Paul Janisch

Not half fourteen

I suspect this will be the last blog post about Oliver's previous year.  I wrote these because I wanted him to see that he has a father who loves him, I do think it shows in the writing.  It's also a collection of memories that he can look over when he's older.  That's the period that most people don't remember.  Of course he could troll Facebook and look at pictures and thoughts collected by his mother.  But these thought are concise and collected.  From now on Oliver will be able to collect his own memories and experiences - many of which his parents won't know about and some will be memories that his parents don't need to know about.  It has been a pleasure creating these annual snapshots and they'll be up here for as long as Typepad keeps its servers alive. 

The rules and conditions for this appreciation of my eldest son's 14^th birthday today are

1. Don't embarrass me
2. No pictures
3. Don't embarrass me
4. And most importantly – DON'T EMBARRASS ME!!!!!

The second requirement is easy. He doesn't agree to have his picture taken, and you can see that he's hiding away in this picture. The other three are more difficult. As it turns out these posts are being scrutinised by his friends at school and hence are bound to embarrass the new 14 year old.

It is through this minefield that I tread with caution. Oliver started at a new school at the beginning of this year. He was due to finish primary school this year and then would have headed onto the traditional schools (very expensive and boarding-type school) that his primary school was a feeder school to. I won't go into the reasons why we moved him to this new school, nor will I disclose that it's not as close to home as his prior school is. But it does appear that we and he made the right choice. It's a co-ed school with a very radical thinking headmaster (first embarrassing error – I used a gender). It's a perfect fit for him. It's not been easy because he is a little shy and very self-conscious and he spent a good few months away from school and cricket due to COVID. This term (third term) is the first one where he has been to school everyday. He's putting in massive hours on the cricket field and is flying academically.

Most importantly for him is that he's got a group of friends that he spends a lot of time whatsapping and god knows what else. They're his mates and are a mixture of girls and boys. I think having girls in class with him is important. He's got his first jol on Saturday – a Halloween do. He claims he doesn't want to go – but I think he wants to go.

He's also shot up. I measured him this week and he's grown 3.5cm in the last three months, he has about half a foot to go to catch up with his cousin in the US, but she is a year older than him. He's also lost a lot of weight. He's skinny. Those large shoulders that he cultivated on the trampoline as a child have been replaced by height. (I have to describe him because I'm not allowed a picture).

Ever the passionate child, Oliver still loves his cricket (another high score of 71 recently, batting through the innings  to the last over), will probably not play rugby again and has become very aware of social issues. He's in the right environment to nurture these and to express them. And he gets a daily lecture on Frank Zappa on the way into school and back.

Happy birthday Oliver, I have exercised as much restraint as I can in this missive. You are loved by all those around you and your journey in life now begins on your terms. The world is yours, have it and you'll find it will reciprocate. You're in middle school now, which ends in a few years.  Technically it's your last year of primary school.  You are no longer a small boy, you are rapidly becoming an adult. You've got a lot on your former school mates, you've established yourself at your school and these people will be your friends for the next five years and possibly forever.

Tradition dictates that I play a Peter Green, Ollie Halsall and Denny Laine song every year. I'm going to stick with Peter Green and Ollie this year, I have another surprise for the third song.

Peter Green would have been 75 this year. I still listen to his music with fresh ears. Those short years that he spent with Mayall and Fleetwood Mac cemented his reputation for many generations to come. I think I hear his playing in Zappa, Bob Marley and an Iranian musician called Kourosh Yaghmaei. My love for Green is my own, neither of my children are showing much, if any, interest. 

This is not a Green song, he's on rhythm guitar - this is a Danny Kirwan song. One of the very best opening songs on any album, it just sucks you in.

01 - Fleetwood Mac - Coming Your Way

Ollie Halsall

A great track from his one and only Tempest album. I'm almost running out of Ollie songs.

11 - Tempest - Stargazer

AND FINALLY – not Denny Laine. It's The Who

Athena is one of Oliver's friends. I love the name, it's such a beautiful Greek name, it's a beautiful name period.    The song is the first song off the album "It's Hard", a great and somewhat neglected tune. 

01 - The Who - Athena

OKAY - I really like Denny Laine.  I'll concede that his solo stuff is patchy but I grew up with him and found things in his music that might not be that obvious.  I have to post a Denny Laine song.  Oliver the title says everything about your last five years at school.  This will be your most consistent five years until you settle down - enjoy them.  Love,  get your heart broken and love again.  Work hard, make friends and start preparing for your adult life.

