Our currency
pulled back from last week’s weakness but it didn’t look as if there was much money
flowing into shares as the indices mostly sagged. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a
nice big shake out so we could use the old fashioned valuation tools and see
what’s what again?
Presumably
someone knows exactly what powers the KwaZulu-Natal Quality of Life Portfolio
Committee might have. But for the rest of us it sure looks like a severe case
of fruitless and wasteful expenditure. Not to say unwarranted and unnecessary meddling
in individual choice. If President Cyril really was the steely eyed decisive
businessman we are assured he is he would long ago have asked for a list of all
the national and provincial outfits with names like this and closed them down
with a stroke of the pen. No argument. Assuredly closing the deficit by
increasing taxes is now way past the point of diminishing returns and for our
president to live up to his alleged abilities he must immediately slash the
state wage and expenses bills.
Unless
students have changed markedly in recent years, the model of using a “student centred
model” for spending R17bn to aid 518000 students might just have a few flaws. Hopefully
the National Student Financial Aid scheme doesn’t just dish out around R30 000
cash to each successful applicant for aid to pay his or her fees and accommodation
costs. Students of old would have made short work of that kind of folding money
and going past the fees office would not have been first on the agenda. The
used car lot and the bottle store might just have edged in before the
accommodation bureau too. This business of giving people money they have not
earned is fraught with problems.
Yet another
official inquiry involving the Guptas is underway. This time we are all curious
to know just how Zuma’s chums managed to get South African citizenship so
swiftly and seamlessly. In contrast people with real skills and qualification
battle to get even a visa to come and work here. The reporting on the inquiry
is not very clear but it does seem that the family, amongst other promises of
largess and love of their adopted country listed almost 80 schools which would
benefit from gifts and handouts. Only now at the inquiry are education
officials admitting that neither the schools nor the gifts ever existed. And
yet JZ is stoutly claiming that there was not and never has been such a thing
as “state capture”. Admittedly it is a rather sophisticated grammatical
construction which for non-English speaking people might more clearly be rendered
as “unofficial agencies and private citizens taking control of state functions”.
Whichever wording you choose, however,
it is clearly not what voters were offered by a Zuma presidency nor what most
of us liked as we came to realise what was taking place. We owe whoever leaked
those Gupta emails a great debt of gratitude for bringing our nation back from
the brink.
A related
story concerns one Ashu Chawla who has left the country. This is despite being
on bail, and surrendering his passport pending further developments in the
dreadful Estina dairy farm corruption case where he is a co-accused. Presumably
Mr Chawla, who already has demonstrated his influence with home affairs in the
Gupta citizenship matter (for which he is also required to give evidence) arranged
appropriate replacement travel documents for himself and is even now measuring
for curtains in his penthouse somewhere in India or Dubai.
Too many of these suspects are nipping off before
we can find out what they were up to. If we could find a large secure escape-proof
enclave like an island on which to keep these dubious characters instead of
granting them bail, it might also prod the justice system to speed things up a
bit. Any suggestions?
It’s
comforting to see that there are still optimists who can envisage a scenario
where the’ bokke beat the All Blacks tomorrow. All sorts of advice like not
kicking away possession, passing quickly and accurately and not giving away
penalties seems fair enough, but finding a place for breakfast tomorrow which doesn’t
have a TV screen is still the best bet for those of us of sensitive
disposition.
James Greener
Friday 14th September 2018
