The numbers that
pour out of the markets unceasingly, suddenly seem irrelevant as the death toll
from the virus mounts and closing down economies is the most popular remedy
being imposed by the politicians. Perhaps the sole indicators to watch over the
next few days are the gold price in one’s own currency and the bulletins of British
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s health as he recovers from the infection.
President Cyril’s brains
trust, aka the National Coronavirus Command Council, have decided that it will
help the battle against the virus if we have a further fortnight of lockdown. While this may be the correct move as far as
the medical battle is concerned, the economic disaster is perhaps growing even
faster. Details of what will be permitted in the second phase of lockdown have
yet to be released but it really ought to be more lenient in enabling more people
to get back to work. Or else people are going to die of poverty.
We also need a few
more freedoms and consistency in what we can do or buy. There is no good reason
why booze and smokes can't be sold. They are not illegal products. The current
ban has the fingerprints of the prat in a hat all over it. He along with a few
other cabinet members is not only rather poor at his job but also appears to
have influence over our president. It's not been explained just why Communications
Minister
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was playing courier
in taking medical protective equipment from the obscenely opulent home of a
disgraced former colleague Mduduzi Manana
to some students not that far away. The whole incident reeks of privilege and
disdain for the law.
It will be many
years after this pathogen has worked its way through the human race that the
researchers will be able to piece together where it really came from , how it
should be treated and of course how to protect us from it in the future. The
economic carnage that it is causing is already with us. The truism on
everyone's lips is that the world will be a very different place when it's all
over. But none of us have much clue exactly what will be so different.
As legendary
investor Warren Buffett is reported to have noted “It's only when the tide goes
out that you discover who has been swimming naked.” In the context of this pandemic we are
learning what we really value and need. And it's perhaps not what we thought we
did just a month ago.
What makes South
Africa's battle with the virus particularly hard is that there is no money in
the National Treasury to spend on all these unexpected costs. Tidemarks
drones on incessantly about the fact that the state spends so much more than
its income that it is utterly broke and the cost of borrowing to bridge the gap
comes in the form of ever-increasing interest rates. These increases are
punishment for allowing the growth of a mob of well-connected cadres who have
looted both public and private purses secure in the knowledge that there will
be no retribution.
Several Relief Funds
have been set up by both wealthy individuals and the government raiding the pension
and insurance funds of the nation’s workers and they will surely help. Volunteering
one third of each cabinet minister’s salary was a nice presidential touch in
his speech last night. However, many of the loans and handouts seem to have a
few unpalatable conditions attached to eligibility for relief and probably hard
to access without internet connections.
There hasn't been
much more information about using the location data provided by cell phones to
track our where abouts. But aside from leaving our phones at home when going
out we should insist that the system should provide we citizens with a constant
update of the whereabouts of all the cabinet members and directors general. It
would be good to see where they go to top up the booze cabinet. Or if they go
jogging.
James
Greener
Good
Friday 2020
