Jeffrey Zetler was murdered on his farm while we were sitting in the rugby box on Saturday afternoon watching the test at Newlands. Stabbed six times. He died in his chair in his office as thugs in balaclavas attacked him at the gate of his farm and then dragged him to his office in an attempt to steal money. Another violent robbery gone wrong and a family man, an icon in the Stellenbosch farming community and a friend to all of us, is gone. We are devastated. He was one of us. The chairman of the local Jewish Community and all round nice guy, who headed-up the huge farming business that the Zetler brothers took over & built up magnificently from their late Dad. Famous for their strawberries and those most photographed scarecrows in the world, strategically placed among the fields on their Mooiberge farm, the business has developed into an enormous success that includes retail, wholesale and export. We will miss the calm, deliberate man who was a support to so many. His staff of a thousand tell that he treated them like a father treats his children. They were at his funeral in big numbers.
The humble, humble family man is no more.
We are devastated at another senseless killing. Crime is out of control. The police are asking the public for leads in this case. They are pathetic!
I am angry that this is what SA has become. We are all scared. Alarms, fences and continuous check-up phone calls have become our way of life. Yet another indictment at the parlous state of affairs that the ANC have allowed to develop. I am sad. No, I am angry.
In his column, this week Max du Preez tells of the uselessness of the ANC as governors. The wastage in the ANC-run institutions is immense and now they want to take land away (from whites) for nothing. The war-cry of the EFF, now propagated by the ANC as though they were always the one's to call for it is: Expropriation (mostly, of farm land) without compensation.
(Four white farmers were murdered this weekend in SA. This is intimidation of the harshest kind. Afriforum has been on about how many white farmers are being killed, for years now.)
Du Preez gives many examples of ANC disastrous management, but the story he tells this week is merely one example of what is going on here. He writes about the Great Kei municipality where after years of maladministration the corruption is totally crippling. Here the council hasn't paid its workers (almost everyone black) in two months, but the elected councillors receive not only their full salaries but all their perks as well. The council is completely dominated by the ANC who received far more than 70% of the votes in the last election.
Du Preez then goes on to discuss the wastage at Eskom and SAA but I won't go there. Those figures are so big that they are meaningless to me.
Making news this whole week, and most of last week, too, has been the Health Minister’s push for a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme. It won't work. I went for my annual medical check-up early in the week and my physician, a very bright guy, who sometimes shares his views with me, sat across his desk discussing this very matter. Everyone is talking about it. While discussing this new governmental plan that will cost not millions, but billions, that SA just doesn't have, Graham said that it would fly. He clarified that as I looked up sharply at him, saying that all the doctors in this country will fly right out of here if that ever became practice.
Both Graham and I read the Daily Maverick and I know that many of you do, too and there have been several starkly damning articles on the folly of this potential scheme that has no financial top limit. It can only lead to a total disaster for this country, that is in any case almost completely bankrupt as I write.
A crook and a liar, who has been convicted of fraud and corruption, has been elected by the ANC as the new head of the committee dealing with crime and corruption. This is not one of my jokes. He is Tony Yengeni and are you surprised? The ANC justify this selection by saying that he did his time. Did he? He got a lenient four-year sentence and spent all of four months in jail before he was miraculously released to drive around in a Maserati, no less. That is how well the ANC look after their own. It is a highly offensive but emblematic appointment.
A little bit of good news is that some of the people elevated into top positions by Accused No 1, now fired or suspended by Cyril Ramaphosa, are slowly being gotten rid of. Yet proper consequences have not yet been seen.
One such top appointee, Tom Moyane, was almost certainly appointed as head of SARS to see that no-one went after either the Guptas or Accused No 1. The revenue services were world class under Pravin Gordhan, in the day, but under Moyane it became a total disaster like so many other institutions here that have fallen into the gutter. Listening devices and cameras were planted all over the offices at SARS after Tom Moyane was appointed.
