South Africa

Fitting straight into the Fat Cat mold of I'm-a-manager-so-I'll-do-whatever- I-want comes the management of SAA. Having (there's no other way to put it) LIED to the members of the two main labour unions about the financial health of the airline, the managerial negotiating team were caught with their pants on fire when SAA CEO Khaya "helicopters to meetings" Ngqula proudly announced the airline’s R1-billion profit. WOOPS

Of course what happened next is well documented and the airline lost millions of rands due to strike action. Luckily for you all, I have sources who secretly taped the contents of the board meeting when the decision was taken to lie to the unions CUE :

Khaya Ngqula (CEO) : "The next matter on the agenda is the wage increases for next year (sounds of laughter and general hilarity in the background at this comment). I propose....quiet down please....I propose at inflation less 3%....a 3% wage increase"

Tryphosa Ramano (CFO) : "Our financial projections show a stunning turnaround next year...around R1bn... on the back of our cost cutting measures and of course your fine leadership Sir!"

KN : "You are correct Mr Ramano my Titanic leadership is a beacon to all, now back to the wage increases. I am somewhat concerned that the unions may push for a higher settlement"

Viwe Mlenzana (HR) : "Not to worry boss, me and Richson Mboweni have an airtight scheme for dealing with those buffoons. We will pretend the company is in a worse position than it was last year. That way we'll batter them down to 3%" (sounds of applause and backslapping over this fine idea) 

TR : "Umm but what of the projections for next year...shouldn't we factor that in to the negotiations. Let me put it another way how will we distract the unions if the projections prove correct."?

(general silence)

(eruption of laughter) 

KN : "Ahh Mr Ramano sometimes you are too much, who knew a CFO could have such a great sense of humour!"

TR : "Thankyou Sir I'm glad you enjoyed my little joke." (sounds of high fives??)

KN : "Well then thats settled...I have another FNB social to go to about 5km away so I will see you gentlemen later"

VM : "Great seeing you again Sir, we hardly ever meet due to your frenetic social schedule. Your helicopter is ready outside for that 5km trip to the meeting...hope to see you soon"

(meeting ends)

Interesting article about just how they finally managed track, catch and convict Donovan Moodley the murderer of Leigh Matthews. Read the details here.

I touched on this subject a bit in a previous post (Capacity at Municipalites) but I'd like to flesh-out my thoughts more on the subject. The outbreak of demonstrations and protests concerning lax service delivery is just one of the many problems caused by the capacity crises in local government. A functioning and effective civil service (sorry do those last three words constitute an oxymoron?) is extremely important, especially when the government has made such lofty promises about service delivery.

A close friend of mine works in a job that requires constant liasing with local governement officials (LGO's). He says his job is made all the more difficult and complicated because he finds he has to often shepherd local LGO's through simple compliance procedures that are required under municipal law. This means he basically does part of their jobs for them. He says things are getting worse every year and the morale of the people he deals with is extremely low. This has the effect of a) cutting into my friends productivity as he babysits the LGO's b) leads to much frustration and stress for all involved and c) a situation where both sides begin to resent each other and find it difficult to work in a professional manner. Not quite the recipe for effective local government co-operation.

What are the reasons behind this disaster? In my opinion much of the blame must lie with the governments ill-advised hiring and retrenchment policies in the late 90's. The large number of skilled managers that left the service only to be replaced by inexperienced  juniors was a major mistake on the part of the government. Yes it was necessary to have reform and yes it was (and is) necessary to try create a demographically representative civil service, however the governments slash and burn policy towards senior managers just because they worked for the previous regime was ill informed and short sighted.

While I agreed with the Prez. in terms of the capacity problem, I do not agree with his solutions which again looks short-sighted and knee-jerk. Do we really need to import new municipal managers? If so I would have three questions :

a) Where from?

b) Why can't we find suitable candidated domestically?     

c) Will these new candidates satisfy the Employment Equity Act?

Honestly I do wonder whether the Prez has some sour grapes, because I'm 90% sure people with the needed skills can be found in SA. Unfortunately for the Prez most of them are over 50 and white - come on Thabo, just eat humble pie and let them back on board for awhile, at least until they can teach an EFFECTIVE group of managers to take over.

Interesting comments by the Minister on Zim, checkout the article here. Another Comment piece in the M&G by Tawanda Mutasah, a founding convenor and moderator of Zimbabwe’s National Constitutional Assembly, a civic coalition campaigning for reform, is also worth a read.

