I was rather startled to see that an outfit called the South African Savings Institute held a shindig this week to declare July to be national savings month. As a bit of a saver myself I could not recall being pestered to join the Institute or to pay a subscription so I wondered who they are. Their website reveals that it has no members at all but it presumably does have staff because there is a board of 14 directors who hopefully direct something. At the launch, held over breakfast somewhere pleasant, the boss man, in support of the apparently novel idea that we should all put away something for a rainy day, offered the view that "Gone are the days of 'I want it all and I want it now", … "Our tune now has to be 'I don't need it all and I don't need it now.' ". This will have sent a chill through the blood of those who are desperately trying to get consumers to borrow and spend us all out of the recession.
Just weeks after the last Scorpion was squashed, the police have released a flock of Hawks. Presumably the phylum change for the name of the elite cops signifies that the government is keen to have these ones flying up in the sky where they can keep an eye on them. The last lot skulked about under rocks and started to sting in all the wrong places. For most of us, the name is irrelevant; we are just desperate to see the baddies get caught. One unexpected downside to efficient policing, however, emerged from a report about the transport difficulties that were experienced during the Confederations Cup. It seems that organisers of these events may not hire anyone with a criminal record, but this resulted in a shortage of taxi drivers. Some of the ones they did use preferred to pioneer their own routes to the stadiums ignoring instructions, road closures and traffic signs.
Construction workers have proudly elevated the country into the big league by going on strike and threatening progress on meeting the deadlines for the World Cup. No less a luminary than an FIFA official noted that strike action before an event like this is an expected and necessary development and dealing with it merely adds to the joys and privileges of playing host to the world’s great sporting occasion. He is of course right and the bid to offer spread on the wages is small enough to be bridged quickly.
I was, however, concerned by the spread between the incomes of members of parliament and those in trades and professions that require rather more training and application than serious sycophancy. Even more annoying is the never ending stream of business and financial advice handed down by these self-important blue-light brigands. The sole experience that most of them have in managing anything is the regular voting for more and better perks, privileges, pay packages and prosecution indemnities for themselves and their cronies. Naturally, the directors of Anglo American managed to find a chairman without having report to the list of candidates so thoughtfully provided by the bureaucrats. Despite the protestations to the contrary about any plan for nationalising the mines, the fact that government thought it should participate in the governance of a mining house is ominous. Those keen on letting the state run anything else should firstly explain how they intend to fix calamities like SABC, Eskom and Telkom.
The previous Springbok coach was fired for winning us the World Cup. Should we not be consistent and fire the present one for beating the Lions? Meanwhile it’s the (other) Lions for the Currie Cup.
James Greener
10th July 2009.
