Tuesday, 27 November 2012

The Limpopo Department of Health


An interview with representatives of the Government on the state of the Department of Health in Limpopo Province raises questions about the SNC Government that go far beyond the Province of Limpopo.  X–Ray machines were bought five years ago, and have not yet been commissioned, because they do not have the required certifications.  In addition, they were purchased without Import Permits being required, and, presumably, without many of the other requirements of the public sector.  Thirty-four boilers are not operating in Limpopo hospitals, due to lack of maintenance.  The Government representative revealed that no long-term contracts for maintenance were entered into, leaving maintenance work to be completed on a break-down basis by ‘people who don’t know how to do the work’!  Medicines have been pilfered from the hospital pharmacies on a large scale, leading to huge shortfalls in necessary medications and other supplies.

The spokespersons for the Government were at pains to point out that the delay of many years in correcting these disastrous situations occurred ‘because we have to diagnose the cause before we treat the symptoms’!

This interview continues the long recital of ANC incompetence, admitted by ANC Government representatives at all levels, from the State President down.  This is no surprise to the long-suffering public.  The state of the country, in complete contrast to the rosy picture of wonderful ANC achievements regularly painted by the President in his State of the Nation addresses, is one of continuing and worsening disaster.  It is perfectly normal to meet people who are emigrating, after many years of hoping that the Rainbow Nation would start to achieve its potential.  These people, Black, Brown and White, have given up on the idea that democracy would bring improvement.  They are exporting the one thing that the nation cannot afford – the skills and experience of the most competent people.  They are leaving behind the incompetent and the corrupt, to carry on the new tradition that the ANC has established – the tradition of serving themselves, while leaving the public to suffer.  The writer has personal experience of having offered the services of a group of very highly qualified Management Consultants at no cost, to diagnose the problems and implement appropriate solutions that are comparable to the best in the world.  Apparently the Government is committed to the idea of ‘African solutions to African problems’!  The ANC Government does not want proper controls, the sorts of controls that practically every business employing more than five persons use as a matter of course.  One is tempted to ask why!  The only answer would seem to be that corruption has become such an integral part of the working of Government that it can not be rooted out.

There can be no longer any doubt that the present Government is competent only in one area – the area of looting the assets of the State for personal benefit.

The only question is: How long will the average voter continue to idolise the theft?

Monday, 19 November 2012

The Motion of No Confidence and the ANC


 
The refusal of the ruling Party to allow the scheduling a Vote of No Confidence in the State President confirms a trend that has become glaringly obvious in the past year.  There can be no doubt that the bosses of the African National Congress and its partners have no intention of handing over their privileged position to any other Party, under almost any circumstances.  This trend is one that should set off alarm bells, not only amongst those in South Africa who hold democracy in its true meaning dear, but also amongst those people throughout the world who have been witnessing the descent of this African nation, started less than two decades ago as the Rainbow Nation, the nation that epitomized the hopes of the world that at least one African nation could break free of the shackles of corruption and the incompetence inherent in nepotism that has bedeviled almost every other African nation that has gained its ‘freedom from the colonial masters’. The claim by Gwede Mantashe that the question is not one of refusing to permit the vote, but rather of ‘programming’ that vote, is typical of the ANC’s tendency to mush any question into insensibility. 

There can be little doubt that the right to hold a vote to censure the State President is a matter of the gravest urgency and importance.  A vote of this nature that is passed by Parliament will result in the removal of the State President from that high office.  That is the clearest manifestation of the right of the people to hold those in high office accountable for their actions.  The refusal to permit such a vote at short notice is tantamount to an admission that it has a more than negligible prospect of being passed.  An immediate agreement by the ruling Party to such a vote would have shown the public that the ANC has confidence that the subject of the vote is without foundation.  A fumbling refusal to permit the vote is a clear statement of their lack of confidence, and should be seen as a clear cause for concern by the voting public.  Given the almost universal disapprobation of the thinking, non-ANC-leader public of the conduct of the State President, a man who, apart from Robert Mugabe, is probably the most heavily-criticised State Presidents of the recent past worldwide, it appears that the proposed vote, if it is secret, as it should be, has a real prospect of unseating Jacob Zuma.

