Thomas Johnson - The Blog

"Just as the purpose of a pilot is to ensure the smooth passage of his ship, and of a doctor to make his patient healthy, so a statesman's objective must be the happiness of his country." Cicero, On the Republic (De re publica), 54 BC (as quoted by Robert Harris, Dictator, 2015) By his own words and actions, President Jacob Zuma placed himself, his family, friends and party before the country, and acted, as Cicero might have said, for "personal glory". The events of the past week - three finance ministers in four days - and the agendas and unknown advice from unknown quarters (not cabinet) that propelled him to make the dreadful decision to fire former minister Nhanhla Nene, which saw the rand dive and markets lose R171 billion, once again prove he and the ANC are unable to rule. Even after Sunday night's appointment of Pravin Gordhan to the post to mitigate the damage, replacing David van Rooyen (the "weekend finance minister"), on Monday ANC s...

Jacob Zuma's firing of Nhlanhla Nene is more than him exercising presidential prerogative, but upholding his oath to place the country first and govern to the standard the constitution and public demands. If he and the government he leads cannot do that, what does this mean for the institutions and society? A few years ago I was fired as accountant for a small organisation allegedly due to restructuring but I was the only one affected. After I was gone, my reportedly incompetent and unqualified "replacement" (and others) were implicated in embezzling - management was derelict too for not adhering to policies.   The real reason for my firing, though, was I had continually spoken out about their failure to adhere to policies and financial waste, theft and, in the end, permitting these failures. I have been unable to find work since partly because my professional integrity, and career, was ruined because of my dismissal (and I'm too old and the wrong colour). Knowi...

It was reported the ANC welcomed, by omission or commission, the appointment of inexperienced and unknown David van Rooyen as finance minister, and by extension, the dismissal of experienced and respected former minister Nhlanhla Nene. This is like saying one welcomes the appointment of a newly graduated doctor to head of surgery or a newly qualified pilot as captain of the latest Airbus. Only in the ANC’s through-the-looking-glass universe does this make sense. It’s as irrational as their other acts: “welcoming”, that is, approving the appointment of a teacher to the highly complex and technical post of SAA chairperson; an engineering degree faker to the head of a multi-billion rand railways procurement programme and a matric certificate faker as chief operating officer of the SABC. The ANC has taken leave of its senses and it and President Jacob Zuma have put the country firmly on a perilous route, that recent investment downgrades and a persistently poor economy, due mainly to o...

In October Diane Kohler Barnard was suspended from the DA and as MP for sharing a Facebook post that education etc was better under apartheid and the then president PW Botha. Put the question another way: is Jacob Zuma the worst president since Botha, or ever? The answer must be yes. Last night he fired finance minister Nhlanhla Nene for unspecified reasons, except Nene will purportedly take up a “strategic post”, and replaced him with unknown MP David van Rooyen who has no treasury or policy experience. The move has shocked South Africa, economists, investment analysts and the rand, which tumbled below R15/$ after the announcement. The probable reason is Nene stood firm on Zuma's friend Dudu Myeni and SAA and affordability of the R1 trillion nuclear deal, over which he has taken a personal interest. Zuma's action has confirmed South Africa is facing perilous times – if we weren’t already in serious trouble with last weeks double investment downgrade by S&P and Fitch ...

Analysts say protests being experienced at South Africa's universities are not only about the unaffordable cost of higher education. The underlying catalyst is that a university education will secure benefits – skills, a guaranteed chance of a well-paying job and mobility to the middle-class and prosperity out of poverty. Experts say the dysfunctional education system – 80% of schools – mean only about 14% of school leavers qualify to go to university, and half of those who enrol dropout with nothing, except accumulated fee debt. Almost everything the ANC has done regarding education has been disastrous: Implementing outcomes based education against expert advice and the world’s experience and persisting with it despite the evidence. Closing teacher (and nursing) training colleges – some of them very good – and retrenching teachers despite the knowledge an excellent education can only be achieved through excellent educators. And now we face a shortage of teachers and a medioc...

City of Cape Town and mayoral member for transport Brett Herron received another bloody nose in the Western Cape High Court yesterday. It lost its application, with costs, for leave to appeal the Court's ruling last month halting the eviction of 26 Wynberg families to make way for the MyCiTi bus route and Acting Judge Leslie Weinkove's order for the city to conduct "meaningful" public participation. In papers filed with the application, Herron, who all along dismissed residents' appeals for a fair hearing, stated the constitution "imposed" public participation on the city. Tough Brett, if you don't like what the constitution says, get out of council and suck lemons! Neither the Constitution Act s152.1 and Municipal Systems Act chapter 4 s16 refers to "meaningful" in the context of public participation that's required of municipalities. The constitution s152.1.a says, "To provide democratic and accountable government for local ...