Couldn't agree with the Prez more on this and I'm glad the issue is finally coming to a head. For too long the salaries of Local Government officials have been completely unrelated to a) relevent skills b) task performance and c) target achievement. This has resulted in HUGE salaries for these people while the quality of their work has remained sketchy at best. Checkout the following quote concerning a recent skills audit of municipal managers in one province : 

“On a scale of one to four — four being excellent and one being the worst — the average manager’s capacity level was 1,6. How can we count on management to lead us when their skills levels are so low?”

 

A good question! Do yourself a favour and checkout the rest of the article here.

A few new developements in this story. Business Day reported earlier this week that the deal was all but signed, although there has been no official word from the governemtn on this. Mugabe has sunk to new lows (it seems there is no limit) and is now a virtual pimp for the Chinese, whoring out Zimbabwe in return for small favours that will keep his own clique in power. The M&G had this to say about Mugabe's pimping trip to China :

"Mugabe arrived in China on Saturday for a six-day visit. He flew on an Air Zimbabwe jet, although most other flights by the state-owned airline were cancelled last week due to fuel shortages. In addition to financial aid, Mugabe is expected to ask Chinese leaders to block any action by the UN security council over his housing demolitions. In return, China is expected to require access to Zimbabwe's platinum deposits, the second largest in the world."

The Pres. has finally weighed in on the issue exclaiming :

"We don't want Zimbabwe to collapse and (then) we inherit all the consequences. Something has to happen. The debt issue has arisen (as to) how it should be settled. Who will settle it? It may very well be that in the end we are going to come to the decision that South Africa takes on a portion of that debt."

 

Again how many times did we warn Mugabe his actions were going to result in disaster? Yet he stayed the course and forged ahead with his destructive polices, now he wants us to come bail him out? Actions have consequences, this is something we learn when we are young - so too Mugabe must face the consequences of his actions! Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen as Mugabe still has his Palace with all the accompanying perks and it is only ordinary Zimbabweans that suffer from his ill conceived plans. IF the Pres. agrees to help Zimbabwe which I think he will - he MUST insist on stringent conditions...fresh elections would be a great place to start.

The sad saga of Leigh Matthews looks like it is finaly coming to an end. Today the accused in the case, Donovan Moodley pleaded guilty to the three charges, Judge Joop Labuschagne said: "It is clear that the accused admits all elements of the three charges. I find the accused guilty as charged." The charges were kidnapping, extortion and murder.

So there it is...What began a year ago with a feverish search has ended with a young woman dead and a young man going to prison for the rest of his life, what a waste!

Too often issues of race are monopolised by the Black vs. White dynamic, while in reality there are many facets to the race question. Two recent incidents have turned this around and brought inter-"black" relations into the media spotlight

The first "incident" is the ongoing feud between Nelson Mandela and his former lawyer Ismail Ayob. This article goes some way in exploring Indian/African racial tensions in general. The second was the Mayor of Cape Towns media relations expert writing some questionable material about Coloured people in the Western Cape. You can read a full write-up of that incident in the Cape Times here.

Never a dull day when it comes to Race in SA (sigh).

Well I don't think I could have thought of a better way to spend Saturday than watching the events unfold at Ellis Park yesterday. I'm not gonna go into details because I'm sure most of you tuned in, needless to say it was inspiring TV!

It is being reported that SAA CEO Alfred E. Newman Khaya Ngqula has jetted off to a luxury resort near the Kruger Park. This comes at a time when SAA is facing quote "the most serious strike in its history". Explaining to us mere mortals how priorities work in the business sector, SAA spokesperson Onkgopotse JJ Tabane said Ngqula had gone to Nelspruit to attend an important function :  

"The CEO was in Nelspruit where a corporate function was taking place. This was an FNB function which he had to attend as FNB is one of our biggest clients." 

 

Well there we go! However I still wonder why the Big Man needed to attend this "corporate function" in the company of his wife AND former beauty queen Mbali Gasa....the mind boggles? So again lets put this into perspective - you are a CEO of a major company which is facing a crippling strike, reports are coming in from all areas of chaos at your branch offices as well as government urgings to re-enter negotiations with labour. Do you :

A) Drop everything and get stuck in to find a solution to the deadlock.

B) Become concerned but allow your negotiators to handle things while you remain at the helm presenting an image of calm. Still leading from the front of course and ready to respond to the changing environment from your HQ.

C) Get one of your affiliates to fly you, your wife and a former beauty queen to a "corporate function" at a luxury resort.

Your right the answer in C! Welcome back Mr Ngqula, don't forget to pick up your monster Salary at payroll...