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