Much was said about the recent signing of power purchase agreements between Eskom and a handful of independent renewable energy power suppliers. One cannot, however, help but wonder whether the push against corruption (think kickbacks on a nuclear plan) and resistance against burning fossil fuel, did not irrationally obscure the benefits of nuclear power. Whatever one says, nuclear power probably pollutes less and is a more constant source of power than any other.

In the case Truworths v The Minister of Trade and Industry the Cape Town High Court found that the criteria of affordability of credit, set in regulation 24 of the National Credit Act, being rigid and not as flexible as might be required, was invalid insofar as it required bank statements of applicants. Essentially, the court found that requiring the poor, who might not have bank accounts, to submit bank statements, was unreasonable as it excluded them from credit, and therefore should be set aside.

By now the expected stand off (later this year) between the government and public sector unions for wage increases is old hat. The fact is that-

  • the lower echelons of our public service are probably underpaid whilst I have little doubt that the upper echelons, as a group, are most certainly overpaid; and
  • the primary problem is the vast chasm between payment of those at the bottom end of the scale and those at the top.

Those who govern us had undertaken to reduce the South African gini coefficient (which, incidentally, has improved from 0.7 to 0.68) but our state’s unwillingness to address above issues, simply perpetuates the problems created by the disparity of income in South Africa.

China has become a major producer of innovative technology and has become the 2nd biggest source of international patent applications.

A recent note on binary thinking and argumentative discussion may be found at fs.blog Worth a listen.

Section 12J of the Income Tax Act provides for substantial tax relief for both individuals and corporate investment in a franchise. If this interests you, ask me for a copy of the relevant article.