You Probably Don’t Want to Know Why My Mind’s in a Technical Recession

I’m going to tell you anyway

I try to stitch the distressed seams of my mental fabric, but the edges fray as incessant bad news batters and tears at the cloth of my being.

Should I wrap my brain in cotton wool, close my eyes and pretend all is well? Ignore the braying of fools who are running my country into the ground?

I need to relieve the pressure, open the valve and pour my rants onto your screens.

Please keep a lint-free cloth handy to wipe up the mess.

Why did I mention a technical recession in the title?

It’s not just the economy.

South Africa is in a sorry state — correction — is a sorry state. The ruling party is corrupt, incompetent, inept, incapable, ineffective, bungling, blustering, ill-informed and ignorant.

Much like Putin and his acolytes, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) excels at deflection. They claim no responsibility for the woeful state of our nation.

It’s not their fault!

They’ve done nothing wrong!

You can’t fix something if you deny anything needs fixing.

We’re in a downward spiral, picking up momentum and at this rate we’re losing hope that we can stop it. The waves of breaking news pound us every day, giving us no time to pause and pick up the pieces of our lives.

The shenanigans provide plenty of writing material for books — The President’s Keepers, The Gangster State, How to Steal a Country, The Enemy Within, Confronting the Corrupt, Predator Politics, Clash of the Cartels, Our Poisoned Land, The ANC Billionaires, The Unaccountables — to name a few.

I sniggered today at the daily newsletter I receive from Neale Donald Walsch, part of which reads:

“What are you worried about today? Why? Rather than worry about it, would it not be a better use of your mental time to visualize a positive outcome? “

He obviously isn’t familiar with what’s happening in South Africa!

For instance, today (17 March) the ANC are marching in Pretoria to protest against the opposition-led Democratic Alliance (DA) in the municipality, accusing them of corruption.

Deflection!

Then the Economic Freedom Fighters — the geezers who wear red overalls in public as a sign of solidarity with the poor and keep their expensive cars, watches and high fashion clothing out of sight — have called for a national shutdown on Monday, 20 March — the day before our Human Rights Day holiday — to demand that the president resign and for the electricity blackouts to stop.

South Africa is on high alert, recalling the riots that hit us in July 2021, provoked by the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma for refusing to appear before the Zondo Commission of Enquiry into State Capture. The primary instigators remain free to this day.

Our president won’t resign, nor will our struggling national electricity provider, Eskom, be able to solve the systemic problems at their coal-fired power plants overnight.

Eskom

You will recall I wrote in January about the attempted assassination of Andre de Ruyter, CEO of Eskom, in December last year. Much has happened since then.

You would think an assassination attempt on a CEO of a state-owned enterprise would cause high-ranking officers of the police and state security to take urgent action to investigate.

Instead, they sent two middle-aged sergeants from the SA Police Service who didn’t have a clue (pardon the pun) what cyanide was and asked de Ruyter if he’d been having sinus problems

What a f-cking farce!

Then de Ruyter gave an explosive interview on 22 February on a local news channel which received major blow-back from the ANC.

The Eskom board called him to a meeting the next day, and by mutual agreement (a euphemism to soften the truth?) he left Eskom with immediate effect instead of staying on until the end of March.

If you can spare 52 minutes, please watch!

The crux of the matter is that he implicated two senior ministers in the graft and corruption taking place at Eskom without naming them. He also revealed the existence of four criminal cartels connected to these ministers. They operate with impunity in Mpumalanga Province, the location of most of the country’s power plants with coal mines in close proximity.

As Transnet, the freight rail company run (down!) by the state is also in decline, trucks deliver the coal supplies over our pot-holed roads. Many trucks off-load the better quality coal and replace with sub-standard coal with a few rocks thrown in, which they then deliver to the power plants.

The high-grade coal is exported — there are other corrupt players in the game.

The former CEO estimates these cartels are siphoning off around $54-million a month! Enough to fund the National School Feeding Scheme for a year.

Prior to the CEO’s departure, President Ramaphosa declared a National State of Disaster over the electricity crisis in his State of the Nation Address on 9 February. He also announced his intention to appoint a Minister of Electricity to operate within the President’s office. Four weeks later, we have said minister in place.

The layers of bureaucracy are mind-boggling. We have a minister of mineral resources and energy (who loves coal), as well as a minister of public enterprises, both of whom have oversight on different aspects of Eskom operations.

