GONE SHOPPING

Armistice Day has a special meaning and poignancy for those of us of a certain age and upbringing. This centenary one was particularly moving. It was also quite a shock to realise how little this sort of event means to most people, even those whose homelands and cultures were preserved by the sacrifice of so many young lives. The passage of time makes most things that happened long ago seem irrelevant. One exception to this is the arrival of a small party of Hollanders in Table Bay over 300 years ago who are being blamed for current events. It matters not a jot to the zealots that this landing and all the history that followed needs to be understood in the context of the times in which they occurred. It is further alarming that campaigns of denial and rewriting of historical facts are becoming so successful. A nation that seems to welcome and admire intellectual impoverishment and blatant dishonesty is in deep trouble when it comes to raising its citizens to the levels needed to compete for the wealth and rewards of the modern world. Many of our competitors survived far worse events than Jan van Riebeek wading through the shallows of the South Atlantic.

The Chinese, who have had their fair share of bad leaders with axes to grind, have a very different use for November 11^th. Rewritten as 11.11 and named Singles Day, their merchants have worked hard to get the population to treat it as day to go shopping on an epic scale. Reportedly it is highly successful and now dwarfs similar opportunistic reasons to get out and buy stuff. Even here in SA we are exhorted to wield the credit card on Black Friday. Heaven knows, our retailers desperately need to see customers thronging their stores and carting goods out of the front door (after first paying for it – an often-forgotten part of the transaction in these days of entitlement). Although Google offers at least two reasons for the name Black Friday, how long will it be before some fragile ego is threatened by the name and organises a protest and burns down a store (or a clinic or a library) just to show how really offended they are?

This sort of response from mobs, however, must be based on unimaginable levels of frustration and desperation at realising that they will never receive an effective education, never find work and be unable to live a family-based life in the comfort that their efforts could provide. On top of this is the awareness that not one of the people shouting at them through a poor sound system in a dusty tent or hall will do anything to help them after they slide away behind a phalanx of costly body guards,

How many individuals with interesting and explosive tales to tell about their recent political life in SA are there waiting in the wings to tell their story? The #metoo Twitter tag was coined for a very different purpose apparently but seems perfectly suited to this trickle of disillusioned castoffs from the political stage. Despite the impeccable credentials of a struggle hero, Barbara Hogan told JZ what he didn’t want to hear, and she was quickly out of the door. This perhaps is the most soul-destroying aspect of living in SA: The total refusal by the decision makers to accept (or even debate) fact-based ideas.

As we have remarked before, the kiss and make up spell between the SABC and the national soccer body was short lived. The former has no money to spend on what licence-fee payers (who are they?) want to watch and the latter have a vastly inflated view of what their ball-hoofers are worth. The broadcasters muddied the water somewhat with odd stories about their fourteen-million-rand celebration party while coping with employee complaints about the withdrawal of a free biscuit ration. Like SAA, this outfit needs to be sold immediately.

Tidemarks will not appear next week as not only is it my 70^th birthday but also I am attending a very select reunion of those of us who left Prep in 1961. By the way, I don’t especially celebrate multiples of ten. I prefer to mark the attainment of prime numbers. There are more of them in the early years.

James Greener

Friday 16^th November 2018

Arma virumque cano [1]

Investment decisions aren’t easy. The US mid-term election results revealed that the voters of that nation rather like the idea of a government that plays Robin Hood. They have voted for Representatives who claim that they are able to identify whose resources need to be transferred to whom. And this has caused US share prices to rise strongly. Not the expected consequence of rejecting the party that wants lower taxes. Tellingly though, the more sceptical US bond market hasn’t moved much at all.

Astonishingly, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has said something undoubtedly truthful. He said that no one wants him to be president. And we also don’t want him anywhere in government and particularly he should never be in any post which accords him the privilege of using the VVIP terminal at Johannesburg International Airport that he agreed could be built, but now can’t remember doing so.

What is not true though is the insistence that South Africa needs more people with PhDs. Science and Technology Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, whose own CV is devoid of a science degree at any level, quotes the National Development Plan as identifying the shortage of PhDs in the country as contributing to (the) lack of innovation. While perhaps now it is a little different, registering for a doctoral degree is normally an indication that the candidate is very comfortable in academia and had scored funding for another 3 years indulging their interests. They will definitely not be taught innovation! As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention and sending people out to find or make a career as soon after school as possible will be a far greater spur to innovation than being nestled in the bosom of some leafy campus.

Despite being embarrassingly colonialist we still cling to the practice of seating the people’s representatives in a debating chamber and letting them demonstrate publicly their fitness for public office. This is a rare skill and civilised behaviour is even rarer, so this system doesn’t seem to work that well anywhere in the world. In Cape Town, insult and fisticuffs are increasingly the outcome. Ever since the Speaker of the House allowed the dress standards to fall to abysmal levels the business of Parliament is frequently interrupted by violence. The EFF have been very successful in creating a very visible presence far beyond their numbers by dressing in red overalls – the garb of “the working people” -- and demanding to be admitted.  It has yet to be demonstrated that anyone other than those drawing an MP’s salary thinks that the nation is getting value for money from these thugs. Notably not even the ANC members nor two different presidents have done much to restore any dignity or productivity to the proceedings.

