The Industrials and Financials indices
are at new highs. It’s Resources that are preventing the All Share from a
similar record. But it’s very close. The bears are deep in their lairs, paws
over ears, whimpering. This demand for shares at any price is unceasing.
There were six Chinese executives assisting
Brian Molefe, the Transnet CEO to sign a R50bn deal to buy 1064 locomotives
from them. This big turnout on the sell side makes one suspect that the price
was probably in their favour. Mind you at R47m per loco, that’s barely the
price of a decent fire pool. Mr Molefe later explained that a benefit of the
Chinese deal is that not only would the chaps at Transnet actually be involved
in making “the frills” for the new engines but that the Chinese have agreed to show them how to build the difficult bits. So in due
course maybe we could even make our own. Does he not know that Union Carriage
in Nigel started producing fine locomotives in 1964? And that today there is a
least one major local producer of locomotives which is listed on the JSE.
(Grindrod).
The human tragedy in the communities
affected by the ongoing platinum mine strike must now be surpassing the
commercial and fiscal damages being sustained by the industry. And yet amazingly
the labour leaders continue to attract support for demonstrations and marches.
And the state appears to do nothing. Are the people who warm the seats in the
Cabinet totally incapable of grasping the economic realities here? Union
leaders who make utterly unrealistic promises to their members about what they
can deliver, need to be reprimanded by at least a minister. If they don’t do so
that means that government too believes that the wage demands could in fact be
met by the employers without the destruction of the industry. Surely they don’t
believe that do they? Or maybe they just can’t do the sums.
Very brave souls are starting to invest
in the sector, convinced that one day a recovery is inevitable. A new mine
listing is even on its way.
The government has hatched a plan to
identify those teachers who show contempt and disrespect for their colleagues
and pupils by failing to turn up for work. They want to install sophisticated
electronic biometric clocking devices at schools to catch these culprits. The
obscenity of even considering such a system when not every school yet has
power, water and sewerage services leaves one breathless. Why not just give
supervisors the power to dismiss instantly anyone not interested or capable?
Knowing that your job is always at risk, changes behaviour enormously.
Except for some rather nice foreign
travel for the president and his cronies there was never the slightest
justification for pretending that we were in the same league as the four
countries identified as the BRIC nations by a New York banker in a fit of
analytical whimsy. Tagging ourselves and an S on to this lot was cheeky. The
news that his good friend Putin had more or less seized Crimea must have had
our man Zuma flipping through the atlas in the Nkandla library and wondering how
to chide Vladimir for interfering in the internal affairs of another country. Perhaps
it is time to forget that ill-starred friendship and start to worry about be
labelled as one of “The Fragile Five”. (SA, Turkey,
Brazil, Indonesia & India).
My DSTV decoder blew up at a critical
moment on Saturday and so I am pleased to accept the Lions win over the Reds
without having to wince about the referee. Sadly the decoder reset just in time
to show the Sharks losing the plot and their game. Their injury list places the
rest of their campaign in jeopardy somewhat but it does provide an opportunity
for some unknown stars to shine. The Sevens Rugby is as nerve wracking to watch
as the T20 cricket. One missed tackle or bad over and all seems lost and
hopeless. These narrow victories are terrifying. Another Formula 1 GP this
weekend or “economy run” as one critic puts it.
James Greener
28th March 2014
