Most people
are very pleased to get their hands on some unearned wealth. Legacy and larceny
are probably the two main sources for this kind of loot. Unfortunately, the
second source is now commonplace in this nation. Mr Molefe, who suddenly left
the corner office at Eskom after not even 2 years, to become our newest member
of parliament will get a leaving present of R30 million. That’s definitely
unearned but has undoubtedly help to dry up the tears he shed when explaining
his departure.
Our brand-new
Finance Minister appointed an advisor who notwithstanding being a professor of
economics has failed to notice that Marxism has been widely discredited. Reportedly, his advice is that in addition to
utter failures like SAA, Eskom, SABC, etc. the state should also own the
insurers, banks and mines. Fortunately, Minister Gigaba has apparently rejected
the advice but alarmingly not yet the advisor. He is now overseas with an
admirably small team but probably large luggage (our minister is a snappy
dresser) trying to find money.
The
presidential succession question seems to have been answered while we were
wondering what overseas investors were making of Minister Gigaba’s road show.
Based on column inches of newsprint alone Dr Dlamini-Zuma would seem to be a
done deal. No messy internecine squabbles and divisive nominations necessary. Democracy
is a very colonial thing. Our next leader appears to have been decided –
perhaps in the Saxonwold Shebeen – and we are already being fed her views and
opinions on many topics. And very unappealing they are too. Displaying scant
regard for facts let alone constitutional niceties this lady has made up her
mind that a minority of the population are foes and will need to be
discriminated against, a practice that we all hoped was abolished two dozen
years ago. It’s extremely worrying. The
faint hearted are advised not to Google for more details on this clever, cunning
campaigner.
The arrival
of the computerised spreadsheet a quarter of a century ago filled the hearts of
the number geeks with glee. Never before had it been so easy to collect, manipulate
and misinterpret data. One of the finest examples of this is the consumer price
data spreadsheet released every month by Stats SA. Sliced and diced into almost
750 categories of commodity types, geographical areas and income and age groups,
a decade’s worth of monthly price data are indexed and made freely available.
Just one row in the latest spreadsheet reveals the so-called Headline Consumer Price
Inflation for All Urban Areas of 6.1%pa, about which a certain amount of
optimism was expressed this week. However,
elsewhere on this huge schedule one can discover that hard-pressed Northern
Cape consumers are now paying 26% more than a year ago for their sugar, sweets
and deserts (sic). It’s not as if they’re short of sand in the Kalahari! At the
other end of the scale, telecommunication equipment in KZN was a whopping 12.5%
cheaper. Both of these results ( and
many others) feel suspect. The booklet accompanying the data hints at the
effort and perils of collecting the raw numbers to populate this spreadsheet. Indeed!
For example, Rugby Ticket prices are sampled in February and August while
Cricket Tickets are monitored in October. There’s no mention of Soccer Tickets
though.
With the
second four-day week coming to an end today, people have become accustomed to
the holiday feeling and although only Thursday next week is (yet another)
public holiday, Friday will be mostly a no-show and so a mere three days of
early rising beckons. It’s really hard on we retirees having to work out when’s
the best time to go to the bottle store and when the beaches will be empty.
A sleek newspaper
insert slid to the floor this morning as I was searching for the funnies. It
was a Guide to Preparing for the Comrades Marathon taking place on June 4th.
This information might be a bit late for those actually taking part. But the
sections on eating and drinking during the race and pain management were particularly
pertinent for me because that’s what I’ll need to worry about when slumped on
the couch in front of the TV. It will also be useful for enduring the half-dozen
Super Rugby back-to-back matches tomorrow. And the London Marathon on Sunday. No
guidance about the “Remote Thumb Syndrome” though.
James
Greener
Friday 21st
April 2017
