MONEY MONEY MONEY

Clearly our tireless civil servants here in SA have been very busy during the various stages of lockdown. While almost 10% of the workforce were being laid off and wondering how to feed their families, the bureaucrats, free of such worries, were crafting screeds of new laws and regulations. The unexpected but gleefully accepted opportunity afforded by the State of Disaster (now extended for a further month) will one day cease and so our leaders are keen to have laws that will keep us dancing to their tunes. The list of new legislation we can expect includes a tightening of the drinking and driving laws, giving the state further powers to confiscate our stuff, a change in the format of vehicle number plates, the next step in introducing the National Health Insurance, changes to how the Post Office and municipalities will operate, changes to the TV licence system and a new law about how to label food and a number of new taxes (particularly with an eye to emigrants) to help pay for it all. These were topped off this week by another of Presidents Cyril’s wish lists which apparently took National Treasury by surprise and they asked for a 1-week postponement of the so called mini-budget to the 28th of this month. Ominous. Reaction to all of this starts with wondering if our President actually reads and discusses with wise advisors any of his speeches beforehand. By now he must surely realise that they merely waft into the atmosphere unheeded because they are utterly divorced from reality. It doesn’t really matter what the monetary values are that Cyril throws about when he announces his ludicrous plans. It is infuriating, disappointing and astonishing how the affordability question never seems to enter the grandiose plans. The money for most of these schemes simply is not there and will not ever be, until, at the very least, his government spends less than it collects in taxes and levies. There are three major tax-eating constituencies dependent on the state for the greatest portion of their income and tinkering with these could be career-ending for any politician who attempts to do so. First in line is the massive and all-powerful patronage network that feeds off the government procurement programs and whose kickback practices fund many lavish lifestyles. Then there is the powerful lobby of overpaid supernumerary state employees. But the most worrying group is the rapidly growing list of desperate beneficiaries of the state social grants and other direct relief programs. These are weak and vulnerable people who are starving and who everyone (barring a few saintly charities) tries to ignore All of these must be fed before a cent can be spent on filling a single pothole, repairing a sewer or replacing a street light. While debt is one way to fund capital projects – aka Cyril’s much vaunted infrastructure program – the fact is that a decade of successive ratings downgrades shows that lenders know what we are really worth and so borrowing has become rather expensive. Even servicing current debt is making the pips squeak. One thing for certain as far as improved performance is concerned is that professional sports men and women have learned how to tap into the riches that massive TV audiences can potentially provide. Insofar that this is private money voluntarily spent by couch potatoes, it is a fascinating example of capitalism at work. The fact that talent and effort are not evenly distributed so that only the very best athletes achieve fame and pocket the bulk of the money seems to offend those who prefer low level equality and so for decades sport has attracted politicians and administrators keen to sort things out in return for some of the spoils. From time to time these developments anger the potatoes and they fumble with their TV remote controls, a fact keenly observed by the sponsors and advertisers and an upheaval takes place. A good example of this is currently taking place in professional basketball in the USA. A similar development is wracking the major sports of soccer, rugby, and cricket here in SA where the COVID excuse is being trotted out to smokescreen all manner of issues mainly related to selection on merit. James Greener Friday 16th October 2020