Category Archives: south africa

Financial Mail on a possible Zuma presidency

The Financial Mail has this article speaking about what a rough road we have ahead if Zuma becomes South Africa’s next president. Unfortunately it now seems that the only way we can avoid such a tragedy is through charges being pushed through against him.

The article tries to figure out what Zuma would be like as president. This is pretty tricky because he is distressingly quiet about his policies and ideas. That said, the author is able to infer some of Mr Zuma’s social ideas:

  • He has intimated that the press should project a positive image of the country, rather than criticise.”
  • His own behaviour and support for Zulu virginity testing poses significant concerns about his attitude to the rights of women.”
  • Other comments betray his homophobia.”

The article goes on to discuss possible economic and cabinet changes that the author feels Zuma is likely to make. For instance, his close alliance with the left is likely to have a big (and in my opinion bad) impact on his fiscal decisions. Labor laws will probably become tighter instead of being loosened. Taxes are likely to go up and tax breaks could become “a distant memory”.

Although I don’t necessarily think everything in the article is justified Zuma does scare my pretty badly. He doesn’t give us enough information to judge his policies and what he does say is all crazy.

Tutu for president

Desmond Tutu is someone who I find I almost always agree with. The man does not buy into the loyalty-above-all-else culture of the ANC. He has the guts to take “them” on about a lot of things, but is still perceived as a constructive force. I wonder what his economic policies are – perhaps he could lead a successful opposition.

Anyway, he has just been reported as implying that the ANC should not elect Jacob Zuma because he would shame the country.

Yet again I couldn’t agree more Mr Tutu.

Racial quotas and the rugby world cup


The Economist has two articles (here and here) about our Rugby World Cup victory and racial quotas in sport. From the article:

  • They think it “pragmatic” to have “brief periods of positive discrimination to jump-start any group that has been racially oppressed for generations and has been unable to achieve its potential.”
  • “But once a big affirmative shove towards greater fairness has been engineered, it is dangerous to perpetuate a system of quotas, racial or otherwise, because it always risks undermining the principle of individual merit.”
  • “Far better for the government to concentrate on investment, training and talent-spotting in poor black schools.”

As far as I am concerned, it is almost always best not to impose quotas on sports. Time and energy should instead be focussed on developing affirmative talent young so that real stars are developed.

Lucky Dube


I was recently on a street in Moshi, Tanzania when a street vendor told me that Lucky Dube had been murdered. I was amazed that Mr Dube had made such an impact all the way up in Tanzania. (I later found that Reggae is extremely popular in Tanzania)

The Economist has this obituary on Lucky Dube who was murdered during a hijacking recently. From the article:

  • Lucky Dube was “the best-loved and biggest-selling reggae star in South Africa.”
  • He “drifted into Rastafarianism out of schoolboy curiosity, believing only parts of it and smoking no ganja.”
  • Dube eventually persuaded the SABC to air “the first anti-apartheid song to be played on a white station.”
  • He took on drugs (“You go sniffling them glue/No good for you”); promiscuity and AIDS (“Don’t you think it’s time/to be a little more responsible”) and racial quotas (“We are tired of people who/think that affirmative action is the way out/and is another way of putting puppets/where they don’t belong.”)
  • “He also sang against South Africa’s appalling crime wave” which eventually claimed his life

Why I don’t like paying car guards (most of the time)

When I was about 5 I decided that I wanted some money of my own. I knew that in order to earn money you have to do hard work so I went out into the garden and worked really hard at climbing around a tree. After about 30 minutes I went inside and told my mom that I had been working really hard and that she should pay me now.

To my dismay the answer was no. Why not? Well she didn’t ask me to climb all over the tree, and my climbing was worth nothing to her – so why should she pay. Good point.

I feel the same way about 95% of car guards. I almost never want them to watch my car, and I almost always think they are adding no value. My car has been broken into while the car guards were right there.

The guys are providing a service I don’t want and expect to be paid for it…

Tshwane metro council ordered not to do business with white owned businesses

This article on News24 is about an order to the internal purchase division of the Tshwane metro council (a major municipality) stating that:

“No white businesses may in future be considered when the council purchased goods for less than R30 000. The same applies to tenders.”

