Gordhan should have been much tougher

BRUCE Whitfield uses the Titanic analogy to describe the sinking ship South Africa, “An even keel alone will not avert ratings wreck” (February 28).

One story, as retold in the Oscar-winning movie, says Titanic captain Edward Smith locked himself in the bridge and ignored pleas for help and direction from crew and passengers. I thought of that when I worked for an organisation where management literally hid in their offices while incipient disorder prevailed.

President Jacob Zuma, the cabinet and the ANC are like the apocryphal Smith. But the blame for the mess we’re in cannot be placed only on the ANC alliance.

Business leaders and the frequently sycophantic business media and analysts — until the ratings cliff and Nhlanhla Nene’s firing — refused to realise or honestly speak about the trouble the economy was heading for.

I trained as an economist but never worked as one, and I could predict the potential danger.

Business, ANC-aligned media and taxpayers praised the recent budget, which, instead of imposing the radical therapy that the country needs, sought to placate them with palliative, anodyne and ultimately ineffective and costly measures. They just don’t get it.

And here I must disagree with Business Times et al — Pravin Gordhan doesn’t get it either, and never was our white knight. — Thomas Johnson, Cape Town