Democratic Capitalist

I’ve read with interest some of the debates around Jacob Zuma and his multiple wives and now I hear he is up to 20 children… the last one being broken in a story in the Sunday Times and apparently not involving one of his six wives.

Earlier this week he defended himself in Davos by correctly pointing out that Western culture itself is not necessarily “right” or “better” than his culture. I agree 100% - the Americans and the Europeans are no better or “civilised” than people on the African continent.

However and this is where basic education separates those cultures - if you have 20 kids somebody has to look after them.  Assuming for the moment that these kids of his will get a standard South African education - i.e. at a decent model C school - then simple arithmetic shows that he cannot afford them on his pretty small presidential salary.

But then the way I read this - he is not responsible for looking after these kids - that responsibility effectively falls to either the tax-payer or the families of the unmarried wives.

Let’s strip out the tax-payer angle for the moment because you can’t put a real cost on that and its just going to encourage racist debate which is non-productive.

Let’s take the Sunday Times “story” from this morning where the daughter of football magnate Irvin Khosa is purported to have had a daughter fathered by the president.

They’re not married (sends a great message to male society that you can get somebody pregnant but not take legal responsibility for it). By the time you reach 20, you can’t fund its education off your own bat so I’d assume that Khosa and his daughter will take financial responsibility for this child.

In her case she probably has the financial resources to look after this child. But what about when they don’t have the resources - the kids become too expensive and they start  creating huge strains on the social welfare system. More kids in childrens homes and orphanages which in turn builds up to bigger social welfare issues.

I’ve seen that first hand so maybe the President should see what actions like this are doing to society. And if you want to turn around and say “That’s my culture and that’s the way its done,” I’ll turn around to you and say BULLSHIT.

Your culture or any other culture wants to have excess - whether it is money or children - then there are going to be social problems. We see it in South Africa - no jobs, too many kids to classes, too many child-headed or single parent homes. Those then knock on to other parts of society.

Just think like a normal South African for once and consider what your actions are doing and the message it sends to other members of the community.

Personally I had thought that former Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga would quietly disappear after his acrimonious spat which saw him being booted out of the power parastatals boardroom.

Then I open the Sunday Crimes today and I see that he is in fact going to be suing Eskom for aroun R85m in compensation….

While admittedly his “compensation” is a drop in the ocean compared to the massive Capex figure that Eskom is demanding it’s still a big number for a company which was unable to afford any kind of expansion and which has effectively been run into the ground.

In general I’m indifferent to Maroga. Irrespective of whether he gets a settlement from Eskom (and he will unless public outrage is expressed in as many different forums as possible), he will still be the remembered as the man who sank Eskom.

I think it says volumes about somebody that he can turn around and claim such an outrageous amount. Did you know that his salary outweighs some of the biggest on the JSE? He outearns a genuine entrepreneur / innovator like Adrian Gore from Discovery? With due respect who has added the most to the South African economy and who has hurt the South African economy?

Jacob Maroga - walk away, hang your head in shame and wind in your demands - you’re just making your name t$t.

I like Barack Obama - I think he was the right person at the right time to take charge of an America which is tired, economically in the doldrums and facing some major challenges. Personally I think he is about to lead America into a new world and down the line people will look back on him as one of America’s greatest ever presidents.

A lot of people have pointed to his problems in 2009 as a sign that he “failed” or didn’t live up to the hype that was created around him but let’s be honest. He inherited a country in the midst of an economic meltdown, record unemployment, a broken banking and healthcare systems and engaged in two high profile wars courtesy of policy implemented by his predecessors.

He didn’t have a leg to stand on from the moment he took the oath.

However as some of the trauma in 2009 has abated, Obama fired off his first salvo at the banking industry last night when he rocked the markets with structural changes to the industry which may change the course of investment banking globally.

Some of the worlds most powerful financial market players know he is not playing games anymore and that bodes well for the US and a world that is probably quite tired of manipulation by the bankers, the warmongerers and politicians with their hands in the cookie jar.

Yes its not going to change overnight but I think we’re at the start of something good.

Three interesting stories caught my eye yesterday that specifically deal with the state / maturity of journalism in South Africa.

1. The first story was that uncovered by one of the Mail & Guardian journalists who was investigating some issues around stadium tenders and irregularities in the process. Whether it is sensationalist or not I don’t know but the publication is reporting that his plus one other name appear on a ”hit-list” on which two other people have already been killed for trying to expose the truth.

It is vital that journalists are protected because they do bring out the opportunity to tackle corruption and highlight stories but I know of at least one very senior and experienced investigative journalist who is considering throwing in the towel because she has a family to consider.

 2. The second story was that of the Zapiro cartoon which again features President Zuma, Eugene De Kock, Schabir Shaik and lady justice about to be taken advantage of. Maybe Zapiro pushing close to the edge again but you need to remember that by doing so  he’s raised the profile of the decision facing Zuma and he’s stirring up the emotion and outrage that people feel toward this so-called “pardon” for these high profile figures.

3. The third story is that of E-Tv featuring an interview with two criminals (faces blanked out) where the journalist tries to understand the psyche of these thugs and gets it across to other South Africans. I’m in the camp that says this is simply glorifying violence and I don’t agree with what Ben Said says when he says this is the kind of journalism South Africa needs.

Not sure?  Your thoughts on the expectations of journalism in South Africa?

By Rick Crouch

The Eskom debacle is a prime example of what happens when there is no competition and the government of the day has socialist leanings wanting to centralize everything to consolidate its power.

The Eskom debacle is a prime example of what happens when there is no competition and the government of the day has socialist leanings wanting to centralize everything to consolidate its power.

