Tributum Newsletter #85
Hello
Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face. 26th February National budget was OK, things were starting to look a bit rosier for SA and SAFA’s in general…and then on the 28th war breaks out in the Middle East. The indirect implications will be felt at the petrol pump from 1 April and SA’s stance on Iran is also not helping the SA/US relationship. Whether you and/or the Government like it, they remain a major trade partner and they can hurt us much more than we can hurt them.
Seems unfair, but that is the way of life and international relations. While SA may have been flavour of the month when Tata Madiba was still around the grand scale of uselessness over the past 25 years has diminished SA’s global clout. Hear me roar…”miaow” And in small caps nogal.
Now add continued internal structural headwinds and the macro picture starts looking very bleak. This is no more visible than the ongoing infrastructure challenges in Nelson Mandela Bay. It’s no longer just a lack of service delivery – it’s one of economic survival. These failures, whether in our beloved Metro or country wide, imposes a shadow tax on businesses and citizens, raising the cost of survival without any corresponding fiscal benefit.
These are the “own goals” discussed in last month’s newsletter. And these own goals are driving those that can afford it to seek alternative pastures or build their own infrastructure. In turn this creates a negative feedback loop, where weak service delivery erodes the very tax base required to fix it.
Addressing these failures require more than funding—it demands governance reform, accountability, execution capacity and then execution at all levels of Government. In SA, and in Nelson Mandela Bay in particular, all these factors have proven non-existent. It’s time for change. Whether the citizens of Nelson Mandela Bay and SA will have the guts to make it is the one big question. Whether we can survive until then is the other.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result. In the medium term I’m hoping for change, but in the short term I’m just hoping for a slightly more positive Newsletter next month. Until then, keep breathing!