12- Move Me To Another Place

 

 

It's day 8. They didn't reply

In fairness to the DTIC, I haven't given them any reason to ACTUALLY want to talk to me.  However it is their job and the are paid to do it. 

Here's the bottom line.  The document that Y4Y regards as a code is not a code.  It's an opinion.  It's a dangerous document because the DTIC did nothing to discourage the YES4Youth people from publishing FAQs and from disseminating other communication to a myriad people.

This is a serious omission.  Slappie has been tasked with developing, monitoring and advising on policies and his people once again failed.  The consequences for this failure - probably performance bonuses.

There's an election next week people.  We have a right to clean and competent governance.  The anc has not delivered on this and they never will.  I'll say it again, Cyril is the only hope we have, the anc know it but they would rather sink the boat.

Here's a post from the past, one that I have posted twice, once in 2011 and then in 2017.  Amazing how nothing has changed. It's alarming how little has changed. Not amazing, alarming!

Is there any ANC left to organise a piss-up in a brewery?

Recently (actually 2011 but the sentiment remains and the language is much stronger) my friend  Kevin announced that the ANC couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery. This is an appreciation of the anc government's ability to organise a piss-up in a brewery, or organise anything for that matter.

We know that many senior anc members enjoy the finer things in life, like Maybachs, Range Rovers, Glen whiskies, Hansa Pilsener and nice watches, the value of which could feed a small family for a lifetime. It therefore stands to reason that the taxpayer's money is plentiful for pilferage, especially during a pandemic - hence wastage is really not a concern.  This piss-up would have to cost millions and because millions are required and the anc is in fact broke - it will be an official piss-up organised by national government. Under these circumstances the organisation of such a piss-up would need to go to tender.

 Unsurprisingly the tender is likely to be awarded to some Digital Vibes  type company.  You know the type of company that knows fuck-all about piss-ups but  know an incredible amount about being paid for knowing fuck-all.  Vibes takes their 90% and finds some sodi pop to outsource another firm to source service providers for this event (who will never be paid).

Now the fun really starts

• The members of the very fractured  anc start fighting with each other about the guest-list, the venue, the date, the fact that the workers (who haven't been invited) weren't consulted.  Court action is threatened.
• The youth league and MKVMA have a practice run at a prominent nightclub, beyond COVID curfews, drop their trousers and threaten to boycott the event because the beverage of choice doesn't include Oros, which is a great mixer for expensive scotch. 
• The women's league insists that zuma is entitled to take another 50 wives before the event and that the weddings should be paid for by SAA.
• The above is retracted when zuma's spokes0jimmy realises that his principal's lady sunk SAA
• A court case ensues.  It's not clear who is suing who but an appeal is successfully applied for.  Four years are lost

Five years later piss-up organisation is revitalised, however there are few mishaps

• The road to the venue is littered with patches of what once was road and potholes are now the norm.  The patches of road compromise the hard suspension on the Maybachs and Range Rovers and other publicly funded personal modes of transport.  Helicopters are not considered as there are no more helicopter pilots left in South Africa as they all work in Australia.
• The licence to sell liquor at the venue has been irregularly awarded to dududoos, one of zuma's 800 children. He sees fit (because he is such a likable guy) to charge the taxpayer a premium for  the privilege of using his liquor licence.  Nothing like stealing from your own.
• The brewery itself (which once was profitable) has been sold to the saxonwold consortium which is made up of  recent mining charter beneficiaries. This has resulted in the brewing accouterments being shipped off to Dubai for saltwater purification purposes.

This story then gets out to the press who report on the corruption that occurred within the tender process and so the piss-up in the brewery is cancelled.  lesufi accuses the alcohol molecules of being racist because they effect more Africans per capita than any other race group. 

An inquiry is launched.  Nothing conclusive is found. 

Day 4 - one more day to go. Samuel Beckett was right

It would be a patent lie if I claim to be disappointed or surprised.

For those who wonder what I am waiting for - it's close to Godot

 

From: Paul Janisch 
Sent: Monday, 18 October 2021 07:53
To: [email protected]
Subject: Clarification on this clarification

Good morning YES department

Could you clarify as to whether this statement is official DTIC policy or merely an opinion that carries no legal weight

Thank you

Paul Janisch

Day 3 and no response from the dtic

Someone recommended I approach Jacques Marnus directly.  Why should I.  If this department has a designated email address for queries on a document that they publish then I as a concerned person should expect that this email will be answered - [email protected]. 

It won't be answered because they're like most other anc departments - not accountable, sheltered and guaranteed a bonus at the end of the year, which is awarded for ineptitude.

