A stinking idea

This is one of those commentary that may sound patronising. But it is not meant to be.
I completely understand that we pay people badly in this country. The argument that half a loaf is better than nothing is a bit dodgy for me.
The municipal workers fall in the category of those people who believe their lot can improve. With food prices up and electricity and whatever else skyrocketing, I understand the clamour for more money.
But after wading through trash in Braamfontein because municipal workers think they have a right to do so because they are not being paid properly is just bull. That I do not understand. I don't get the point of capsizing dustbins.
What is the point? Why do you mess up where you will sleep later? I have no other issue as some of my learned friends will tell you about international hosts and the like and what they think. For that I dont give a toss. But I fail to get the point especially when the leaders play it down as if it is the most understandable thing on earth.
What is the point? Somebody...

Riding the recession in Mpumalanga

The house that Esther built... Pics: Musa Zondi

Esther Shongwe had to give up most of her life’s comfort. Her quest was to supply the capital of Mpumalanga with one of its conference facilities Nelspruit so desperately needed. It was not enough that she was making some money from the bed and breakfast – The Nutting House.
That is probably is one of the wisest decision she made. That investment and the belt tightening may be paying dividends now. Big time. As she watches her business colleagues reel under the effects of depression, she can only smile and thank her lucky stars.
“I realized that the province and particularly around here in Nelspruit there was a shortage of conference places. The establishment had a 50-seater which was not enough. We had to turn away a lot of business because of that.
“That is when I decided to invest in a conference centre which can take up to 1200 people. So when people of talk of recession, I cannot relate to it because our business is thriving,” she says without any hint of bravado.
This has also meant that her 33-bed establishment has not gone begging. “In fact, I have had to book a number of people in other lodges near to ours as I cannot accommodate all the people who need a bed,” she says.
The figures for tourism in the province are not encouraging. Lyndi Grimbeek, an official at the Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism says it has been downhill from last November. December and January saw tourism incomes diving by at least 30 percent.
“What saved the situation was that a lot of people decided to take their holidays locally. But importantly we have learnt a lot from the experience. We have learnt to listen to our clients, contain our costs and provide clients with what they want,” she says. This sector is better than others like car dealerships and estate agents who have either closed shop or drastically downsized their operations. “This has led to a number of people losing their jobs,” she says.
The owner of Nelspuit Wholesalers E Minty attests to a tougher trading climate. His establishment which trades in anything from garments, buckets, chairs, food, catering equipment – you name it, has seen a decline of at least 15 percent in the last six months or so.
“The food part is fine. The isn’t much difference there except that some specific items don’t move as much as before. It is in other items – the non-food sections - that we see a real difference. One

of the items that moved a lot before the elections was a kanga in the ANC colours with the picture of the party’s president Jacob Zuma,” he says with a chuckle. When we arrived to interview him, the shops were relatively empty for a Saturday morning. But he is not fazed. “We plan for periods like these and so even though we lose out a bit, we make it up in the economic upturn,” he says.

As we leave the shop, we see a few kangas on display near the till points.
Most of his clientele is locally-based – bunking a belief that it would come from Mozambique or Swaziland. The point of the interdependency between the province and the adjacent countries was alluded to by Grimbeek when she said that citizens of those countries are depended on Mpumalanga economy. “Most of the companies that invest there are South African. So in a way, the economies are interdependent but we drive the main economic activity,” she says.
Chief executive of the Maputo Development Corridor, Blessing Manale ascribes the soft landing for Mpumalanga to a number of macro-economic movements that have shielded the province from the full might of the recession.
“Before the recession, it was projected that the growth of the Mpumalanga will be at least 4.7 percent. Now that projection has been moved upward to at least 6 percent,” he says.
Surely that bucks the trend and flies in the face of common wisdom about recession and how the whole country will be affected.
“Not really,” counters Manale. “ You have to remember that Mpumalanga is home to the Medupe power station that Eskom is building. That project alone has injected a lot of money into the province. But besides that, there are a number of other projects which have lessened the impact of the downturn.
“One of these is the Moloto Rail which is a project between Prasa and the provincial government for moving people around the province. Then there are projects in Mozambique itself which are driven from the province like Mozal, the $562-million Matola Water scheme which will rival the Lesotho Highlands Scheme.
“There are plans for the automotive supplier park and work to this end has already begun. There is a gas pipeline from Mozambique which has benefitted the province greatly. These are some of the flagship projects that have made a difference and cushioned the province. Also the 2010 investments are beginning to show in construction and road rehabilitation because Nelspruit is one of the host cities,” he says.
Most of these projects fall within his ambit including the N4 project. “In the last ten years after the rebuilding of the N4, we have found that suddenly a lot of traffic is moving through Maputo port which has increased Mpumalanga’s currency. This means that as a province we need to jack up our infrastructure to take advantage of the opportunities offered by these developments,” he says.
The one sector that has suffered is mining but “we believe the other developments have balanced it out” and the effect has not been as bad as it would be. All in all, Manale is positive that the province will see through the recession without any structural damage to the province.