And therein lies the problem.  The ANC and its partners have gone on record in the recent past to call on the public to take every step necessary to retain its hold on power, even to the extent of ‘giving up our lives’ if necessary.  That sort of call goes well beyond the boundaries of democracy in any definition of it, other than that given by such laughable republics as the ‘Democratic Republic’ of East Germany, a State that could by no stretch of the imagination be classed as democratic in any way.  They have taken steps to expand and reinforce their hold on the Army, a traditional means of retaining power when the vote goes the wrong way.  They are proposing to disarm the citizenry even further, by expanding the controls of Government over the security industry.  They have already taken steps to remove any form of threat of armed resistance by the citizens.  They have failed to adhere to the underlying principle in the Constitution that there shall be a neutral investigatory body capable of investigating the actions of men of power, and, apparently contrary to a Court Order, and certainly contrary to the wishes of the representatives of a large proportion of the voters, they have refused to hand over documents that might enable Parliament and the public to understand why criminal charges against the impending State President were withdrawn so precipitately.

It is clear to any thinking person that the dark clouds of despotism are gathering on the horizon.

It is rapidly becoming clear which way the ANC is taking the country.  It is rapidly becoming clearer that urgent action is required by all who love this new country of South Africa if they are to preserve what little good is left of the work of Nelson Mandela.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Nicole Stuart - Author


In addition to my blogs, I write full-length books, many dealing with situations that we all face at some time, or might face, if the conditions that exist develop as scientists predict they will.  The idea is to give each reader an opportunity to get to know some real hard facts, and to think about what might happen.  Many of my books are based on current situations that cause many of us some concern, and analyze them, possibly in a new way.

If you would like to sample one of my books, you can click here.

 

If you don’t have an eBook Reader, you can use your computer, and download the.mobi Reader free of charge at the link above.

 

 

Israeli Strikes in the Gaza and South Africa


 
In recent days, a series of strikes by the Israeli military, including air strikes and military bombardment, have claimed the lives of some 83 people.  There is an outcry in South Africa against the ‘barbarity’ of these attacks.  Of course, there are arguments on both sides, but the argument of the Israelis, that they cannot simply stand by as the Hammas terrorists (give them their true description!) consistently rain rockets on Israeli cities, cannot be ignored.  The Israelis must respond, and, in true Israeli fashion, they have chosen to make targeted strikes against relevant targets – the leaders of Hammas.  There can be no doubt that Hammas must have expected that reaction, just as the ANC must have expected the reaction of the South African Police when they sent the young Black students against armed Police lines in their fight against Apartheid.  The real criminals are the leaders of Hammas, who set up the population of Palestine as targets.

In comparison, the strikes at Marikana in South Africa, resulted in the death of at least 47 people.  The strikes in the Hex River Valley have resulted in at least 2 deaths so far.  The question of political Party involvement in Marikana is not as obvious as it is in Gaza, but the ex-ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema was clearly visible exhorting the workers to ‘demand their rights’, and the actions of various Cosatu and SACP leaders subsequent to the riots have been notably on the side of the workers.  In the case of the Hex River Valley, there have been warnings by the ANC Youth League that it would ‘make the Province ungovernable’, warnings that echo the tactics of the ANC during the years of the ‘Struggle’.  This comparison seems to imply that South Africa is still locked in a war, undeclared, and fought without any clear rules, but with thousands of victims each year.  Can it be that this war is being fought out between Capitalism and some other system?  Certainly the response by the Government has been clearly that the fault lies at the feet of the White Capitalists, the mine owners, the farmers, those people who control the capital of the country and who deny a ‘reasonable living’ to all of the oppressed workers.  This argument overlooks the fact that the vast majority of the workers who are, apparently, so deprived, have chosen to do the work that they now claim pays so poorly!  No-one forced the Zimbabwean workers to take the seasonal fruit-picking jobs.  No-one forced the migrant workers on the platinum mines to travel from Lesotho and the Eastern Cape to take the badly-paid jobs in Rustenburg.  Surely they made the choice themselves, taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that job compared with all the other alternatives.

And that is where the real question lies.  Do the workers who wind up in the mines in Rustenburg or on the farms and packing plants of the Hex River Valley have any alternatives?  The answer must be that there are no alternatives.  If there were, those workers would not have taken the jobs that are now so disparaged.  They would have had the chance to decide between the jobs they now have and other jobs, rather than between those jobs and starvation. The free market would have acted to balance the demand and the supply.  The real fault, the blame for the poor pay and the bad living conditions, lies in the abject failure of the Government to ensure that the jobs to provide the alternatives to those workers do not exist.  The fault lies with politicians, like those in the Eastern Cape, who believe that an unemployment rate of ‘only 69%’ is not a cause for concern.  It is more important for the South African Communist Party leader to condemn the criticism of a State President who has clearly demonstrated his lack of suitability as well as lack of capability to manage a complex economy such as that of South Africa, than to make proposals to alleviate the massive unemployment that forces the millions of workers into poorly-paid and unpleasant jobs, rather than to suffer the privations that are the daily fare of so many South Africans.  It is more important for Cosatu to consolidate its control over South African industry that to stand aside to permit more people to work.  If there is a war in South Africa, it is a Cold War between the investors, who create the jobs, and the Tri-Partite Alliance, who are interested in doing something only when there is a benefit in it for themselves.