I'll give them a few more days or until the email bounces

Day 2 and no response from the dtic on the YES opinion

And the email has still not bounced

 

From: Paul Janisch 
Sent: Monday, 18 October 2021 07:53
To: [email protected]
Subject: Clarification on this clarification

Good morning YES department

Could you clarify as to whether this statement is official DTIC policy or merely an opinion that carries no legal weight

Thank you

Paul Janisch

---------------------------------------------------------

And to while away the time whilst we wait for Slappie's crew to get back to you - a little light entertainment.  Perhaps I'll re-record this and call it "Is it a code or an opnionism"

 

 

YES – but is it a code?

It's time for a bit of a lecture on the hierarchy of law in this country. I did run this past a renowned attorney yesterday (which was a Sunday). This is the way it works - I did have a drawing that explained it but it didn't come out in the post.

At the very top we have the constitution, not that the thieving zuma seems to think that it's on top. It is. Below that we have legislation – Acts and then we have sub-legislation which are like codes of good practice. The case law is on a par with the common law. It's law.

Everything else below that is merely an opinion and has no legal standing at all. Why do thing that the awesome awdoz and her band of merry social constructists get so pissed off when her opinions are ignored? It's because they are opinions, and carry no weight, hence my predictably rude piece on the awdoz a few years ago.

A certain issue has arisen with YES4Youth expressing an opinion. The story starts with a VA declining to give my client YES recognition after the process had been completed and absorption could be proven. My problem was that the client had already received the YES recognition in the prior certificate, this was in the early stages of the process. I argued that the YES code (and YES it is a code) focuses on absorption only, getting recognition at the beginning of the process is one thing, but that's a bonus. If you can prove absorption then you are entitled to the recognition.

Not so said the VA and referred me to the Y4Y FAQs somewhere in these FAQs it suggest that you can't count the YES people twice. I rejected this because it's an opinion. The VA then sent an email to Y4Y asking for clarity.

QUESTION
Company A registered for YES program in 2020 financial year which was their first year. The YES program ran until midway through the second measurement period (2021). The measured entity got recognition for the uptake in the previous verification, now they are being verified for 2021. They wish to claim for absorption under YES even though they did not register the "new" YES for 2021 financial year. Are they allowed to get points for absorption from the 2020 uptake?

They received this response

No,

They have already received their level up.

You cannot get an enhancement again based on absorption only. To qualify the ME would need to do another YES Programme ie a YEAR 2 and have 8 months by verification.

Trust this provides clarity

I have two problems with this. The first is that Y4Y is not the dtic, the second is that this is very clearly not backed by any code. I think this is superfluous, the dtic cannot pronounce on this issue unless it's from a gazetted code. Naturally I followed up with a pone call. I don't want to incriminate anyone here and this is not an incrimination - it's my opinion about an opinion.  I have a decent relationship with the people at Y4Y. They take my calls and are helpful. But I could not back this opinion up with a piece of legislation, sub-legislation or otherwise. The person suggested that I should read the codes (which I fucking do because I have no life and I write about them a lot) and then told me about a clarification note issued by the dti (as it was then known) from February 2020. I was aware of it but hadn't read it. I was obviously caught out. I looked for it on the DTIC's website. I couldn't find it, I looked in the publications, the speeches and it wasn't there. It does exist because it's on the y4Y's website. It is a lofty document that says you recognise the YES programme in the first year but you must demonstrate a commitment for absorption when you request this recognition. Once you've finished the process you need to go back to the verification agency showing that the people have been absorbed. The implication being that you can only have it recognised once. There's no signature on this document all we have is a dti letterhead and a issued by THE DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY - 24 FEBRUARY 2020.

I mulled over this for a week. And then It occurred to me that this is an opinion, it's not a code. Hence it carries no weight. We can't rely on this. I actually sent the dti (as they were then known) an email this morning for comment – I was quite surprised the email didn't bounce.

I then spoke to the same person at Y4Y this morning and told them what is in fact the reality. The email that this person sent to the verification agency is wrong and has to be preceded by IT IS OUR OPINION THAT……… Because they based it on an opinion. In fact I would suggest that their FAQs now need to be either redrafted or preceded by a disclaimer that this is their opinion.

You may remember when some moron at the DTI published a gazette claiming that you were not allowed to recognise broad based scheme for all the ownership points. This was a gazette – it's official government policy. No one expected this and from what I head the bolsh was taken by surprise as well. He was forced to withdraw it within a few weeks. You can understand how a document of this stature can cause immense damage to the economy. The dti document in question is noise, but offers some clarity should you want use it.

