JUST FOLLOWING THE MONEY

It is increasingly difficult to understand just what contributions Cyril Ramaphosa must have made to private companies such as Lonmin, MTN and McDonalds during his spell in the real world between political appointments. Whatever it was, he was handsomely remunerated by his employers – a trend now continued as our country’s President, where his efforts have been dismal. He ranks 11th in the world leader’s salaries. He is particularly weak at managing his colleagues and positively lethal when it comes to budgeting. His track record is, like much of the national railways, bereft of tracks. It seems clear that he does not understand where and how the state gets its money. Nor even does he have any clue about how badly it controls how it is spent. Ceaselessly he promises that the next project will be “corruption free” even while the looting has already begun. Having this guy to manage our country is an unbelievably bad idea. He is undoubtedly paid way too much. No one can reasonably expect any of the globe’s political honchos to have any knowledge of or skills in virology and epidemiology and by and large they have all become confused and scared in the face of the medical events that unfolded in the past year. But we do expect them to notice when the national responses to the pandemic not only fail to work but cause incredible suffering unrelated to the infection itself. Why hasn’t Cyril fired the callous and insensitive minister who instructed police to use a firehose to enforce “social distancing” --- an oxymoronic term if ever there was one --- on a queue of mostly elderly people hoping for a stipend? Why does President Cyril protect so many totally incompetent and nasty cabinet ministers? And now the vaccination debacle has begun. The state has appointed itself sole source and distributor and immediately things are going awry. This nation’s record in providing state run services, from electricity to car licences is not great. It is scant comfort that Deputy President David Mabuza has been placed in charge of the vaccination program. Like his boss he too has no record of running anything like this, successfully. Right away the matter of issuing registration cards to those who will be vaccinated has the usual suspects scrambling for the suspiciously lucrative contract to manufacture them. Tidemarks has already suggested using the common implanted chip like a dog ID tag. Not acceptable apparently. Not only has this country yet to even begin the vaccination program but it turns out that our cost per dose will be amongst the highest in the world. That rings alarm bells for most people. But not yet for our President. An inability or unwillingness to understand the financial context of almost any situation bedevils many South Africans. The worst offenders are often those who have enjoyed feather bedded employment (i.e. state subsidised)for decades and truly believe that they are worth more than what they are paid. Actually, having to live off what a customer is prepared to pay for goods and services is unknown for far too many workers. The Sharks Rugby franchise is now half owned by a US outfit called MVM Holdings whose first move has been to appoint a marketing company called Roc Nation. A breathless plug for Roc Nation includes a list of their celebrated clients but leaves Tidemarks none the wiser about the alleged benefits of the deal. Doubtless answers to many questions can be found in the press releases and it would be churlish to offer negative comment at this stage. Best we wait until teams are allowed back on the fields and fans can go to watch and buy beer. The degree and complexity of controls of our recreations is often underestimated by foreigners. They will be puzzled to learn that there is a whole government ministry who have a final say about sporting matters that displease them. Like the fact that one may surf – provided one does not use the beach to reach the waves. Mind you if this Eloise Cyclone behaves badly in the next few days, surfing miles from any beach could be a thing. James Greener Friday 22nd January 2021