Aside from
ex-president JZ producing a sick note excusing him from attending a commission
of enquiry session which might have been embarrassing, local politics pales
into insignificance compared to the nonsense unfolding either side of the North
Atlantic. Clearly only a small fringe of the hysterical left in America have
any interest in the supposed impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. The
US stock markets have never been stronger. Just what is happening in Britain is
anyone’s guess and it will be different this afternoon anyway. The rand
strengthened too.
So, Moody’s
didn’t change their judgement of South Africa’s creditworthiness. But they did
indicate that unless things had changed for the better, the next time their analysts
checked in at the Fairest Cape for their onerous task of sampling the wine and
crayfish, a downgrade was inevitable. Tidemarks is well known for its
scepticism towards these “ratings agencies” and likes pointing out both the
conundrum of using a multi-rung scale to flag a binary situation (pay versus
doesn’t pay) and the inevitable 50% error rate in forecasting. In fact our
total outstanding debt as a nation is deeply concerning and default is a
possibility even if the current strike at SAA does soon result in the sale of
this state asset.
The
Ministerial Handbook is in the news again. Reportedly the latest edition of
this Guide has taken 9 years to prepare which seems like a long time. Presumably as well as dealing with ministerial
perks, privileges and pocket money it is stuffed with little tips of etiquette
like take off your hat inside (if male), don’t seize the parliamentary mace and
wave it about however angry you are, behave with dignity and decorum and don’t
dress as if you have come to fix the lights. Apparent the big changes concern ministerial
travel. There are now limits to what they can spend on a car, which end of an aeroplane
they can sit and what to do when the mini bar is empty. Apparently, there has
been no mention of why ministers need to travel as much as they do. Especially to
exotic climes and venues with lavish shopping facilities. Like school children
after an outing we should require our ministers to write us an essay on their return
entitled What I Did on my Trip.
The financial
structure of Dr Iqbal Surve’s empire is deliberately difficult to value which
suggests that it is probably worth far less than claimed. Amazingly none of the
authorities responsible for protecting the public against financial flim-flam, has
yet done very much. But then Dr Surve claims friendship and association with
many powerful folks. Nevertheless, (and this is the funny bit -- unless it’s
your money) an investment manager who has lost significant amounts buying Surve’s
shares over the past few years has now instituted proceedings to try and
reclaim it. A spokesman for the fast collapsing empire has described the claim as
“preposterous, vexatious, laughable and without merit”. This delightful choice of
words deserves a wider audience because it is true, but only because the money
in question has surely long since disappeared “in unusual directions”.
Catching our
eye this week was the National Empowerment Fund which, with a word like that in
its title, probably involves a race-based selection of beneficiaries for hand-outs.
None more so than its CEO who reportedly is on a salary package 50% larger that
the President’s. That’s very empowering but maybe not what the original
promoter of the program had in mind.
It seems that
there are many explanations for why today is called (or ought not to be) Black
Friday as there are retailers hoping for a surge of shoppers through their
doors and websites. That would be fine and dandy and only of peripheral
interest to those of us who apart from the biltong shop and the bottle store don’t
“do” much in the way of shopping. We are however alarmed by the inexorable
growth in debt both private and public as the shopping sprees and state
hand-outs continue unabated.
There was no
Tidemarks last week and so I relinquished the opportunity to heap scorn on the
England rugby team for almost everything they did on November 2nd.
Their behaviour was however soon eclipsed by scenes of the ‘bok scrumhalf dressed
only in underpants handing a beer to the Queen’s grandson. Way to go Faf! Who
expects protocol in a rugby dressing room anyway?
James
Greener
Friday 15th
November 2019
