The All Share once again fell back after making another attempt to break the three year record high. It is silly the way we watch this number assail the peak as the weightings and constituents have changed a lot in that time. Many of the heavy-weight constituents of the index are still a long way below their record highs but a few are already probing blue sky.
Never one to miss a photo opportunity, our President was this week pictured waving off the Proteas, warming the co-pilot’s seat in a new SAA aircraft and allegedly working on his State of the Nation speech in his office. The bookshelf in the background of that picture appeared to have been recently looted. The speech as usual comprised mostly of promises and assurances that things that will soon be done. Very little was said about the actual state that the nation was in – mainly I suppose because even the politicians know that that state of the state is not that good and is not that much better than it was a year ago when previous promises were aired. In fact leaders all over the world ought to be banned from making speeches on this topic and instead be obliged to tour their nation regularly. Citizens could then be given the opportunity to point to the state of the things the government is responsible for. No speeches would be permitted except for summary dismissal of at least three layers of appropriate local officials.
Too often I forget my own advice and try to make sense of the avalanche of numbers that crash down on us. Company reporting season is underway and the accounting wizards are hard at work making the books tell whatever story the directors think will confuse the most and reveal the least. About the only entries I look for are in the Cash Flow statement where I am concerned if the company reports that it paid more money to the taxman than to the shareholders. Stats SA issued unexpectedly disappointing news about manufacturing data in December – which turned out to be data about manufacturing - and the civil servant in charge of this outfit exploded in a very uncivil and rude way about a private data collector daring to suggest that the informal sector was a lot larger than his official view on the matter. His next offence was to appear in a yellow suit at the opening of parliament.
Although the daily cost to feed each delegate at last year’s World Youth Festival was a mere R142.38 it has yet to be explained why taxpayers had to foot the bill for the 15 000 youth who allegedly participated in the 14 day jolly. In the days when I still thought it was fun and useful to attend a conference I don’t recall the hosts picking up the tab. Mind you, we South Africans are a hospitable lot. We have been caring for ex-dictator Aristide of Haiti ever since his country tossed him out several years ago. The good news for us now is that he has decided to slip off back home, presumably in the belief that life there is now so miserable that the folk will have forgotten all about him. I wonder what he left behind.
The proposal that the state will operate a data base to match job seekers with job vacancies is an especially stupid idea. This news appeared alongside the stories that the same government is failing to deal timeously with work permits for a relative handful of applicants and also the project to combine various ratepayer databases in Joburg is not going well. Not only is there ample evidence that government is generally unable to manage this kind of project, the real foolishness lies in the believing that there are jobs to be matched with applicants. Any prospective or potential employer will tell you of the queues outside the gate and the reams of CVs in the in mail. The unemployed know far better than any bureaucrat where there might be a glimmer of hope.
Next week's Duzi canoe race is still dealing with the idea of having crocodiles in the river. I wonder if anyone has checked the Midmar dam. It would be embarrassing if we had to send the future Princess of Monaco home with teeth marks in her leg after the one mile swim.
James Greener
11th February 2011
