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Your coverage of the medium-term budget has been excellent. Your editorial comment, complemented by excellent coverage by your columnists and guest writers, tells of a complicated and difficult economic road ahead (“An uneasy budget that speaks of our times”, November 2).
I believe there are two elephants in the room. The first is cadre deployment, which you certainly recognise. A successful team — as Rassie Erasmus, Siya Kolisi and the magnificent Springboks have shown us repeatedly — needs good leadership and good people carrying out the work. In SA we have neither. That does not bode well.
The other elephant is that SA, once the miracle nation, is now increasingly seen as part of the “axis of evil”. Our international conduct in supporting Russia in Ukraine, openly supporting Hamas and radiating our anti-semitic tendencies, is not going unnoticed.
The world knows of Russian ships in our harbours, Russian planes at our airports and our president and cabinet wearing Hamas regalia and not even condemning the atrocities of October 7. We also vote against the US and its allies regularly at the UN.
Then our foot-in-mouth foreign minister is seen bowing and scraping before Iran’s so-called supreme leader. All of this features in the international media. We are gradually being seen more and more as untouchable.
When investors and business leaders no longer want to be seen with us, it will equate to a return to the days of anti-apartheid sanctions. We used to punch above our weight internationally, but now we are seen as an unreliable lightweight.
Warning signs are flashing.
David Wolpert Sydney, Australia
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: SA joins the ‘axis of evil’
Your coverage of the medium-term budget has been excellent. Your editorial comment, complemented by excellent coverage by your columnists and guest writers, tells of a complicated and difficult economic road ahead (“An uneasy budget that speaks of our times”, November 2).
I believe there are two elephants in the room. The first is cadre deployment, which you certainly recognise. A successful team — as Rassie Erasmus, Siya Kolisi and the magnificent Springboks have shown us repeatedly — needs good leadership and good people carrying out the work. In SA we have neither. That does not bode well.
The other elephant is that SA, once the miracle nation, is now increasingly seen as part of the “axis of evil”. Our international conduct in supporting Russia in Ukraine, openly supporting Hamas and radiating our anti-semitic tendencies, is not going unnoticed.
The world knows of Russian ships in our harbours, Russian planes at our airports and our president and cabinet wearing Hamas regalia and not even condemning the atrocities of October 7. We also vote against the US and its allies regularly at the UN.
Then our foot-in-mouth foreign minister is seen bowing and scraping before Iran’s so-called supreme leader. All of this features in the international media. We are gradually being seen more and more as untouchable.
When investors and business leaders no longer want to be seen with us, it will equate to a return to the days of anti-apartheid sanctions. We used to punch above our weight internationally, but now we are seen as an unreliable lightweight.
Warning signs are flashing.
David Wolpert
Sydney, Australia
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
LETTER: Naledi Pandor’s Cuban vanity project
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