Pierre Janssens

Author, Entrepreneur, Enemy of ignorance, smoking & bigotry. Hyper-miler. Interests: Automation, Sustainability, Investing, Astronomy, Public Transport, Scifi.

[Pierre Janssens @pj_2010]

We know starting and sustaining a business is very hard. We collected two lifetimes worth of experience in our book. Specially for you. https://t.co/r9tqyPIyGT

[Pierre Janssens @pj_2010]

The Table of Contents of our eBook on Mushroom Cultivation Business and Marketing Secrecies is available here: https://t.co/yzMiZ7Q4Xv

[RS Archer @archer_rs]

If this aircraft crashes, I have questions.

[Andy Boenau @Boenau]

"The bike lane is empty."

[Ryan Coetzee @RyanCoetzee]

The post below sets out in its first sentence what the DA stands for - and has always stood for.

One implication of the DA’s approach is that it must work forwards from its values and beliefs, and backwards from the needs of voters in real-world places as diverse as Emfuleni, Hanover Park, Chatsworth, Boksburg and Constantia. Given South Africa’s history, that’s quite a challenge, but the DA does it every day.

Meanwhile, here on X, keyboard activists for the ANC, MK and the EFF tell people the DA isn’t a party for black South Africans; the rightwing says the DA isn’t a party for Afrikaners; the PA’s brigade says the DA isn’t a party for coloured South Africans, and ASA says the DA isn’t a party for Herman, Mike or Athol 😉

The frustration of a lot of these activists online is that the DA isn’t more like the party they support - more like the ANC or the FF or the PA or ASA, etc.

Well here’s the thing: the DA does not exist to make the online activists of other parties happy. It exists, as I said at the beginning, to offer all South Africans the opportunity to live lives they value. So you’re going to be disappointed if the DA doesn’t do exactly as you demand in your social media posts.

And look, the DA is now big and complex: it is in opposition in many places; governs outright in some; is the bigger partner in some coalitions and the smaller partner in others - and this across all three spheres of government. So yes, mistakes will be made, and hopefully rectified, but overall the DA governs better than any other party, by some considerable distance. And it does so for everyone, not just the group you happen to champion.

[Pierre Janssens @pj_2010]

@tshepo87 The great leaders didnt struggle to be poor. Their entitlement is Range Rover, BMW. And your neighbours have supported this by votimg ANC and MK.

[Jordan Griffiths @JordiGriff]

With the DA polling at 45% in Tshwane, Brink is currently the most popular candidate they have among the Gauteng metros. Deploying candidates across every ANC ward in the city they are making a serious play for 51%. No other party can do this, the ANC doesn't even a candidate.

[Mbhazima Shilowa @Enghumbhini]

@IthabelengThabs @CheetahPlains This was one of the reason Gautrain was introduced, with parking and busses end to end. But still we prefer to drive and the complain about the ridership

[Sakeliga @Sakeliga]

🔴BREAKING: International airlines freed from racial licensing in South Africa

This follows Sakeliga's victory in the Pretoria High Court on Friday.

Here's the latest 🧵

[Sheree’ Woke AF @ShereeWokeAF]

💯

[Ryan Coetzee @RyanCoetzee]

South Africa’s elite is constantly coming up with priorities that trump growth and jobs.

Well-paid politicians and senior public servants, “activists” of various sorts, businesses that want protection from competition, academics in a range of fields - for too many of these people there is always something more important than an economy that generates jobs in a country that makes it easier to start and grow a business.

In a country with decades of world historical levels of unemployment there is something staggeringly self-regarding about powerful people who refuse the idea that the interests of those in or near poverty are not the priority.

[Ryan Coetzee @RyanCoetzee]

You can’t complain about property prices being too high and also object to new housing developments.

You can’t want better public transport and also object to densification.

You can’t want a city that attracts investment and also object to urbanization.

You can’t, in short, have your cake and eat it.

[Ryan Coetzee @RyanCoetzee]

Well done on your degree. Your analysis and prescription, however, are wrong. South Africa has too little state where it should have more (as our infrastructure catastrophe demonstrates) and too much state where it should have less (as the entire existence of DTIC demonstrates).

Even if you could spend your way to growth in theory (you can to a point, after which inflation and debt-servicing costs bite you because there’s no such thing as a free lunch) there is no reasonable prospect of turning the South African state into some sort of multiplier even in the medium term. To suggest it can be is a classic example of wishful thinking rather than strategic thinking.

We could, however, create conditions in which more people with capital (from the micro to the global) are prepared to risk their money in the hope of generating a return on it. And we should.

PS: I was championing free speech before you were born, young man 😉

[Ryan Coetzee @RyanCoetzee]

“South Africa faces…” Unfortunate, isn’t it, to find ourselves in this situation? How has this sad state of affairs come about, I wonder? And why is it so “persistent”? If only we knew. Terrible to be such victims of circumstance.

[Geordin Hill-Lewis @geordinhl]

I welcome the President’s message this evening, and I join him in urging all South Africans to live out the values of our Constitution.

We should all reject those who stoke hatred and division, or who tacitly encourage vigilantism.

Our response to legitimate concerns around illegal immigration must demonstrate the best of what our country is.

Those concerns arise out of an economy that has not meaningfully grown for far too long, leaving people poorer and poorer. That is where our attention must focus - on the reforms needed to speed up growth and get people into work. 🇿🇦

Read more: https://t.co/f6P3tRIex9

[Pierre Janssens @pj_2010]

@lEsethuHasane No

[Andrew Gebo @GeboMpls]

Car dependency is a mandatory tax on your freedom and bank account. True fiscal conservatism is living in a walkable neighborhood where you don’t need a $40,000 depreciating asset just to buy groceries.

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

After 8 billion doses (yes 8 BILLION, not a typo) Covid vaccines are at this point one of the most tested medical interventions in history and one of the safest ever

[Pierre Janssens @pj_2010]

@derJamesJackson Siemens came up with it. Not Deutsche Bahn.

[Pierre Janssens @pj_2010]

@NicoletteBailey Pfft, who cares about a golf course. Much more important to densify the city.

[Nicole van Dyk 🇿🇦 MPL @MyLeaderNicole]

Crunching the numbers, working late into the evening to get those valuable new registrations and re-registrations.

35000 ppl not registered in #Centurion. And about 40% of voters registered incorrectly!

#Tshwane can be DA! It's just up to 🫵🏽 to take the step to register & VOTE

[Ian Cameron @IanCameron23]

Beautiful! 🔥