Pieter Venter

Entrepeneur and concerned citizen of SA , Big picture guy stuck in a little picture world!

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Carl Icahn on the 12 floors of employees he fired after nobody could explain what they actually did

"I get control of this company, ACF. They had 12 floors on Third Avenue. I'm a good numbers guy, a good poker player, I'm going to go understand what they do. They send me to the 12th floor with my yellow pad, and they're explaining, this guy does this, these guys do that. I go to the seventh floor, spend the whole day, go home, look at my yellow pad, and I can't figure out what the hell they do. I go back the next day, the ninth floor, the eighth floor. I'm not an idiot, and I can't figure out what they do. I ask, what do you need him for? Oh, this is very arcane stuff, you're not going to understand it"

"So I call the guy who actually runs the plant in St. Louis, Joe. A John Wayne character, a former Marine captain, a tough guy. He shows me what he does, and I understand it, boom boom. We go have a martini, and I say, Joe, how many of those guys in New York do you need to support your operation? He says, I need minus 30. I say, what does that mean, minus 30? He says, because you don't have the balls to do what I'll tell you to do. Get rid of all of them tomorrow, and I'll need 30 people less to support them with numbers they make me send that I don't need"

"I still couldn't believe it. So I bring in consultants, the great leasing experts in the world, a professor from Columbia. Quarter of a million dollars, three weeks. They come back with a book this big, yellow graphs, red graphs, green graphs. I say, I'm colorblind anyway, just tell me what they do. And he smiles and says, you've been square with us, so I'm going to tell you something. We don't know what they do either. I am not joking"

"So I called Joe up, gave everybody severance, nobody was mad, got rid of the whole 12 floors, and sold the lease for 10 million dollars. And here's the thing. If you shut down a grocery store, you'd hear from somebody, the apples weren't right. If you had a flower shop, somebody's roses wilted. This was like a science fiction movie. It was like they never existed. I never got a letter. I never got anybody calling me"

[Pieter Venter @pdv606]

just un imaginable waste and terrible JHB / ANC management - the western cape is certainly a world apart and Helen led that charge many years ago after Rasool and Lynne Browne tried to do the same to Cape Town and this Province! Feel so sorry for All Jhb / Gauteng residents …

[Zille for Mayor @HelenZille4Jozi]

Is this incompetence, deliberate sabotage or both? You be the judge.

#BelieveInJoburg #Zille4Mayor

[Jack Miller @JackMillerCPT]

Poverty and economic collapse is a choice.

As soon as we get rid of these ridiculous economic and political policies from the socialist DA and the communist ANC, we can start to fix the mess we are in.

In fact we will thrive.

Singapore did it.
Argentina is doing it.
We can too.

#RuleOfLaw
#PeaceAndProsperity
#CapeIndependence

https://t.co/iuke0L8VAO

[Brandon Herrera @TheAKGuy]

There is a great irony to the US being lectured about gun control by a country that instituted it, and has since had their murder rate skyrocket.

[Dudley Brown @GunRightsPrez]

33 people are shot dead in South Africa every day. This week, the UN handed that country the gavel at its Arms Trade Treaty conference.

South Africa passed some of the strictest gun laws on earth. Citizens surrendered their guns under threat of prison. Then police tasked with destroying those guns sold them to street gangs.

More than 1,000 murders have been traced to those firearms, including hundreds of children.

The state took their guns and armed their killers.

And South Africa isn’t the cautionary tale at this conference. It’s presiding over it.

So I flew to Geneva and said it to their faces.

Full speech below.

[steve van niekerk @NiekerkSteve]

Mark Burke the hero of economically literate South Africans.
Thank you The Common Sense for honouring your name and what true economic and democratic freedom stands for.
MSM ,ANC and EFF comrades .Thank you for once again illustrating to the world who you really are and why SA is going backwards so fast.

[Jordan Griffiths @JordiGriff]

Wow.....undoubtedly the best article you will read on Mark Burke.

A clinical breakdown of how a technical glitch was made into a nonsense scandal. Incredible job here by @CommonSense_ZA

Thank you.
https://t.co/kgKnC30jyj

[Just Rock Content @JustRockContent]

One of the all-time great Rock Hall moments: Dolly’s “Jolene” with Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Pat Benatar, Annie Lennox, Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), Pink, and Sheryl Crow. Zac Brown Band held it down as the house band.

Rest easy, Dolly 🤘

[Megan S. @SimplyMegszcpt]

I'm speechless!!! 😳
#ANCMustFall 🇿🇦

[Pieter Venter @pdv606]

fantastic! Prince Mashele is incredible in his comment and insight (always!)

[In A Nutshell🥜 @Markosonke1]

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: PRINCE MASHELE OFFICIALLY ENDORSES HELEN ZILLE FOR JOBURG MAYOR!

Prince Mashele says he has publicly endorsed Helen Zille for Johannesburg mayor.

The Joburg mayoral race is already heating up, and Zille is collecting some interesting endorsements. 👀🇿🇦

Joburg 2026 is going to be one hell of a political battle. 🔥

[Jordan Griffiths @JordiGriff]

DA at 43%
VF+ 8%
Total: 51%
Quick Maths.

On behalf of the residents of Tshwane we welcome this polling.

[Adam Habib @AdHabb]

This is why Zille needs to win Johannesburg, & decisively! If she does not get an overall majority, the city & SA are doomed. Her victory & the clean up she will subsequently undertake is necessary.
Businesses grow desperate in broke Johannesburg https://t.co/irKsX72giR via @ft

[Pieter Venter @pdv606]

@GvanOnselen never seen anything good coming out of huge talkshops like this - just a waste of money and buying time ito politics and backlash over issues….slowly slowly and then forgotten about …..

[Hillel Fuld @HilzFuld]

This might be the best comedy act ever.

[Ryan Coetzee @RyanCoetzee]

Watch this!

[Gareth van Onselen @GvanOnselen]

Returning to JHB today. I hear it is 5 degrees. Also no water for a week, probably next week too. Oh and no electricity. But the good news is the PikItUp crisis might be resolved, hard to say. Anyway, really chomping at the bit for a taste of a world class African city.

[Pieter Venter @pdv606]

@4KobusWiese Nog een vanoggend tussen Ladismith en Riversdal!

[Pieter Venter @pdv606]

@miradreaamy 60

[Pieter Venter @pdv606]

@onlyskypace 3 x 4 / 2 = 12 sq m

[Pieter Venter @pdv606]

@onlyskypace 12