IN RACING - are you a PIG or CHICKEN...lol..

These groups get their names from a joke about a pig and a chicken opening a restaurant:[5]

A pig and a chicken are walking down a road. The chicken looks at the pig and says, "Hey, why don't we open a restaurant?" The pig looks back at the chicken and says, "Good idea, what do you want to call it?" The chicken thinks about it and says, "Why don't we call it 'Ham and Eggs'?" "I don't think so," says the pig, "I'd be committed, but you'd only be involved."

So the "pigs" are committed to building software regularly and frequently, while everyone else is a "chicken"—interested in the project but really indifferent because if it fails they're not the pigs—that is, they weren't the ones that committed to doing it. The needs, desires, ideas and influences of the chicken roles are taken into account, but are not in any way allowed to affect, distort or get in the way of the actual Scrum project.

Get that snout in the trough Andre. Taken from the Moneyweb website and penned by Barry Sergeant. Four legs good two legs bad.


Two parastatals dole out billions to personal business interests of some lucky directors.

JOHANNESBURG - Media reports that the Development Bank of Southern Africa has loaned hundreds of millions of rands to personal business interests of certain of its directors has created a bit of an uproar, and apparently has also caught the attention of Parliament's finance portfolio committee. These kinds of arrangements appear to be relatively new at DBSA, but are old hat at the Industrial Development Corporation, which, like DBSA, can be classified as a parastatal.

Both the DBSA and IDC appear to have an underlying philanthropic tone, but are also expected to be able to wash their faces, with the objective of being self-funding in the longer term, which seems fair enough. According to the IDC's latest annual report, it first approved funding for an interest of one of its directors back in 1999.

In both the IDC and DBSA cases, these transactions are classified as "related party", but, the public is told in no uncertain terms, are fully disclosed and are only approved "at arm's length". DBSA has approved loans, preference shares (a hybrid debt-equity instrument), and also straight equity.

According to DBSA's latest annual report, DBSA in October 2008 loaned R200m to, effectively, On Digital Media, in which DBSA director Lulu Gwagwa holds a personal equity stake. Also in 2008, the IDC approved an equity investment of R275m in On Digital Media, in which IDC director Monhla Wilma Hlahla holds an equity stake.

Hlahla is, of course, CEO of the Airports Company (Acsa), a parastatal. It can be noted in passing that Hlahla had a spell at DBSA, starting in 1994. During its 2009 financial year, Acsa cleared R1.3bn in operating cash flows, but spent R6bn on capital expenditure. During the year, it increased net borrowings by more than R6bn.

The IDC disclosures also show that it approved R537m worth of preference share investments in Guma Tourism, apparently a part of the Guma group. LT Kunene, who resigned as an IDC director on September 30 2008, holds a goodly stake in Guma Tourism. During 2008, the IDC also approved loans of R1.2bn to Neotel, in which IDC director NN Nokwe holds a nice stake. She is cited as the CEO, Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency, and holds a Moscow science degree.

Back at DBSA, this year it approved a R100m loan to Coronation Peotona Fund, in which DBSA director Wendy Lucas Bull personally holds an equity stake. Peotona, 85% owned by Cheryl Carolus (29%, executive chairperson), Dolly Mokgatle (28%), Thandi Orleyn (28%), and Lucas-Bull (15%), promises that "no individual will participate in any business consortium outside of Peotona". Lucas Bull is a director of DBSA, if it bears repetition, and Carolus was last month appointed chairperson of parastatal South African Airways.

Before getting hysterical and throwing up (preferably down an open drain hole), consider that South Africa's parastatals are in disarray and, in old fashioned terms, sit adrift on the high seas, waiting for a mean and unrelenting storm to drive them landward and smash them up against ancient and unforgiving rocks. The recent meltdown at Eskom, the monopoly electricity generator, has left a nation speechless, shocked, and in admiration that just one or two intransigent punks can, after all, get close to ruining a country. If Eskom goes down, the nation will be crippled; it will then take years and years before again, if ever, being taken seriously.

DBSA and IDC have shown that they are entirely happy to depart from the spirit of their underlying charters and dole out billons of rands to facilitate the personal business interests of certain of their directors. If the underlying entities go bust, the amounts will simply be written off, and effectively charged to the taxpayer. If the underlying investments were so good in the first place, the directors concerned could have raised funds in the various channels long made available by the private sector. But punk parastatal money is easy and cheaper.

