Not very witty, Wilde.

Mr Manuel, we are not amused.

I don’t know if your quip that “we’d all like to be more Catholic than the Pope” in Parliament this week following your admission that buying a R1.2 million BMW for official use was an “error of judgment” got a titter from the Honourable Members but for millions of South Africans, it was shockingly callous. Why don’t you just kick us while we’re down, sir.

Best to keep elitist jokes like that in your own circle. And what a rarified circle it must be, comparing the performance of your luxury vehicles that the Democratic Alliance has revealed has cost the tax payers of this country R45 million this year alone.

But to be fair on our national planning minister, the full quote (after the DA told Parliament that Western Cape Premier Helen Zille ordered that her MECs  to use a pool-car system of second-hand vehicles) was:  “So, we’d all like to be more Catholic than the Pope, and we commend the honourable Zille on having attained that status, but let’s be real about this issue as well”  – referring to the fact that there was no point in returning his BMW because of the loss in value.

Mr Manuel, sir, the citizens of this country know all about being real. Stunning as it may seem to you and your exalted colleagues, we do in fact live in the real world so let me remind you what it’s like.
Let’s take my fairly typical middle class family as an example.  Though many of us would hate to admit, it’s very hard to pay all the bills every month without dipping into our credit cards. Food, electricity, medical aid and school fees just keep going up and up.

You cough up R250 on essential food items and you walk out of Pick ‘n Pay with one bag. My household pays more than R1000 a month in electricity and we have a gas stove and have coughed up to get a solar geyser. There’s very little room to save more except that on power-hungry pool filter and we’re considering filling the pool in next year in the face of rising electricity rates. But then that might be a bad idea, considering our municipality has recently valued our house at R2.6 million despite the fact that we’d be lucky to get R1.4m if we put it on the market.

The rise in the valuation means our monthly rates have leapt from R1200 to about R2200 (though I can’t really tell as it seems to fluctuate). This despite the fact that the municipality can’t pick up the rubbish, cut verges or maintain parks across the city from the plushest suburbs to the townships and squatter camps.
Like many people of my generation, my husband and I support a set of parents financially and the school fees alone  for the two children we support will rise to R30 000 next year – and the older one is at a school with classes of 30 to 35 children so, no, it’s not a particularly good school.

We seldom eat out, do holidays at self-catering joints within a few hours’ drive of our home and on most weekends our recreation involves walking on the beach. We can’t afford a domestic worker and pay for a gardener once a week because we don’t know what he’d do without the money.

There’s not enough money to save for our children’s tertiary education or our retirement  and we have the pleasure of looking forward to the government exerting pressure on the schools we pay a small fortune for to increase class sizes not to mention the government’s ridiculous idea of undermining the private hospitals because the public hospitals are in such an atrocious state.

Like most middle class people, the only consolation is that there are millions more worse off, living in the direst poverty but as far as I can tell the rates and taxes we pay don’t do them a damn bit of good.

A former colleague of mine was in China last year to get married and met a couple of top government officials in Chongqing, for whom the standard official vehicle was a VW Passat – which goes for R290 000 new in this country.  The mayor of a Beijing district (Changping – where the Ming Tombs as well as a famous section of the Great Wall are), he was surprised to discover, drove an old VW Jetta – the box shape, before they became round body shapes.

Now, if ever there was a country today where the top officials can live a lavish lifestyle with no comeback or opposition, it is China.

So no, Mr Manuel, we don’t think you’re funny. And we don’t wish to be more Catholic than the Pope. We want to stop paying more for less and want you and your colleagues to do your jobs honestly and with integrity.

That means not siphoning off our money to family members and friends by corrupting tender systems and, most importantly, with thrift. In the real world, dropping R1.2m of tax payers’ money on a luxury car is just plain wrong – always has been; always will be.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Five things you need to know about SA today

1. The Dispatch has quite a tale today. One of East London’s former mayors (the town has had quite a few in the past few years) chased after and karate-chopped a man, who allegedly stabbed a petrol attendant.  The suspect was arrested but the petrol attendant died as a friend of the former mayor was unable to get a call through to the emergency services. He flagged down a passing ambulance but they could not stop to help immediately as they were taking a woman to an old age home and returned too late. Lots of strands to this story that say a lot about our society. Read the story here.

