Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Earlier this month minerals minister Gwede Mantashe claimed at the African Energy Conference that oil and gas exploration would lead to 5 to 8% GDP growth. He was not the first minister to promise or suggest great things for the economy. Think of all those growth and job strategies over 30 years that never went anywhere and cost millions to produce.  Of course the Marxist-oriented ANC has never understood how market economies work, not even the liberal-left's heroes Ramaphosa, Manuel, Gordhan and Mboweni (I take issue with the mainstream media's hagiographies of Gordhan and Mboweni, but that's another story). ANC aside, I contend few if any SA politicians understand how the economy works and what's needed for growth, centre-right DA included. The DA said numerous times that in the WC they "created" hundreds of thousands - the number varied over time - of "new jobs" since 2009 when they took power. They based this on a faulty understanding of StatsSA...

Depending on which side you believe, the Press Council expelled Independent Media (IM) for its refusal to retract and apologise for it piece comparing News24's Karyn Maughan to Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl, or that IM resigned. Either way, there's schadenfreude from other media when Independent Media gets it wrong again. IM deserves the opprobrium, though.  Other media (OM) sententiously write about "ethics", "apologising when we get it wrong" and "self-correcting". Do they, though? They only apologise when forced to, which is not a genuine apology.  Media regularly skirt or break the line. In South Africa this particularly concerns stories about "racism" - untested, unconfirmed and defamatory allegations are assumed to be true. News24 has been identified as particularly egregious - Pretoria High School for Girls, Wilgenhof, Food Lovers boerewors  roll man. With the racist label, reputations are damaged, lives destroyed. The baying ...

 In response to public criticism of proposed changes to the Municipal Planning By-Law, mayoral committee member for spatial planning Eddie Andrews said, "The cost per square metre in areas like Rondebosch and Constantia prevented the private sector from meeting the objectives of delivering affordable housing opportunities". Andrews' statement shows the City's cop-out and contradiction regarding affordable housing, and that the by-law is a transparent ruse to give developers carte blanche under their "red-carpet" policy. It also reveals their inherent dishonesty about these changes despite outwardly having good intentions. It's common cause South African urban centres are spatially sparse. But one cannot change the status quo, as Prof. Ivan Turok who was approached for comment (Incidentally, he lives in a sparse province and city - Free State) and Andrews suggest, with blanket densification without upsetting the extant spatial, social and environmental or...

Cape Town's public land sales and proposed sales for affordable aka social housing in Lansdowne, Ottery, Rondebosch East, Mowbray, Woodstock (and elsewhere) is questionable. The city is discounting the price so developers can make the units affordable.  But neither they, developers nor media that enthusiastically report the city's announcements, define exactly what "affordable" is. And that's the problem.  First, is it legal under PFMA and MFMA for government entities to discount the value of assets to benefit essentially private sector interests? Sounds like something that happens at corrupt-ridden state enterprises. As defined, affordable or social housing is for households earning up to R15,000 a month. Typically, land in Cape Town becomes available in middle class areas where it's relatively expensive. No-one, certainly not city or developers, are saying what the price of even the smallest units would be. A one-bed flat near the Lansdowne site is selling f...