Letter in FM, 28/9/12

Your article on industrial policy, "Bound by Heavy Chains “ refers.  The Soviets and a little later, Chairman Mao ,were always obsessed by heavy industry, seeing it as the real heart of manufacturing and as a reflection of state power. One of the other  legacies in both areas was and is ecological devastation not   yet  seen on a similar scale anywhere else in the world. Ultimately, this fixation helped cause the demise of the Soviet bloc, a collapse only averted in China by Deng Xiao Peng’s sweeping, consumer oriented market  economy ( i.e. quasi-capitalist)reforms.

This legacy lives on in the zeitgeist afflicting the first generation of post apartheid planners at senior levels in government, despite policies that profess to achieve the ooposite. The New Growth Path has precious little to say about SMEs and other job intensive sectors that need state support where necessary, which are where the jobs are. But under trade and industry minister Davies and  economic develoment minister Ebrahim Patel, expect no deviation from past  dead orthodoxies under a leaderless ANC government .

No, things look like they will have to get a lot worse before they start getting better. The question is whether the institutions that sustain our new democracy can withstand the strain they are being increasingly placed under before the new brooms arrive to sweep clean.

Dr Gavin Lewis

DA MPL Gauteng Legislature
Spokesman: Economic Development

THE "NEW" ANC IS THE SAME AS THE "OLD" ANC

(Published in Business Day 19/9/12)

I read with wry amusement Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile’s comments to the Black Management Forum that under the “ new”leadership to be elected at Mangaung there would be lots of nationalisation, and that the new broom would also solve corruption by forming an “ integrity committee”.

Is this the same Mashatile who during his reign as Premier of Gauteng became known as the head of the “ Alex Mafia” of tenderpreneurs ? Who left us with the legacy of the R8 billion Formula one scam exposed by the DA? Whose other legacies of dodgy dealings, inept management and the worst kinds if cadre deployment we are still trying to clean up in the Gauteng Legislature years later ?

That Mashatile?

And as for the strategic nationalisation he expounds, we can have a pretty good guess who that will benefit. And when it comes to the integrity commission, the ANC has already tried that ruse in the GPL: what it means in practice is that corrupt and/or inept MECs can be given shelter from the media storm that ensues when their antics are finally revealed for all to see, and the ill informed “ sub judice” rule can be trotted to stifle debate and oversight.

No sir, the “new” ANC Mr Mashatile envisages looks uncannily like to the old one to us sheep in Animal Farm.

Dr Gavin Lewis

DA MPL Gauteng Legislature

Marikana

It seems to me that there are three relatively simple reasons behind the Marikana tragedy. They are the role of the unions, the police, and the strikers themselves.

 

 First the unions, in this case the COSATU affiliate the National Union of Mineworkers, whose leadership has clearly failed to keep in touch with their own constituency. Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum, which many are rushing to fill.

 

 Second, the police were clearly not adequately kitted out for riot control, and overall leadership at the time of the event appeared confused. This means unnecessary shootings.

 

Third, why are strikers permitted to come to strikes bearing arms, in this case mainly spears and new looking pangas? These are fearsome weapons, and I for one would rather be shot than hacked to death. It is absolute nonsense to classify these are “traditional “ weapons. Strikers should not be allowed to be armed, finish and klaar.

 

Dr Gavin Lewis

DA MPL Gauteng Legislature