I read today that the cabinet is trying to figure out how to least impact the poor while continuing with Eskom’s tariff hike. If the government will just relinquish their control of the power generating industry and make the necessary changes to the regulatory environment to encourage private sector involvement, they could then invite the private sector, local and international, the enter the power generating industry in the country.

There are companies out there chomping at the bit to build power stations and supply electricity, and the World Bank loves giving these types of infrastructure loans. This would be a win-win for all concerned, most importantly the consumer. These private power generating companies would increase competition thus bringing down the price to the consumer and most importantly they will be private so there will be no bail out by the tax payer and / or the consumer, if they do not perform they would simply just go out of business.

This country will implode if just one of those 45% tariff hikes is introduced, we already have the most expensive electricity in the world, which includes the USA which has a much stable power grid than ours. So once again we are getting less for more. If the price of electricity goes up everything else goes up exponentially, people will stop purchasing products, businesses would close, unemployment would rise causing crime to increase. Not to mention people would cut back on electricity thereby cutting into Eskom’s income and in turn causing another tariff hike…and so the cycle continues.

Contact Information:
Rick Crouch
Chairman
Democratic Alliance Ward 10 Branch
www.ward10.za.com

By Rick Crouch

Socialist type governments continue to think that they can tax themselves out of debt, the working person can only sustain so much taxation, especially with the large increase in electricity looming.

I have followed with interest the latest talk on how much in debt the country is and the debates in parliament regarding the raising of personal taxes. I do not know why these socialist type governments continue to think that they can tax themselves out of debt, the working person can only sustain so much taxation, especially with the large increase in electricity looming.

The democratic party in the USA does exactly the same thing as the ANC does right here, maybe they should consider lowering the tax burden on the working people of this country. Consider this; if the PAYE tax rate is lowered it would  put more money into the pockets of the working “minority” thereby giving them more disposable cash to spend, with the consumers spending more money, the retailers are selling more and the manufacturers are supplying the retailers with more product. Now with all this selling and manufacturing going on there will be a need to hire more retail, wholesale and manufacturing employees thereby cutting unemployment rate and thereby adding more taxpayers contributing to the government coffers. It is a cycle that will keep increasing. The more disposable cash people have the more they spend the more people are hired to handle the increased business, etc, etc, etc.

Raising taxes will have the opposite effect, people having less disposable cash, spending less money, retailers doing less business, ordering less from manufacturers, then retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers having to downsize, that increases unemployment, and decreases contributions to the tax base and the government will then have to raise taxes again which will make the situation even worse.

Government should stop enabling people by giving them hand outs, they should rather encourage people to be self sufficient by giving them vouchers for education, giving businesses incentives such as tax breaks to train the unemployable.

Contact Information:
Rick Crouch
Chairman
Democratic Alliance Ward 10 Branch
www.ward10.za.com

By Rick Crouch

The current financial woes of the SABC is a prime example of why government should get out of the business of doing business.

The SABC is now asking for a R2 million  “short term” bail out and R6 billion over 5 years. Now considering that officials continue to travel first class, board members hold meetings at five-star hotels, awarding senior executives bonuses in December and sanctioning travel for executives, like Thelma Melk, the company secretary who is in Los Angeles on a content purchasing visit, her sixth overseas trip since October, this is an absolutely insane request.

I have said this before and I say it again, if the SABC cannot survive on selling commercials and that ridiculous TV license we are forced to pay, THEY SHOULD GO OUT OF BUSINESS, no one would miss them. I could not name anyone I know that even watches the programming on the SABC channels, maybe the content that Thelma Melk is purchasing on all those overseas trips does not appeal to the majority of TV viewers.

Why do MNet and the other broadcasters have the same financial problems, maybe, just maybe it is because they are not government subsidized.

The same goes with the bloated, top heavy, spend happy SAA and Escom.

Take Escom for example, they are asking people to cut back 10% on power usage and then when we do cut back Escom complains that revenue has dropped because usage has dropped so they now need a bail out by means of another rate increase. It is almost as if they are surprised that their revenues were going to decline if people cut back on electricity usage.

They should all be sold to private concerns and they would do a lot better financially and the citizens of this country would get much better service delivery, and the government should concentrate on their primary task which is governing.

Contact Information:
Rick Crouch
Chairman
Democratic Alliance Ward 10 Branch
www.ward10.za.com

A big part of establishing this blog was to try and provide a platform on Blat where users could have some feisty debate around politics and government policies.

I think we’ve managed to do that to some extent, and had a bit of fun doing it.

The next three blog posts are articles written by Rick Crouch of the Democratic Alliance. Take a look at what he has to say and let me know your thoughts.

I am just reading an article on the IOL website that discusses some resarch from the  Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD) which has shown that of the 1 550 790 pupils who entered the system in 1998, only 551 940 made it to Grade 12.

Of those only 60% passed.

If that was the starting enrolment figure and it was supposed to carry for the full 12 years then your failure rate would be around 77% if my math is correct.

Fair enough there is over enrolment, a mortality rate etc but according to the acting Director-General Bobby Soobrayan  the “survival rate to Grade 12″ is closer to 50 percent. i.e. for every 2 children who enters grade 1 only one of those will tough it out to matric.

 And then you look at this part of the workforce which is described as “dis-illusioned” (i.e. has given up looking for work). If you can’t survive through basic education are you surprised that a big chunk of our “working population” has given up? It says a lot about work ethic.

One of colleagues forwarded me this e-mail with the following words of advice from Bill Gates of Microsoft which gave me a bit of food for thought as well for the kids we are raising:

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world doesn`t care about your
self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about
yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won`t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it`s not your parents` fault , so don`t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren`t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent`s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they`ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn`t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don`t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you`ll end up working for one