There are two types of people in this world, Harry van der Merwe and everybody else. I happen to like Harry - can't be sure about most other people, specifically if they are anc appointees. Harry sent this to me today.
My old friend - the ever destructive bolshie bob has been told via his new mate Slaptjips, that he cannot go ahead and summarily pronounce without following due process.
The high court in Pretoria has overturned a controversial 2019 decision by former trade & industry minister Rob Davies that gave Telkom privileged black economic empowerment status by the government. At the time, Davies agreed to give Telkom BEE “facilitator status”. The partially state-owned telecommunications operator welcomed the decision, saying it would boost its empowerment credentials and its competitiveness.
The problem was that bolshie, the nasty and destructive commie he is, decided Telkom needed BEE facilitator status (in effect rendered 100% black owned - according to the article) and then claimed that Telkom had made the application for this status. The court found that
No such application was ever made. An application was cobbled together by the department of trade & industry; the BEE chief directorate requested the designation; the director-general recommended the designation to the minister; and the minister approved the designation. The department of trade & industry was both the applicant and a participant in the decision-making process.
Then there is the crux
“There is a material difference between the decision proposed in the notice and the decision which was made. The notice suggested a decision would be made to grant Telkom facilitator status whereas the final approval granted facilitator status to the government of South Africa represented by the office of the presidency. This difference materially impacts upon what was proposed to be done, what the public perceived was proposed to be done, and what the public was invited to comment upon.”
In other words, this idiot of a minister (ex-minister thank fuck) misled us, the commenting public. He lied.
What else did he lie about. I have long had my doubts that the comments received for any of his so-called transformation codes were ever taken into account. Think about the 2.5% of payroll required for bursaries. Who would have agreed to that? I spoke to a very large company who was struggling to get these points and they told me that this was absolutely ludicrous.
What now?
We now have a court saying that he lied, that he misled us and that he wasn't allowed to do so. The beauty of this judgement is that bolshie wasn't the person facing the music - it was Telkom. bolshie can't appeal this - and Telkom have said they won't appeal it.
I always had this suspicion that bolshie bob was a devious so and so. He either was by commission - in other words he purposefully went ahead and published policies because he wanted them. Or he didn't bother reading what his minions proposed, he just signed them. If you read the first iteration of the BEE codes from 2013 you'll see a document that was pasted together by a semi-literate child. bolshie is a learned man.
Either way - we suffered under his misguided moronity. We may just have the ammunition to get a lot of things challenged in court.
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