South Africa has been plunged in darkness. Everyone except the idiots who caused the crisis says it will seriously damage the economy. Yet nobody has been fired. Not even a few token dismissals of powerless and innocent underlings.
Ivo Vegter
Ivo Vegter writes and argues for fun and profit. He is a columnist, magazine journalist and apprentice model shipwright. In his spare time, he helps run a research company. He specialises in the tech and telecoms industries, but keeps a blog on politics, economics and other curiosities on the spike
Posted inNews/Politics
How to respond to corruption allegations
A lot of South African politicians and public officials can take a lesson from Peter Hain’s resignation today.
Posted inNews/Politics
Turf out the ANC liars
Isn’t it time to fire the liars, for a start, and then revisit the notion that government is capable of delivering services? Isn’t it time we rely on the energy, innovation and hard work of ordinary South Africans to make a better life for themselves?
Posted inNews/Politics
Vindication for the racists
It’s not funny. It’s actually pretty scary. But all the white racists who voted “no” in the 1992 referendum, which asked white voters whether they’d be okay with “power sharing” with the ANC, are vindicated. Turns out there’s not enough power to share.
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Obsessed with teen sex
An alarmist report on e-tv about teenage abortions is sending the wrong message to our adults.
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Imagine, poor people with cars!
The Indian Tata group has unveiled the Nano, an aptly-named new car that will sell for just R17 500 (Rp100 000, or $2 550), not counting taxes and import duties. One would think that promising to improve the quality of life of millions of people who previously couldn’t afford the luxury of a motor vehicle would be hailed as tremendous news.
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Zuma: Reap the whirlwind
It felt strangely like a wake, watching the inevitability of Jacob Zuma’s election as the new head of the ANC. Unless he is convicted on corruption charges he is now a near-certainty to become the next South African president in 2009. That’s what you get for half-hearted commitment to market reforms and economic freedom.
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Corruption House
A recent report in the Mail & Guardian on the largest contract Eskom has ever awarded is cause for alarm. Think Halliburton is corrupt? Wait until you meet the ANC’s very own Chancellor House.
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Whatever happened to the Economist?
The Economist was founded on principles of free markets and free trade. It has lost its way.
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
Blame Bush? Blame Greenspan!
Listening to CNN hail some recent economic pessimism as an “It’s the economy stupid” moment like the one which swept Bill Clinton to power in 1992, it not only sounded like a Democrat stump speech, but prompted me to give the US economy some thought. The proximate cause of the current low economic confidence is, no doubt, the mortgages problem.
Posted inNews/Politics
Debunking pork myths
GOP pork spending has got so bad, I’m told, that the Democrats are now the party of fiscal responsibility, and if I’m a small-government libertarian, I should prefer to see Democrats in charge in the US. Luckily, some people keep track of these things.
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Info Scandal II
It’s a peaceful and sunny Sunday morning, but the morning news is once again troubling. The president’s men are, reportedly, hoping to buy Johnnic Communications, publisher of the Sunday Times. All of it.