The ANC philosophy, reminiscent of the Soviet era, is to throw more people with overlapping responsibilities at the problem and expect a different outcome.

And of course, the ANC has taken legal action against de Ruyter for not sticking to his mandate as a CEO, for not reporting these crimes to the police, and becoming involved in politics????

A state-owned enterprise is a political animal!

The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), backed by all other opposition parties bar two, has called for parliament to establish an ad hoc committee to investigate the cartel corruption at Eskom. The parliamentary debate took place on Thursday, 16 March, to fierce resistance from the ANC.

Once again, they revealed the dystopian universe they occupy and their lack of intellectual capacity.

I quote from today’s Daily Maverick article:

Parliamentary public enterprises committee chairperson Khaya Magaxa said: “We need not ignore the racial undertone in right-wing parties, such as led by the DA, [and their] obsession with De Ruyter’s childish allegations. Yes, this is childish allegations, chairperson, because he behaved like a spoilt rich child who throws his toys all over the room because his R18-million job reached a dead end.¹

“If the truth can be told, De Ruyter used Eskom to drive his independent power producers’ agenda in order to capture Eskom to private accumulation at the expense of the poor of the country, by and large black people.²

¹ Andre de Ruyter stuck it out for three years, tried to root out corruption, survived an attempted assassination with total silence from the ANC, and received no support when the minister of mineral sources and energy accused him of treason because of the ongoing power blackouts. He resigned.

² Poverty and unemployment have increased under the ANC. We are now the most unequal country in the world!

QED.

Eskom’s incapacity to keep the lights on has damaged our livelihoods and the economy every day since 6 September of last year.

The US Embassy recently issued an alert to its citizens in South Africa to stock up on food and water!

On the economic front

• CEO’s of companies warn we are in danger of becoming a failed state.
• Businesses spend millions every month on back-up batteries, generators and diesel, leading to higher prices for the consumer.
• The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) recently adjusted its annual growth estimate for the country’s economy from 1.1% to 0.3%. It may get worse.
• International investors are flooding out of the country, disposing of $5.4-million worth of stocks and bonds so far this year.
• Stats SA’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data showed a 1.3% of economic decline in the last quarter of 2022. The first quarter of 2023 is likely to reveal a further decline, putting us into a technical recession — hence my title.
• On 9 March, the international ratings firm S&P Global downgraded our economic outlook from positive to stable — citing load shedding.
• In late February, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) included South Africa on its grey list for their inadequate efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

On other fronts

The Civicus Monitor, which tracks the democratic and civic health of 197 countries across the world, released a new report on 16 March, in which it downgraded South Africa from narrow to obstructed. One reason is the killing of land rights activists.

David Kode, Civicus advocacy and campaigns lead:

“The killing of land rights activists is one reason the change happened in South Africa. But added to that are attacks on journalists brought by the state and non-state actors, including political individuals… physical attacks, threats, acts of intimidation on journalists, and the threats that whistle-blowers face in South Africa.”

Kruger National Park — According to researcher Julian Rademeyer, in a report for the European Union-funded crime response organisation Enact, at least 40% of Kruger Park’s law enforcement employees are corrupt and up to 70% of other park employees may be assisting poachers who have decimated the rhino population.

There are links to criminal syndicates operating in Mpumalanga Province, which borders the park.

The recent health workers strike by NEHAWU (the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union) was a blot on what unions used to stand for. They invaded state clinics and hospitals, blocked entrances, denied access to patients, as well as to nurses and doctors who wanted to work.

What inhumane savagery to deny poor people who cannot afford private health care the right to treatment and medicines. Imagine the uproar if striking health workers in the UK behaved in this brutal manner!

Last, in a country with rising crime rates, we have a crime line crisis. Our emergency number is 10111 — good luck if you can get through. The department of police revealed in parliament that call centres are 40% understaffed! Over the past three years, 6.3 million calls went unanswered, so it’s likely the number of dropped calls is even higher.

Aftershock

This is not a comprehensive list of all that’s wrong in South Africa, but I wanted to keep this rant to a seven-minute read!

(The cosying up to Russia is another story coming soon!)

I can’t “visualize a positive outcome” but feel better for having shared with you why my mind is in a technical recession.

For laughs, I leave you with a short skit about another national disaster — potholes:

Thank you for being here.

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