OUT TO LUNCH

The ANC Youth League, apparently largely ineffectual for the past ten years due to internal squabbles and a variety of toys being tossed from cots, now has a new leader. One Collen Malatji, a Gauteng based member of parliament, is the new head honcho of the ANC Youth League and is, according to some news agencies, something of a “firebrand” in the style of former ANC Youth League leader Julius (VBS pays my bills) Malema and the late Peter (Kill the farmer, kill the boer) Mokaba. That should give us all huge hope for the future of South Africa.

The United Nations defines youth as being between the ages of 15-24 which would sound pretty sensible to most people. In practice, many of those in their early twenties would resent to still being referred to as “youths” way before their twenty fourth birthday. If you’re old enough to drink, drive a car, have sex, vote and go to war then I hardly think that ‘youth’ is an appropriate tag.___STEADY_PAYWALL___

However, the ANC have no such hang ups about such things, probably because counting is an imperialist, white construct as the Diversity trainers in our schools are now teaching. So Malatji is now 30 years old and once he has served his first term will be approaching early middle age and will almost certainly be as out of touch with the ANC ‘yoof’ as almost all of his predecessors turned out to be.

However, the really extraordinary thing is that Comrade Malatji and his comradely team swept to victory with the quirky election slogan “Economic Freedom OR (their capitals) Death”. It’s generally a good idea for a politician seeking election to offer the voters a smorgasbord of attractive options.

Popular choices are often lower taxes, better roads, more job opportunities, better health care, a functioning transport system and so on and so forth. This way, if the elected official delivers on three out of six he or she can claim some success with the electorate. But a politician who promises Economic Freedom OR Death invites the question, well which is it?

Is Malatji saying that if he doesn’t manage to deliver Economic Freedom then at least he will be able to deliver Death. In which case one cannot fault the integrity of his election promises. Maybe he’s offering his supporters the choice and leaving them free to make up their own minds.

More likely though he is poaching the EFF’s election spiel, either in the hope of persuading EFF supporters back to the ANC ahead of the 2024 election or as the prelude to a coalition between the two parties. After all, if Economic Freedom is what you claim to be all about then what on earth is the difference between the EFF and the ANC Youth League?

The problem, as ever, is what is meant by economic freedom and since the parent party of the Youth League have made a complete balls-up of the economy these past twenty years then it would be interesting to learn what Cde Malatji means by it. Since the ANC still like to live in a fantasy world of magic money trees and enjoy calling one another Comrade it’s a fair bet that they haven’t a clue how a 21st century economy functions.

They almost certainly believe in free education, free health care and free water and electricity for all without giving a thought to how this might be provided. The Fraser Institute, a well-respected Canadian think-tank defines ‘economic freedom’ as follows:

The cornerstones of economic freedom are (1) personal choice, (2) voluntary exchange coordinated by markets, (3) freedom to enter and compete in markets, and (4) protection of persons and their property from aggression by others. Individuals have economic freedom when property they acquire without the use of force, fraud, or theft is protected from physical invasions by others and they are free to use, exchange, or give their property as long as their actions do not violate the identical rights of others. Individuals are free to choose, trade, and cooperate with others, and compete as they see fit.

I very much doubt if this is what Malatji and his team understand by economic freedom. To start with, personal choice has nothing to do with it because all decisions will be made by the party, and they are the only ones who will be making important economic decisions. That may well be based on party loyalty so those who don’t support the ruling party will be punished and will not have access to all the free things that the party loyalists will be entitled to.

This system may not have worked in other communist countries but that’s apparently because they didn’t do it correctly. This clearly makes items 2, 3 and 4 above completely irrelevant. For example, if you allow people the freedom to enter and compete in markets before you know it you’ve allowed capitalism to creep in and, with it, innovation and the development of new ideas.

That, as we know, can be deeply disempowering for people who aren't innovative, imaginative or competitive. The really worrying thing about commies is how incredibly ignorant they are when it comes to matters of finance and good governance. They just cannot seem to grasp the fact that if a million rand has to be spent on something then that million rand has to be found somewhere and the best way for this to happen is to have a thriving economy with lots of companies making profits which can then be taxed.

The fewer taxpayers there are and the more free money being handed out to welfare recipients the worse off a country’s economy becomes. So having 9 million income tax contributors (of which just 600 000 pay the highest percentage of tax) and 18 million welfare recipients is a recipe for disaster; particularly as the number of taxpayers drops and the number of welfare recipients rises.

The commie solution to that of course is to seize the banks, the insurance companies, the wealthy mining houses etc and use their money to achieve economic freedom for the party members and their close mates. The proletariat don’t even get a look in. But even that source of free money eventually runs out as investors disappear and South Africa becomes the new Zimbabwe.

Then inflation soars, the currency becomes worthless, unemployment rises even further, living standards plummet and that’s when the offer of Death as the alternative to Economic Freedom becomes a real election deliverable. Maybe Cde Malatji is that rare thing; an honest politician.

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According to News 24 luxury cars which formerly belonged to Hamilton Ndlovu are about to go on auction. News 24 describes Ndlovu as a “flamboyant businessperson’ which is a rather flattering description for someone who milked an estimated R172 million out of dodgy PPE deals with the National Health Laboratory Service during COVID.

Anyway, the cars which include a Porsche Panamera GTS Sport, a Porsche Cayenne S Coupe, a Grand Cherokee SRT and a Lamborghini Urus have been seized and are being sold by court order to partly repay the stolen money after an investigation by the Special Investigations Unit found that Ndlovu had his hand well and truly in the cookie jar.

Being a fully paid-up member of the International Dickhead Society Ndlovu couldn’t resist posting a video of himself with his stable of luxury cars on social media back in 2020. The cardinal rule of being a big-time crook is to not attract attention to yourself lest the sheriff or the tax authorities notice you.

But sometimes ego and vanity override good old common sense. Now, this is by no means the only case of large amounts of stolen money being turned into luxury vehicles. It’s something the ANC cadres do all the time and the thing that puzzles me is how on earth the luxury car dealers have managed to stay out of the picture for so long.

Most of us have to satisfy our bankers that we are kosher and not operating a money laundering scheme before we are allowed to open a bank account. A few months ago, I received a belated pension payment from the UK and had to fill in some official forms before the authorities were satisfied and the funds were released to my account.

Incidentally, the amount concerned was considerably lower than the price of the cheapest of Mr Ndlovu’s cars. So, don’t the Porsche, Mercedes, Lamborghini and Ferrari dealers smell a rat when an unlikely lad with no obvious aura of financial success comes in and orders multiple vehicles? Do they pay by cash?

If not, how on earth do the banks process these deals with a straight face? Surely Mr Ndlovu’s various accounts had very little in them one day and the next day had a credit of about R172 million. Didn’t that raise any red flags? Apparently not.

You really know you’re living in a gangster paradise when it is that easy to launder dirty money. It’s high time a few dodgy car dealers, estate agents and bankers were wearing orange overalls but since the NPA don’t seem capable of prosecuting anything more complicated than a shoplifting offence I doubt that will ever happen.