In April (the
latest month for which figures are available) our government spent almost twice
as much as it collected in taxes. This is not a record. Every July, for some
reason, often shows an even worse comparative result, but this latest number caused
the rolling 12-month deficit to breach the quarter trillion-rand mark (R253bn)
for the first time. And our finance minister is posting You Tube videos of How
to Cook. Folks, this is way beyond Mickey Mouse territory.
Except
against the pound sterling – which is having its own woes as the Brits try to
decide something or other important to do with their nation – the rand is at an
8-month low as the Saffers realise that their brand-new government is just like
all previous ones. Pretty clueless on monetary matters but right up to speed on
wrecking and looting. Unlike most of us who eventually grasped that banks are
not like they appear in the cartoons with vaults full of money and gold, many
of our leaders are sure that if they could only get the keys to the Reserve
Bank they need never work again. There’s a dreadful squabble going on about who
should “own” this institution with precious little understanding of what that
means. In the slightly more learned halls of industry and finance there is an
equally silly discussion about whether interest rates should be nudged a
smidgen up or down. What is desperately needed is for everyone to understand
that the money has run out, the government is on the verge of being unable to service
its debt let alone bail out any insolvent basket cases. At some stage they will
be faced with choosing between paying civil service salaries or distributing
the social grants. The sole solution is very painful and political suicide but
requires that every law, directive, diktat and regulation that attempts to
control the supply, demand and price of labour be suspended. Immediately. In a
far shorter time than the talking heads will have us believe, lights will
appear at the end of tunnels as people discover that they and not the state are
the only ones truly interested in their welfare. Whew.
Once again
the quarterly release of the GDP number for the now far distant period of the
first three months of this year caused widespread dismay to anyone who believes
that the numbers are accurate and that President Cyril could lead the nation as
successfully as he used to run his own private ventures. Officially the level
of economic activity declined more than 3% from the previous quarter. Seasonal
effects such as Christmas are supposedly removed from the raw data so this
number -- the worst since the global debt crisis 10 years ago -- is properly terrible.
A third of this decline was provided by
the manufacturing sector, while only government (naturally) and the financial sectors
showed any upside. Deeply worrying.
The outbreak
of deadly and fiery attacks on transport trucks using the N3 toll road between
Durban and Joburg has caused the folk who run that road to recommend that it is
inadvisable to travel long distances at night. This is something many of us
have tried not to do for many years and official acknowledgement that it is
foolish is very alarming. Increasingly normal law-abiding behaviour is being
closed down and the criminals are winning. Most of the highway incidents seem
to be part of a well organised strategy, which some transport operators suspect
is officially ignored (if not exactly sanctioned). And while the crime rate
soars a recent official response has been the old whine about security guard’s
uniforms being too like the police. Now avoirdupois is often a better guide to whether it is a cop (large) or a security
guard (thin) who has turned up to help but regardless of who it is, the baddies
will be disappointed, and the good guys will be pleased. However, the key point is that if the police and
the courts were as effective as we all need and want them to be then demand for
private armed response would diminish.
Since it is
not Women’s Beach Volleyball season, Tidemarks has no interest in sport at this
time.
James
Greener
Friday 7th
June 2019
