The National
Treasury’s monthly reports are starting to reflect the expected revenue surge
from the VAT rate increase. However the spending taps on the other side of the ministry
room are still fully open and the deficit is not declining. Government
expenditure for the fiscal year (now half complete) will likely be well over
R1.5 trillion and more than R14bn over budget. Already we have watched
municipal civil servants protesting that they have not been paid and chickens (some
called VBS Bank) are roosting in flocks.
“The story
you are about to hear is true. Names and places have been changed to protect
the innocent” This was a sort of disclaimer that preceded the half hour long
whodunnit in the days of steam radio. Nowadays the rubric ahead of the
never-ending tales of corruption should be: “The story you are about to hear is
the same old one. Only the names, organisations and amounts stolen are
different”. The most recent development
in one of them is that the main suspect has been fired. Undoubtedly Mr Moyane,
the newly unemployed former SARS commissioner is already punching the speed
dial codes for the finest lawyers that (our) money can buy. The next chapter in
the same old story is usually that the self-declared angelic servant of the
people who has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar resents the
suggestion that they were naughty and panics about maintaining their lifestyle.
Years of court time stretch ahead and the partners of Sue, Grabbit & Runne
(ref.: “Private Eye”) in turn summon their architects and order yet another
Sandton glass and aluminium office tower.
Sometimes the
only likely reason one can find for a government decision is that it is
carefully designed to annoy specific segments of the population and press home
the fact that everyone else is powerless to do anything, except complain. This has
to be the case with the appointment of Julius Malema to Parliament’s Joint
Committee of Ethics. Surely no one who knows anything about the political and
financial record of this man can possibly believe that he would make a worthy
member of such a body. Actually, it comes as a bit of a surprise that such a
committee even exists outside of stand-up comedy.
It has been
remarked how much effort the education authorities put into ensuring that the
end of year school leaving exam papers don’t leak when 30% is all that’s needed
to gain a pass in some subjects. It’s a good point and it would be far less
trouble to leak all the papers, allow open book exams and then give everyone a
certificate. Tragically this won’t have any effect on most candidates finding
employment after school. For that to happen the policies discussed below must
be scrapped
We have
opined before that this country’s rabidly racist policies about who may do
business with whom is going to provide research material for generations of future
students of economics. Not only will they need to explain why BEE caused
economic stagnation, they will also have to discuss the impact of the costs of the
utterly unproductive business of monitoring compliance with these asinine regulations.
Take for example the huge spreadsheet currently being made available in the
financial press in which the so-called BEE scores of all the JSE listed
companies are displayed. The man-hours wasted in compiling this nonsense which
in any case is probably as accurate as the last decade of Steinhoff financials
are innumerable. Further, they both have the same value for any investor. Zero.
It’s a lovely but unconfirmed story that a
police helicopter pilot landed his aircraft in the parking area of a shopping
centre in Queenstown and then went into the KFC to collect lunch. Deep fried
battered chicken is the staple food of our police and it is reported that this
officer (perhaps a Colonel) emerged with his take-away meal, started his
chopper and flew off. What do the flight manuals say about eating messy fast food
whilst piloting an aircraft? One’s not allowed to eat while driving a car.
The fellows
at the bowling club bar are very satisfied with the outcome of the Currie Cup
final. There’s some muttering about the paucity of Sharks in the ‘bok squad. Nevertheless,
and despite the simply dreadful TV ad running for the Test tomorrow, we shall
be watching and shouting the bokke on.
James Greener
Friday 2nd November 2018
