Who cares! The healthy amongst us can probably expect to live into their 80s today. Another dire report on drinking some 5 or 6 glasses of wine a week, holds that this will probably make you live 6 months less. At 85 this is probably a blessing!
South Africans would enjoy first world standards, but the fact is that we just don’t have enough taxpayers to carry the tax burden that would deliver these. RABS (the Road Accident Benefit Scheme) has been in the wings for some years. The only real benefit those who stand to be benefited is that it redistributes benefits amongst others that don’t currently benefit. At the moment there are many who drink from the font of compensation other than those benefited which, in theory, diverts money from those who need it most to others who don’t. Unfortunately, RABS will ensure that deserving persons receive less. The intent of combating fraud, by placing the State in charge of a system wholly run by it, must be a pipe dream.
Ad hominem may be translated as to the person. An ad hominem argument is a fallacious form of argumentative strategy wherein the person and not the argument is attacked. In response to the Sygnia CEO having said that the Sagarmatha listing should not have been considered by the JSE, Rosemary Mosia, the deputy chairperson scathingly responded by describing her critic as one who runs what can best be described as a fourth-grade asset management company. This, from someone who has yet to list, is both a diversion and rich.
Ethics: I am part of a WhatsApp group in which there was a recent minor dustup about legal ethics and those in our profession who would appear flout these. Two weeks ago, this topic was addressed by deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who pointed out the distinction between ethics and the law: these overlap but are not the same. Ethics is an issue which involves us all: corruption cannot stand if the whole of society rejects such malfeasance. A member of the Ethics Institute commented that: “I don’t buy the argument that when something goes wrong it was one bad apple. When you look at it you realise how systematic it is and how it was perpetuated over time.”
Consider the following recent statement: “If I had done anything wrong, I would have suffered a guilty conscience” (Jacob Zuma).
Our former president is immersed in a welter of accusations and logically cannot be completely innocent of the accusations made against him. Yet there is a substantial part of our populace that still support him. Why? Our problem is not one of a few bad apples: our problem is a society where other considerations override ethics.
