PETER BRUCE'S PIE IN THE SKY SOLUTION

Dear Peter Bruce,

          In your Sunday Times column this week you proposed an idyllic solution to what you describe as South Africa’s “single most pressing social threat - land.”

          You told us that “everyone knows South African capitalism is Victorian. It makes only a few people rich.”

          You are making us out to be unique. Isn’t that what happens all over the world, whatever system is in place?

          After first telling us that capitalism is the only answer “to poverty and inequality because it creates wealth” you suggested remedies that are the antithesis of capitalism.

(If anybody knows how well capitalism works it's Warren

Buffett capitalism needs overhauling )                                                                           

       Handouts never made anybody rich except for those who corrupt the system. They certainly don’t encourage people to work hard and make a prosperous life for themselves.

          Your idea is to give every person who has nothing a 1000 sq m plot from the country’s unused land, as close to “an existing town or city as possible.” Imagine the in fighting and bribery there would be to get the plots next to the big cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. A further complication would be that the value of the plots would vary enormously and a lot of well off people would suddenly claim to be poor.

          Your other pie in the sky idea is to have R20 000 deposited into a bank account in the name of every child born. The money would then be invested by our asset managers for “at least a 10% return” until the child could access it at the age of 21.

          Anybody who has had a retirement annuity where they are forced by law to have the money looked after by an insurance company will know how much the returns suffer from the amounts that are creamed off in fees. Mine has grown well short of 10% in the last 10 years.

          You go on to say that about 1.1 million people are born every year and by the time the first children turn 21 there would be more than R20-trillion in the kitty. You add more wishful thinking with, “The state would claim its investment back from their estates when they die.”

          Much like the current student loans scheme, no doubt, where they are supposed to repay their loans once they have a job, but many don’t bother and the Government doesn’t make much effort to collect what is due either.

          “We would never have to entertain a ratings agency ever again,” you claim.

          It’s as simple as that. Only you don’t say where all this money would come from; where you would find the people honest enough to look after it for all those years and so on.

          Your Communist type, master plan would produce different “pressing social threats,” like protests from people who urgently need their money paid before they reach 21.  Then too we would have abandoned plots of land all over the place in areas where people don’t want to live.

          You also told us that your dream scheme depended on the impossible, certainly in South Africa that is …. “clean, efficient government and brave politicians to make it happen.”

          The real answer surely is to reform the capitalist system itself. It can’t last in its present form where so few people have more money than the rest put together.

          There should be a ceiling on wealth. And once that ceiling is reached you pay say 90% of your income in tax.

          Of course that will never happen because the power is in the hands of the rich.    

          A French Revolution type revolt is the only way to placate the destitute and give the rich the fright they need. But that won’t solve anything either as most people, particularly the masses, will then be far worse off than they were before.

          It wouldn’t be long before man’s greed would produce a new crop of super rich once again.

          Can you imagine Julius Malema and his cronies choosing to ride around in an old bakkie instead of a top of the range Mercedes Benz or BMW if your plan became a reality? 

          Thanks Bruce for this idea that was no doubt conceived to convey the message that the Sunday Times has the welfare of the poor of our country at heart. It was a bit of light hearted reading on a par with Zapiro’s cartoon which was on the same page. Luckily the poor can’t afford to buy your paper otherwise they might soon be clogging our cities with marches when they don’t get their free bit of land.

          Regards

          Jon

 P.S. Note to readers: Apart from being a regular SundayTimes columnist Bruce is also Editor-in-Chief of Business Day and the Financial Mail in Johannesburg, so he won’t be needing a free plot. He’s already a very healthy CAPITALIST.  But no doubt any additions to his immediate or extended family would qualify for that R20 000 nest egg.

       

Lindiwe Mazibuko - fighting way above her weight

Dear Lindiwe Mazibuko,

         You’ve really got South Africa’s ruling party the African National Congress (ANC) in a twitter, especially its male Members of Parliament.

