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Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma's speech at the World Economic Forum on Africa had the comments section bursting at the seams this week.
According to Number One "taxpayers don't deserve to fund corruption". Commentators came out with an intensity not witnessed before in the weekly top ten, logging almost 1 000 posts at the time of publication.
User AliciaLouise took it as a personal attack and responded with "It burns... my cheeks are burning... WHAT A MASSIVE SLAP IN OUR FACES...[words omitted]".
The finding that Lonmin could 'easily' have afforded a R12 500 pay cheque for miners stimulated an interesting discussion on issues like current state of the mining industry, nationalisation, profit and what is fair in terms of remuneration.
User Clock Time remarked: "You don't see the CEO going underground to pull his profits from the rock, do you?"
Top ten user comments on:
Zuma: Taxpayers don't deserve to fund corruption:
1. AliciaLouise - It burns... my cheeks are burning... WHAT A MASSIVE SLAP IN OUR FACES... - READ STORY
2. Werner Nel - From what planet was this speech made? READ STORY
3. Mark Bateman-Evans - Dear President Zuma, although not proven, we all know that you also received benefits through corruption. Secondly, the government's social welfare scheme is also corrupt as there are people who claim grants who are not ill at all. So, you are correct in what you are saying, but the rot comes from the top... - READ STORY
Lonmin could 'easily' have afforded R12 500 - report:
4. Ryan Alexander Smith - Derek, it depends on the definition of "afford"... look, I have no affiliation to Lonmin or any mining company, and I can tell you they can really not "afford" to pay miners more. Why? If you look at Lonmin's audited financial statements, you can see that Lonmin actually made a loss for 3 years in the past 6 years, including a loss in financial year 2014.
It is not a sustainable situation. They cannot "afford" for things to continue like this, including paying wage increases even in excess of inflation. Lonmin is not in business to break even or make paltry returns for shareholders! This means they need to be doing a helluva lot better than they are now! Which means either increasing revenue a lot (which they are unable to do since the price of platinum and associated metals is not increasing, and is actually decreasing) or increasing production, which is not always possible or even feasible, or keeping a lid on expenses.
And wages are a massive expense for mining companies, often making up over 50% of expenses. So if your revenues are flat or even declining you better damn well make sure you manage your expense wisely! - READ STORY
5. Clock Time - And they [employees] are worth something to the mines, because without them nothing is extracted. You don't see the CEO going underground to pull his profits from the rock do you - the economist is only indicating in his report that the company "can" pay more because the profits indicate that on the spreadsheet, not that they "should" pay more - that decision he is leaving for management.
The workers are skilled and they do have training in how to do their jobs in the most safe and efficient manner, their jobs are dangerous - they work underground with the huge potential for a complete disaster every day. Because the company does not make money this year does not mean it will not next year, it is all about productivity which is hampered by the load shedding at the moment - yes I agree they should be given an increase in wage. - READ STORY
Govt takes over nuclear build programme:
6. Anton Martin - This is nuts. The whole world is moving towards sustainable green energy which is growing in applicability at an exponential rate... and the ANC would rather get involved with the Russians selling us on a system that will result in our economic dependency on a dying technology.
Not to mention the fact that it is hideously expensive and impractical vis-à-vis the time constraints on any efforts to redeem the economy by the time the project could be completed. – READ STORY
7. Frank Rita Vennard - It's a bit like buying a VHS machine to watch movies. They can't give nuclear power stations away (Germany and Japan are closing theirs). - READ MORE
Herbicide ban could cost SA farming billions - expert:
8. BarakYeshua ForPeace - How did the farming community cope with weeds before carcinogenic herbicides? Has anybody forgotten about pulling weeds out by hand providing extra work for thousands of unemployed farm workers or using bugs that eat the weeds but leave the food crop untouched? - READ MORE
Clothing retail workers must earn much more – union:
9. Laurence Weyers - In Europe the " workers" are actually only assemblers of the garments that are actually cut and stitched in China, South Korea, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The European "workers" merely attach the company labels, add buttons and links and most importantly check the quality of the finished product. The European "workers" are paid per article finished and not just for turning up for work.
The expected rejection rate (i.e. Levi's, Jeep, Guess, etc) is 0.001% per day. In South Africa (i.e. Quiksilver, Woolworths etc) is 1.5% per day. In South Africa staff are paid an hourly rate as it has been discovered that if the staff are paid per item produced, the reject rate increases to over 5% and the staff actually take home less pay per month. So the company loses on fabric, thread, electricity etc. So when saying European workers, please make sure you are comparing staff of the same ability and productivity - READ MORE
SA's new visa rules slam brakes on travel - airline body:
10. Wouter Willemse - I have said this and say it again: Australia, the UK, Canada and many other countries have these or similar visa rules. Try travelling anywhere on a SA passport - you will have a very, very hard time finding nice spots not requiring a visa or unabridged certificates.
My thinking is that the people who are making all the comments on this issue have never travelled and do not know the effort needed to travel on a SA passport - READ MORE
Disclaimer: All letters and comments published in MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
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