The headlines chunter on about the foreign investor’s selloff and exit from the SA markets and yet the dear old rand is clinging on and is even up a bit over the last few weeks. How do these facts gel? Had every one of those sellers already gone short of the rand long before dumping the shares and bonds? Unlikely. The answer may lie in the stats about foreign trades published by the securities markets. These figures depend upon a small and inconspicuous flag being raised on the client entry page of the labyrinthine booking and admin systems.
The year 2020 is proving to be the most awful mixture of the COVID 19 pandemic, the US presidential election and an explosion of left-wing political activism. These three phenomena have been inextricably mixed into a potpourri of horror, fear, vindictiveness and ignorance by politicians with agendas and objectives far removed from what their oaths of office promised. The sole good news may be that there are signs that the nature and dangers of the pandemic are becoming better understood by most of the medical sectors and flickers of hope can be detected. Many places are able to report that the “curve is flattening”.
Ordinary folk, however, are wary, especially because decision makers continue to point out that the deadly virus is still at large, and the best defence is to flee and shelter. It is increasingly obvious that this advice is mendacious. In this country especially, the side effect of the lockdown, which even now is in some cases being tightened, has been to remove the right and freedom of citizens to create and provide goods and services for sale to each other. And that means unemployment, poverty and starvation. And there is little evidence that those responsible for this situation care very much.
Rule is now by diktat with punishment of all for the behaviour of the few. Reportedly police believe there are no more than 5000 anti-social criminally inclined people who rape, pillage and murder, especially after a few drinks. Why are they not the target of a concerted program of arrest and conviction? Virus or no virus. The sole industry to tell the politicians that their ideas are crazy, and impoverishing are the minibus taxis. They are a strong and violent lobby and government has crumpled before them.
It is inconceivable that the dead and buried idea that SAA can be revived if only because the people “deserve a national airline” or other such nonsense is back in the news. Why has President Cyril not told his staff and colleagues to stop wasting time on this project and do something useful? The cadres just do not believe that the money for everything, including sustaining their lifestyles, has run out. The first seeds of this poor airline’s demise were probably sown many years ago when it thought fit to grant free rides to all officials above a certain rank even after they had retired.
Another symptom of the pandemic may be that it has caused many people to lose their capacity to detect irony. In the last few months, the growth in support for what can now be seen to be an extreme left-wing and often extremely violent political movement that is vehemently anti-capitalist, has been amazing. They have persuaded many of the world’s richest professional sportsmen, whose mid-boggling incomes are utterly dependant on egregious rampant capitalism, to adopt their slogans and rituals. English Premier League players not only replaced their names on their shirts with this movement’s offensive and racist mantra, they also all compliantly drop to one knee before kick-off. Formula 1 who are valiantly trying to revive an eye-wateringly expensive sport also tried to get the drivers to “take the knee” and obviously called in the public relations gnomes who have sold them the meaningless and clearly untrue slogan #We Race as One. Meantime Ferrari have other problems. It is interesting how the long unexpected layoff has shown up in a distinct rustiness and loss of focus amongst the sports men and women. There is obviously something in this “muscle memory” idea.
James Greener
Friday 17th July 2020
