POP GOES THE WEASEL

As at the end of January our government was spending at an unprecedented average rate of just over R150bn a month. This is more than 10% higher than a year previously. Many questions arise from this bald statistic. The first being that Finance Minister Chef Tito Mboweni has forecast that the deficit will fall, which necessitates that revenue grows at greater than this rate – which it’s not doing by a very great margin. Even in the heady pre-Covid days, annual tax income growth rarely reached double figures. Currently it is around -5%pa! President Cyril is not getting the message through to his cabinet which should be in bold capitals. REDUCE EXPENDITURE. Therefore, the second question is what must he do to get their attention? Firing half the cabinet does come to mind as surely, they never will be missed. But another thing that will not be missed is any attempt to trim the various payments which are the result of a quarter century of enthusiastic socialist gifting by government to voters and employees. Indeed as we write, civil servants are gearing up for a strike. The money required every month comprises the shockingly small R350 a month Covid relief handout, all the way up to the mega-million salaries doled out to far too many civil servants who in many cases are less productive than the recipients of much smaller amounts. The local bond market is currently not displaying much enthusiasm or belief in the reducing deficit story. Just as in the US, yields are lurching upwards. Local share prices, however, suggest that some scouts have seen signs of a decent economic revival on its way. Chatting to the man at the end of the bar it does seem as if many who have survived the appalling depredations of all the world’s “saving lives” lock down strategies, are doing ok. His son in law’s small “bakkie business” is doing just great. Neither of us though, dwells on all the gaps along the bar where other people’s sons in law have recently fled their homeland, its rapacious tax collector, and lawlessness. The price of obtaining exposure to gold the metal is at 1-year lows and may weaken further. Is this a sign that even the doomsday cults feel that the Virus is being brought under control? What is certainly not under control, however, are the world’s bureaucrats who seizing upon vaccination records to create a great data resource that can be used to control people. Privileges (like travel) can now be withheld from the non-conformists (or sceptical scaredy-cats). Citizen’s relation with their governments have not been improved by the events of the past year. In fact, the whole vaccination story is rapidly spiralling away from one of pharmaceutical triumph to one of coercion, politics and profit. And yet in this past year a space craft travelled to and landed on Mars and began sending back pictures just as crisp as the ones of my granddaughter who lives in Edinburgh. My inner scientist has revelled in all this news about human ingenuity and skill. Although, despite the most serious public relations efforts, the terrain looks little different from places in the Northern Cape. So far without any sheep. And fortunately, there were no lives (even sheep) lost in the failed experiment by the Pretoria boytjie Elon Musk to land a rocket after use. It was a pretty big bang. Rather like the one at my Alma Mater, Exeter University, where a recently unearthed unexploded German bomb was detonated just meters from a path which I used many times. Whew. Another topic getting a great deal of glossing from the spin doctors is Formula 1. Much has changed since the last “proper” Grand Prix with crowds, beautiful people without masks strutting the grid area, and more cars that were competitive with each other. The sport did recently gain a knight to its numbers and the Google entry for him reads “Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE HonFREng is a British racing driver, activist, fashion designer and musician.” Hmm. Well yes. This will take some remembering. And a German driving in British Racing Green? James Greener Friday 5th March 2021