One man's comments on everything


Monday, April 19, 2010

So you want to leave this country ?

Quick STATS for those who want to leave and those who have (sorry to hear) already left
  • "South Africa is probably the leading economy in the world." (CNBC Europe)
  • South Africa’s Rand is the second best-performing emerging market currency of the 26 monitored by Bloomberg in 2009
  • South Africa sold $1.8 billion worth of cars to the US last year, putting us ahead of Sweden and Italy as suppliers to the US market.
  • In 2009, the Springboks become the first international team to be World Champions in both 15-a-side and Sevens rugby.
  • The International Monetary Forum's World Economic Outlook ranks us in the top 10% of counties in respect of Real GDP Growth Projections for 2010.
  • In the Economist Intelligence Unit's Survey of Democratic Freedom we rank 31st of of 184 countries.
  • South Africa ranks second worldwide in terms of the transparency surrounding its budgets - just behind the United Kingdom, tie with France, and ahead of New Zealand and the United States - according to the Open Budget Index.
  • The number of 'dollar millionaires' in South Africa has increased from less than 25,000 in 2004 to over 55,000 in 2007, according to the World Wealth Report
  • According to the World Pay Report, South African managers are earning disposable incomes that are higher than those in many developed countries.
  • Johannesburg ranks 2nd among countries from Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa in dealing with urbanisation and environmental challenges, in the MasterCard Insights Report on Urbanisation and Environmental Challenges.
  • South Africa ranked 44th out of 131 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2007/8.
  • South Africa was ranked as the 18th most attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investment by global strategic management consulting firm AT Kearney. 
  • Three South African cities were voted amongst the world's top 100 Most Liveable Cities in a study conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Cape Town was ranked in 85th place, Johannesburg 90th and Port Elizabeth 97th.
  • Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than any other nation, apart from the United States.
  • South Africa has been ranked 28th among 108 countries measured for responsible competitiveness, according to the global think tank AccountAbility.
  • Johannesburg has been ranked as the eighth cheapest city in the world for expatriates, according to the most recent Cost of Living Standards Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
  • South Africa is ranked 20th out of a total of 128 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2007, ahead of many developed nations, including, the United States (31), Switzerland (40), Austria (27) and France (51).
  • South Africa ranks 57th out of 157 countries in the world in terms of economic freedom, ahead of Italy (64), Brazil (101), the United Arab Emirates (63), Greece (94th), India (104th) and China (126), according to the Index of Economic Freedom 2007
  • South Africa is ranked 35th out of 178 countries for ease of doing business - ahead of Spain, Brazil and India - according to Doing Business 2008, a joint publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
  • Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory
  • South African media ranks 26th out of 167 countries in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007, higher than any country in Asia, the Middle East or South America, and ahead of Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States.
  • The Johannesburg Stock Exchange was the 7th best performing stock market in 2005, according to the World Federation of Exchanges
  • Pretoria has the second largest number of embassies in the world after Washington, D.C.
  • In 2005, interest rates were at a 25-year low
  • South Africa accounts for almost 45% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy three times the size of the second biggest (Egypt)
  • Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
  • The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students
  • In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to provide full protection status for the Great White shark within its jurisidictional waters. Countries including USA, Australia, Malta and Namibia follwed suit later.
  • Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
  • According to the Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report, South Africa ranks 38th out of 127 countries in terms of ecomomic freedom, tied with France and ahead of Israel, India, Italy, China, Brazil and Russia.
  • The rand, the world's most actively traded emerging market currency, has joined an elite club of 16 currencies - the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) - where forex transactions are settled immediately, lowering the risks of transacting across time zones. Standard Bank is the only African bank to be a shareholder partner of CLS.
  • The Singita Private Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of travel publication, Conde Nast Traveller
  • The South African Rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar between 2002 and 2005, according to the Bloomberg's Currency Scorecard
  • South Africa's per capita GDP, corrected for purchasing power parity, positions the country as one of the 50 wealthiest in the world
  • Worldaudit.org ranks South Africa as the 40th most democratic country out of 150 nations
  • Stellenbosch University was the first university in the world to design and launch a microsatellite
  • South Africa is the 35th best place in the world to do e-business, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2007 E-Readiness Report.
  • South Africa is the best-ranked country in terms of price stability, our fiscal policy is ranked 11th, our international trade competitiveness 21st, and we are the 28th most-attractive destination for foreign direct investment, according to the World Competiveness Yearbook 2005
  • South African business owners of mid-size companies are the second most optimistic worldwide about their economic prospects of the year ahead, according to the annual Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey for 2005.
  • South Africa is the first, and to date only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
  • The value of South African real estate improved by 30% over the past 5 years
  • Tax revenue in SA has increased by 220% over the past 10 years
  • In 2005, 10 million South Africans benefited from access to social grants
  • The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 116% since 1994
  • Over the past 5 years, Consumer Confidence in SA has improved by 43%.
  • In the global measure of women in Parliament, South Africa ranks 8th in the world.
  • Of the 10 LSM levels ( LSM1=poorest; LSM10 wealthiest ), the average SA family located in LSM6
  •  Source  :     South Africa: The Good News www.sagoodnews.co.za  Full list available on their website 