I'll let you know what the dtic says should they bother to respond to my email – it hasn't bounced yet.

Everybody has their own opinions.

Initially he was known as Dinogwed

Initially he was known as Dinogwed.  I had to think about the best type of dinosaur that would suit our mining minister.  He couldn’t be a T-Rex.  He was best suited as a lumbering herbivore, my first choice was an ankylosaurus.  But it I don’t know where to fit the Gwed into the name – Gwedlyosaurus, ankylogwed.  Unfortunately I have to go with the very predictable Gwedosaurus – modeled after the stegosaurus - probably apt because he’s just as prickly as a stegosaurus.  You’ll notice the uppercase – I don’t dislike him, but he is not suited to hold any type of political office.  He’s backward and patently serving a certain segment of our entitled society.

Ed Stoddard wrote something about the recent court case in the Daily Maverick this morning.

In classic Mantashe fashion, his response will have left investors in the dark.

“To me, appealing or not appealing the latest charter ruling is not the issue. I may appeal to ensure the smooth running of the department. But for me, the major issue is whether the industry is committed to transformation, and will we see more black capitalists. If the industry is committed to transformation, we will not be appealing,'” he said. 

So if you want to commit significant capital to South Africa’s mining sector, just wait. The legal shenanigans over this vexed issue may or may not be over. The minister says he wants investors but such uncertainty is a key deterrent to investment. 

I agree with Ed’s comment after the underlined sentence.  BUT – it’s the underlined sentence that worries me the most.  How do you determine whether you are committed to transformation and how does Gwedosaurus determine it.  This is a problem.  It’s not documented.  You’ve got the mining charter that has been chopped down completely.  Does the Jurassic one think that a commitment to those aspects is enough.  Is using the generic scorecard (bolshie’s bullshit one) an acceptable method?

This is a problem.  One of the many in the mining industry.  I’ll leave Ed’s final comment in another article as a good representation of what is happening in the mining industry, although it’s a metaphor for almost every ministry, department or municipality that the anc has corruption control over.

Top it off with an incapable and corrupt state, and you get dramas like the one that just took place in Orkney. It won’t be the last.

And the men in the middle were..........put there

Then, of course, there is Black Economic Empowerment. Transnet, the report points out, has “identified the role of middlemen in procurement as a problem. The middlemen increase the cost by taking a margin but adding no value”. The reason Transnet uses middlemen is “usually to comply with BBBEE requirements”, the report finds. We are all deeply shocked by this discovery.

via www.dailymaverick.co.za

Could it be that Tim Cohen read my post from yesterday?

The logic of this is beyond absurd. If you have an exclusive right to import or sell a foreign product or service that gives you a competitive edge over everyone, why would you then want to hand that right to someone else, or have that edge diminished because you have given over the right to manufacture to someone locally in the name of BEE. This is not how business works. You get an edge and you work on it and build the business.

I didn't think that you could use ED or SD to create middlemen, but it's very possible, specifically if you plan to supply SOEs.  I suspect that de Ruyter might not be open to this anymore.  The whole of the Zondo commission is about middlemen -think Ferrari (and Bentley) sodi, was about the corruption that arose as a result of BEE compliance and middlemen.  Even if you don't supply SOEs you can still create them and it will open up SOE markets.  The PPPFA allows for a 20% increase in price for contracts less than R50m and about 11% for larger contracts. 

And you wonder why the country is poor and SARS are behaving like microlenders.

 

Back to the DMRE/Mineral's Council case

A little more on the DMR Minerals Council case

It also noted the removal of other provisions which were seen as onerous. 

“The judgment also sets aside the provisions around procurement of goods and services (especially the capital goods target), and supplier and enterprise development which the Minerals Council argued contained unachievable targets for mining companies to meet, making compliance with the 2018 Charter problematic,” it said. 

Big mining companies here often have to buy specialised and very costly equipment from overseas suppliers because the stuff is simply not made here, and all the ANC talk about “re-industrialisation” is not going to change that. Again, it underscores a fundamental detachment from economic reality, or how ANC policies have undermined the manufacturing sector. A 350-tonne truck does not grow on trees. 

via www.dailymaverick.co.za

via bbbee.typepad.com

I can't let this go quite yet.  The whole judgement can be read here.   All of clause 2.2 in the 2018 charter has been set aside.  It's this clause - 2.2 INCLUSIVE PROCUREMENT, SUPPLIER AND ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT.  As Ed Stoddard argues in the Maverick article above, the DMRE cannot set procurement targets that will actually impact on a mine's ability to mine. 