Monday, 12 November 2012

The State of the Nation


The latest survey of FutureBrand sets out the annual Country Brand Image Index.  The bottom line of this survey, which looks at the brand recognition and image of countries shows that South Africa does not figure in the top twenty-five countries.  ‘The Future Fifteen, a ranking of 15 country brands on course to transform the global landscape economically, politically and culturally in years to come’, equally fails to mention South Africa.

It is frightening that a country with the financial and technological pre-eminence that the country had at the start of the ANC rule, has fallen so far in practically every aspect that should have made it a leader in the continent, if not in the world.  However, when one hears the President, Jacob Zuma, stating baldly that ‘many mistakes have been made, much needs to be corrected’, one comes to understand that the ANC does not, and never did, have the capability of managing a country as complex as this.  Every aspect of what the ANC has done appears to have been a failure.  Education, the mainstay of a country’s development and the driver of its prosperity, has been a disaster under ANC rule, from the abject failure of the ‘Outcomes Based Education System’ that left two generations of pupils uneducated, through the fiddling of the Matric and University results, that has made a South African degree a worthless piece of paper, to the continuing failure to do even the smallest things correctly – to deliver text books on time – has not even achieved the admission by a Minister of Basic Education that her tenure was a failure – ‘I did nothing wrong’ could, perhaps, have been replaced by ‘I did nothing’!  In any advanced country, a Court judgement compelling a Minister of State to do his or her duty under law would have been a compelling reason to resign. 

The statement by the Minister of Public Enterprises that the resignation en masse by the Board of Directors of South Africa Airways, to the effect that it did not signal a crisis in the company was a similar example of singular ineptitude.  When a Board of Directors resigns, it is signalling to the shareholders – in this case the public of South Africa – that something is seriously wrong.  A Director resigns because he or she feels that a situation is present or developing that he or she cannot control and cannot condone.  The blithe comment that ‘there is no crisis’ is a clear indication that the Minister has no clue about the responsibilities that have been entrusted to him.  It is a clear call for the resignation of that Minister.

The application by Eskom for tariff increases of 16% p.a. for the next five years is another clear indication that the Government has failed abjectly, either in its management of the utility, or in the appointment of people to undertake that management.  Electricity is such an imperative for development of the nation that Eskom should have been high on the list of priorities for the Government back in 1994.  The fact that it has gone so badly wrong is in itself a reason for the Government to resign.

The massively high rate of unemployment – over 25% - is another indictment of the ANC’s incapability to manage as complex an economy as South Africa’s.  There are constant claims that the South African economy is doing better than most others in the current circumstances are blatantly untrue.  If unemployment in Germany were to reach 10%, the Government would fall, yet the German economy continues to mark up good scores on every front, and the Chancellor does not boast of the achievements of her Government, as the ANC so constantly does.  When the Premier of the Eastern Cape was warned in 1996 that the rate of unemployment was unacceptably high, the response of ‘but it’s only 69%!’ by the MEC for economic Development did not elicit any response from the Premier!  Another two resignations that should have happened!

The case of two men wrongly convicted for murder, and spending nineteen years behind bars was referred to the Minister of Justice in 1999, after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that it was unable to grant amnesty ‘because the two men did not admit that they were guilty and seek pardon!’  Yet at the end of 2012, the Deputy Minister for Justice was seeking to explain away the incompetence of his Department and promising to attend to the matter immediately!  One wonders why the matter has not been dealt with during the nearly three years they have been considering the matter.  One also wonders how it was possible for Presidential Pardon or early parole to be granted to 25 000 convicted criminals, yet two innocent men, who were not in any way unknown to the Government, should be forced to continue serving a sentence that was proven many years ago to be unjust.

The matter of the Arms Scandal still lingers, staining the reputations of the many ANC politicians who were party at least to the cover-up of this monumental misappropriation of public money, yet the misuse of public funds continues unabated, as seems to be demonstrated by the expenditure of more than a hundred million Rands and the refusal by the Minister of Public Works to inform Parliament of the amount, the reasons and the justification in law for the expenditure.  Yet the players known to be involved in that ignominious phase of South Africa’s decline to the level of the typical Banana Republic remain prominent amongst the lead members of the ANC.