2.  Trevor Manuel  is consulting lawyers over claims made by Allan Boesak in a book to be published soon, reports IOL and News24.  Boesak names Manuel’s family among other sturggle activists as benefiting from donor funds channelled through his Foundation for Justice and Peace. Read the IOL story here.

3.  There’s a moerse row brewing as Nelson Mandela’s grandson is denying that he has sold the funeral rights for Madiba’s funeral to the SABC for R3-million. He made his denial to both The Times and the Dispatch after  Sunday World broke the story. The Sunday World story says Mandla ignored repeated requests for comment. Read it here and read today’s story at The Times here.

4. And while we’re on the Sunday papers, I do feel the need to point out that the Sunday Times splash this week about young girls in rural Eastern cape being forced into marraige  is a story that appeared in the Daily Dispatch a few months back. Honestly, guys. Did you not think the Dispatch readers would notice?  Here’s the Sunday Times story and click here to read the Dispatch one from March.

5. News24 has a new look. Check it out but I must mention their perculiar practise of the past few weeks of leading with international stories. There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening right in SA, guys — web users can get international news from a host of foreign sites at the click of a button.

Popularity: 10% [?]

1. Pravin Gordhan takes over the finance ministry: With his strong and respected track record as head of Sars this savvy move ensures a smooth transition in a critical portfolio while allowing incumbent Trevor Manuel to move out;
2. Trevor Manuel moves into the planning commission: This super-department will wield much of the practical power in government. His appointment should be seen that there appears to be real resolve in the new government to get serious about delivering on election promises. Given the chance to run with this Manuel has the capacity to really make things happen;
3. Ebrahim Patel as Minister of Economic Development: Seeped in the union movement and a seasoned player at national and international level, Patel brings a worker’s perspective to this critical post at a time of global economic upheaval. This ministry will be expected to provide answers and hope to millions of South Africans and to chart a new course in these stormy times. He has the experience and he has the credentials;
4. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula leaves home affairs for corrections services: Thank goodness. Her Home Affairs department has been endlessly “turning around” with little tangible sign of success. It’s policies need overhauling, particularly those relating to refugees who are currently treated like animals in a country which claims a moral high-ground and humanity towards other Africans. Her move provides a new opportunity for change there;
5. Former General Siphiwe Nyanda takes over the Communications portfolio: Well, let’s see what he can do. This portfolio will be critical as the Seacom cable launches in weeks from now heralding a broadband explosion in SA. Telkom (in which government is a major shareholder) continues on an uncertain future… and, quite frankly, anyone is better than the late and unlamented Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburi. Perhaps what is needed is a man of action…;
6. Tokyo Sexwale as Human Settlements Minister: This is a can-do guy who built up a successful business empire during his time in the political wilderness. Housing remains one of those clouds hanging over the government’s head. Policy shifts in this area have moved like the tides. The redefinition of this portfolio appears to suggest a broader and more sophisticated approach. Sexwale will be fascinating to watch in action;
7. Blade Nzimande as minister of higher education: University vice-chancellors may be quaking at this appointment but at least it will keep this dour Comunist Party demagogue out of mischief with a heavyweight portfolio as he battles with some pretty bottom-line issues around tertiary institution funding. And we can be thankful JZ didn’t give him Basic Education;
8. Rob Davies as Trade and Industry’s boss: A thoroughly decent and intelligent person who keeps his head down and gets on with the job. An excellent appointment in a critical post;
9. Kgalema Motlanthe as deputy president: In his short time as president following Thabo Mbeki’s ousting he has impressed Grubstreet with his dignity and integrity, even at times brushing swords with the politicos at Luthuli House when the greater interests of South Africa required. He brings continuity and temperance to this important office;
10. A concerted effort at diversity: All of South Africa is well represented at cabinet level providing some weight to Zuma’s promises during his inauguration speech. He has also introduced a large dose of new blood into government. Some may see many of these new figures on the national stage as lightweights but change needs to begin somewhere. Let’s see what they can do.

