Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Daily Maverick reports (February 8) the City of Cape Town is spending almost R12 million on the Visserhok Leachate Treatment Plant that's been out of commission for six years. "Since 2017, the municipality has been spending R3 million a year on repairs and maintenance of the plant - with no benefit to the city." The city denied it's wasteful spending.  This reminds of my estimate of R60 million-plus a year on Cape Town Stadium's upkeep. I identified other examples of fruitless and wasteful spending, but there would be more, adding up. Perhaps readers could suggest other examples. 1. The several million - R30 million-plus? - on the supply network of treated water from Athlone Sewerage Plant to irrigate parks and sports fields (2018-2021) that was never commissioned. A Parks manager told me "there was no money (sic)" for the the on-site - parks etc - irrigation, which was odd because all that smaller parks need are hose pipes and already employed park atte...

  South Africa welcomes criminals ! South Africa welcomes alternative entrepreneurs (known in SA as tenderpreneurs)! It has everything to offer the business person. And while you make deals, expand your business and pay off liaise with government officials, SA Police Service and National Prosecuting Authority who are only willing to help, you can take in some of world's best scenery and fine dining.  First, the Mother City, (crime) capital of the country where you should feel at home. After landing at Cape Town International Airport, judged among the world's best for luggage pilfering, for a small fee - Dubai account provided or cash in foreign currency (not local rand which is almost worthless) - you can have a police "blue light" VIP escort.  If you prefer to be incognito or drive yourself, Google Maps will lead you through black township Nyanga, where you will feel at home since it's has the city's worst crime rates. You might be stoned, stabbed, shot, hi...

In a recent column, William Saunderson-Meyer writes "The Chapter Nine institutions ... have long lost any credibility they might have had". This is a common and true sentiment. About the July 2021 KZN riots that cost SA R70 billion, he's scathing of the SAHRC's and CRLC's reports that found no one and "Indians [sic]” respectively were to blame. In South Africa lack of accountability is ingrained. The NPA and SAPS have given up or are unable to investigate and prosecute crime, with SAPS making arrests in only 14% of aggravated robbery and 14% of murders.  With separate cases I reported, SAPS told me a fraud case I reported was a "nuisance". And Cape Town NPA said it would be "unfair to prosecute" (sic) the accused, after first, incorrectly, telling me no crime had been committed (they didn't even know the law here).  In another far more serious case, SAPS, NPA and another officer of the court voluntarily - just like that - and unofficia...

The income indices of the top - 1% and 10% - and lowest earners, and how the top earners are doing better than ever (including 55 000 government worker millionaires), is not surprising. But it begs the (rhetorical) question: how did the country end up here?  Add other indices like economic growth and GDP per capita and the answers, at macroeconomic level, are clearer. The numbers show that we're worse off since 2010 than under apartheid. And this excludes crime rates, institutional function/integrity and qualitative social indices. Between 1960 (there's no significance to 1960 except convenience) and 1990 the average economic growth rate was around 3.5%. From 1990 to 2010, except for a dip below zero in 2008 (global financial crash), it was 2.5%. Note from the 90s until 2008 SA's growth lagged behind peer group countries who achieved 5% and more off the natural commodities boom (why?).  Since 2010 growth declined from 3% to below 1% for most of the 2010s, excluding the Covi...