Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana said pay increases for government workers contributed to the finance crisis. The SACP said workers mustn't be blamed though. (Elsewhere, they accused Western "imperialism" for petrol price increases, absolving their sponsor, Russia, as an oil and gas producer that tried to blackmail Europe.) He was was worried how about paying for the emergency Social Relief Distress aka Covid-19 Grant of R350. Government workers are the new elite. Under Zuma their numbers increased half a million to 2.7 million. They're a third of all employed people. For 30 years they've received above-inflation increases. They, including cabinet and executive, earn 20-30% more than private sector workers for similar posts.  The ANC doesn't care, though. They say people - their people, cadres - must eat. And they are ensured voter support from the extraordinarily large numbers of grant recipients. The public sector is overpaid, overstaffed, underemployed an...

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) appears to have taken sides in the conflict in Gaza. Alexander Sinton High School in Athlone has three Palestinian flags above its name boards in two locations: one at the entrance and the other at a cross street. At least one flag predates the current situation in Gaza. Flying foreign flags on the premises of a state facility is irregular in itself. It appears the Western Cape Government is involving itself in foreign affairs policy and the affairs of another country. Flying the flag represents support for Palestine and Gaza, and by extension, Gaza's government Hamas. The situation in Palestine and particularly Gaza is tragic enough without interference from people far away who have no stake in the conflict and little knowledge of its history. One is entitled to an opinion but this time one should be careful about taking a public stand, like futile and facile flag-waving support of other people's wars. People who get involved in oth...

 South Africa's failing state under the ANC is no happenstance. It started soon after the 1994 elections.  Before the elections, colleagues asked what I thought of the ANC and who I'd vote for. I replied that while I did not trust the ANC and would not vote for them, I'd give them the benefit of doubt with Mandela as presumed president and as part of a government of national unity. I wasn't sitting on the fence, though. I did not trust them because of their political and moral turpitude inside and outside the country up to the elections. However, like most South Africans I was bouyed by optimism that against all odds we'd managed a miracle.  A minority were not sanguine, though, like a colleague who predicted conflict and decay and was emigrating with his family to England. I thought he'd given up before the challenges to build a democratic and prosperous nation had even started. And was disloyal to the country that had given him a professional qualification and...

The inquiry into the conduct of former University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng has confirmed allegations of mismanagement, unethical conduct and victimising staff. The report's publication has released claims and counter-claims from critics and supporters.  But lost in all the Sturm und Drang is the fact her conduct was a consequence of decisions and actions then VC Max Price, the executive and council made almost eight years ago. But first, down the memory lane.  In 2009 as a recent, mature UCT Master's degree graduate, I made enquiries at my former academic unit, the African Centre for Cities, about enrolling for a PhD. The distinguished (late) Prof. Vanessa Watson asked if I knew the difference between a Master's and PhD. The insulting implication was I was not worthy or qualified as a potential candidate. The director of ACC Edgar Pieterse ignored my enquiry and request to join their regular seminars but a third professor was encouraging. I was not a...

Predictably, the Springboks' Rugby World Cup win unleashed hyperbolic praise from media, opinion writers and President Cyril Ramaphosa, all, incorrectly, describing it as an example of "unity" and common purpose by South Africans. For example, on Tuesday October 31 there were five op-eds in Daily Maverick, including of Ramaphosa's address to the nation the day before, all saying basically the same thing. News24's headline news and commentary is almost entirely about the Springboks' triumphant return. One can draw the conclusion they're all singing from the Ramaphoria and ANC choir sheet. The clue is "unity" used excessively in all reports. Unity is important to Ramaphosa and ANC - ANC unity that is. They and similarly minded forget that to the teams competing in RWC, and cricket world cup, these are merely games played by professionals. The game comes first, followed by personal achievement. Patriotic intentions might matter, but not all that muc...