Great post Gajima - spot on. Unfortunately youv'e only exposed the tip of the iceberg - this corruption and nepotism and jobs for the boys is rampant as if there is no tomorrow for the "get rich quick" brigade.

Amazingly, if the culprets are caught they are "suspended on full pay" for years which costs the taxpayer millions in wasted money which could be well put to providing much needed services.

I believe that if JZ is sincere about addressing corruption (which I doubt as he lives under a huge cloud in my opinion) then there should be a mandatory financial forensic audit of all the Mr. and Mrs. Bigs (ala in the Selebi trial) to find out how they are living lavishly beyong their means.

Zimbo here we come - bring on the World Cup!!!

The major banks have been downgraded in their ratings because they are banckrupt.
Standardbank is the highest at C, while the rest are at -C.

Mr. Goss from the studdfarms down in KNZ will tell you, the trouble started long before 1989....he was there when they annouced it in 1989...perhaps by 1985 already...

By 1989, Barend du Plessis called the who's who together, and informed them, "IT WAS THE 2nd TIME THAT RSA HAD DEFAULTED ON REPAYMENTS OF THE LOANS"

so most of the major corporations moved their headoffices to Europe, the rich moved their money, sold off the assets,moved their stockpiles, etc to Europe.
some listed on the JSE (you do that to get money)...

By 1994, the banckrupt country was given to the ANC.


they did think of solving the problem way back in the late 1980's.
much on the same thoughts of today.
they were thinking of nationalising the mines, making them govenment property, selling diamonds, platinum on the open market for the government's benefit.
much like most african states sell the oil.

but the money still flows..
our natural resources brings in lots..
this price of R130 per ton was way back when they had the newspaper article complaining that the transport cost of coal cost more than the coal itself..

R130 per ton x 84 tons per truck x 200 trucks x 17 trains per day
R37,128,000 per day x 31 days
R1,150,968,000 per month x 12 months
R13,811,616,000 per year


this is only on coal..
sit back... relax...we still got plenty....

Wayback during the 1980's it was the same.
the difference, we had no internet, no email and no forums like these, no cell etc

during the latter half of 1980's, I was contracted by a parastatal.
to come and fix the mess and train the staff..contractors and permanent staff.
the parastatal was supplied, over supplied many times over with contractors.

a prominent IT contract house at the time (now bannckrupt and closed down), had imported housewifes from Pretoria and sold them off as IT contractors (Natural ADABAS programmers) to the parastatal in Johannesburg.
The parastatal was paying hourly rates of almost R240+vat per hour at the time, which I might add, is the going rate for Natural ADABAS programmers today.
make no mistake, these girls were pretty, young and willing....to learn.
earning between R28 ot R45 per hour.

programming, I doubt if any one of them can program today...
management were all in, from AS (assistant sup) to director...

from cars registred in the wifes name, to Namibia hunting trips..got given the riffle as a present..

millions...perhaps billions...

I think laff would have goats and chickens but just guessing

Looks like there are more pigs than chickens. Again Barry Sergeant pens a great article for Moneyweb.


JOHANNESBURG - For the 2008-2009 financial year, bosses at South Africa's parastatals cooked up and made off with remuneration equal in total to a third of a billion rand. These people, who number in the dozens rather than hundreds or tens of thousands, have become experts in awarding themselves bonuses, while playing on the proverbial fiddle as the nation rushes around panicking.

This stinks, all right. The horrifying pay numbers go down like a lead balloon on a nation exhausted by the recent drama at Eskom, the parastatal monopoly electricity supplier, one that would rate as a B-grade soap box opera, were it not all about one of the nation's most important assets. During the 2007-2008 financial year, Eskom's directors and executive committee members swallowed (without choking) remuneration of R34.7m in total.

The number fell to R22.4m in the latest financial year, after the national electrical supply and grid fell over early in 2008; no doubt Eskom's mandarins sensed that it might be insensitive to once again drown its bosses in bonuses running into millions and millions. But wait . . . there were bonuses at Eskom in the latest financial year.

Not to be outdone by a nation aghast, a good number of Eskom bosses cashed in on "performance shares" during the 2008-2009 financial year. Eskom has in place a convoluted and contrived structure that few understand. This evil creature attempts to emulate Eskom's performance as if it were a stock listed on an exchange. "Shares" worth no less than R8.6m were cashed in during the latest financial year. The benefiting Eskom directors no doubt fell around in fits of hysteria while you experienced yet another exasperating "load shedding" black out.

