TheInsider

‘Rocking chair’ broadside should amuse Godsell

THE former president of the Chamber of Mines and former AngloGold Ashanti CEO Bobby Godsell should not dispense advice from his “rocking chair”, the chamber’s CEO, Bheki Sibiya, told Parliament’s labour committee during a workshop on a national minimum wage this week.

His cutting comment came in reply to a suggestion by Congress of South African Trade Unions strategist Neil Coleman that garnishee orders placed on workers’ pay be declared illegal, as Godsell had recommended. Sibiya said garnishee orders were introduced when Godsell was at the helm of the chamber. “I am sorry, but his opinion is his opinion and he needs to keep it to himself,” Sibiya said, emphasising that the mining industry would not break the law by failing to honour garnishee orders.

Godsell, who served on the National Planning Commission and is chairman of Business Leadership SA, will probably be amused to hear that some believe he is spending his retirement years rocking back and forth with a cat on his lap. Obesity irks city mandarins ABDOMINAL obesity in the US, land of the free to eat, is expanding at a frightening rate. Researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that bulging waistlines now affect 54% of American adults, up from 46% in 1999-2000. “The increase is a concern,” an online news report quoted an obesity expert, William Dietz, as saying. Given the good doctor’s surname, he seems to have chosen the right field of specialisation for his expertise.

Meanwhile, the City of Johannesburg is so worried about obesity in SA’s best-fed city that it launched a healthy-lifestyle campaign in May under the theme “We Are All Players”, in line with the city’s growth strategy of the non-abdominal sort.

The campaign seeks to tackle the risks that are associated with obesity, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. It was officially launched by mayor Parks Chow — oops, sorry, that should be Parks Tau. Wise words “WHEN people are told to ‘eat many small meals’, what they may actually hear is ‘eat all the time’, making them likely to respond with some degree of compulsive overeating. It’s no coincidence that obesity rates began rising rapidly in the 1980s more or less in tandem with this widespread endorsement of more frequent meals.” Andrew Weil, US doctor and naturopath (born 1942). More wise words “THE people in power have created an obesity epidemic.” Robert Atkins, US physician and cardiologist (1930-2003).