Posted inEqualityGeneral

Debunking the ‘five million taxpayers’ myth

To evidence the “unsustainability” of social grants, it is often pointed out that in South Africa “there are only five million tax-paying citizens and 15-million social grants recipients”. The insinuation made is that the five million single-handedly subsidise the poor, thus bearing the brunt of the social assistance burden. This argument, however, ignores that income […]

Posted inGeneral

City Power speaking in tongues

With the Easter and Passover holy days a thing of the past I was wondering, get the editor a Valium, whether we, as South Africans, aren’t missing out on a trick — religious tourism. Don’t snigger, if anyone knows about history and religion it’s me, everything my wife serves has a best before the Big […]

Posted inNews/Politics

SABC bored, what about Honey Boo Boo?

South Africans, faced with rampant inflation and severe austerity measures, are once again bemoaning their fate, threatening emigration and promising politicians that there will be bedlam at the next elections instead of concentrating on producing those things that make this country great. What? Take a step back and answer this question: When the Americans ran […]

Posted inBusiness

The non-payment threat of the working class

By Themba Mbatha We have all accepted that the state’s economic preoccupation in the coming years should be the pursuit of a developmental state. To that end, President Jacob Zuma announced in the State of the Nation address an unprecedented public infrastructure spending programme to achieve the objectives of a developmental state. The estimated R800-billion […]

Posted inBusiness

Eskom’s water accountability

In the article “Eskom, Sasol sound warning over water supply”, published on March 18 2012, it is made clear that a big drought in the Vaal River catchment could jeopardise the region’s agricultural and industrial output. But because Eskom and Sasol are “strategic water users” their use of water would not be curtailed. The same […]

Posted inGeneral

Dragged into a pit by Eskom

by Roger Diamond With Eskom being a spade, the mining industry a shovel, and the government digging surprising harder than it does most tasks, the pit we call our home is getting deeper by the year. Well actually, we’re all to blame for being consumers, but somehow there is something wrong when organisations that have […]