Thomas Johnson - The Blog

The reaction to the budget from the financial media and analysts has largely been positive, with opposition political parties, DA especially, unions and civil society being critical of the increase in VAT. But economist Dawie Roodt called the budget “terrible” and decried that many analysts were supportive of and positive about it. He wondered why the “whitewash” and why they were not “honest”.  He asks why the financial community got it so wrong. Well, they've always been enthralled by finance ministers from Manuel, who initially, had little understanding of finance, to Gorhan; Gigaba not so much (if it wasn't for Gigaba's Zupta connection, he'd have been feted too). The second reason is many financial journalists and wannabees don't really understand economics. If they did they would've castigated Gordhan when under him debt went from about 32% of GDP to 52%. But yet Gordhan, according to them, was "hero at the bridge". Roodt, being dip...

Former ANC premier and ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool writes in Daily Maverick“Day Zero is adjusted back and forth without the evidence of weather patterns, increased water sources and discernible reduction in water usage. Citizens alternate between announcements that induce panic-buying of water and scuffles at water queues, relief when Day Zero is pushed back and, soon, disregard for any warnings and appeals”. This shifting of the date - again back, for now, to July 9 - has confirmed for some Day Zero is, if not a hoax, unlikely to occur this year. Last week CapeTalk’s drive time host superciliously dismissed a caller who believed it would not happen this year. The caller said September (after winter) is the vital date we should be worried about. He didn’t say it couldn’t happen, but it may not this year. And since that call, it was pushed back to July. Independently confirming that view, Mike Muller wrote, “Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’ is not going to happen unless there is...

There's a lot of self-righteous one-upmanship among many born-again conservationists about what they're doing to save water. They can't wait to boast about it in the media and social media.  For example, Helen Zille's ridiculous tweet showing a picture of her painted toenails in a bucket of water . Doesn't she have better things to do? My family - five members and 12 pets - were water conscious long before the disaster and it became fashionable to "save". We always tried to use water sparingly, bucket washed (I and a couple of members have been doing that for a few years already) and reused grey water in the garden. Our one extravagance was watering the garden but with restrictions a year ago that was throttled back and eventually ceased. Before the unfolding disaster last year but we had constant fights with my late 91-year-old mom about her opening taps at full blast and letting it run. She'd tell us to get lost. My point being that mos...

The DA's and party leader Mmusi Maimane's water management campaign is " We Can Defeat Day Zero ".  This has been eagerly taken up by the credulous media as a rallying cry. Why do politicians like speaking in terms of 'defeat' and war? Even 'Day Zero' has an ominous ring, like 'Defcon' and 'Ground Zero'. And from a pastor too. (By the way, if there's a war, they'd be the last to volunteer.) Defeat means there's an 'enemy'. So natural occurrences like drought and climate change are enemies now? We can't 'defeat' Day Zero - we can help prevent it. Anyway, strictly speaking, we can't 'defeat' an 'enemy', and an intangible one at that, that has not shown itself. Has a declaration of war being issued? Maimane, the War Minister? Delusions of grandeur, methinks. As Joelien Pretorius writes on The Conversation, 'anarchy' on the streets, 'World War 2' and '...

I finished reading Zille’s Daily Maverick column this morning with a flush of anger, not something that normally happens when I read the news media. She concluded, ‘This week we saw, for the first time, a growing number of residents understanding the seriousness of what we are facing.’ For the first time a growing number of residents ? Is she so out of touch in the philosophically, politically and physically sealed walls of Wale Street she’s not aware how concerned the public has been for a year and our pleas for action? He column tortuously exculpates the DA – they and city are not to blame and it’s government’s, South African Weather’s Services’ and residents’ fault. But she ignores the consensus, including among experts, of a monumental failure of management, planning and vision by city and government. She says residents have only woken up now but how does she, and her supporters, explain Mayor Patricia de Lille’s claims that early 2017 the city’s water crisis team were mor...

A lot has been written about the disaster. In their own ways the two articles cited below, which mention Mmusi Maimane’s taking control of the management of the city’s response, succinctly express the consensus about the DA-run city’s mismanagement of the disaster. Joshua Carstens : “Last week Mmusi Maimane propelled himself into the eye of the storm with a highly publicised town hall meeting. Some people compared it to a church service, with Maimane as the preacher and the rent-a-crowed (mostly DA supporters) as the congregation hanging on his lips.” Simon Grindrod (a former ID member and supporter of embattled Patricia de Lille): “The executive mayor, who has been spearheading efforts for the last two years, is stripped of her powers [re. water disaster] by a deputy mayor [incorrect: Maimane/the DA fedex removed her] who couldn't answer a single question on Day Zero. A political party leader jumps in to take charge, eclipsing his premier only three days after she took ...

There are people, as always, who refuse to believe the objective facts the DA-run City of Cape Town very badly messed up - incompetent, tardy, refused to see the signs, arrogant in their conviction they knew better than everyone, etc. (If CT was an ANC-run city their supporters would be saying the same.) Choosing to put political ideology and loyalty ahead of the facts, they blame others - ANC government, residents who allegedly are still using too much water despite doing all they can, "unforeseen" drought despite 2015, 2016 and 2017 of poor rain, etc. Among the disinformation and alt-facts put out by the city, province and repeated by some media outlets is that over 60% of residents are not saving water. How do they determine that - monthly population census? The city's own figures also say only 200 000 households (out of 1.1 million, or 18%) are not meeting monthly household targets. The fact is lost on the DA and their slavish supporters the city reacted at one...