SMOKING HOT

Even while these words were being written, President Cyril was unveiling the latest set of stimuli to the country growing again. At first glance they seem different to the ones he showed us a few months ago – but don’t yet seem either to have been enacted or had much effect. The first impression of this morning’s list is that most of them seem aimed at undoing the messes created by his cabinet ministers. Particularly ones delivered by Malusi Gigaba.  Why he hasn’t been sent to find alternative employment years ago is a mystery. Interesting factoid from Google is that Gigaba’s actual first name is “Knowledge”. Indeed. The market has already gone a bit better on this news. Of the stimulus that is. We can but wait and see

Shortly before dawn on Sunday it will be the Vernal Equinox and from then it will be downhill to Summer. The public holiday the next day has become associated with feasting on large chunks of meat that usually are entrusted to the least experienced chef in the home. He opens a beer and lights a fire. What could possibly go wrong? The full colour glossy advertisements all week have been very clear about the outcome of this combination of ingredients. But the reason it’s called Heritage Day is that before nightfall, many a tong-wielding braai master will have had their heritage called into question in front of the hungry guests.

And this year not all the rising smoke will be coming from charred chops. A judge has decided that its probably OK to grow cannabis at home for one’s own consumption. Reactions are widespread starting with doubt that he meant what we thought he said. Nevertheless, stories with the word “high” woven into every paragraph are widespread. What will result from taking these first steps in decriminalising what may be one of the nation’s largest illegal industries? What happens to that huge lucrative network of production and distribution? Those guys aren’t going to take this sudden hollowing out of their income stream lightly. To whom are they going to complain? And then there’s the matter of the state’s war against tobacco – another smokable plant – which has caused massive smuggling of and illegal trade in cigarettes. As much as R7bn in tax may have been avoided and must to be “taken back” for the good of the nation. Maybe the government is even now fashioning a tax on dagga.

In the absence of a clear education policy which is agreed to by everyone and delivered fairly, the way is open for anyone with a microphone and an audience to offer their opinion of what needs to be done to improve things. In the last few years the following subjects at least have been proposed as mandatory for the already struggling and under-resourced school-goer: a Chinese language, a local indigenous language, a non-local African language, history (or a simulacrum thereof) and then this week, computer coding. Each of these subjects and others have promoters proffering cogent reasons for introducing them to school children. But even the richest school struggles to find sufficient teachers and time to expose their customers to basic subjects like home language, maths, life sciences and physical sciences. Not to mention the clearly ineffective “Life Orientation” nonsense that snuck onto the curriculum when it was suspected that many parents were unable to guide their offspring towards adulthood. For a nation at the foot of virtually every international education league table, the sole way out is the “less is more” dictum, a path best taken with baby steps. This week President Cyril came up with a plan to get people building school desks. What a great idea.

Fortunately, there is no Test rugby this weekend so we ‘boks’ fan can bathe in the happy memory of beating the All Blacks at home for another week. Various people will no doubt try to goad me into reacting about the Sharks / Lions Currie Cup encounter but to be honest an administration that manages to have at least two teams called the Cheetahs playing simultaneously has eroded my interest in the game.

James Greener

Friday 21^st September 2018

PLEASE HAVE YOUR PASSPORTS READY

Our currency pulled back from last week’s weakness but it didn’t look as if there was much money flowing into shares as the indices mostly sagged. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a nice big shake out so we could use the old fashioned valuation tools and see what’s what again?

Presumably someone knows exactly what powers the KwaZulu-Natal Quality of Life Portfolio Committee might have. But for the rest of us it sure looks like a severe case of fruitless and wasteful expenditure. Not to say unwarranted and unnecessary meddling in individual choice. If President Cyril really was the steely eyed decisive businessman we are assured he is he would long ago have asked for a list of all the national and provincial outfits with names like this and closed them down with a stroke of the pen. No argument. Assuredly closing the deficit by increasing taxes is now way past the point of diminishing returns and for our president to live up to his alleged abilities he must immediately slash the state wage and expenses bills.

Unless students have changed markedly in recent years, the model of using a “student centred model” for spending R17bn to aid 518000 students might just have a few flaws. Hopefully the National Student Financial Aid scheme doesn’t just dish out around R30 000 cash to each successful applicant for aid to pay his or her fees and accommodation costs. Students of old would have made short work of that kind of folding money and going past the fees office would not have been first on the agenda. The used car lot and the bottle store might just have edged in before the accommodation bureau too. This business of giving people money they have not earned is fraught with problems.

