Finance Minister Tito Mboweni revealed once again in his MTBPS speech on Wednesday that he (and perhaps only he) has grasped that it’s the government expenditure – particularly the salary levels of management-level state employees -- that urgently need to be trimmed. The remuneration and perks of civil servants consume around 46% of the government’s tax collection and have grown faster than anything else in this economy. The Minister’s own chubby and well-fed mien tells this story rather adequately.
But it’s unlikely
that any cabinet member is going to risk their power base by trying to do
something about it beyond tinkering with car allowances, cell phone upgrades
and plane seat selection. How about moving the whole circus of tax-eaters from
Cape Town and Pretoria to a rail hub like Noupoort in the sort of middle of the
nation? It would initially be expensive, but it would thin the ranks of civil
servants appreciably and discourage foreign potentates from coming to “strengthen
bilateral ties”.
Despite the
evidence that suggests that it wasn’t the same Aloe Ferox plant that he produced
in his February Budget speech, Tito again proffered parliamentarians the
prickly potted plant and pointed out that that this botanical specimen was not
doing well. The stunt did not go down as well as it did in February.
He really
scared the debt and currency market with the forecast that the amount of the
state debt would increase by 50% in the next three years and some traders may
have been badly tricked on Halloween. Currently these folks are now awaiting a
treat from the Moodys rating agency who, if they leave our credit rating unchanged
could cause those markets to recover. Already however, Public Protector Busi
Mkhwebane has gone off pop about the power that these very ordinary financial analysts
can wield. So maybe she knows something already.
How do
teachers cope with the question of what “Hate” means now that our government
has decided that it is now dependent on context? “Juvenile rant” is the
approved term to describe the vile racist insulting invective that has been
aimed at Minister Pravin Gordhan. When one day it emerges just exactly what is that
he knows which badly scares so many politicians particularly those with a good
helping of the looting gene, perhaps we will get our word back. But in the
meantime, it’s all terrifyingly like “Animal Farm”.
There was a
perfect example this week of the utter ineffectiveness of central control.
Reportedly about 4 years ago the Gauteng provincial government decided that it
would “create” a Jewellery Manufacturing Hub that would create 4764 jobs .Not
only is this a wonderfully precise number but it is further broken down into
categories of 599 “direct” jobs, 1823 “indirect” and a mystifying 2342 “induced”
jobs. Equally precise were the value-added amounts and turnover in goods and
services and other wonderful flows of money that the project would create.
There was even a sod turning ceremony and probably a chrome plated spade. Glaringly
absent, however, was any mention of customers or indeed demand for this hub’s
output. And so, it is unsurprising that nothing of this project has yet seen
the light of day. Even the international investors who so selfishly always
demand a return on their money failed to pitch.
The so-called
Bronze medal match at the Rugby World Cup was quite entertaining but should not
have been played as no one cared much about the result. It did give us
curmudgeons another chance to carp about the All Black privilege of being
allowed to be offensive and stick out their tongues at the opposition. One day
a brave coach sure of beating the New Zealanders is going to instruct his team
to ignore the theatrics, reject the challenge and saunter down to the posts away
from the noise and have a chat. But it won’t be soon! News reaches us of a poor
fellow who has been told to turnout to support his wife at the annual church
fete scheduled for tomorrow morning. What a dreadful clash. Go ‘bokke.
James
Greener
All Saints
Day and still no Brexit
