Tag: SpeakZA

How about laws we actually need?

In the last 2 weeks things have gone really crazy with the arrest of a journalist for dubious reasons, and the government trying to fast track a law which would enable them to hide the corruption prevalent in their ranks, instead of just fixing the real problem.  I have my views on these things, but this is not what the post is about.

We are in our strike season again, a bit later than usual after everyone behaved so nicely during the World Cup, and since yesterday there has been reports all over about violence and intimidation by the strikers.  This is totally uncalled for! Continue reading How about laws we actually need?

Selfish strikers

Have the people currently striking at Transnet thought of the impact of their strike on the rest of South Africa.  My dad is of the opinion that there could be up to one person losing their job in another industry for every person that is striking at Transnet.

How does he get to this?

Lets look at the fruit exporting business.  They are currently in peak season for a number of different fruit, and cannot ship any of their product out of the country.  That means that the industry as a whole will not make their profits, and may make a loss if they have to dump all of their produce on local markets.  Who suffers?  The farmers, and the workers that they now cannot afford to pay anymore.   Their estimate is that they will lose R1billion equalling 30,000 jobs.

Economists say that the economy will probably lose R15billion therefore some 450,000 possible jobs will be lost, taking the scenario of the fruit producers. Take 10% of that and it amounts to some 45,000 additional jobs that may be lost. If this is not theft legalised what is it then? Continue reading Selfish strikers

Why are we funding electricity for a large mining house?

According to this article on News 24 and combining that information with this article on Times Live, we can quickly deduce that BHP Billiton is buying electricity at close to a quarter of the current production cost.

The current government/Eskom management will probably come up with some feeble excuse to blame the previous dispensation, but these contracts were signed in 1997, 3 years after the ANC took office. Continue reading Why are we funding electricity for a large mining house?

This is exactly where BEE in its current form fell short

Like I’ve been saying all along, BEE in its current form is not working.  And now it has been confirmed by another person

Where our current government went off the tracks was to try and get as many previously disadvantaged people into as many posts as possible, with dire consequences for our country.  They neglected to make sure that the people they appointed had the necessary skills to perform before getting rid of the people that had the skills.  It bit them, hard. Continue reading This is exactly where BEE in its current form fell short

Legalised Corruption

It looks like government has gone for the legal way of corruption.  On Friday I saw this article in The Star,  ‘Joburg Roads CEO get R767 000 performance bonus’.  (Do you think I could find a link to the article online?)

But hang on here, this cannot be, how can he get such a big performance bonus?  Utter bullshit male bovine excrement.

Taking a step back here, lets see how a performance bonus works in the private sector.

Normally, you and your manager, or in the case of a CEO, you and the board set your objectives for the year.  Then you get measured on these, most of the time on a 5 point scale, 1 meaning that you missed the boat completely, and you’re on your way out the door if you don’t pull up your socks in the next few months, and 5 meaning that you exceeded expectations on every one of the goals that we set.  And in the middle, 3 means that you’re doing a good job. Continue reading Legalised Corruption

Bloggers for a Free Press #SpeakZA

Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of the ANC Youth League spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the Secretary General of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at the City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations. Continue reading Bloggers for a Free Press #SpeakZA