The following letter by an anonymous writer is trending: "For my South African friends: This is the letter I sent to You magazine. Perhaps they will publish it so it can reach more people: I've lived in Zimbabwe my entire life (27 years), I went through it's total collapse in 2008. But it wasn't an overnight crash - it took +/-10 years to hit absolute rock bottom. Reading the news, President Jacob Zuma says that the ANC comes first, not South Africa! It's not his statement that bothers me so much as the fact that the South African government is now reaching a point where they can (almost) say or do anything they want, and no one opposes them. South Africans are becoming complacent, the same way Zimbabweans did. (President Robert) Mugabe pushed the boundaries a little further each time to test us, and made seemingly insignificant changes to the law every now and then. In the beginning the change was so gradual, and when we didn't fight back, the changes became ...

In DC Comics’ Gotham City, the home of Batman is characterised by rampant and recurring corruption within the city's civil authorities and infrastructure . Gotham’s Underground – crime families and gangs – tentacles spread into and have almost total control over all aspects of society and government, with the city's officers steeped in bribery, corruption and criminal activities. Gotham City is lawless, with citizens having no protection except for the masked crusader, Batman. At the dawn of democracy in 1994 few would ever have pictured such a dystopian future for South Africa. Weren’t we different from the rest of Africa and the Third World? However, are we now fast approaching that future? A number of writers and analysts have suggested we are already there, the most recent being Max du Preez and The Times of London columnist Jenni Russell . Last month DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard was expelled from the party for sharing a Facebook post in September that said "educ...

South Africa’s 4.9 million personal income taxpayers contributed 36% of the total R986 billion collected in 2014-15, the largest source of tax revenue. Companies contributed 19%, down from 27% in 2008-09, and VAT 27%. South Africa’s tax to GDP ratio is 26%, the 10th highest in the world, compares to a world average of 15%. However, if you look at the poor value we receive and corruption and theft of state resources, and the services we have to buy, e.g. education, security and health because the state has failed in its provision, the burden on the country’s small tax base is far worse than the ratios suggest. And now they’re talking about a wealth tax. It’s on this point – poor value for money – that there has been talk about a “tax revolt”, the most recent comments from Judge Dennis Davis, head of the Davis Tax Commission. For our taxes, in Jacob Zuma we have the "world's highest paid, worst value-for-money president" . His cabinet, no surprise, is one of the larg...

Yesterday, different questions about different aspects of South Africa’s industry were posed by two different media persons. The first by David Biggs in his Tavern of the Seas column was why we import goods from China and elsewhere we could make here. And why we could not become a producer of luxury, designer goods. The second question was CapeTalk’s John Maytham to an interviewee about why South Africa did not have far more tourists than it already did with the local currency at over R14/$ and R21/£, making it a value-for-money destination. The short answer to the first question is because our comparatively expensive labour and production costs, low productivity and poor work ethic compared to China and Asia mainly, the world's factory, make it unlikely we'll ever compete. However, we can possibly compete in niche, luxury and designer goods, not mass produced stuff. But local manufacturers lack vision, confidence, government support and suffer confusing policy to take adva...

Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko delivered a scathing report to parliamentarians about suspended National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega, saying she has brought the police into disrepute. Nhleko and President Jacob Zuma must come clean and tell us why they ever thought Phiyega was suitable for the job in the first place. She had no policing experiencing and allegations about her fitness for office have been around a long time, with no reaction from them, until recently. A similar crisis is developing at SAA – or should I say, another crisis. Chairwoman Dudu Myeni cancelled a lease agreement for new aircraft with Airbus, apparently without the knowledge or approval of SAA’s executives, incurring a cancellation penalty of R1.5 billion. Her intention is to lease aircraft from Airbus via a third party, which the company indicated it had ethical difficulties with, incurring the wrath of Treasury, which warned of the financial and legal ramifications if the proposal goes ahead. It m...

An ancillary objective of the recent #FeesMustFall protests – apart from free university education – was an end to universities outsourcing cleaning and maintenance contracts. The Cape Argus ran an article about Patrick Maqhasha, a contract cleaner at UCT, who only had R100 left after expenses from his R5 000 a month salary. A follow-up story, ‘Support pours in for R100 UCT cleaner’ (November 2), reported offers of monetary and other assistance and outrage about his situation. I’m puzzled by this reaction. It’s not that he has little money left after expenses – that's very common. But at the public's outpouring of assistance for him in particular when his reported situation is bad, yes, but not as desperate as that of millions of the invisible poor around the country. I'm not unsympathetic to Maqhasha. However, as an employed person, even at R60 000 a year – the going rate for a cleaner – he is one of the lucky ones to have a job.    South Africa's real unemp...

Almost 20 years ago, as an unemployed honours economics graduate, I wrote to Wesgro (and others) offering to work for free in exchange for experience. I was prepared to work in any capacity no matter how junior, and told them so. I had six years experience in consulting engineering, so was already a highly competent professional. I was invited to an interview where the head of research I think was openly sceptical and even hostile of my intentions. "No one works for free", he said. Well I would, I was desperate. He appeared more interested talking about his MBA. Although he said there were openings for someone with my qualifications, I never heard from them again. Since then I'm wary of Wesgro - they can't see an opportunity if it bit them on the nose. During the last quarter of 2014 both Wesgro's Tim Harris and Western Cape economic opportunities MEC Alan Winde separately warned the "skills shortage was harming the regional economy" and the need ...