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Businessday 16 Apr 2010

THAMI MAZWAI: Small business needs a tougher police force

Published: 2010/04/16 07:31:23 AM

CLOSE to two years ago, the Small Business Project (SBP), a nongovernmental organisation specialising in small business research, pointed out that more than 40% of small businesses did not expand or employ more people because of the high levels of crime in inner- city areas, townships and informal settlements.

As a personal example, thugs once robbed my brother of the day’s takings, his wallet, jacket and everything moveable in his container telephone business in Soweto. The family rallied around him and he started again. Several weeks later, the same or another group of hooligans pistol-whipped him and, again, took everything. Just like about 30% of small business owners hit by crime, he threw in the towel. The SBP rightly maintains that the extent of crime in SA deters job creation and economic growth.

Criminals regularly attack small businesses . As these businesses do not have insurance, it is amen for many when these thugs strike. Obviously, these entrepreneurs need protection as the crimes are violent and brutal. Thus, today’s talk of “militarising” the police is music to the ears of the owners of small busiesses. The message is that the police will no longer smother criminals with hugs, kisses and brotherly love, assuring them of their rights under the law.

In any case, the murder of 3000 police officers since 1994 should inform us that a no-nonsense attitude is required.

Claims that militarising the police force will erode citizen rights are more of an interpretation than anything else. The repackaging and rebranding of the police, which is what Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa is talking about, must be differentiated from the actual fight against crime.

This “militarisation” creates an operational mind-set and is not an abandonment of the rules that protect civil society from heavy-handed police officers.

Private-sector organisations rebrand and reposition, and this reignites and reinvigorates their workforce. Why is it different when Mthethwa wants to achieve the same so that society is better protected?

To discuss this issue in a broader context, Gen Solly Mollo, previously of the South African National Defence Force, posits that during transformation the security apparatus weakens as the incumbents, fearful of the future, balk at and manipulate the system. We appear not to have considered this insecurity and that the incumbents would meddle with the processes.

Also, when we appointed police ministers, we appointed democrats rather than disciplinarians and crime- busters. The rot started seeping in. The best appointments were those of the late Steve Tshwete as minister of police, and the current commissioner Cele — both of them rough-and-tumble guys who can, or could, mix in with their men.

Mthethwa is doing some interesting things, but the jury is still out on how successful he will be. Pussyfooting around with nice terms, such as “criminals have human rights”, has unintended consequences — a soft approach to crime. I do not encourage authoritarianism, but the situation is bad.

SA is the only country I know of — perhaps the closest is Mexico — where the death of a police officer is regarded as just another death. We do not have infuriated citizens demanding to lynch the murderer. We even have all kinds of regulations making it impossible for the police just to defend themselves.

As much as I understand the concerns around the “shoot to kill” statement, my sympathies are with the police. No sight pleases me more than one in which five or six robbers lie dead on the ground and a police officer, gleeful, stands over the corpses ready to take on the next set of bandits.

My parting shot is that we need the ruthless apartheid police variety — as long as they focus on criminals and not on political activists. This way the small business people will start growing their enterprises, which grows the economy and provides people with jobs.

The most important human right is the right to a meal — we forget that at our peril.

- Dr Mazwai is director of the Centre for Small Business Development at the University of Johannesburg, Soweto campus.






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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Wake Up South Africa

SAIRR Today : Press Release : Statement by the South African Institute of Race Relations on the ramifications of the killing of Eugène Terre'Blanche - 6th April 2010







The Institute desisted from issuing a formal statement in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche in order to first gauge the broader social, political, and international reaction to the killing. The Institute is now in a position to make the following points.



