Tributum Newsletter #44

Hello

Remember that I said in Newsletter #43 (last month for those with short memories) that No 10 has a new occupant? Well, it has another one! Rishi Sunak replaced Liz Truss after a disastrous few weeks as the UK PM, and she left, quietly, knowing she did some damage.

That does not sound like anything that would happen on the African continent, where uselessness and psychopathic disregard for the damage that people cause either make them cling to power (violently in some cases) or believing, contrary to all objective evidence, that their tenure was one of prosperity (for them, family and cronies maybe). They’re not leaders, they are Clingons.

Despite Eskom and the Clingons’ best efforts the medium-term budget speech revealed that National Treasury is expecting to collect a lot more tax than what was budgeted for 2023. The basic income grant was extended to March 2023 and very little was said about the Eskom debt, we can just hope that the extra money will be spent wisely…At least Minister Godongwana admitted that SA cannot rely on unexpected tax revenues forever and recognised that economic reforms must be implemented to get back on track and achieve growth in excess of the current 2% projections. But talk needs to change to action, and that is where Government is severely lacking.

As we are heading towards the end of the year, I think it is also time to start reflecting on the year that was, and the year that was not. What started, what lasted and what did not even make it out the blocks. Let’s start with the last one. In the movie Knight and Day Cameron Diaz’ character answers “Someday” to the question of when she will go after what she wants. To that Tom Cruize’s character replies “Someday. That’s a dangerous word. It’s really just a code for never”. Which if your resolutions for 2022 never made it out of the starting blocks? Why? Are you waiting for someday, one day?

On Saturday, 29 October, 2 young women from the residences close to the one where my daughter stays lost their lives in a car accident. Among the other casualties was the 16-year-old sister of one of these students. At 16 and 19 years old their “Somedays” became “Never”. Literally, and not by choice. As a parent of 16- and 19-year-old daughters I cannot imagine what the parents must be going through. In fact, I don’t’ want to know. But what I do know is that time waits for no one, and “Someday” is not even promised to the young.

So, when you are looking in the mirror tomorrow morning will you say, “One day”, or will you say, “Day one”? For whatever, even if its 1 November? Start, just do it. And above all else, keep breathing.