One report this week suggests that the
South African currency is being used as a “safe haven” from the crises that are
washing over the rest of the world. You
do have to wonder just how many people affected by developments in, for
example, Crimea, have pulled out their school atlas and thought: “South Africa!
Now that’s a good place to send my money.” Admittedly the runt has firmed up a
tad but if the cash is flowing into the markets those buyers are being choosy
about the prices they want to pay. The All Share bounce is fizzling out
somewhat and the bull is looking tired.
The great excitement this week concerned
a long awaited report about who had ordered and who had paid for all the
improvements to President Zuma’s private home in the heart of Zululand.
Of course it was us taxpayers who coughed up nearly a quarter of billion rand
to upgrade the presidential chicken run and cattle kraal. Actually all of this information
was known even before the commendable and fearless Public Protector Miss Thuli
Madonsela published her report. The puzzling thing is that the property owner (i.e.
Number 1) seems not to have had the slightest curiosity about why his place was
overrun with workmen for so long. All he knew is that he wasn’t paying.
By a strange coincidence a quarter of a
billion rand was also the income that the toll road operator collected in three
months from travellers using the new roads around Joburg. This is only a third
of the amount that SANRAL needs to service its massive debts but nevertheless
the spokesman thought that bond holders and ratings agencies should be pleased
with the news. Well, maybe but also perhaps not. The alarming part of the
story, however, is that all those gantries with cute sounding bird names in
fact counted traffic flows that should have yielded almost a billion rand in
the period. This means that comparatively few motorists are bothering to pay
and the operator must have tens of thousands of “customers” who in total owe
them about R700m. Wow! This will be a challenge for an organisation which
admits that it has made no provision for bad debts.
Given the appalling numbers of people out
of work how did The National Union
of Metalworkers have sufficient resources and chutzpah to hold a 3 day conference
in the middle of a working week to discuss what demands they will be making on
employers this year. One of those
employers is the Russian owner of Evraz Highveld Steel & Vanadium who has been mulling the idea of closing the struggling
plant. Despite this, the union representatives from that business told their
conference that they would be insisting that the average salary for their members should be raised
by almost 70 % to R10 000 pm. They are probably soon to learn the meaning of “Nyet”.
Did the promoters of the new law about
enforcing gender equality think it through completely? The legislation allows the state to jail a CEO if he fails to move
towards and achieve a quota of 50% women in decision making structures. What if
that CEO is a woman? It’s asinine legislation anyway.
So this was the warm-up session for our
Autumnal season of low productivity four day weeks. There are three more next
month and then in May we defy global practice with the general election scheduled
on a Wednesday. That event has been proven to cause huge lethargy and ennui
amongst the electorate who will probably need to rest for several days
thereafter. Democracy is demanding you know.
I am
pleased to report that the Lions are second in the SA Conference log after the
Sharks. However the news that SA Rugby is still campaigning for the competition
to be enlarged to 18 teams is as disappointing as the gentle purr that the new
Formula 1 motors are emitting. Grand Prix is all about noise and atmosphere and
to hell with the cost.
James Greener
