Re: Fw: HOW TO DO BUSINESS IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA

[Trevor Watkins]

Hi Gail

To post to the libsa website, simply reply to the [libsa] email you received (best way, don't change the subject line, keeps all replies together), or send an email to li...@googlegroups.com (preferably identical subject line to original).

I was not clear which bits of the email below you wanted posted (just the refutation, or the whole email?), so I have not posted anything.

regards
Trevor Watkins - Base Software
bas...@gmail.com 083 44 11 721 - 042 293 1405 - (fax)0866 532 363
http://sketchesbyboz37.blogspot.com www.libertarian.org.za
PO Box 3302, Jeffreys Bay, 6330

2010/1/27 Gail Daus-van Wyk <ga...@global.co.za>

Hi Trevor,

Just seen Janette's posting. Not clever enough to transfer this on to your site. Can you please do it for me.

Thanks
Gail


----- Original Message ----- From: "John Steenhuisen" <uni...@iafrica.com>
To: "Gail Daus-van Wyk" <ga...@global.co.za>
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: HOW TO DO BUSINESS IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA

Hi Gail,

Unfortunately this email is one of those that takes elements of fact but embellishes them with wild fiction. The majority of this email is fanciful rubbish and the part about the city managers property is simply untrue.

Cheers,

John
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

-----Original Message-----
From: "Gail Daus-van Wyk" <ga...@global.co.za>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:09:26
To: <uni...@iafrica.com>
Subject: Fw: HOW TO DO BUSINESS IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA

Hi John,

Greetings for 2010

Is this story for real?

Regards
Gail



To fill you locals with pride and hope.











HOW TO DO BUSINESS IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA .

Read Carefully and Weep.


In the new South Africa , to qualify as a Doctor, you are required to
study and pass exams for five years and then do a two year internship
at a hospital. You are then fully qualified, but you still cannot
practice because the Medical Council will not grant you a license until
you have completed two years "community service" in one of the state
hospitals.

The Department of Health decides where you should be posted for your two
ears of community service - it can be to any state hospital in  the
country. The reason for this is that there is a critical shortage of
doctors in South Africa , particularly in the rural areas. These trained
and qualified doctors earn just over R7000 per month, before deductions
- about R2000 a month less than a police constable with three weeks
training...

The Doctors went on strike because the Department of Health promised
them an "Occupation Specific Dispensation", which would have effectively
doubled their salaries, just over two years ago. Unfortunately they have
still not received the "Occupation Specific Dispensation" after two
years because the Department of Health can't figure out how to implement
the administration of it....

Meanwhile, despite the chronic shortage of Doctors, the thousands of
them that went on strike to voice their dissatisfaction have all been
fired. They are now in a catch 22 situation. They cannot get a license
to practice, because they haven't completed two years internship, and
they can't complete their internship because they have been fired.
Naturally they do what any sane doctor would do under the circumstances
- they leave the country and practise happily as good, well-trained,
productive doctors in some foreign land - where they earn a salary
commensurate with their qualifications.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the public bus service in
Durban has closed down, leaving thousands of daily commuters with no way
to get to work or home again. It has closed because it is insolvent.

How on earth did that happen?

The public bus service was run and operated by the city municipality
from 1912 until 2007. It did receive subsidies from the City, but these
were recovered from the Government and not from the ratepayers.

In essence the public transport system ran at a profit sufficient for it
to replace its own vehicles as needed.

In 2007 the City Council decided that it was  illegal for them to
operate the public transport under the new Constitution - it had to be
run and operated privately by someone from the previously disadvantaged
community. The City Manager, Dr Mike Sutcliffe, then sold the public
transport operation to a private company named Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd
for R70 million.

This sum also included the route operating licenses and all the
vehicles, equipment and buildings in Alice Street where the buses were
garaged, serviced and repaired. So far so good.

Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd immediately sold off the buses, (mostly new
vehicles), one by one, to independent "owner-operators" contracted to
Remnant Alton . An owner-operator would drive their bus over allocated
routes, collect the fares and use the bus garage in Alice Street as a
facility for maintaining the bus. They would also buy their spares and
diesel from Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd.