From the article:

A council official who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, said white businesses were approved in the past if their quotations were cheaper.

“We were told last week to buy only from black businesses. I paid between R6 000 and R7 000 more for goods to comply with the new requirements.

“This is going to become an expensive order,” he predicted.

Floor crossing in South Africa – dodgy

Churchill once said:

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

I agree, which is why I get a little upset at the erosion of South Africa’s democracy which is allowed by our floor crossing law. In South Africa we vote for parties rather than people. The ANC has enacted a law which allows politicians to ‘reallocate’ votes cast for a particular party by changing parties and keeping their seats.

We vote for a particular party, but a politician may take our vote to another party by crossing the floor. Absolute rubbish – and here are some of the reasons I think this law sucks:

  • It distorts the democracy by allowing politicians to steal people’s votes.
  • When the law was initially requested by another party it was rejected by the ANC. However, when the NNP wanted to join the ANC there was a sudden change of heart and the crossing was allowed.
  • There is a clause saying that a person can only cross if 10% of his/her party also crosses. That effectively means that no ANC member can ever cross (because 29 other members would also have to cross) while smaller parties can easily lose members. I can’t think of a single reason for this clause other than to protect the ANC.
  • The whole thing can easily lead to bribery and corruption as money is used to induce crossings.

I can’t think of any reasons why floor crossing should be allowed? It feels a lot like cheating to me.

Here is the Wikipedia article on the subject.

The Economist on Manto and the ANC


In the last two weeks The Economist has had two articles (here and here) on our health minister, Manto. From the articles:

  • AIDS is now thought to kill 1,000 South Africans each day
  • Some 12% of the population, more than 5m people, are infected with HIV
  • She [Manto] has sown deadly confusion in the minds of many HIV sufferers by questioning the efficacy of ARVs and exaggerating their side-effects, instead promoting the curative benefits of beetroots, garlic and African potatoes.

Now she has been accused of receiving a liver transplant because of a serious drink problem, and of continuing to drink since her transplant. The local Sunday Times, in possession of her confidential medical records, also alleges that hospital staff were forced to bring her booze during an earlier hospital stint for a shoulder operation. The newspaper maintains that she was convicted of stealing patients’ jewellery and hospital supplies while working in Botswana in the 1970s, following which she was banned from the country for ten years.

The more general of the articles criticizes Thabo and the ANC in general for firing the effective deputy minister of health instead of Manto:

“Ms Madlala-Routledge was certainly feisty. She was, for instance, fond of visiting hospitals unannounced. Often she witnessed dreadful conditions and poor management—and then talked honestly about these problems in public. To Mr Mbeki and others in the African National Congress-dominated government, this sort of initiative and candour were not evidence of a democratic representative doing her job but of an undisciplined cadre refusing to defer to her bosses, who prefer to discuss such matters behind closed doors.”

I have often thought along similar lines about the ANC. The organization had to survive years of exile and oppression so it had to develop a strong emphasis on providing a united front and absolute loyalty. When your lives are at stake and you’re fighting an oppressive regime you can’t afford to show any dissension.

The problem is that those times are gone and the ANC still emphasizes the same culture – which is bad for a democracy. Absolute loyalty is not only unnecessary, it is having a negative effect on the country.

Article on airlines in South Africa

The Financial Mail has this article on the airlines operating in South Africa.

This is a market share breakdown:

Interesting points from the article:

  • Kulula (Comair) has brought down costs by “by acquiring newer aircraft, which are cheaper to maintain and use less fuel.”
  • In flight meals actually do make a difference: “a standard meal costs around R50/passenger. Instead, 1time sells food and makes R4m/year profit from this service.”

Robbie Hunter – you are the man

Our boy Robbie Hunter became the first African to win a stage of the Tour de France yesterday. It was a very entertaining stage and I was pretty excited when I saw that Robbie finally got his win. He has been very close in the some other stages so I was really hoping for it.

Robbie took advantage of the chaos in the stage, avoided a crash on the last corner, and jumped too early but held of the attackers.

As happy as I was, Robbie was clearly much happier than me.