This week Moyane is the Sunday Times’ Mampara of the Week. The commission of enquiry into SARS, now sitting, is hearing evidence how this caught-out liar spread such fear into the staff who were world class operators, that they one-by-one all left the institution. Their places are now filled with mamparas willing to do their boss’s wants. He broke the entire system.
To explain what a total mampara Moyane is; he was offered a very generous package settlement to go by Ramaphosa when he became President four months ago, but he opposed that with a court application, hence this commission of enquiry.
Gordhan has had a “go” at Moyane, but it has been quite gentle. There may be worse to come. What we are hearing at the enquiry is mostly what we already know. Will there be consequences now? Cyril is not accused of anything and will not interfere to save Moyane, like his predecessor would. These commissions are good news indeed.
Some good news as far as I am concerned is that the noose is tightening around Dudu Myeni. That girlfriend of Accused No 1 who was so utterly useless as Chairperson of SAA for so many years while we all watched at how she was destroying our national airline, is being brought to book, at last. This week two of her henchmen at SAA were found guilty of gross negligence in their role in the BnP Capital fundraising scheme. The net is surely closing in on her.
Also good news, very good news, is that Mercedes Benz is investing R10 billion to make the new C-class vehicles here in the Eastern Cape, to export around the world. The factory in East London is to be furthered expanded, and there is reason to believe the AMG engines will also be manufactured in SA. This is part of CR’s $100 billion 5-year investment plan.
The DA lost its case to have Patricia de Lille expelled from the party. This makes de Lille look like a hero and I am sorry about that. She is aloof, doesn't answer emails and thinks she is always right. Why doesn't she explain the sms she sent? This judgement is being taken on appeal......but the DA have already lost this battle. They handled this whole matter so badly. Sympathy went to de Lille instead of to the party. They need much better PR. The DA needs to get onto TV and onto the radio and it needs to be showing what it is doing for the people. It needs to project positivity.
The Eskom salary dispute has net been settled yet. To quote a wag “there is no light at the end of this tunnel” yet. Are we in for more load-shedding?
What is disturbing is how anti-Israel and anti-Semitic SA has become.
To gauge the partiality in SA the story of Shashi Naidoo, a young model, is a story is worth telling. This young girl after a ’do’ said on her twitter page something very complimentary about Israel. Then the world came down on her. She received everything from death threats to losing her business sponsorships. So she ”changed her mind” and agreed to go to Gaza to ”see for herself”.
The very best letter to an editor that I have read in a long, long time was the letter that Monessa Shapiro sent to the Sunday Times. It was the headline letter this weekend and I have sent it on to some. I add it here for you to read:

I do not often come across too many pro-Israel cartoons here but yesterday I opened a Jeremy Nel email and I found this Jerm classic:

The city council has scrapped ideas of getting a desalination barge to supplement water supply in our city. The recent rains have brought some relief but we are not yet out of the woods and water-savings are to be continued until we are sure that we have enough water in our dams to guarantee full water supply for next summer.
This coming weekend and several days thereafter will see me on the touring with The Famous Tour on the road, walking with my historical tour of the Cape in the city as well as touring generally with two overseas groups and the forecast for rain, rain, and more rain may well spoil my touring-week to some extent. But I am really not complaining.
The highlight of the weekend was being at Newlands for what was (probably) the last test match played at that hallowed venue. It very much seems as if test rugby at Newlands will soon become a thing of the past. The rugby union is in financial trouble and the much nicer and more modern facility awaits in Green Point, at the stadium that was built for the Soccer World Cup in 2010.
The test against England was a bruising affair on a wet and miserable day. But such days are so very welcome here and in spite of the weather Michael and I were wonderfully treated by Dennis, that character of note. We had a great experience and I sat in the box with Dennis and his pals and Michael was on the grandstand.
In the match, we were out-muscled in this final test by a very determined English team. Our coach said, after the match, that the Springboks were terrible and that he had learnt a lot. I hope so. The England team saved face and went home having beaten the team that had twice beaten them this month.
Bruce managed another goodish round on Monday evening.
As always, love to all,
Gerald
