BY the time you read this dear reader, we shall be in the midst of election fever, being bombarded by rhetoric from many sides by those that seek power from your simple cross.
Thinking that we are in the premier league when playing in the third division, was compounded when the ANC failed to meet the IEC’s nomination deadline, what is not, but entirely predictable, is the way the IEC has bent over backwards to try and accommodate the ANC’s error, by a) appointing a tame judge to prepare a report to justify a delay, b) then appealing to the Constitutional Court to defer the municipal elections until next year and upon that failing, c) finagling the nominee registration dates to allow the ANC more time to comply.
In addition to the President’s largely unbelievable responses to the Zondo Commission (see more below), another lulu of the spring season was the announcement that 200 of our defence force were in need of some serious training and that the only place that could provide such a service was, you guessed it, the same place that offers superior mechanics, teacher training and civil engineering expertise, CUBA. Yeh, right. Oh and the Kusile explosion – cause still under investigation – will put another R2-billion nail into Eskom’s R400 billion plus coffin.
What makes my life as the editor more challenging is that in order to ensure that you, the reader, get a balanced view of the issues we propagate in these pages; I have to be even handed in the opinions expressed here, even though I may personally not agree or believe them.
It is common cause that as a business publication we should be supporting the concept of excellence in a capitalist free market and find that a mediocratic socialist agenda is an anathema to development.
Lord Acton’s famous phrase about absolute power corrupting absolutely, came to mind when I was (very nearly) startled by President Ramaphosa’s admission (amongst not knowing what was going on during his tenure as Deputy President) to the Zondo commission that he saw nothing wrong with ‘pre-approved’ lists of cadres for top positions in SOE’s, government departments, police and the judiciary; was the outcome of an unelected ‘approval committee’ of cronies where nominees were chosen on the basis of skin colour, race and as a reward for loyalty to the ANC- rather than the competence of the individual to hold that position.
That we now know has resulted in a brace of incompetents being appointed to strategic enterprises that, all but possibly two have been dismal failures characterized by looting, corruption, mismanagement and massive government bail outs of yours and my money that should have been earmarked for developing the economy and uplifting the disadvantaged.
It would be naïve to think that this selection process doesn’t happen in most other democracies but the difference is that the ‘panel’ usually comprises elected officials that are accountable to the country’s citizens and the chosen have not destroyed the country’s economy with their competence.
So, when the time comes to place your cross on the ballot paper, you have a simple choice – excellence or mediocrity but remember, that if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and smells like a duck then it’s a b*****y duck!
Eish.