Racial tensions in the country appear to have increased significantly in recent weeks. This appears to be chiefly as a result of incitement by the ruling African National Congress to ‘shoot and kill’ the Afrikaner ethnic minority in the country. The anxiety around this incitement may well have influenced opinions across the broader white community. What appears to be the case is that much of the racial rapprochement that characterised the first 15 years of South Africa’s democracy is being undone. This rapprochement saw both black and white South Africans come to occupy a middle ground on race relations upon which the maintenance of future stable race relations depends.





Since 1994 the number of white farmers and their families murdered in South Africa is conservatively put at around 1 000. It may very well be much higher. There are currently an estimated 40 000 commercial farmers in the country. Over this same period in the region 250 000 South Africans out of a total current population of approximately 47 million have been murdered. Criminal violence can therefore be described as ‘rampant’ and has done considerable damage to the social fabric of the country. However, this is not to say that all murders in the country are a function of simple criminal banditry. In an environment where law and order has largely collapsed the consequences of incitement by political leaders to commit murder must be taken seriously.



Over the same period the policy measures put in place by the Government to raise the living standards of the black majority have failed to meet expectations. The key interventions of affirmative action and black economic empowerment have been exploited by the African National Congress to build a network of patronage that has made elements of its leadership extremely wealthy. The party also appears to have been so overwhelmed by corrupt tendencies that it is no longer able to act decisively against corrupt behaviour.



It has also through incompetence and poor policy been unable to address failures in the education system which are now the primary factor retarding the economic advancement of black South Africans.



At the same time the party is acutely aware that its support base of poor black South Africans has begun to turn against it. Violent protest action against the ruling party is now commonplace around the country.



In order to shore up support in the black community the ANC increasingly appears to be seeking to shift the blame for its delivery failures onto the small white ethnic minority, which today comprises well under 10% of the total population of South Africa. Here parallels may be read to the behaviour of Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe when that party realised that its political future was in peril. The ANC Youth League’s recent visit to Zanu-PF which saw it endorse that party’s ruinous polices are pertinent here.



In such an environment it is plausible to consider that the ANC’s exhortations to violence may be a contributing factor to the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche. Certainly the ANC’s protestations to the contrary seem ridiculous as the party is in effect saying that its followers pay no attention to what it says - this from a party that routinely claims that it is the manifestation of the will of all black South Africans. This is not to say that a labour dispute or some other matter could not have inflamed tensions on the Terre'Blanche farm. Rather it is to say that a number of different matters should be considered in determining the motivation for the crime.



Certainly the ANC’s exhortations to violence have created a context where the killings of white people will see a degree of suspicion falling around the party and its supporters.



It is of concern therefore that the police’s senior management are on record as saying that they will not consider a political motive or partial motive for the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche. This suggests an early effort to cover up the ANC’s possible culpability for inciting the crime.



Should any allegations of a political cover-up arise in the pending murder trial of the two young men accused of the Terre'Blanche murder the political consequences could be significant. Should evidence be led that the two young men acted with what they understood to be the tacit backing of the ANC, and a causal link between their actions and incitement by the ANC be established, then the possibility of charging the ANC’s senior leadership in connection to the murder arises. Equally plausible is that the Terre'Blanche family and the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging could bring a civil suit against the ANC and the Government.



It is possible that the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche will greatly strengthen the hand of a new hardened right wing in South Africa. In life Mr Terre'Blanche attracted a small, uninfluential, and extremist following. He will not be mourned for what he stood for. However, in death he may come to represent the experiences of scores of minority groups in the country who perceive themselves as being on the receiving end of racist and now also violent abuse from the ANC. In effect therefore Mr Terre'Blanche may be seen as having been martyred for a minority cause in the country.



The implications of a resurgent right wing will be numerous. It is most unlikely that this right wing will take the form of camouflage clad henchmen on horses in shows of force. The ANC has also often, wrongly, identified groups including the political opposition, Afriforum, agricultural unions, and even this Institute as ‘the right wing’. This silly ‘red under every bed’ attitude in the ANC saw it lose the trust of many civil society and political groups. These groups could all be defined first and foremost by the common belief that they had to act within the bounds of what the Constitution prescribed.



But the ANC belittled and undermined them. It also undermined parliament, the national prosecution service, and the various human rights and other organisations that were established under the Constitution. It may yet usurp the independence of the courts and the judiciary. The result was a shutting down of many of the democratic channels that were created for citizens in the country to make the Government aware of their concerns and circumstances.



