Our esteemed president, Jacob Zuma, is fast becoming Idi Amin-cum-Robert Mugabe.
He has a penchant for appointing his friends (and ex lovers) to cabinet positions or other high-ranking roles, and then protecting them despite their incompetence.
First off he laughed when asked why the taxpayer should pay millions on 'security' etc for his own private residence. About 2500 Ferraris worth!
Then it was asked why the Police Minister was colluding with criminal elements, and protecting other coppers who were doing the same.
This week it all came to a head.
The Finance Minister put his foot down, and chastised the SA Airways chairperson for entering into some incredibly dodgy refinancing scheme with Airbus, which would have put a lot of money into a middleman's pocket. (This is an airline which is extremely unprofitable, and relies on taxpayer handouts anyway)
Rumour is that Said Chairperson's son is a product of a tryst between her and Zuma.
Before that, the Finance Minister had criticised a proposed nuclear powerstation deal which was being brokered - apparently the Minister of Energy (another Zuma 'friend with benefits') had signed the deal worth trillions - without the Finance Minister's approval.
SA economy is in the tank, just downgraded to one-above-junk status.
So Zuma sacks the bloke.
And replaces him with a party-faithful whose sole claim to fame is running a very small town council so badly that rioters burned his house down and ran him out of town
Result?
R21 = £1 on November 23
Today it is R24.
This week will see much protesting.
One bit of dark humour, though.
A bunch of British tourists - here for the rugby 7s - sitting in the pub this week all watching their phones, muttering 'almost, almost...'
Then 'SIX PINTS PLEASE!'
Turns out they were waiting for the pound to hit 24 rands - the price of a pint - so they could send messages back 'home' that 'we are drinking at less than a pound a pint1'
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Uganda in the early seventies, only hard Western currency could actually buy anything. The local bumf was like confetti and people just gave it away... it was hell for the impoverished majority, but visitors just floated uncomfortably on a raft of (real) money. All the currency was illegal unless you paid ludicrous amounts at the official rate of exchange. One had to shed a tenner (sterling) at short regular intervals just to go unmolested... people in uniform were doing all right but no one else was.
I've got some scruffy old banknotes from back then, including a Ugandan five-shilling note, by then worth the square root of FA. It came in a handful of change in a foreigners-only shop in Maputo that also included English, French and Spanish coins and a few SA rands... Biggest denomination I have is a Zimbabwean five billion dollar note. I was never there though, someone gave it to me.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 13 Dec 15 at 14:20
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>>just to go unmolested.
An acquaintance is doing a round the world cycle holiday and got pulled over by. Two cops in Uzbekistan for not wearing a cycle helmet.
Having researched his trip very well he knew there was no requirement to wear a helmet but being alone on a cycle with two thuggish coppers he thought that paying the "fine" was better than being beaten up and let in a ditch.
Last edited by: zippy on Sun 13 Dec 15 at 16:27
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How much money does he carry? What if it happens again a few miles down the road? F in rarsoles.
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I got stopped flying out of Delhi in '97 by some t**t in uniform asking for dollars. Boarding was imminent and I was so annoyed at the blatant extortion I refused to cough up and made a loud commotion. Got away with it, but boy was I mad at the time.
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He's on the Buses now. "any more fares pleeze?"
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I visited Nigeria in the early 1980s. The security police kept stopping cars from the airport and asking for money.
I was with a local and avoided paying.
The good news was they had stopped public executions on the beach. The bad news was that power was cut most days.. I had the best G&T ever there: frozen tonic - well nearly - after a day in 40C and only a glass of water.
RSA in early 1990s was a much more civilised place although I was unused to the bodies from traffic accidents lying on the side of the roads..
Last edited by: madf on Sun 13 Dec 15 at 19:22
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>> I visited Nigeria in the early 1980s. The security police kept stopping cars from the airport and asking for money.
>> I was with a local and avoided paying.
You can be lucky like that, but locals can't save you when the fuzz home in. I was in a good recommended taxi when we met this roadblock. The soldier who came to look at us addressed me, not the driver who was petrified. Perhaps we weren't properly licensed. Anyway clearly I was deemed the responsible, well-heeled party.
'What are you going to give me?' the soldier asked with disarming mildness. My heart melted and I peeled off one of many tenners. They might have been nairas, but you get the idea.
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I travel in the Dark Continent with a Saffer Passport. Everyone knows we are poor.
However, the UK passport is always on me as well because if things go pearshaped - always a possibility - I trust the EU to assist more than our yokels.
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>>How much money does he carry? What if it happens again a few miles down the road?
No idea, but if I did this sort of trip then I would only have about $50 on me and every time I got to the next town I would visit the local Western Union Office and get a transfer.
>>F in rarsoles.
Absolutely, but we are not immune to it here either. I have been done over by a copper once (in the last couple of years), stupidly I didn't take his number and even though I complained, nothing came of it.
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>> Zimbabwean five billion dollar note.
Amateurs. I've got a Yugoslav 500 Billion Dinar note. Proper hyperinflation and smuggled Bulgarian petrol being sold from the roadside out of plastic pop bottles, 2 litres at a time. Less than 20 years ago, in mainland Europe. Blimey.
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UPDATE: With the rumblings from the public becoming louder and louder, Zuma does a U-turn.
'relieves' the new chap, and replaces him with Pravin Gordhan, a previous Finance Minister.
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In 1991 the rand was 7 to the £.. Now it's 22.9..
Impressive..Beats apartheid SA..
The way they are going, it will make Zim look like a picnic (all those miners about to become unemployed)
Last edited by: madf on Mon 14 Dec 15 at 11:10
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More Local Lunacy - Armel Coussine
