We’re always being told time is running out but somehow it never ever does. We always stumble on, says Mike Wills.
Cape Town - Apparently time is running out, again. Sanlam CEO Johan van Zyl last week warned that “time was rapidly running out” for the government to tackle the big economic issues. I get the sense that we’re always being told time is running out but somehow it never ever does. We always stumble on.
And those in government can easily find an excuse to ignore the Henny Penny “the sky is falling!” stuff from top business people like Van Zyl when they take just a cursory glance at the world these corporate titans still exist in.
If the end is truly nigh, then the cabinet ministers would have a few “How comes?” Like, how come the JSE All Share Index is over 54 000 points and constantly testing record levels?
How come several major retailers in the past two weeks have delivered double-digit growth numbers that would be considered miraculous in developed economies?
How come Steinhoff recently paid R62 billion to buy PEP Stores? How come Van Zyl’s own company, Sanlam, grew new business volumes by 18 percent last year and paid out 13 percent higher dividends?
And how come our banks still manage to routinely gouge undeserved growth out of us every year like it’s their birthright?
And how come their chief executives can be paid north of R20 million a year each to do just that?
I could go on. Okay, I will. How come the front page of this week’s Financial Mail shouts about a R160m house in Clifton?
How come trendy tapas bars in town charging R80 for a small tub of olives and R60 a glass of wine are full to bursting? How come the queues at top-end Woolworths food stores are getting longer?
How come bespoke foreign clothing retailers are opening here in droves with suits and dresses going for the price of a small car? How come costly flights to Europe during the winter school holidays are already chock-a-block with SA holidaymakers?In fact, how come an astonishing amount of disposable income still seems to be available among the upper income group everywhere I look?
I know this is a cheap binary argument and, no, I haven’t suddenly rediscovered the socialist zeal of my misguided youth. I appreciate that the existence of all of the above doesn’t mean that we don’t have really serious economic issues that urgently need addressing by a listless government and that, if they fail to do so, a grim slow decline could well gather alarming speed, with radical implications.
It’s just that, from the financially privileged (a group that I am part of), I see no hair shirts, no restraint, no humility, no clear signals other than worried words, that we do indeed face a crisis.
We carry on as normal and shout the panicky odds, which makes it all too easy for a group of politicians from very different backgrounds to ignore both us and the very real warning signs that are flashing everywhere.
* Mike Wills’ column Open Mike appears in the Cape Argus every Wednesday.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Cape Argus