Vrye Weekblad's (editor and founder Max du Preez) Anneliese Burgess' article about "Cape Town's kitty killers (sic)" once again reflects academic scientists' and media's near obsession with domestic cats and their alleged kills. They don't write about other pets, or wildlife kills of the ubiquitous moto vehiculum and that of urban development, eg the River Club site that even the city's own environmental impact study advised against developing.  The academic paper in Global Ecology & Conservation Burgess cites as evidence of alleged cat kills of small wildlife, along with others, is based on UCT's Dr Rob Simmons' student Frances Morling's Master's thesis (listed as co-author) Cape Town’s Cats : Reassessing   Predation Through Kitty-cams . I gather she is the third master's student he supervised, others Sharon George in 2010 and one Koebraa Peters, who all studied cat kills through small surveys; nothing new to say ...

"Cyril Ramaphosa ... the fact no president since Nelson Mandela enjoyed such overwhelming public support and goodwill as he did in 2018. It is his own doing history will remember him as the biggest disappointment since 1994", Max du Preez writes in VryeWeekblad on July 14. We hear statements like this a lot lately, especially since continuous load shedding last year. Before there was growing disquiet from Ramaphorias and former Ramaphorias - media, analysts and business - but not the anger and disappointment at the man Du Preez expresses now.  I say since load shedding because more than anything Ramaphosa and government did or didn't do, that revealed the true, decrepit state of the nation under the ANC. Eskom's virtual collapse is affecting South Africa deeply, in the pocket, that even smarmy, cowardly business leaders, loathe to criticise government under normal circumstances, has joined the chorus of condemnation. For the first four years of Ramaphosa's preside...

 I'm typing this on my tablet, two fingers at a time. My laptop broke end of 2022 and I've not replaced it yet - I have been waiting for the right replacement; it will possibly be my last so it must be good. I'd like a MacBook but can't afford the inflated, aspirational price of Apples. So more than once I've given Computermania, Incredible Connection, Asus online shop and a couple of others my requirements and budget: a good machine, not cheap but not very expensive either (well below a MacBook).  But despite salesmen's (and one woman) polite, but bored interest in my queries and to spend a substantial sum, in excess if R20,000, they're unwilling to to make enquires on my behalf with their suppliers or head office. On occasion they say they would, and take my contact details, but don't. Mostly they can't be bothered. The same applies to emails to their "sales" address (why have that address if no selling is taking place?) I've encounte...

 Since last year when Eskom plunged the country in darkness, perhaps for the first time professional critics - media, professional analysts, business - are acutely assessing the parlous state the country is in. It's approximately where South Africa was during the late 80s. Then it was the state of emergency, internal and external conflict and President PW Botha's kamikaze rule that threatened to take the entire country with him.  Now it's different but no less severe with a dangerously schizoid president and ANC in charge. The difference between then and now is this time there's the real danger of the lights - figuratively and literally - going off and with it calamity. For all the NP's faults, and without romanticising the time, they kept the lights on, industry going and infrastructure working (how Ukraine manages is something Ramaphosa should ask during his pointless and biased so-called peace initiative). But the ANC has found even the simplest governance tasks ...

 Editor of DM168 Heather Robertson yesterday wrote in her weekly column, "Today, 29 years into democracy and with a bumbling Bheki Cele in charge of the police, Ramaphosa nominally in charge of the country and an enfeebled, under-resourced National Prosecuting Authority under Shamila Batohi, our country feels just as ungovernable and lawless as it was then.” The national mood is worse now than it was when Ramaphosa was elected by ANC MPs. It's due to Eskom and unremitting loadshedding that's crushing the economy and national spirit; failure of government, and equally corrupt, SAPS and NPA to make headway against systemic corruption (also Eskom's), and failure of the economy to grow under so-called reformist Ramaphosa and of his numerous promises.  Eskom is the canary of SA's coalmine.  Depression set in after former Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter revealed the extent of Eskom corruption in the eTV interview.  But still ANC from president down are in denial (what's ne...