Popularity: 4% [?]

You know, I really would like to like Mr Zuma, our new president. I would, truly. As a proud ANC voter since 1994, I became so dismayed with Thabo Mbeki in his second term and began view him with a mixture of distaste and pity.

His paranoid, autocratic style of leadership did so much to damage our democracy — and we’re living with the consequences today: our health system is in a shambles because of Mbeki’s cronyism as he protected Manto Tshabalala-Msimang as health minister and fired Nosizwe Madlala-Routledge for acting on her conscious on the Frere Hospital investigation broken by the Daily Dispatch. (Compare, for instance, this to the fact that Barbara Hogan could speak out of turn on the Dalai Lama saga recently and still retain her job after she apologised). The dismantling of the Scorpions and now the discrediting of the NPA can be laid at Mbeki’s door as he sought to meddle — or at least created the climate for others to meddle to curry favour — where he should not have.

The corruption charges hanging over Jacob Zuma’s head are in the past as far as I’m concerned — that’s done and dusted. It’s time to move on and I do hope that Mr Zuma is as wily a political operator as I think he is.

Read the full story

Popularity: 12% [?]

1. A South African businessman found R450 000 in R100 notes in the room safe of a Port Elizabeth hotel room forgotten behind by Indian Premier League team Kings XI Punjab — whose players include Australian Brett Lee, Indian Yuvraj Singh and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene. For his troubles, he got a bottle of whisky and a signed cricket bat.

2. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel says he is willing to carry on in his post if asked by the country’s new president, although he could not “carry on forever”. Read the story at Business Day here. There are rumours in the political journalism circles that JZ may ask him to be deputy president. It would be a wily move (and Zuma is a canny old fox) but would Trev, whose number four on the ANC list, accept?

3. Business Day also reports that retail figures fell a record 4.5% in February, much more steeply than expected. Retail is the third biggest sector in SA and this could mean another rate cut at the Reserve Bank’s policy meeting at the end of April. Read the story here.

4. Here’s an interesting business story. South African construction giant  Murray & Roberts has pulled out of a R5-billion contract in Dubai, bringing its cancelled order book in the Middle East and elsewhere to R20-billion. Read the Engineering News story here. M&R doesn’t play around and its CEO is highly regarded so my guess is that they’re making so much hay while the sun shines with 2010 contruction in SA (for example, the Gautrain) that they don’t need the hassle of Dubai.

5. Talk about putting it out there. The Sowetan reports that Gauteng Health MEC Brian Hlongwa says he is so rich (from his consulting firm) he does his job for the love of the poor. This after the accusations that he could not afford his R7.2-million Joburg mansion on his salary. Glory be, we wish our next president could find himself gainful employment (perhaps with Hlongwa) so that we can all stop being suspicious about whose bankrolling him while in office. Read the Sowetan story here.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel been delving into the classics. He’s written a piece for the Financial Times in London starting thus:

Can Ulysses bind himself again to the deck, having succumbed for so long to the sirens’ allure?

Let fairness triumph over corporate profit

Great gods, Trevor, I know you’re aiming at the Oxbridge captains of industry swilling their brandies in the London clubs (though they admit women these days) but this is high-brow with a capital H. As a regular reader of the FT Weekender, I feel the need to point out their hacks tend to write very simply and accessably. All

I can protect my plonk myself, thank you very much.

the big, influential publications do these days, with Fortune leading the opack.

So, for those who can’t get through the minister’s piece, this in a nutshell is what he said: We need a new world economic order with stronger institutions, a fairer distribution of wealth and better governance.

So why’s he saying this? Well, he’s cleary on a campiagn. Last week he was interviewed by the FT saying that the International Monetary Fund needs to be reformed. He called for developing countries to be given greater weight in the governance of the IMF and the creation of a new executive body in which ministers and central bankers would have greater powers.

And here’ is my expert plonkonomics view: Trev wants to stop the rich countries increasing protectionism of their economies at the expense of the poor and developing ones as recession engulfs us. There is an argument by some economist that developing countries have a case for protectionism but the rich countries should take it as it comes. So, right on, Minister.

Popularity: 2% [?]