These are probably the most interesting times we South Africans have lived under in a long time. I was chatting to Obed this morning at our regular haunt about Zuma's ANC presidency. It occurred to me that this is the first time in perhaps 60 years when South Africa has actually experienced real politics. We have not had an upset like this since before 1948 when the Nats came into power. Since '48 we've always had a stable regime with little chance of any dramatic change.
Now we get a complete change in government with new people. The ruling party might be in charge but the sentiment and policies will be very different to Mbeki's. And this is where it gets interesting - I'll explain.
I was speaking to a man who knows a person or two and he is predicting a mad rush on getting decisions out of various government departments.
Why, you might well arsk?
Simple - the new ANC leadership is going to want to put its own people into key positions as soon as it can. It follows that the business people who have government connections are starting to think that perhaps these people are on their way out. So you have to get in now to get the contracts signed etc.
The old guard is changing and moving on - and maybe the big five's time is nearing its end. We'll therefore get a new big five (plus VAT). Is it so surprising that Tokyo through his lot in with Zuma? It's not only political expediency, it will probably make very sound business sense.
What will then happen to those companies that did business deals with the current political elite (Pennuel "Howlin' Wolf" Maduna - he is the spitting image of the old bluesman)? I suspect we may see a little bit of clearing up - and maybe it's already started.
A report on Fin24 tells us that an AltX listed company has fired it's BEE partner. The reasons behind this dismissal refer to certain conditions that the partners were supposed to meet.
These included the partners getting letters of support from various government departments and Cosatu-affiliated unions for the use of the Imuniti Wellness Pack and introducing incentives that resulted in sales of the pack increasing by 100 000 units a month within the first 12 operating months of the company.
I could be wrong - but perhaps Imuniti has figured that these people might not be very useful in the next few years.
We should welcome in these changes - America goes through it every four/eight years.
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