are three sides to every story.
ReplyDeleteSuch rubbish spewed here. Sies
ReplyDeleteBut it's a view. And you have not refuted
Delete