 Cape Town's mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis presents as a sincere, energetic officer, like Patricia de Lille before ennui and cynicism got the better of her. But he is a politician and indulges in politicians' hyperbole. In his Daily Maverick op-ed ”Budget comparison confirms Cape Town delivers the most for the poor while offering ratepayers value for money”, he responds to criticism of the ”narrative the city - and by extension the party that governs it - only looks after some (read affluent) communities and doesn't do enough for the poor. Variations of this narrative are often trotted out without any substantiation, as though it were self-evidently true".  Hill-Lewis compares the budgets of South Africa's metros to find "Cape Town manages to outspend the other cities on pro-poor support and infrastructure for basic services while affording ratepayers by far the biggest bang for their rates and tariffs buck". I'm not going to debate whether his/city's ...

 University of Cape Town Fitzpatrick Institute of Ornithology's Dr Rob Simmons has done yet another study of domestic cats' predatory habits.  Every few years he supervises master's students - by my count three - whose research topic is the same: cats are predators that kill prey (duh!). The recommendations are they must be controlled. Reactions typically border on hysteria with one caller to CapeTalk calling cats "vermin" and journalists urging cats be controlled.  Simmons has made a career of demonizing the exaggerated threat domestic cats pose to wildlife. In doing so he appears not to be concerned about other, pressing threats like traffic, development and agriculture which individually and together are worse and unnatural to the environment (cats are natural predators and existed for thousands of years).  Unfortunately the media pick this up, sensationalise it more and don't interrogate and ask trenchant questions of this "research" - assumption...

 Supporters of President Cyril Ramaphosa - ”Ramaphorias” - turn against their man. It's taken a long time for Ramaphosa's supporters to turn against their superhero. From the time he was appointed interim president in 2016 after Jacob Zuma’s "recall” to president the following year, he's had their unequivocal, devoted support. Until now. The Ramaphorias, so named during his run for ANC president in 2017, campaigned hard for their man. While he had supporters within the ANC, his election was never a certainty because mainstream ANC was Zuma supporters. These put their lot behind Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.  Ramaphosa's, himself a BEE billionaire, campaign was backed by the group known as CR17, among them Stellenbosch billionaire Johann Rupert. Other Ramaphorias were the liberal-left media Primedia, Daily Maverick, Business Day, etc and their contributors. Even centre-conservative media were cautiously optimistic or withheld judgement. Hope was needed after Zuma and his ...

A group of grant applicants attending SASSA's Athlone office mid-2022 did not have to wait in a queue like other applicants and we're given priority. They did not even live in Athlone's area. This according to a 65 year-old who was in the group, they were taken there by an organiser known to staff. Allegedly, the organiser offered staff a gift, a "little something" for the favourable attention. SASSA's grant applicants at all branches must queue early, even 5am although offices open at 7am, and wait up to 8 hours on the first-come-first-serve basis without a guarantee of being seen. Often they're turned away and must return again and again. Applicants for pension called "old age grants", disability, child welfare present themselves to the nearest SASSA office to where they live with their ID and bank statement. During the screening interview officers tell them what do documents to bring if they haven't already done so. They may have to return...

 After all that's happened in 2022 - Eskom's on-going meltdown and load shedding, Phala Phala, Jacob Zuma's numerous court cases - South Africa's left media, Daily Maverick in particular, is still enthralled to Ramaphoria, the cult of ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa. It shows how out of touch they are with reality that Daily Maverick named suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkwebane as its villain of the year in an article written by Marianne Thank on December 29. Not Eskom which is slowly strangling the life out of the country, not the three stooges responsible for it - Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan.  Not lame-duck-since-he-was-elected president Ramaphosa under whose "leadership" the country is declining.  Not Ramaphosa personally who has his own scandal - Phala Phala - and if the law were really equal would have, should have been impeached and criminal charges brought against him. But the media has been relatively quiet about his transgressions. I...