The rather underwhelming news that the
Reserve Bank brains-trust dropped the price of money by 25 basis points to
6.25%pa on Thursday is causing less excitement than the very unusual sight of
organisations retrenching employees in a desperate attempt to keep their
businesses afloat. Normally the decision to fire staff is a very delicate process
with endless consultative meetings and hand waving plus of course picketing as
the reality impinges on the poor souls now jobless. For many borrowers exposed
to the most deadly and expensive forms of debt the actual interest rates they experience
are three times higher that this very theoretical level. Frankly this decision
is not going to float many boats. The economic growth rate is in the grip of far
stronger influences.
The supporters of the proposed new state
health system are really missing a huge propaganda opportunity by letting
ex-president JZ swan off overseas for treatment. Imagine what a coup for their
initiative it would be if they could persuade him to attend the nearest
hospital to his home in Nkandla. After all it should be pretty much riskless
for JZ as the rumour is that actually there is little wrong with him other than
a reluctance to appear before the Zondo Commission Inquiry into state capture.
All he is looking for really is a rolling sick-note.
One thing that a developed state should be
able to do swiftly and seamlessly is provide those services which it demands
that citizens make use of. Like obtaining documentation such as passports,
driver’s licences, identity documents and other certificates (both abridged and
unabridged (?!)) from the Hatched, Matched and Despatched departments. No
gathering of friends these days is complete without a horror story of delays,
inefficiency and errors on the part of the civil servants tasked with providing
these things. This week the very old allegation that the nation owns just one machine
that can produce the laminated driver’s licence, surfaced again. In fact, the officials
responsible for keeping this precious device in working order cheerfully admit to
a backlog of more than 120 000 licence cards country wide. Can anyone else
think how to unblock this bottle neck? And now it turns out that citizens who
live overseas and require a passport are being made to wait almost a year for
this vital document. Reportedly the problem may be transport between Pretoria
and overseas diplomatic missions. What? Is the daily diplomatic pouch a myth?
At the start of every year, one forgets just how
many tedious events take place where hordes of tax eaters flock together to take part in jollifications, mostly at our expense.
Early on the is the Festival of the Large and Gaudy Cake, otherwise known as
the ANC’s birthday party. The similarity with the legendary recommendation by Marie
Antoinette that the peasants should eat cake gets more poignant each year. Then
it’s the dance of the SA themed neck scarves in Davos, but without the cheerful
Tchaikovsky score. Followed by the State of the Nation Address (SONA) where the
President fails to use the one appropriate word – Dire. Culminating in the National
Budget Speech, where increasingly, arithmetic is wrung by the neck to produce
numbers that blush when confronted with the truth.
Something has gone seriously awry with tax
collections. For the first time eve,r the rolling 12-month shortfall of tax
revenue compared to the treasury’s distributions to provinces and ministries
has breached R300bn. A popular claim is that the tax-paying class have left the
country in significant numbers, while the count of people on the civil service
payroll and the state hand-out list doesn’t stop growing. In principal these
should be easy facts to verify but official indifference to such matters means
that we sceptics have rich pickings. Among our number we now find Finance Minister
Tito Mbowei whose forthright views are alarming trade unionists and similar
lobby groups.
It’s hard to be excited about the Super Hero
Sunday start to the local rugby season with temperatures nudging north of 30
degrees consistently. When ever it does kick off thought it’s going to be hard
to rekindle the Word Cup excitement and summon the strength to deal with the
nationalisation nonsense.
James Greener
Friday 15th January 2020
