With the South African Post Office, the cheque’s always in the mail…

Let’s be honest, if the South African Post Office was one of your employees, you would have fired it a long time ago.
For a start, it missed all but two of its 15 performance targets for the year ending 31 March 2025. Targets such as generating R1 million in warehousing revenue, growing logistics revenue by 16% and establishing an eCommerce mall to support small business development. It also failed to hit a key KPI of resolving all customer complaints recorded at the call centre within seven days.
 
It even, wait for it, failed to achieve the regulated mail delivery standard. Which drops the average South African squarely in the doo doo when it comes to receiving anything through the post. It’s not as though we’re exactly spoiled for choice for other options.
 
And in some case, there simply isn’t another option, thanks to the Post Office’s licence, which grants it “exclusivity of reserved postal services where it has monopoly over sub 1 kg items.”
 
I mean, you essentially had ONE JOB, Post Office…
 
Click the link to read the full story - https://lnkd.in/dzGnqesq

From Joburg to Woe-burg – Is there still hope for the City of Gold?

Anyone who loves Springbok rugby will be familiar with the Bomb Squad – the brainchild of head coach Rassie Erasmus that sees the Bok bench heavily laden (6-2 or sometimes even 7-1) with massive forwards. The idea is genius in its simplicity: let the starting line-up of forwards empty their tanks in the first half, and then substitute the entire lot with an intimidating group of world class replacements for the last 40 minutes.The latest “copy-cat” however, comes from a very different – and entirely unexpected – quarter.Johannesburg Mayor, Dada Morero, in his State of the City Address earlier this month, outlined a turnaround plan to tackle the city’s collapsing infrastructure, which included the introduction of a specialised “bomb squad.”As I’ve highlighted before in a previous article, our once proud and beautiful City of Gold is tarnished almost beyond recognition and needs around R200 billion just to affect necessary repairs to roads and other infrastructure, and address the many other pressing issues facing the city.The mayor referred to Joburg’s “state of rot” and said, “we need extreme actions to resolve our challenges.”The so-called Bomb Squad, which, in the mayor’s words, is a “a high-powered implementation impact team,” is a key driver of these actions.He went on to say, “This bomb squad will be led by the ANC Veterans’ League boss Snuki Zikalala, and will remove constraints that impact the City’s ability to create the Joburg we want to see.”It all, as usual, sounds very promising. But it begs one critical question:What does Mayor Morero mean by “removing constraints?” As far as I can see, the main constraint is a crippling lack of available funds to fix the myriad problems.And I’m not sure how even the biggest, strongest and most muscly bomb squad can make that problem go away.It’s something the mayor acknowledges, if a little reluctantly.Click below to read the full article https://lnkd.in/drtuVssr

Burning Billions. What's the true cost of keeping South Africa's lights on?

Lies, damned lies, and loadshedding…“In another 18 months to two years, you will forget the challenges that we had with Eskom.”Cyril Ramaphosa, then Deputy President, September 2015.In every state of the nation address since 2018, Ramaphosa has boldly claimed we’d soon be looking at load-shedding in our rear-view mirrors.In May 2023, he told us the end of load-shedding “should be in sight soon.”In August 2023, he claimed the government was doing “great work” to fix Eskom, and promised “by 2024, the energy crisis will be over.”The fact that Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, in a metaphorical rending of garments, said, “I’m the minister and I bear the responsibility, working with Eskom, so there’s no other person but myself. The buck stops here,” was little comfort to those struggling to keep businesses afloat, and families fed.South Africans are becoming mighty tired of ministers writing cheques they can’t cash.Click below to read the full articlehttps://lnkd.in/dCaWkmwN

Wage Rage - South Africa’s civil servants earn more than our doctors

South Africa’s civil servants are the highest paid in the world, when taken as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).According to studies by the IMF and World Bank, paying our civil servants consumes between 12% and 13% of GDP – that’s 3.5% higher than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average, and significantly more than economically strong countries such as the UK, US, Japan and Australia.In the past 30 years, the government salary bill has exploded from R55 billion in 1995 to R724 billion in the 2023/24 financial year – far above normal, inflation-related increases.Much of this happened under Jacob Zuma’s watch, and it put massive pressure on government finances. In fact, the state had to borrow money to fund this inflated wage bill, increasing government debt from R627 billion to R5.21 trillion in fifteen years.Click below to read the full article.https://lnkd.in/dFJ72wjD

The Rise of Deepfakes: It's Time For A Reality Check

You may or may not have heard of the Gorilla Experiment.
Regular readers of my articles will remember it highlights what scientists call selective perception – the tendency of our brains to slightly close the curtains on the windows of our minds and focus only on the thing we expect to see/hear/experience at that moment.
In itself, selective perception is not a bad thing. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s a critical function of our brains. 

Enough is Enough - The Time to Take A Stand Against Corruption is Now

While assassinated whistleblower Babita Deokaran is surely turning in her grave, countless corrupt individuals continue to dance on it.
Whoever coined the phrase “Crime doesn’t pay” clearly never lived in South Africa.
The injustice of the situation is absolute, and the insult to Babita Deokaran’s memory is breathtaking.

The Power of One

If you think one second doesn’t make a difference, talk to the Comrades Marathon runner who finished the race in 12 hours and 1 second.
If you think one day doesn’t make a difference, speak to the person who’s just lost their life partner and would give anything to have just one more day with them.
On the surface, one is a small number, and yet it has exponential potential many of us don’t fully appreciate, understand or capitalise on.
 

The Weaponisation of Water

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting a distinct sense of déjà vu right about now? I can’t be the only one drawing parallels in my mind between our more recent water crisis and the electricity catastrophe that’s plagued South Africa to a lesser or greater degree since 2008.
 

Forget Bermuda - Welcome to the Fraud Triangle

Developed in 1951 by criminology researcher Donald Cressey. 
Cressey concluded that all the cases he studied conformed to the same three-step process, which makes up the three sides of the Fraud Triangle:
Pressure
An opportunity to violate trust.
The rationalisation that defines the behaviour as appropriate for the specific situation.

South Africa’s Lost Billions – Imagine What Could Have Been Done With The Money…

What could have been done with the hundreds of billions of Rands that have been lost in in South Africa over the past few years in “fruitless and wasteful expenditure?”
From payments for mammogram services to a hospital that does not even have a mammogram machine to payouts to dead people, the list of financial farces that litter our government departments seems endless.
Not to mention the money sacrificed to blatant corruption.