We can't blame Gwede here - even if he has shown that he is in fact a dinosaur.  This appeared in a very vague form in the 2010 version.  The scorecard as we understand came from the incoherent zwane   version. which was duly rejected by the Minerals Council.  On that note - which is not really related to this post.  When zwane found out that his un-procedural charter was going to court, he had this to say.

It is our view that those who support this Mining Charter support our quest for transformation, and those who are in opposition to the charter are, in fact, opposing the transformation objectives of the government, and we stand ready to defend the interests of South Africans in this regard,” Zwane said.

You might remember the tourism relief issue,  I blogged about it recently.     When this went against the government it appears that the deputy minister of tourism (who will remain nameless because he's likely to be as useless as every other anc minister) had the following to say (I may not be taking this correctly - the bits of his speech that were reported don't seem to refer to the ruling)

Tourism is not just for the wealthy.

The average reader will know that this is a standard response.  That the anc government has shown scant regard for the transformation of the poor tends to be forgotten because you are a racist, a stooge or a coconut if you stand up against them.

ANYWAY - back to the setting aside of the procurement requirement in the charter.  This requirement shows that the DMRE, which includes dinogwed, has no fucking clue about what the business of mining is about.

Neither does the dti(c).  bolshie bob was just not suited for the job.  He has no clue, but he does have a very generous government pension.  Check this out

5.4.1 all goods and services procured from organs of state and public entities. Despite this, procurement by a Measured Entity from a local government authority, which is a reseller of that service, is measurable at the B-BBEE Recognition Level of the primary Supplier of the service;

This requirement under the amended procurement code is so fucking deluded that verification agencies ignore it mostly because it's not logical.  Do you as the business owner have any choice in who the services providers are?

But the best is this

6.5.2 imported goods and services other than those listed in paragraph 6.5.1 if there is no local production of those goods or services including, but not limited to, imported goods or services that –
6.5.2.1 carry a brand different to the locally produced goods or services; or
6.5.2.2 have different technical specifications to the locally produced goods or services.
6.5.3 The exclusion of imports listed under 6.5.2 are subject to them having developed and implemented an Enterprise Development and Supplier Development plan for imported goods and services. This plan should include:
6.5.3.1 Clear objectives
6.5.3.2 Priority interventions
6.5.3.3 Key performance indicators; and
6.5.3.4 A concise implementation plan with clearly articulated milestones

At face value it doesn't make any sense.  The first thing is who is THEM?  Is it the import or the company doing the import.  Because this is bolshie's document and I doubt whether he ever read any of them, I'll assume THEM is the company.  Now that we haven't cleared that up.  What exactly is a ED/SD plan for imported goods and services?   What does this mean.  When I first read it years ago I thought it was a plan for the importing company to ensure that they now help start a company manufacture or deliver those goods and services.  I'm not so sure now.  It could be that bolshie wants that company to give over part of their imports to a black-owned company.  Yet again we are left in the dark because Rob  fucking Davies was too lazy to actually explain what he meant.

The logic of this is beyond absurd.  If you have an exclusive right to import or sell a foreign product or service that gives you a competitive edge over everyone, why would you then want to hand that right to someone else, or have that edge diminished because you have given over the right to manufacture to someone locally in the name of BEE.    This is not how business works.  You get an edge and you work on it and build the business.

In fact this is pure communism.  Like everything else in these codes they operate in isolation.  You get no tax breaks or  any other incentives, other than BEE points whose value is ever-diminishing.

What happens is that I get hired to do these plans for people.  Because I know what the verification agencies want.  They want paper and they want it  notarised.  And it must look good and credible.  That's what I do.  I make it look good and credible because I know that neither the verification agencies nor SANAS actually know it means either.  God forbid you ask the awful awdoz or anyone at the dtic.

Elections are coming people.  These are all anc policies that lack clarity or credibility and have ever since they became the looters in chief.  Even the thieving eff can do better than this.

 

 

 

 

 

It also noted the removal of other provisions which were seen as onerous. 

“The judgment also sets aside the provisions around procurement of goods and services (especially the capital goods target), and supplier and enterprise development which the Minerals Council argued contained unachievable targets for mining companies to meet, making compliance with the 2018 Charter problematic,” it said. 

Big mining companies here often have to buy specialised and very costly equipment from overseas suppliers because the stuff is simply not made here, and all the ANC talk about “re-industrialisation” is not going to change that. Again, it underscores a fundamental detachment from economic reality, or how ANC policies have undermined the manufacturing sector. A 350-tonne truck does not grow on trees. 

via www.dailymaverick.co.za