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Gerald Potash,
Hello again,
On Monday morning the Sheriff of the Court arrived at Luthuli House (the ANC headquarters) with an already drawn-up inventory of the goods that they were coming to fetch to sell off at an auction. The ANC owes R150 million to the company that made their banners and regalia for the last election. Two court cases have gone against the ANC in this matter and now the Sheriff has been ordered to liquidate the owed debt. They have marked computers, printers, chairs, tables and all sorts of small things too. But before any of the goods could be removed the ANC advised that they had sought and received recourse from the Constitutional Court. In fact, the Sheriff was locked out of the offices.
Phew, that was close but the ANC will lose in the Con Court case too and the Sheriff will return.
Late last week the ANC welcomed a high-level Hamas delegation to our country and the three members have been royally received by the local Al Jamah political party in parliament. The local Western Cape ANC branch of the ANC was just as welcoming and also treated them to red carpet hospitality.
One of the three delegates here is the Palestinian delegate to Iran. The three are here for the Palestinian solidarity event (3-6 December) and they have asked for more pressure from our government on Israel.
They do not realize how irrelevant SA has become on the international stage.
I do not believe that SA has any leverage at all with Israel. This government has taken sides and Israel is very aware of exactly where SA stands. With Ramaphosa and his cabinet proudly photographed wearing their keffiyers it is not difficult to know whose side they are on.
The local Muslim communities are falling over each other to accommodate the delegates and the SA Football Association (SAFA) has organized for the Palestinian football team to come to play against our national team, Bafana Bafana on the 11th and 18th of February in Cape Town. Do you want a ticket?
There is no surprise in the fact that the Auditor-General in her annual report found that many critical infrastructure projects have been delayed by years and are millions of Rands over budget. Newly completed schools are falling apart, police stations recently completed have holding-cells that cannot be used, there is a new hospital built where hot air gets blown into the medicine store, state-of-the-art clinics have urinals that leak……..and so it goes. News24 calls it an infrastructure horror story. Nothing, but nothing that this government (ANC) undertakes works properly.
What is patently obvious is that the cadres are using this last bite of the cherry to curry favour for the Party. In the Limpopo Province, the Premier bought R55 million worth of bakkies for the traditional leaders (chiefs) in the province.
Why should my tax money be used to buy votes for the ANC? This purchase of bakkies (pick-up trucks) is another way in which the cadres are making the most of their time left in office to “buy” support.
On Tuesday we learned that of the 199 brand-new BMWs bought for “crime prevention” in Gauteng (Transvaal to you)– 24 have already been involved in accidents. Three have had to be totally written off.
The Daily Friend points out what is totally obvious; these are vote-buying tactics.
The mismanagement & wasteful expenditure was enough to make the Auditor-General glum. But the ANC is aware that voters must be pampered to be able to do all this again next year and for the years after that.
Are you surprised to hear that our GDP figures for the last quarter are negative? Our economy has had a hiccup. 8 of 10 of our manufacturing sectors production is down.
The econmic outlook is gloomy. Our electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said over 800,000 South Africans stand to lose their jobs due to load-shedding. So will this quarter’s GDP also shrink? To add to that bad news ArcelorMital, our largest iron & steel company may have to retrench 3,500 workers mainly due to load shedding and the drop in demand for steel. As many as 10,000 jobs in this field are at risk.
If only this wasted money was used to better the needy. This cartoon from DavidToons in The Friend says it all:
It’s becoming more and more apparent that the ANC tells lies and it even lies about load shedding. The budget for diesel is all but spent and continually we are told that the government are on top of things. Then……a further load shedding time table is presented. China has “donated” 450 petrol-powered generators to help keep the lights on in schools, hospitals, and police stations. Peter Bruce doubts very much whether these will all get distributed properly. Experience tells us to agree with Bruce. Hopefully, some generators will make their way to where it is needed and will in fact reduce power outages in the neediest places.
On Monday the Daily Maverick asks ‘how low can Ramaphosa go?’. Their article has to do with the surprise order signed off by the President to discharge the judge hearing matters in the Fred Daniel case. The judge must have been too close to the truth and our previous deputy President, at that time was David Mabuza. It appears that Ramaphosa wants to shield him. (Why?) There has been much press speculation that Mabuza was very involved in a criminal syndicate in Mpumalanga. This case will, no doubt take years to restart and get to where we were…. so Mabuza can relax for the next few years. This is a Stalingrading tactic that only the ANC knows how to practice.
A performance assessment has been made of our cabinet ministers. I’m sure this could make very good reading…….but the President refuses to make it public. I suspect that he is aware that the information is highly embarrassing and that making it public would hurt his Party before the upcoming general elections so……… just bury it. Then do nothing. This is typical Ramaphosa.
John Steenhuisen, leader of the DA believes he will be able to get sight of the report and when he does he will make it public. i liked this cartoon from Siwella in the Citizen which speaks for itself:
Durban has always been a top holiday destination. This year however the city has regressed so badly that the Chamber of Commerce is predicting a poor season. The sea may now be free of effluent (maybe?) but the roads are in serious decay and the city is dirty and unkempt. Southern Sun which runs several top-rated sea-front luxury hotels is considering whether to renew their long-term leases with the council. The city is riddled by crime and a very big Durban problem is the disaster with the handling of containers. There are scores of containers on ships waiting to be offloaded and because of the lack of rail services trucks line up for miles clogging certain routes through the city. This obvious lack of (cadre) competence is killing our economy.
Yesterday I read that 88,000 schoolgirls between the ages of 15 and 19 got pregnant last year.
Ek sê maar niks.Spurs played the champions, Man City away on Sunday evening. The coach was on the couch and we hardly said a word to each other. The game was that absorbing. Tottenham were ahead almost as the game started but then were behind twice. Eventually a 3-3 draw and for the first time in two hours I felt I could breathe normally again.
As always,
Gerald
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