COMMENT , by Pete Bower
GAUTENG
MAGAZINE
HOW TO MAKE YOUR PLOT PROFITABLE
Vol 17 No 11 November 2016 PUBLISHED BY Bowford Publications ( Pty ) Ltd Established 1985
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FRONT COVER
Cattle for a smallholding ? Consider the gentle , small yet productive Dexter .
COMMENT , by Pete Bower
Interesting times
Mindful of the adage that “ a week is a long time in politics ” it ' s not an impossibility that by the time you read this ( ten or so days after I write it ), South Africa may , politically at least , be a very different place . For one can ' t help but feel , surveying the wreckage that is the upper echelon of our ruling structures , that we are seeing the beginning of the end , rather than the end of the beginning . And , ( to use about as many metaphors and cliches as I can ), political change as monumental as we are about to face is like a runaway train … it gathers ever-increasing momentum as it starts its headlong rush towards the precipice . What we South Africans are witnessing is deeply distressing : the “ capture ” of the state by Jacob Zuma , his family , his political acolytes and his chums the Guptas , and the wholesale larceny and maladministration in organisations such as SA Airways , Transnet , Prasa , Eskom , Denel , the Strategic Fuel Fund and others , and the madness of the Rosatom nuclear power deal , which make small change of the immoral expenditure on Zuma ' s Nkandla compound . Of course , with the exception of the nuclear power deal , these corporate shenanigans are nothing more than a side-show to the real deal , namely attempts by the Zupta cabal to open up the doors of SARS ( which collects all the money ) and the Treasury ( which keeps all the money ) to make the plunder complete . But there ' s another show in town , of course , as any parent of a university-age child will know , and that ' s the crisis in South Africa ' s tertiary education system . On the one hand there are small bands of hotheads intent on no more than destruction while parading under the banner of # Fees Must Fall and demanding that education must be “ decolonised ”, whatever that means . On the other , the university administrations , hobbled by Zuma ' s capitulation on fee increases last year and impotent in the face of the disruption and destruction taking place on their campuses , still cling to notions of “ academic freedom ” and open dialogue in an attempt not to revert to the harshness of the Apartheid era police-state , in the process jeopardising the academic progress of tens of thousands of students who simply want to finish their education . And it is often difficult , when living though a crisis as we are now , to see the full extent of what ' s happening , and to be able to connect single events to others in an effort to identify their correct causality and consequence . That ' s better left to historians who , with access to the bigger picture and the exact science of hindsight , and sight , hopefully , of important and , to us now at least , confidential documentation . For , to be sure , there ' s going to be one helluva book written in the future about what happened in South Africa in the second decade of the 21st Century . To Afro-pessimists and those who have gapped it to Perth , Wellington , San Francisco or Vancouver it must be easy , surveying this carnage to say “ we told you so . South Africa going the same way as Zimbabwe / all other African basket-cases . Just another bananarepublic .” But on the other hand , we are also witnessing the emergence of a cohort of leaders imbued with strength of character and unimpeachable moral probity and courage . Not to mention that Cyril Ramaphosa seems , finally , to have found his voice . Three people , particularly , stand out : Pravin Gordhan , his deputy Mcebisi Jonas and , of course , just-retired Advocate Thuli Madonsela . And they are joined by an increasingly vocal bunch within the high structures of the ANC who are beginning to show their horror at the chaos surrounding them . This bunch , I suggest , are the makings of a new and vibrant ruling class . Let ' s imagine a cabinet to replace Zuma ' s when he goes . How about Gordhan for president ? He certainly has the high profile necessary both locally and internationally , excellent speech-making ability , a long and illustrious history in the Struggle , and he would have the backing of many South Africans . Madonsela as justice minister ? She has the courage and backbone to ensure the legal system is restored to its rightful place in our constitutional democracy , and is steeped in the law , to boot . Jonas as finance minister ? He seems honest enough and as current deputy clearly understands the workings of the treasury . With Ramaphosa as foreign affairs minister , given his excellent negotiating and fly-fishing skills . Of course , this is just one possible scenario . The other , that Zuma stays put and goes for broke , fires Gordhan and Jonas and puts a pliant lackey in charge of finance , is a possibility as well . And if that happens , dear reader , re-read the paragraph above about us being a banana republic .
SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE GAUTENG SMALLHOLDER