Maybe it’s
the rather emphatic display of global cooling that is sweeping across many
parts of the northern hemisphere that has diverted attention but most markets
there are failing to regain the bullish tone they enjoyed for so long. Here too
the optimism that perhaps our new president understood money and markets better
than his predecessor has ebbed a bit. His cabinet shuffle has posed a huge
puzzle. Trying to find the message buried in who was in and who was out and who
was moved to where is as hard as a fiendish Sudoku. The undercurrents of the
faction fighting in the ANC are clearly enormously strong and bodies are washing
up in lots of odd places. Of course, the fact remains that within the
acceptable pool of candidates for public office, there are minimal levels of talent,
experience and knowledge.
Further,
there are plans afoot to conduct so-called lifestyle audits. Given the rather
disappointing recent record of auditors in their speciality of unearthing
financial foul-ups perhaps we ought not to expect much from this new area
either. But not even politicians should be subjected to the indignities and
intrusion that a full analysis of how they obtain and spend their money
entails. There’s an air of guilty until proven otherwise about it. A far simpler method would be to require that
they use only public schools, public health care, public security and public
transport during their period in office. This might ensure that they apply
their minds to delivering the services they promised the electorate. Just
imagine the embarrassment of the minister of transport in a minibus taxi caught
using the emergency lane on a freeway. Oh. Well maybe perhaps not.
The real deal
however should be to require that political decision makers place all their
investments and savings into government bonds. This will ensure that they
swiftly get to understand about the other side of running a deficit. This would
have wiped several percent off their net worth this last few days as the bond
market reacted to the expropriation story.
Almost two
dozen years ago the job of running the country passed to people, most of whom
are of the firm opinion that nothing good has happened here on the southern tip
since the arrival in 1652 of a homesick Hollander with a large flag and an
unsuitable hairstyle. Except maybe for Mercedes Benz and Johnny Walker Blue
whisky. Many are fervent supporters of the Communist party, so we ought not be
surprised that the idea of confiscating assets (in particular, land) without
compensation is once again being given airtime. In the company of many other
left-wing crazies all over the world these are people who also point to Venezuela
as a success story. We can however be
disappointed that all the frightening and investor-scaring issues that come
with that process have not been addressed first. At the outset there is no
accurate easily available land ownership registry. Many in the industry
complain that deeds offices are inefficient and claim that this is one area
where the fancy new block-chain IT technology could be installed to everyone’s benefit.
Just knowing the amount and extent of development of all land owned by the various
layers of government and kingdoms (a very contentious matter here on the shores
of the Indian Ocean!) is critical. And then of course the hottest potato of all
is the fact that much of the privately-owned land is mortgaged with the banks.
Only those who are free of economic intelligence can dismiss that issue as
irrelevant. The expropriation without compensation program could be far more
damaging to balance sheets that anything the Guptas managed in their heyday.
A rather
aggrieved Cape Town cricket fan made the valid observation that even the
Aussies had scored more runs before lunch than there were Durban spectators at
Kingsmead yesterday. Just why this should be, is hard to explain. Certainly, a
lot of people need to be at work on a Thursday. Has the emigration of
traditional cricket fans been so large of late? Or is it that we just feel
disconnected from the Proteas where the twin forces of quota selection and
player indifference spawn disinterest?
It will be interesting to see the turnout for the Sharks tomorrow at
their first Super 15 home game. And the Blitzbokke will mostly be playing after
bedtime in the Las Vegas 7s this weekend.
James Greener
Friday 2nd March 2018
