It doesn't make sense why some people still vote for the ANC... unless they enjoy tenders, are related to deployed cadres or benefit in other ways.
Even ANC leaders refuse to live in ANC-run spaces, send their kids to ANC-managed schools or go to ANC-managed hospitals.
“BRING IT ON,” SAYS NHLANHLA LUX
Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini has warned alleged extortionists forcing shops in Soweto to close that they should not bring their “nonsense” into the township.
Lux said a small group calling themselves community members are, in his view, extortionists rather than revolutionaries.
He says businesses should not be forced to close or surrender to intimidation, and has challenged those behind the alleged shutdowns.
“Bring it on,” Lux said.
#BeastOfNews #Soweto #NhlanhlaLux #Extortion
@nhlanhla_lux_
Dr Pali Lehohla says South Africa’s economy should be 3x what it is, but the government is too stupid, corrupt and greedy.
Dr Lehohla’s assessment resonate with many people because because it presents a straightforward diagnosis that if you simply root out corruption and adopt better ideas, the potential of the economy will be unlocked.
By saying that it’s just stupidity, corruption and lack of “imagination”, Dr Lehohla appears to disregard how South Africa’s economy is structured.
For starters, South Africa’s policy strategy, particularly since 1996 and especially in 2000 with the introduction of inflation-targeting, has relied heavily on attracting foreign portfolio flows to cover its chronic current account deficit.
This is what has largely kept South Africa as Africa’s leading economy. The steady flow of hundreds of billions of dollars helps South Africa cover its foreign currency shortages which it desperately needs to trade in international markets.
Now, to keep these financial inflows coming, National Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank must prioritise high real interest rates and financial market stability to reassure foreign bondholders that SA is a safe space for their dollars, pounds and euros.
Although these high interest rates attract foreign bond buyers, they also make borrowing expensive for local businesses, which stifles job creation, hence SA’s high unemployment rate.
To National Treasury and the Reserve Bank, these are just the costs of doing business.
The point is that contrary to popular belief, the Treasury isn’t acting out of ignorance or lack of vision. They are aware that if they were to deviate too sharply to pursue aggressive growth policies, they would risk a currency collapse, soaring inflation and other quite serious economic problems they would rather not deal with.
Someone may argue that adopting these policies all those years ago in the first place *is* the stupidity Dr Lehohla is lamenting. This may very well be the case, but still, there were reasons beyond just a lack of imagination.
For one, when the original GNU took office in 1994, it inherited an economy that had been isolated by sanctions, burdened by high public debt and severely capital-starved. The South African Reserve Bank had virtually no foreign exchange reserves to defend the currency or finance international trade.
The SARB had no reserves because its senior officials had pilfered and looted the money when it started looking apparent that the White minority government would collapse.
Because of this, South Africa had gone from an economy designed to comfortably serve 10% of the population, to one that had to service tens of millions more overnight. But the internal savings were far too low to finance the massive infrastructure and industrial development needed for this.
To grow the economy and meet these new social goals, South Africa needed to import capital equipment and consumer goods. However, the country needed to importing far more than it was exporting which created a persistent current account deficit and without domestic savings to bridge the gap, the government had to desperately attract foreign capital. That’s how the foreign investors came swooping in.
But there was also something that happened in the early 1990s that spooked the ANC and convinced leadership at National Treasury and the Reserve Bank that the country was hyper-vulnerable to foreign currency shortages.
In early 1996, South Africa experienced a sudden capital outflow when rumours and market uncertainty caused foreign investors to pull short-term capital out of the country. As a result, the Rand depreciated by over 20% in a few months and because official foreign exchange reserves were so low, the Reserve Bank was powerless to defend the currency.
So, to prevent currency collapses that would spark runaway inflation and destroy purchasing power, the government concluded it had to prioritise foreign investor confidence above everything else.
So, in response to the 1996 crisis, the ANC shifted away from the state-led Redistribution and Development Programme and introduced GEAR which committed the country to the public budget and removing foreign exchange controls to reassure foreign investors that they could move their money in and out freely.
In short, South Africa adopted the current way of doing things as a deliberate strategy to solve the fundamental dilemma of how to finance a growing, open economy with insufficient domestic savings and low foreign exchange reserves.
Now, to be fair to Dr Lehohla, he could be saying they were stupid and spineless for caving to foreign pressure when they could have stood their ground and doubled down on state-led industrial development. In which case, I tend to agree.
I would go a bit further and say what Treasury is doing may have been a necessity in 1996, but was already unnecessary by 2006, let alone in 2026.
South Africa now has $75 to 80 billion in gross reserves vs. almost zero in 1996. So, the original scarcity rationale is diminished. Yet Treasury has continuously been running an austerity programme, even during commodity booms like in the 2000s when it could have built fiscal buffers and invested in infrastructure.
So Dr Lehohla’s lack of imagination accusation appears to land when you ask *why* the ANC government never adapted its strategy throughout the decades as conditions changed.
