The allure of
high office in politics is a mystery to those of us without the gene that codes
for interfering in other peoples lives. President Cyril’s DNA must be packed
with the stuff. Why else would anyone want to run South Africa? On top of the
dozens of things that are coming off the rails or are already through the fence
and upside down in the veld, he this week got a summons from one of our several
kings to come and explain himself. The Zulu monarch is as usual very exercised
about land and in his view Cyril’s government is thinking naughty thoughts about
this topic. To put up with all this for a salary probably no higher than a
middle manager at Eskom shows Cyril’s humility and love for the country. But if
there is anything he can do to boost the rand at the moment it’s not yet working.
Our currency is having a terrible month.
A headline-grabbing
story from the business world illustrates the cause of this nation’s economic
woes. That is the government’s policy of specifying who should own, run and
trade with a private company. The Vodacom BEE deal is only the latest in that
company’s attempts to tick all the boxes and won’t help at all in their mission
of supplying cost effective (but profitable) communications on this piece of
the planet. Like most deals of this kind it’s bafflingly complex and employs
racial and gender exclusive identification of people who are required to be given
stuff that not only do they not pay for but in many cases don’t really want. A
massive waste of resources that could be far better used by Vodacom’s customers
to run and plan their own lives.
Despite not
mining very much of this metal, it is reported that South Africa is one of the
world’s leading exporters of copper. The suggestion is that the supply comes
from the large-scale cable theft that plagues the nation, in particular, the railways
who use miles of wiring to connect their signalling systems. If true this is
astonishing and hints that like so much crime taking place, such as cash-in-transit
heists and farm murders, it is suspected that corrupt and criminal officialdom is playing a role. A
very expensive election campaign is coming up and funds are urgently required.
There isn’t a
single metric which doesn’t confirm that Eskom employees are enormously over
paid and worse still, that the organisation is massively over-staffed. Reportedly
far too few of these employees have much of a clue about electricity generation
and distribution. And yet they are on strike in support of a large pay-rise.
This stay-away has triggered load-shedding, the polite and non-threatening term
for power cuts, which happened in parts of the country just as soccer fans
opened the first beer and began a month of hurling advice and invective at
their TVs. Poor timing if they seek sympathy?
Zabivaka is
the name of the official Soccer World Cup mascot. Supposedly a cool and
friendly character with “shades” pushed back onto his head, on inspection he is
still a wolf with more than a passing resemblance to President Putin. In the meantime,
President Trump’s diplomatic dance in Singapore with the bizarrely coiffed top
man in North Korea has set off a firestorm of opinion, ridicule and praise. Some
are even suggesting a Nobel Peace prize is in order. But the real award should
be an Oscar for the choreographer who staged the dramatic march of the two peacemakers
through matching facing colonnades to the meeting spot. Such theatre!
The two big sporting
prospects this weekend are both going to be nerve-wracking. England (and the rest of us) have now seen the
‘bok surprises and test rugby in Bloemfontein in midwinter is rarely fun for
anyone. Calling Shinnecock Hills a golf course is rather too kind. It’s already
claimed many scalps at the US Open. But both will undoubtedly be more
interesting and less embarrassing to watch than 270 minutes a day of soccer
from Russia. What a shame Bafana Bafana aren’t there. Just think how much training
time they must have spent on their victory dance.
James
Greener
15th
June 2018