In an op-ed article in the Cape Argus (October 22) "Top research helps Wesgro develop and sell the Cape" (October 22), the Western Cape's research and development agency Wesgro's Tim Harris and Jacyntha Twynam write: "(Wesgro's research team) provide bespoke reports in response to queries from citizens of the province, and respond within three days to the majority of these requests". Interesting.  A year ago, around the time Harris was appointed Wesgro (acting) CEO, I wrote to them, the Western Cape department of economic opportunities, Cape Chamber of Commerce and UCT's Saldru requesting credible research evidence for their oft stated views the so-called skills shortage was harming the regional economy. Except a secretary of economic opportunities replying a panel would respond, I never heard from them.  Harris and Twynam cannot claim they were not aware of my request and references to Wesgro because I mentioned it in letters ...

I have still not found a satisfactory mattress. At least, not one I can afford. In October I went to Sanders and tried their Black Forest and top-of-the-range Schramm Divina. Both are available in different weight ranges and offer multi-zone support. The Schramm has a a shoulder cavity for side-sleepers that cushions the body just so. Both were comfortable; the luxurious Divina like lying on a cushion of air. However, the Divina is out of my bracket. I had reservations about the Black Forest, though. Although in the premium price range compared to locally manufactured mattresses, but of superior technical standard, it lacked something for the price asked, specifically, natural fabrics like some wool or cotton in its construction. Having investigated mattresses for three months, I find I won't settle for anything less than a quality product, but at a reasonable price. I looked on the internet at Treca Interiors Paris, Hypnos Beds, Visprings, Schramm and others and their pr...

Ernst & Young UK recently announced it would not be necessary for job applicants to have minimum academic qualifications because there was no proof having a degree enhanced the performance of a candidate in their professional career. In Moneyweb (October 7) South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) executive Mandi Olivier said: “(Their) model is different to ours. In the UK you can study whatever you want, and then be trained as an accountant thereafter. In South Africa, accounting is strictly a graduate degree profession”. However, Olivier did not explain why, historically, Saica's model is better than the UK's or, for that matter, the US'. In the US 47% of graduates surveyed by job site CareerBuilder work in fields unrelated to their academic studies (Business Times, 'Learning from Pep boss Wiese', October 25). Compared to these global financial centres, South Africa is an insignificant outpost. So why are we in South Africa so fixated on ...

PhDs and other post-graduates struggle to find work.  But, they say, there’s a skills shortage in South Africa.   This compares with my job hunting experience of "hundreds of highly qualified people applying". I've been unable to find credible evidence of the shortage, except anecdotal. Cape Chamber of Commerce, Wesgro and Western Cape’s department of economic opportunities – a ministry of hot air, if ever there was one – predicted dire consequences and those skills must be imported to avert economic disaster.  However, none replied when I asked for evidence. In June the University of Pretoria’s Dr Amaleya Goneos-Malka published a study that showed PhDs – post-graduates in all disciplines really – faced 'grim job prospects'.  Employers deemed them overqualified, earned too much and frustrated in jobs beneath them. ( Financial Mail: 'Why bother forging a PhD?') Stats SA's quarterly labour surveys do not list employment/unemployment by s...

We often hear that South Africa exports its raw materials and then re-imports value-added goods made from the materials at a net negative cost to the trade balance. The reasons why we are not making these goods – termed “beneficiation” – are complex. However, exacerbating the problem – or its cause – is the decline in manufacturing to its lowest point in decades - 12% of GDP in 2013 – because of a variety of structural and political reasons. If we no longer make things, and are net importers, we will not develop the economy and create jobs and opportunities. The decline of the rand and near-recession GDP growth are evidence of this. But to government, unions and business with its single-minded obsession with a one-size-fits-all economic approach, beneficiation implies heavy industry – huge factories consuming electricity and environmental resources the country is short of and employing fractious and poorly skilled union workers. The motor industry, which relies on export subsidies pai...

Recently I bought a mattress with a “memory foam” layer from Tafelberg Furnishers – the “Memory Classic” by Support-A-Paedic. During a phone call before I took delivery, the manufacturer’s marketing director vouched for its quality and suitability. It immediately gave me hell – it was so uncomfortable. Also, within two weeks of purchase, the foam padding started sagging in the centre, losing all resilience within a month. The store initially said it was “normal” but later gave me a refund after I could not find a suitable replacement in-store. (Tafelberg was decent and helpful about the problem and their customer care was very good.) Along the way I discovered the mattress’ spring system was not a true open coil (Bonnell), which I was told at purchase, but a cheap coil/wire frame with half the springs of a genuine open coil system. I made the mistake by not going with my own experience but being influenced by sales talk and affordability. My ignorance was understandable, though....