Yet another official inquiry involving the Guptas is underway. This time we are all curious to know just how Zuma’s chums managed to get South African citizenship so swiftly and seamlessly. In contrast people with real skills and qualification battle to get even a visa to come and work here. The reporting on the inquiry is not very clear but it does seem that the family, amongst other promises of largess and love of their adopted country listed almost 80 schools which would benefit from gifts and handouts. Only now at the inquiry are education officials admitting that neither the schools nor the gifts ever existed. And yet JZ is stoutly claiming that there was not and never has been such a thing as “state capture”. Admittedly it is a rather sophisticated grammatical construction which for non-English speaking people might more clearly be rendered as “unofficial agencies and private citizens taking control of state functions”.  Whichever wording you choose, however, it is clearly not what voters were offered by a Zuma presidency nor what most of us liked as we came to realise what was taking place. We owe whoever leaked those Gupta emails a great debt of gratitude for bringing our nation back from the brink.

A related story concerns one Ashu Chawla who has left the country. This is despite being on bail, and surrendering his passport pending further developments in the dreadful Estina dairy farm corruption case where he is a co-accused. Presumably Mr Chawla, who already has demonstrated his influence with home affairs in the Gupta citizenship matter (for which he is also required to give evidence) arranged appropriate replacement travel documents for himself and is even now measuring for curtains in his penthouse somewhere in India or Dubai.

 Too many of these suspects are nipping off before we can find out what they were up to. If we could find a large secure escape-proof enclave like an island on which to keep these dubious characters instead of granting them bail, it might also prod the justice system to speed things up a bit. Any suggestions?

It’s comforting to see that there are still optimists who can envisage a scenario where the’ bokke beat the All Blacks tomorrow. All sorts of advice like not kicking away possession, passing quickly and accurately and not giving away penalties seems fair enough, but finding a place for breakfast tomorrow which doesn’t have a TV screen is still the best bet for those of us of sensitive disposition.

James Greener

Friday 14^th September 2018

TAKING A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW

If you had been particularly unlucky when buying currency this week you would have been charged over R20 and R16 to buy a British pound and a US dollar respectively. Our runt has lost about 15% of its value since the government started to mutter loudly that stealing its citizen’s fixed assets made great sense to them.  These simple but shocking numbers should be all any intelligent and aware member of the South African government needs to see that their efforts at running country are seriously misguided. Sadly, most of them have a blind spot in this direction, blinkered as they are from all evidence by communist ideology and a conviction that the nation’s woes are somehow still the result of a malicious intent of a tiny fraction of the population.

So the Guptas are itching to tell their side of the story. But only if they can use a TV hook up from Dubai. They are worried that even the rather somnambulant Hawks and bumbling National Prosecuting Authority might arrest them if they come back to SA. Too true. When they first gapped it, the air was full of assurances that they would be back in a heartbeat if needed.  Now not so much! The puzzling thing about this desire to tell all is that it surely can’t be their “reputations” that they are wanting to salvage. Which leads to the thought that there must still be significant sums of money back here that they believe they can get their hands on.

Stories abound in this country of agricultural enterprises transferred willingly and amicably to communities with historical claims to the land. In most cases the news years down the line is of failure, misery and poverty with farms stripped of assets and farmland reverting back to bush. The incoming new owners were usually recipients of government money to help them fund the running of the farms but what is less well understood is that with the money usually came government “experts” who, in most cases it seems were merely on hand to loot and pillage not only the farm but the handout. State capture has been alive and thriving for decades as the vultures simply followed the money shunting aside the hope-filled and well-meaning farmers with assurances that “government knows best”. Obviously, this scenario can’t be responsible for all of the failures, but it is an interesting part of this awful tragedy that is South Africa today.

One feels a small pang of sympathy for the University of Limpopo students who stormed out of a Philosophy of Education test claiming that it was too hard. Indeed. Any subject with the word philosophy signals the need for seriously hard work, reading and understanding the opinions and views of generations of learned people who devoted lifetimes to thinking and writing about the issues. Far better to choose subjects where the answers are undeniable. Like arithmetic.

 The Director General of Telecommunications and Postal Services has vowed that South Africa will be among the first countries to deploy next-generation 5G networks. Whatever this might mean for those of us still waiting for a letter posted weeks ago to be delivered, remember that this is the same ministry that is now several years late in meeting its international obligation to migrate all terrestrial TV broadcasting to digital signals. This is the “set-top box” debacle. It is also the ministry in charge of the SABC who at the last minute have agreed to settle enough debts so that the soccer international against Libya will be aired.  Last minute stuff and its not clear if the money has actually been paid or just promised.

Hopefully Supersport are not in arrears with the rugby and tennis chaps because for some reason many of us are keen to watch the ‘bokke take on the Wallabies. And there are the US Open finals too.

James Greener

Friday 7^th September 2018