Why Having No Political Opinion Is Dangerous

Its getting dark in here... There's always a silver lining. So now we are all opinionated, 'Political Analysts' and have experience on the cause and effect of political decisions and economic outcomes. The latter is yet to come, we are only feeling the financial markets implications right now.

I'm glad to see Financial Services companies in the green on the JSE. As for those people that think the stock market is for the elite rich, think again. If you have a pension fund, that money is invested in the stock market, and your life savings are worth less because of the move last week to fire Minister Nene. That includes the Government Employees Pension Fund.

So when Discovery, First Rand, Standard Bank, etc. shares were being pulverised Thursday and Friday, losing 20% in value, that is your retirement savings also taking a knock! Thankfully, some order is being restored today, but it is still worth less than Wednesday night.

The pain was not for the likes of Adrian Gore, Paul Harris, etc. only. The pain of tge value destruction was for all our accounts. So stop getting lost in the arguments about who has more to lose. Relatively speaking, the average person employed, putting his or her earnings into a pension fund, lost a significant portion of their worth.

As for the person not employed, when companies make less profit, they pay less corporate taxes. When comoanies make less profit, or make losses and no more profits, they retrench people. With less people employed, that means less people pay personal income tax. That all means less money for the government to collect as tax revenue and without that, how do you think the government can pay those grants that support millions of South Africans?

We need a government that restores the checks and balances that makes for the right opportunities, for us as people as well as business to survive! Thrive is a luxury at the moment, so let's aim for survive. Right now, can we honestly say that is the game being played by our political leaders given the decisions we see them make?

If the Finance Minister says we can't afford to build a nuclear power plant, why would Cabinet approve it? Let's not make the firing of Minister Nene suddenly look like it's been corrected because Minister Gordhan is back... We have a mountain to climb, and our president keeps taking away some of the equipment we need to get to the top of the mountain, without any consequences to him for his Actions!

I really hope that talks continue to action in the ANC. It's a collaborative party, where 'a body' leads the decisions, and not just one man. Right now, the party is under siege from one man. It's time to get the people's party back to being one that wants a better life for ALL and genuinely takes decisions that are in the best interest of South Africa. We don't mind painful decisions when they serve the country, but painful decisions that serve the few are hard to deal with, or accept.