The answer to this question is disheartening. The reality is that if the government, through Treasury, were to attempt to change its economic trajectory, what happened in 1996 would repeat.
Vested interests would pull capital, short the rand, spread negative news and systematically suffocate the economy until the government falls back in line.
Still, Dr Lehohla is correct that the ANC has been stupid for a while. In the last twenty years they could have built countervailing power like through a sovereign wealth fund, a regional payment system outside dollar dominance, strategic reserves of essentials or diversified trading partners to reduce USD dependency.
Instead, they accepted dependence on short-term foreign dollars, which is why they now have to keep going back to the IMF and World Bank to borrow more of those dollars.
Similarly, the National Treasury has internalised the market’s preferences so completely that they now believe austerity is good policy instead of coercion. As Antonio Gramsci warned, the dominant ideology has now become common sense.
Build your own Afriforum
Build your own Orania
Build your own Royal Bafokeng
Build your own ZCC
Build your own Shembe Church
Build systems that help you & your people thrive and insulate yourself from forces that want to keep you poor, broken & excluded from success.
@NahomAnten49389@DrTedros@marcusbooks@ymahmoudali@UN_HRC@UNGeneva@UNHumanRights This senseless character assassination of the SA image and the malicious lies thereof must stop with immediately...
...the question should be...why don't Ethiopians go make those claims back home where they ran from...you can't enter another country ILLIGALLY and make claims...
We told you so...while your so called "leaders" pushed you to the slaughter house like unsuspecting sheep...they knew what was going on and hoped you wouldn't know...
🚨 BREAKING SPECIAL REPORT: For the First Time Ever, the COVID Jabs Are Called “Bioweapons” in Court! WHAT WAS CALLED “CONSPIRACY” IS NOW EVIDENCE IN COURT! [VIDEO]
🚨 Historic Dutch court case labels COVID-19 mRNA shots as military bioweapons. Dr. Francis Boyle’s final testimony shakes the global narrative.
🚨 THEY SAID IT WAS A CONSPIRACY. NOW IT’S EVIDENCE IN COURT — COVID = BIOWEAPON!
👉 READ THE FULL BOMBSHELL REPORT HERE: https://t.co/AcFGZFWIMq
📢 JOIN THE PATRIOT TRUTH WAR: https://t.co/FWCa4CamU4
🌐 EXPLORE THE FRONTLINE: https://t.co/F2U5vWBg3k
I really pity Uncle Lamola for doing a dirty damage control job created by Clownish,Charlatans, Extortionists disguised as Patriots or Parrots🦜🦜🦜🦜🇿🇦💔😞😞😞😞😞😞
@Bonafela_@magicdan60 ...very true...the same ones who closed technical schools, nursing colleges, Aventura resorts, parts of the railways...the same ones who keep awarding Masters and Doctoral scholarships to other than South Africans who use SAn qualifications as a springboard to the West...
The Grand Illusion of South African Education: A Case Study of Midrand High School :
Let’s talk about Midrand High School and the Gauteng Department of Education. Earlier this year, a parent raised a massive red flag about the extreme number of foreign teachers at the school. Yet, the silence from @EducationGP is deafening.
For context, here is the educator roll call a concerned parent asked MEC Lebogang Maile to investigate to ensure their immigration and labor documents are legally 100% in order:
• Mr S Bhila (Maths)
• Ms B Chikwiri (Science)
• Mr M Chingono (Maths)
• Ms S Kibuuka (Econ)
• Ms P Mabhena (IsiZulu)
• Mr W Manyame (Maths)
• Mr T Mathobela (Science)
• Ms M Miti (History)
• Mr T Mudamburi (Maths)
• Mr E Mundandi (LO)
• Mr M Ncube (English)
• Ms N Ncube (Life Science)
• Mr R Ncube (Life Science)
That is NINETEEN teachers in just one institution. 😳 👀
We are constantly told by the GDE that foreign nationals are only hired for "scarce and critical skills."
Please explain to us how Life Orientation, Tourism, English, History, and IsiZulu became critically scarce skills in South Africa? The math is not mathing.
With thousands of qualified, young South African education graduates sitting at home collecting cobwebs and stress, how is this justified? The "rare skills" excuse is officially dead. There is no shortage of local talent; there is a shortage of accountability.
@SADTU_National, your silence on this is incredibly loud. Do local teacher unions only care about local teachers during strike season?And where are Home Affairs, @section_27, SACE, and the Labour Dept on this? Is anyone actually checking the paperwork? 🧐
MEC Lebogang Maile, South Africans are tired of a provincial department that operates with its eyes wide shut. We want the laws of this republic applied without fear or favour.
Fix the system. Our unemployed youth are watching. 🇿🇦 Change my mind.
@SizweLo Even the great Oliver Tambo understood that the system had to go not to be reformed...not only the apartheid system but the current political discourse...anything new that does reflect anything about this system...