The resurgence of a new political consciousness among minorities could drive an altogether different political force. Such a movement will draw its strength chiefly from a hardening attitudes in the white community but perhaps also in the Indian and coloured communities. These will be views that in the main have come to subscribe to some or all of the following points:



1.That the Government has corrupted and debilitated many of the country’s internal democratic processes for political or civil expression that were established under the Constitution

2.That cooperation with the current Government of South Africa is therefore fundamentally unfeasible and therefore futile

3.That the Government is unable to restore law and order in the country

4.That the Government is therefore unable protect its citizens

5.That the Government has a hostile agenda against minority groups



However it is equally, if not most likely, that many minorities who subscribe to the five points above may simply get so fed up that those who can will pack up and go. Here they may take the advice of President Zuma to remain calm as they pack up their businesses and their families and calmly board aircraft for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. With the exodus will leave much of the tax and expertise base of the country.



Should the ANC, however, find itself facing increased political resistance it will in many respects have a tiger by the tail. Firstly, the ANC depends greatly on the tax income paid by white South Africans to balance South Africa’s books. Secondly, it depends entirely on the food produced by a small number of white farmers to feed the country. Thirdly, white South Africans still dominate the skills base of the country. Finally, and most importantly, much white opinion since the early 1990s has been moderate. White South Africa has been willing and often eager to cooperate with the Government in building an open, non-racial, and prosperous South Africa. Losing that cooperation will to an extent put an end to any serious chance that the ANC has of leading South Africa to become a successful and prosperous democracy.



While the ANC will be inclined to blame whites for this, and may even take drastic action to confiscate white commercial interests as they are currently doing in agriculture, these actions will be ruinous for the economy. The result of such ruin will be to drive a deeper wedge between the ANC and its traditional support base and thereby hasten the political decay of the party.



When General Constand Viljoen decided to throw his lot in with democracy in the early 1990s the right wing in South Africa was a spent force. So it should and could have remained. The ANC could have taken advantage of white expertise and tax revenue to realise their own vision of a better life for all. Things have however gone badly wrong for the party. Corruption has destroyed its ability to meet the demands of its constituents while racial bigotry has now seen it defending its image against what should have been an insignificant and dying neo-Nazi faction in the country.



The failure of sensible South Africans to take back the racial middle ground in the country will be serious. Polarisation will beget further racial conflict and a hardening of attitudes on all sides. This is perhaps the greatest leadership test that the current Government has faced and it is one that they cannot afford to fail.

http://www.sairr.org.za/sairr-today/sairr-today-press-release-statement-by-the-south-african-institute-of-race-relations-on-the-ramifications-of-the-killing-of-eugene-terreblanche-6th-april-2010/



- Frans Cronje

Thursday, April 1, 2010

"Wake up and save the republic" by Dr Lucas Ntyintyane 28/3/2010

London’s Daily Sun gave me a hernia. Thanks to their cheeky headline in response to British finance minister Alistair Darling’s budget speech “…Darling screwed more people than Woods, Terry and Ashley”. My tummy is still hurting.

It is a pity laughter has died in SA. Everything is gray. If we are not threatening racial wars and killings on social networks, we are numbed by corruption and crime. Our debates have been reduced to gutter level by infantile leaders. The Madiba jive is gone. We used to be so carefree. What happened to us?

As we begin one of the sacred weeks in the Christian calendar, it is appropriate to reflect on the type of people we have become. I do not like what I see. We are polarised. We are violent and destructive.

We are materialistic. We resemble a Stalinistic Russia. Freedom has brought pain. It unleashed greediness. What kind of people would rape and dismember an innocent 15-year-old girl? What type of leaders would steal from the poor?

Solomon Mahlangu did not die to advance this cruelty upon his people. Helen Joseph did not fight for sadism to thrive. Bram Fischer did not endure apartheid blows to promote a polarised society. The post-apartheid society is an insult to the ideals of Robert Sobukwe and Beyers Naude.

It is up to us to correct this anomaly. The leadership to better this country should come from all of us. It is through our words, writings and actions that we lay a foundation of a better nation. If we preach war, we will get war. If we are consumed by hatred, then racism will flourish. Corruption and violent crime are products of society. We created them; we can put a stop to them.

SA will only go to the dogs, if we allow it. Only the stupid never learn from their mistakes. Our silence gave the empty heads a right to polarise and plunder. How long can you keep silent as self-centred leaders rip your country apart? Each one of us has the power to make a difference. It does not matter if you are at school, in the mall, in the sports ground or in the taxi. History starts with one person influencing the rest.

As individuals, we are capable of creating little miracles in our surroundings. The Easter period is about miracles — the triumph of goodness over evil . The day the nation woke up and saved the republic.

We can make SA laugh again.

Dr Lucas Ntyintyane

Cape Town