This stinks, all right. Underperformance, mismanagement and the wanton waste of assets and cash belonging to South African taxpayers as a whole has become the hallmark of parastatals in general. Yet while parastatal bosses find it entirely appropriate to swallow a billon rand worth of remuneration every three years, taxpayers are forced to disgorge billions of rands in bail outs.

In response to a recent parliamentary question from the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, the National Treasury stated that it gave R200bn in financial aid to parastatals during the 2008-2009 financial year. Before reaching for a bag to disgorge your latest meal, plumb down into some of the detail; there may be some cheer, no matter how morbid. But don't be too hopeful.

A good number of the country's parastatals fall under the public enterprises, where Barbara Hogan is minister and Enoch Godongwana deputy. This includes Transnet (an erstwhile national treasure), Eskom (say no more), Denel (which makes lots of things that can kill lots of people), SAA (an expensive weather balloon service), Safcol (a forestry entity specialising in tissues for weeping taxpayers), PBMR (which wants to make mini-nuclear power plants you can rig up in your back yard), Alexkor (a struggling diamond digger, on display as a model during calls to nationalise the country's other mines), and a relatively new one in Broadband Infraco.

There are others which are parastatals by any other name, in the form of the IDC (the Industrial Development Corporation, where bosses earned R75.3m in total in the latest financial year), DBSA (the Development Bank, which, like the IDC, has provided hundreds of millions of rands to certain of its directors for investment in personal-interest entities), Acsa (the airports monopoly), Land Bank (recently repossessed by the finance ministry from departed maniacal dope fiend executives), Armscor (which buys lots of evil things for the army) and, no doubt also, the SABC.

There are stenches drifting in from all directions. There is mounting evidence that to really succeed at a parastatal, foul and unbecoming behaviour wins the day. At SAA, former CEO Khaya Ngqula was earlier this year paid R9.4m "termination benefits" on settlement for him being under investigation for mismanagement, conflict of interest and procurement irregularities. That took his pay package for the year to R13.7m. At the SABC, R12m was hacked out to former CEO Dali Mpofu on his exit from one of the world's most catastrophic and messy financial meltdowns.

It will stop next year..
There is no money comming in..

More than a million of the 8 million tax payers have been retrenched..
The majority of the retrenchment/early pension were high end earners, where years of services + age was greater or equal to 75...mostly white males..

The one million retrenchments excludes farming or related industries, housekeepers, medium to small contruction companies..where little if any taxes are paid.

The banks are keeping the losses under the table and are lying to the South African public.
All of the banks have been downgraded to C and -C during the last few months.
These banks were down graded on shocking details from the previous year.
Hence they will be downgraded to D and -D during February 2010 and again in August 2010 to E, once the full shocking detail is accounted for.

The govenment is allowing the banks to stay open, else we will have a run on the banks like Saambou.
The banks and many other South African companies borrowed billions on MTN's from as far back as 2000.
Like Sanlan, they borrowed R200B, with ABSA signing surity during 2005/6.
Sanlam lent this money out on homeloans, with staggered repayment until 2032.
Unfortunately, the property market collapsed and repayments are slow or not being done.
Besides that, the banks have not gained any new customers, nor have they sold new products to their existing customer base.
Common sense tells you that their outflow exceeds their income, hence their monthly upkeep will be their downfall.

For how long will they be able to keep the illusion going.
When the banks fail,the pension funds fail, the industries fail as they cannot pay wages from an ever increasing overdraft, the country fail.

So, are we printing money like the USA and ZIM..or have we already gone beyond the point of no return..

Or are the banks just increasing their own overdrafts until all collapse?

They want to take Patice's money..the R14.5B he got to make him the richest man in Africa.

Well lets put his fortune into perspective..
During September 2009, central Government OVERSPEND R11B..other months were more.
Assuming that they worked 22 days, they overspend R500m per day.
Assuming that they were at work for 8 hours, they overspend R60m per hour.
Assuming that they never had tea time, they overspend R1m per minute.

So, it looks like the R14.5B from the richest man in Africa won't last much longer than a month..on OVERSPENDING..
Its the habit of spending and overspending that has been created and fed.
The old proverb, kill the small jackals, lest they grow big and kill you.

This puts the country back to 1989, when Barend du Plessis had to inform the who's who, that it was the 2nd time that the country defaulted on the repayment of loans.
Had 2 options back then, nationalise the mines or give the banckrupt country to the ANC.


Guess, the only solution is to nationalise the mines..where else will they get money, or are they going to give the country to the DA????

Print more money...????