Number One went off to Eskom head office for a chin wag over
a cup of tea and emerged with the assurance that the nation need never again
fear load shedding. That is indeed great news but our pres is not too hot on
large numbers and is undoubtedly lost when it comes to Megawatts and stuff.
While new generating capacity is coming on stream, the main reason we have more
power than we need right now is because so many big users have shut down their
operations. If all our mines and factories and plants were back up working at
full steam, us little people would be back to candles and gas.
Mere outsiders have little chance of understanding just what
is happening with our domestic airlines. While it seems obvious to most that
without the taxpayer’s generous help the national airline would be in deep
trouble, the lady chairman of SAA believes that she no longer needs help from
the National Treasury. Is she hoping for a surge in passenger numbers as a
result of the suspiciously timed regulatory attacks that have been launched
against two of the competitors? In both cases the charges look like
bureaucratic nit-picking that should have been privately discussed first before
making public the alleged contraventions of safety and ownership.
Everyone concerned about the utterly woeful inability of our
nation to provide and operate effective and competent schooling for all of its
children will have stared in disbelief at the latest proposal. Every school
uniform should carry the national flag emblem. How this will help raise us from
the foot of the world ranking tables is not explained. Cynics are right to
wonder who stands to profit from this idiocy and whether there is already a
factory in China churning out the badges. And has anybody thought about what
happens when all those lovely rainbow colours meet the weekly washing process?
Very little good has come from South Africa’s insistence a
few years ago that it should join the meaningless grouping of four widely
disparate economies, identified and named with the catchy BRICs acronym. Our
presence did capitalise the terminal S and it has added wonderful material for
the Zuma family album and memoirs. Less exciting was the bill for our share in starting
up the BRICS bank and now one of JZ’s new best friends in that club has
suddenly been impeached! That’s a development the folks back home don’t need to
hear too much about.
It’s been a bad week for the statute book. A number of pesky
laws are about to be ignored. Without debating whether having and using a TV
set might not disqualify one from being classified as truly poor, the minister thinks
that such folk should be absolved from purchasing a TV licence. Obviously it is
important that the people get to watch politicians talk without the threat of
inspectors carting away unlicensed TV sets. And then the Constitutional Court
has been asked to confirm their earlier opinion that the law insists that the Voters
Roll must record an address for every voter. In practise, even given unlimited
time, this is an impossible requirement to fulfil, some fancy legal footwork is
expected so that democracy can take its course. And wont it also be easier to move
voters to constituencies at risk of making poor decisions?
Including the ever entertaining Sevens format there is a
feast of rugby this weekend although the Sharks match might compete with bed
time by straying into Sunday morning. But at least we are back to the 2pm Grand
Prix starting times.
James
Greener
Friday 13th
May 2016