The continuing failure of the Government to ensure that its own commitments to the poorest of the public, such as the provision of housing, the supply of water and sewerage to poor communities, is a factor that has led those affected by the poor performance to resort to violent protests, including stoning of cars on national roads, burning of Councillors’ houses, and even murder of public and Party officials, a disturbing new trend that leads one to think of the days when the ANC still behaved as a terrorist organisation.

Given these many failings and shortcomings, and the candid confession of the State President that the Government continues to make the mistakes and is searching for yet another fix, it is no surprise that the country’s ranking in almost every field of assessment continues to slide – education, honest Government, transparency of law enforcement, ease of establishment of new businesses, ability to retain business and technical competence, and many others.  There can be no doubt that the slide will continue, and the rate of decline will steepen.  There can be no doubt that South Africa will continue its almost inevitable course towards a collapsed economy.  There can be no hope that South Africa will recover its standing as the dominant economy of Africa.

All concerned citizens should now take note, and understand that the ANC is not capable of providing a decent, honest and competent Government for the country.  Action must be commenced now to replace the corruption and incompetence with any Government that does not include the ANC bed-fellows. 

The opinion is diverse on who will provide the leadership that the country so desperately needs.  Several Parties have credentials that are good in this regard.  However, the ANC has proven conclusively in the most decisive way that they are not the Party for the future.

 

Sunday, 11 November 2012

A New Idea for Democracy



Democracy has a number of failings.  That does not mean that it is a bad system.  There can be few people who have enjoyed the benefits of democracy, and also experienced the other side of the coin in Muslim theocracies or Communist dictatorships, who would want to change the system, unless, of course, they stand to benefit from the imposition of the different system.

However that may be, there is one failing of democracy that has come with absolute, frightening clarity to the fore in South Africa.  That failing lies in the fact that, in a country with huge income disparity, the people who elect those who deal with the money are not the people who earn and pay over that money to the Government.

A Government is elected by the majority of voters.  In South Africa, with very few taxpayers putting up the money, those voters cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, have a meaningful representation in the ranks of voters at least equal to that of the beneficiaries of Government largesse.  To put it simply, the Governing Party uses the money of the few to pay to the many with the hope that it will persuade them to vote for that Party.  The taxpayers have, practically, no real say in how their money is being put to use, and the Government has no real obligation to use that money in the interests of those who earn it.

In any civilized society, most taxpayers are willing to contribute a reasonable portion of their income to ‘good causes’ which may include relief of poverty conditions for those who are, realistically, unable to fend for themselves.  Most taxpayers are willing to contribute to the education of the young of the society, to the maintenance of law and order, to the provision of infrastructure, to the development of the country.  However, most taxpayers are reluctant to support a system where tens, if not hundreds, of billions are stolen each year, where huge contracts for items and services of no value to the public are doled out with the main objective of benefitting those in power, where more billions are wasted by incompetence in Government, where policies are put in place to make it harder each year to earn the money that is taken by Government.  Unfortunately, the many who are supported by Government largesse are not so discriminating in who they put into power.  They see their greatest benefit as lying on the side of the Party which promises the largest hand-outs, or supports the highest wage payments, however destructive of the economy this might be, the greatest number of highly-paid civil service jobs.

Would it not be a better system where, for example, one-half of the politicians are elected by everyone old enough to vote, and the other half are elected by those who can prove that they paid income tax of, say, more than R5 000 in the average of the three past years?  In that way, those who pay the money that the ruling Party uses to bribe the voters could really believe that they had some say in where their money went, that the Government had their interests at heart.

There will be an outcry against this proposal, but it is not as silly as it seems.  The taxpayers who believe now that they are not getting a fair deal from Government are voting against that unfairness even now, the important factor being that they are voting with their feet and with their wallets. 

There is, at present, a large and increasing number of high-earning South Africans, Whites, Coloureds, Indians and Blacks, leaving this country to earn an income somewhere else, somewhere where they can believe that they are likely to get a fair return for their tax Rand.  They are leaving because they do not believe in democracy, South Africa style.  They are concerned for their future, and the future of their children.  They are adding their efforts, their skills, their capabilities and their tax Rands to another country.  These are the future hope of South Africa, the people who will bring development, wealth, expertise.  Surely it would be better for all concerned, with the possible exception of sleazy politicians and incompetent Government employees, to retain the services of those people in South Africa.  In earning the additional money that would generate the tax that is presently going missing, they would be creating the jobs that would remove the need for Government hand-outs.  The Government would become more efficient and effective, simply because the elected representatives of the people would become responsible for their actions to those who pay the bills, and so want value for their money.  The cake would become bigger for all, and the slices being doled out to the unemployed, as well as disappearing under the table, would become smaller.  Everyone would benefit, and democracy would become an institution more attractive to most of those affected by it.