There are many reasons why Wednesday's budget will be a very tough one with many different taxes raised, There are the usual frequently mentioned reasons and two big ones that seem to have been overlooked by most budget soothsayers. The obvious reasons include the underperformance by SARS, government overspending, the huge cost of the bloated …
The fishermen’s wall – Umngazi River Mouth
The rivers in the Transkei are different to those in KwaZulu-Natal. The difference lies in the sugarcane farming along the KZN coast and the natural grasslands along the Transkei coast. Most KZN rivers and their lagoons are silted up by the soil washing off the sugar cane lands. The rivers in the Transkei are not, …
Peter the cockroach killer
The Principal of the University of Natal during much of the 1960s, Professor Owen Horwood, and I had a less than cordial relationship and we had several run-ins. (For background, Horwood later joined the National Party (apartheid) Government as the Minister of Finance. He was married to Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith's sister. Quite a …
Next week’s budget – between a rock and a hard place
When it comes to the budget next week, newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa, and his promise of renewal, finds himself between a rock and a hard place. The government needs a budget to be passed timeously. But the budget before parliament will essentially be a Zuma Corruption budget. How can he or the ANC defend or …
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King Zuma’s reign ends
I had expected to feel excitement and even elation. But by the time King Zuma finally announced the end of his reign, I felt no excitement, only sadness and relief. It reminded me of Richard Nixon's resignation many decades ago. Sadness at the decade that Zuma had stolen from South Africa and her people. Sadness …
Black mischief
It is July 1961, I am one the delegates from the University of Natal (Durban) travelling by train to my first NUSAS Congress, at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape. Apartheid is in its heyday. Efforts to keep black and white apart seemed to have intensified The train stops at a station, many people get …
Another R20 Billion to Eskom? The answer should be hell no!
The new Eskom team is reported to be begging local banks to lend it another R20 billion to help it keep going. If I was a bank I would say “hell no, not until you publish your interim financial results, show me a believable survival plan, and get the new board members to personally underwrite the …
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