Readers’Views

What about the rotten eggs spoiling the Eskom bake?

What does it help to replace Eskom’s board when both the operating environment and the government ministers in charge of policy and approvals are still the same selfserving, out-of-touch incompetents who created this mess?

The ANC is trying to keep baking the same cake with the same recipe that has not worked, and all they do is change the brand of flour. What about all the rotten eggs spoiling the bake?

— Andre Fourie, on BusinessLIVE

Amazing that public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan can be so strongly vocal about state capture, but when it comes to doing anything in the commercial or state-owned enterprise sphere, he is largely missing in action.

He deserves no kudos for appointing a competent board, but rather criticism for not having done so sooner.

He seems to act only when the state of disrepair of an entity degenerates into total disaster, and if the reason for his lack of action is linked to his overriding loyalty to the ANC, he should recognise the ANC itself, through things like cadre deployment, is as guilty of state capture as the Guptas ever were. —

Nick Steen, on BusinessLIVE

Hampered by overregulation

The paragraph in Isaah Mhlanga’s column “Government needs to see the light or face its Arab Spring” (October 2) regarding small, micro and medium enterprises being under “siege” (even without load-shedding) notably omits the disproportionate effect of overregulation, not least in labour matters, on this sector.

The cost of a contested dismissal in terms of management time, legal fees, and so on, is prohibitive for small businesses and non-governmental organisations to the extent it’s not worth the risk of taking on untried staff.

It’s cheaper in the long run to pay overtime to the devils you know (and, of course, maximise use of technology). — Al Cadre, on BusinessLIVE

Lifestyles are what matter

The article “Inflation driving up inequality, say experts” (October 2) refers. Poverty is the issue, and that can be solved by creating employment.

Inequality is meaningless, and trying to reduce it is based on envy and the desire to punish those better off.

It does not matter if Bill Gates earns billions; what matters is our ability to lead a comfortable lifestyle.