And so it is very disappointing to read about the formation of yet another political party in South Africa, To be named the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party it is the political wing of The National Union of Metalworkers of SA. Their presumption that the members of the union will also become voters for the party may be optimistic. It’s getting rather crowded out there in the left-wing political landscape occupied by folk who still fervently believe that there are sufficient numbers of rich people capable of supporting the poor. After, of course, firstly supporting the leaders of the poor.

The new political buzz word is “trajectory” and the founders of this new party are amongst those who are dissatisfied with the one that President Cyril is following. Now that our election date has been set for May 2019 we will be treated to lots of rhetoric about trajectories. So much more modern and thrusting than policies or manifestos. 

Apparently, the reason why the test in France kicks off so late is that there are too few TV channels in the country to show different sports simultaneously. ‘bok fans will be eager to learn if referee Nigel Owens shares the view that the now notorious Farrell armless tackle is legal. A video doing the rounds this week shows coach Rassie Erasmus showing members of our team how it is done. It’s a very funny spoof and maybe more effective than a citing.

James Greener

Friday 9^th November 2018

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[1] Virgil's Aeneid,  “Of arms and the man I sing")

ETHICS? IS THAT LIKE INTEGRITY?

The National Treasury’s monthly reports are starting to reflect the expected revenue surge from the VAT rate increase. However the spending taps on the other side of the ministry room are still fully open and the deficit is not declining. Government expenditure for the fiscal year (now half complete) will likely be well over R1.5 trillion and more than R14bn over budget. Already we have watched municipal civil servants protesting that they have not been paid and chickens (some called VBS Bank) are roosting in flocks.

“The story you are about to hear is true. Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent” This was a sort of disclaimer that preceded the half hour long whodunnit in the days of steam radio. Nowadays the rubric ahead of the never-ending tales of corruption should be: “The story you are about to hear is the same old one. Only the names, organisations and amounts stolen are different”.  The most recent development in one of them is that the main suspect has been fired. Undoubtedly Mr Moyane, the newly unemployed former SARS commissioner is already punching the speed dial codes for the finest lawyers that (our) money can buy. The next chapter in the same old story is usually that the self-declared angelic servant of the people who has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar resents the suggestion that they were naughty and panics about maintaining their lifestyle. Years of court time stretch ahead and the partners of Sue, Grabbit & Runne (ref.: “Private Eye”) in turn summon their architects and order yet another Sandton glass and aluminium office tower. 

Sometimes the only likely reason one can find for a government decision is that it is carefully designed to annoy specific segments of the population and press home the fact that everyone else is powerless to do anything, except complain. This has to be the case with the appointment of Julius Malema to Parliament’s Joint Committee of Ethics. Surely no one who knows anything about the political and financial record of this man can possibly believe that he would make a worthy member of such a body. Actually, it comes as a bit of a surprise that such a committee even exists outside of stand-up comedy.

It has been remarked how much effort the education authorities put into ensuring that the end of year school leaving exam papers don’t leak when 30% is all that’s needed to gain a pass in some subjects. It’s a good point and it would be far less trouble to leak all the papers, allow open book exams and then give everyone a certificate. Tragically this won’t have any effect on most candidates finding employment after school. For that to happen the policies discussed below must be scrapped

We have opined before that this country’s rabidly racist policies about who may do business with whom is going to provide research material for generations of future students of economics. Not only will they need to explain why BEE caused economic stagnation, they will also have to discuss the impact of the costs of the utterly unproductive business of monitoring compliance with these asinine regulations. Take for example the huge spreadsheet currently being made available in the financial press in which the so-called BEE scores of all the JSE listed companies are displayed. The man-hours wasted in compiling this nonsense which in any case is probably as accurate as the last decade of Steinhoff financials are innumerable. Further, they both have the same value for any investor. Zero.

 It’s a lovely but unconfirmed story that a police helicopter pilot landed his aircraft in the parking area of a shopping centre in Queenstown and then went into the KFC to collect lunch. Deep fried battered chicken is the staple food of our police and it is reported that this officer (perhaps a Colonel) emerged with his take-away meal, started his chopper and flew off. What do the flight manuals say about eating messy fast food whilst piloting an aircraft? One’s not allowed to eat while driving a car.

The fellows at the bowling club bar are very satisfied with the outcome of the Currie Cup final. There’s some muttering about the paucity of Sharks in the ‘bok squad. Nevertheless, and despite the simply dreadful TV ad running for the Test tomorrow, we shall be watching and shouting the bokke on.

James Greener

Friday 2^nd November 2018