         They can’t stand the fact that you are cleverer and more articulate than they are.

Worse still you are a Black woman who is supposed to know her place as subservient to them.

         Worst of all at 33 you are the Parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the ANC’s main opposition party and its sworn enemy.

         It’s a sure sign of mental inadequacy when a person has to resort to insults in a debate when they are being outwitted by their opponent. And that’s just what has been happening to certain ANC members who have found you too quick witted for comfort.

         How many of these loud mouths would have dared to appear on BBC’s Hard Talk. None of them I bet, least of all South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma. It’s not called that for nothing as you know because the interviewer pulls no punches.

         Yet you came through the cut and thrust of that encounter superbly. Nobody, except your brainless ANC opponents, could have been anything else but impressed by your self assurance and political nous.

        You must have been delighted with all the praise you got on social media.

         Of course it’s nothing new for you to be personally insulted by members of the ANC. One of the first was that uneducated upstart Julius Malema when he was President of the ANC’s Youth League.

         As you know he delighted in saying of you, "She’s the tea girl of the Madam, and her role must remain there." He was talking about your relationship with Helen Zille, the White leader of the DA.

         But while your star has continued to rise higher and higher in South African politics he has been kicked out of the ANC and is struggling for recognition in the wilderness.

      

Lindiwe with the Madam by her side

         More recently, when you were highlighting the many flaws in President Zuma’s leadership during his budget speech in Parliament, some of his underlings felt they had to come to the rescue of Number 1.

         The best John Jeffery could think of was, "While the Honourable Mazibuko may be a person of substantial weight, her stature is questionable."

         Encouraged by this Buti Manamela piped up with; "Honourable Mazibuko has bad fashion taste and has been arrested by the Fashion Police. Blame Zuma, everything must be blamed on Zuma."

         I accept you could improve your dress sense but what you were wearing – a red jacket over a black and white dress with black tights – was by no means the worst fashion crime in the house. In any case all that the dress code stipulates is that it must be in accordance with the dignity of Parliament, something that would be hard to fathom at times.

         The ANC subsequently refused to withdraw its claim that you were inappropriately dressed but apologised for saying you were overweight.

       

No Books Angie

  No wonder, it has had heavyweight problems of its own. And boy did the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga and her ANC get their knickers in a twist when a very large pair labelled Angie’s knickers was carried through the streets by protesting teachers.

         The members of the South African Teachers Union were threatened with "the full wrath of our justice system" (Toothless at the best of times). Quite justifiably they want the Minister, who is in charge of the worst education shambles in the world, to resign.

         It was ironic that in a letter to the Union she wrote that the panty protest "signified that women cannot be fully human and so society has every right to poke fun at women in very denigrating ways."

South Africa's new National Flag

        Of course that’s exactly what the two faced ANC has been doing to you.

         Ever the optimist Angie maintained, "Not only do they owe an apology to me, but the rest of South African women."

         Lindiwe there are lots of other ANC members who would tip the scales in their favour with you on the other side. But when it comes to well articulated, intelligent debating ability they would have a job finding someone in your league.

         So laugh off these ANC barbs because far from diminishing your stature they are actually enhancing it and getting your name up in lights, which is just what you need in politics.

Inappropriately dressed

         Keep punching well above your weight and those ANC smart alecs could have egg on their faces if your Star performer and Black, young and gifted tags eventually help to ensure that your DA becomes the champion that governs the entire country.

         Best wishes from a Huge Admirer,

         VIVA LA DA (I speak isiZulu)

         Jon 

P.S. I see you went to St Mary’s that posh school in Durban. Isn’t that another one of the ANC’s gripes, that you speak English too well to be one of us Blacks? St Mary’s schools produce real class. I should know. I am lucky enough to be married to an old girl (she’ll kill me for saying that) of the Johannesburg St Mary’s where Helen Zille went to school (Nothing like name dropping to enhance my career).