There is
little sign of pre-election nervousness in the local markets. The currency is
off a shade but no more than caused by an injudicious remark by someone who
should know better. Company results are all over the place with seemingly
similar businesses having very different experiences with similar customer
bases. Sadly, the threat and suspicion that even a set of audited financials is
likely to have been massaged remains a factor when assessing company reports. An
analysis published this week highlighted what seems like an excessively wide
pay gap between a CEO of a South African company and the other employees of the
business. But then one remembers the floods of undeserving mendicants, nosy
shareholders, trouble makers and clueless officials who appear at the door and
one wonders how they cope.
Evidence that
the benefits of becoming a politician outweighs the nuisance of having to
pretend to serve the electorate can be seen in the number 48. Amazingly, that’s
the number of parties that has registered to take part in the upcoming
elections. A goodly number of these parties have been formed only since the
last election in 2014 and many only in the last few months and that illustrates
an interesting aspect of proportional representation election systems. Which is
to have any chance of a seat in parliament you need to be at the top of a
party’s “list” and that is best achieved by forming one’s own party.
Now it is
true that, despite the frantic claims to the contrary of the current opposition
party, a vote for any party whose candidates will never consider coalition with
the ANC is a vote for the opposition. And if the sum of the votes for all the anti-coalition
parties approaches or even surpasses the number of votes for the leading party,
we will have a very much healthier democracy. Mind you, even if the maths says
it’s OK, a vote for The African Content Movement formed by Hlaudi Motsoeneng
sounds like a bad idea. Yes, the chap who broke the SABC. Whatever happened to
the “lose their deposit” disincentive?
This phenomenon
is the opposite side of the same coin that is causing so much anguish in the
Brexit debacle. There the tax-eaters in London and Brussels are trying hard to
ignore and reverse the clear message sent by the British voters that having two
layers of politicians and bureaucracy is costly, unnecessary and a severe
irritation. Patronage is probably the chief cause for public employee bloat
around the world. In South Africa the problem is made worse because beneficiaries
are largely incompetent at and uninterested in their tasks. There’s an awful
collision happening between fulfilling the ever-growing list of civic obligations
proclaimed by the regulators and the shrinking number of officials with the wit
and will to provide the necessary service.
It’s the hospitality
industry’s turn to face disruption of their business from the internet’s
ability quickly to match customer and supplier. The cause of the unhappiness is
likely expressed as too many beds and too few travellers. Typically, however,
our government has failed to spot this simple reason and instead has penned a
couple of hundred pages of new legislation to address a different and non-existent
problem. The state’s proposals are unsurprisingly mostly ridiculous and costly
for all involved. But what actually is needed is for them to work at making all
of South Africa an attractive and safe place for every type of traveller in
need of a place to sleep. Only the hospitality industry itself has the need, interest
and capacity to solve its own problems. Especially if it’s a nice one caused by
a surge in travel and tourism and demand for rooms.
The answer to
the question about whether the Sharks have a coach is “Not really. One of the
Dads just helps out” is cruelly observant. And by the end of the last bottle of
wine the other evening some of us were admitting that watching Super Rugby is
not very entertaining and the English Premier Soccer League can while away
boredom. Provided the ref is harsh on the “divers”. Meanwhile the Proteas squad
for the Cricket World Cup may not comprise the best players the country has
produced but we wish them well and hope never again to see the word “chokers”.
James
Greener
Friday 26th
April 2019