By the end of 2008 most of the buses were in such poor condition they
were unsafe. Broken down buses were the order of the day, and the
service to commuters was a shambles. Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd approached
the City Council for help, and the City Council lent them R40 million at
a very low interest rate to restore the bus service. This was in March
2009.

At the beginning of April 2009 Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd went into
liquidation and ceased all operations. The R40 million was "gone", so
the City Council seized the company. The 1500 "owner-operators" then
took the Council - as the new owners of the business - to the labour
court, and won their case.

The Council was ordered to compensate them with the same income they
would have received had the service continued operating until the end of
their contracts. Naturally the R40 million "loan" plus the award to the
owner-operators comes out of Council revenue, paid by the ratepayers of
Durban .

Now the Council, who suddenly decide that it is NOT illegal to operate
the bus company, spends a fortune on buying new buses and restoring the
transport service to its former state. Nobody yet knows what this has
cost - the bills are still coming in. But suddenly there is a "whoops".

The Council can't run the buses, because it sold the licenses to operate
over the routes to Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd. No problem. Just buy them
back. Remnant Alton was willing to sell them back to the council, and
the council was willing to buy them back. The only teensy weeny problem
is that Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd had sold them to its Managing Director
(an Indian - how did you know?) and he wanted slightly more for them
than what Remnant Alton had originally paid.

After tough negotiations the council beat him down to a lower price and
bought the route licenses back for R45 million. Yes, that's right. R45
million.

OK. On the income side, the ratepayers scored R70 million when the bus
company was originally sold.

Now, on the debit side, they have an unrecoverable loan of R40 million,
written off Plus the cost of restoring the company to a good operating
standard - say another R100 million Plus the cost of buying the route
licenses back - R45 million Plus the cost of recompensing the
owner-operators - 1500 of them, for four months at R8000 per month each
= R48 million (note: more than a doctor earns)

So the total cost to ratepayers is R233 million less R70 million = R163
million.

Well, its a lot of money, but at least we will have a working bus
service back.

Now here is the real kicker. The Council says it doesn't have the
capacity to operate the bus company, so it will be looking for a private
company to operate it in the future - and they have found the perfect
candidate.

Yep. You guessed it. They are GIVING it away, lock, stock and barrel,
completely FREE, to.....

Wait for it......

Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd.

I kid you not.

Now, the Durban (Etekwini) Metro Council is overwhelmingly ANC, and they
got VERY upset when a Democratic Alliance Councillor asked if they knew
that the Managing Director of Remnant Alton (Pty) Ltd had at some stage
in the past been found guilty of fraud, and served time for that
offence?

The response?  No, we didn't know that.
After more questions - Well, actually, the City Manager did know, but is
was some time ago, and the "gentleman" concerned had served his time and
paid his debt to society, so we didn't think it was important....

Meanwhile, the buses haven't begun running yet. Nobody has a clue when
they will operate again.

But the citizens of Durban can take solace in learning the new and
unpronounceable street names as they walk to and from work, hoping they
won't step in the turds and filth, or get mugged. They may even see our
City Manager sweep by in his fancy luxury car, with a cavalcade of body
guards, as he makes his way to his new luxury penthouse, valued at
several million, at the Point Waterfront - smiling as he goes by because
the area has been declared, BY HIM, as a rates-free zone until 2014.

Effectively he is totally unaffected by this huge cock-up. He doesn't
even have to pay his share in the rates bill.

Isn't the new South Africa just wonderful...?






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[Janette Eldridge]

Hi Gail

 

The wording of the e-mail you sent to John is a bit of a mystery as it is not the one I posted to the Libsa discussion although it does contain some of the wording of my posting.

I have just looked on the internet and am horrified to find the same wording you sent on a number of websites.

 

However, let’s just stick with the bus company issue which I posted. Much of this has been reported in our KZN papers and there have been a great many letters to the papers on this issue.

 

If you look for Remnant Alton (Ctrl F) on this Mail & Guardian site you will get a good idea of what has been going on:  http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-01-26-da-failed-parastatal-ceos-cost-sa-r260m

 

For further reporting on Mr Singh’s conviction try this site from Pretoria News

http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090531015320754C212309

 

Hope this helps

Janette

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