As usual when there are any
number of news items that might concern investors, the money still flows into
the markets. Even the US 10-year bond yields are falling to the point where
they are just about to trade lower than the Fed Funds rate of 2.5%. Not that
this is a signal for panic, but it doesn’t happen very often that short term
money yields more than long term money
There are more than 29 000
South Africans resident abroad who have been registered to vote in the
forthcoming election. This feels like a big number until the IEC also announce
that they are planning to print 50 million ballot papers. But there are just 23
million eligible local voters. Who got the contract to print at least twice as
many papers than required? There must be a simple explanation – like expecting
power cuts to halve production perhaps.
Our President is rarely
pictured without a broad smile on his face.
Even when he got stuck on a commuter train which was delayed four hours.
But the nation was both amused and incredulous when said that until then he was
unaware how bad the train system was. Then, his keynote speech on Human Right
Day public holiday likened the energy crisis to the apartheid “challenge” – a similarity
that is both inappropriate and wrong. Apartheid was a deliberate, horrific, exclusion
by government of a targeted group of its citizens. The power cuts which are
affecting the whole nation are the consequence of a total failure by government
to understand about the effect that mobility
and scarcity of the crucial skills and experience has on running a competitive economy
in the 21st century.
Pres. Cyril must be annoyed by
his predecessor (Jacob Zuma) offering opinions to anyone who will listen. Just
for a start he thinks that he is being victimised by unnamed “big people” both
here and overseas who would like to see him simply “disappear”. Now Russian
President Putin is undoubtedly a “big person” who JZ rubbed up the wrong way by
resigning from office shortly before supposedly inking a huge contract to
provide South Africa with nuclear power plants. Today JZ claims that our current
electricity woes are due to that deal collapsing. Which shows how, like pretty
much everybody else in this country, he is also clueless about how long it
takes to get a massive project like a power station built and operating from
scratch. Even if that deal had gone through two years ago, the argument about where
to put it would be just warming up. And the Guptas would be trying to wangle a
uranium mine for free.
Truck-loads of accountants have
now released the much-anticipated initial report of how Steinhoff, the JSE-listed
furniture business, became so big and then so broke, so quickly. Steinhoff -- or
what is left of it -- however, decided that this analysis of what their own
accountants had been doing would upset sensitive viewers and released only a
summary which still ran to 10 pages and reportedly revealed that the can of
worms was much older that expected. Not only the burned investors but all
observers are appalled that the company can keep so much still hidden from view.
The truth is that accounting as practiced by those who intend to deceive will
always outstrip those who are trusting. Hence
it will take years and many more skilled heads right up to the rank of judges
before a conviction of anyone implicated in the Steinhoff fraud will happen.
The newly launched
Capitalist Party of South Africa want to end the “tyranny of incompetence in
South Africa”. A fantastic phrase. The Purple Cow logo is also memorable. Unfortunately,
they may battle to gain traction and visibility in the short time until the May
8 election. But their explanation about how our proportional representation voting
system can work in favour of small parties is interesting. Are there enough thinking
people on line to spread the news of their presence, because for sure the newspapers
won’t or can’t. They don’t have the capacity even to cover the catastrophes
left in the wake of cyclone Idai.
I don’t think I have seen
the Super Over phenomenon in T20 before. Thank goodness for Natal boy David Miller
doing the necessary with a six and change.
James
Greener
Friday 22nd
March 2019
