The All Share index delivered a magnificent total return of 8.7% in September. A substantial portion of the heavy lifting was provided by the Consumer Services group. However the sad news is that year to date the All Share return is also 8.7% which means that the market has churned away for really very little effect for some time. Naturally there are huge variations around this dull average. Expectation of consumers returning to the checkout lines and a possible foreign takeover has pushed the general retailers sector up an astonishing 50%. The deadweight was been platinum mining, down 11%. The strong currency is thrashing this industry.
In June 997 960 foreign tourists arrived in SA of whom 16 368 were mystifyingly classified as non-visitors. More than a quarter of the other sort of visitors came into the country for less than a day. The 721 311 folk who visited and stayed for at least one night will obviously include world cup teams and fans. Not a lot is it? Slowly we are piecing together the full picture of that event. It was undoubtedly a whole lot of fun, but financially, nothing like the forecasts.
Another interesting statistic is that there are 10 million vehicles on the roads but just 6 million driver’s licenses. In a typically touching display of naivety, the transport minister declared that this gap was too large and that 1 million new licences would be issued in the next 12 months. Personal experience of assisting a learner driver to book for the official tests confirms that this target will be met only by heroic levels of bribery and little actual driver testing. Meanwhile the implication that no one is driving those other 4 million vehicles is manifestly false as anyone using the roads can confirm.
The Chinese are now such great new best friends that we have sent them models of our finest hominin fossils. But the news that Wal-Mart, which is China’s largest private customer, is looking to come here and sell stuff so cheap that even the poor can afford it has caused alarm. Allegedly the retailer has an archaic view about paying employees what they are worth. Union leaders are warning that if this attitude were to catch on amongst other employers, workers might choose not to pay Union subscriptions. And thousands of civil servants would be paid nothing.
I have failed not to get really angry at the complete nonsense of the celebratory announcement that our dear leaders have identified 12 national “outcomes” that all cabinet ministers will sign as part of service delivery agreements. Leaving aside the worthlessness of a politician’s signature on anything – he or she isn’t committing a cent of their own resources – the requirements of good government have been known for centuries, even if rarely practiced. In similar vein, another bunch of tax eaters has come up with South Africa's first ever Decent Work Country Programme. The only work this scheme will ever create is ever more forms for employers to complete to justify why they dared to offer a part-time cleaner’s job with no medical aid benefits or personal development program to a desperate man standing at the front of a long line at the factory gate.
It is worth recalling that the ABSA CEO who has been clubbing the South African Rugby Union with her handbag is married to a government minister who has declared his preference for the All Blacks over the ‘bokke. And then ABSA’s parent is Barclays in the UK, who are unlikely to be ‘bok supporters. Mind you SARU probably deserve a bashing for permitting irrelevant and extraneous factors to affect their sole job which is to create a rugby environment from which can emerge a Springbok side that beats everyone. And that goes for the people who run soccer in this country as well.
I suppose that the Sharks fans in the pub will be far too preoccupied with tonight’s match against the Leopards to want to talk about the Transvaal score line from last week.
James Greener.
1st October 2010
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