Realism may not be sexy, but the writing sure is:

I’m of the opinion that realism on the surface doesn’t possess nearly as much appeal as that of the bleeding-heart lefty. At university, the girls don’t generally fall at the feet of the realist and his carefully-constructed arguments based on historical proof and empirical accountability. Even saying that is boring. Instead, folks love the passionate vitriol of mass-empathy, revolution of the world. The people surging against the ‘man’ in one big powerful wave. Nobody has to work ever again. We can all live in peace and harmony, drinking unicorn giggles while we poke our former bourgeois overlords in the eye.

Read more at commentary.co.za.

When a politician says, “We’re not sending out a threatening message,” you can be sure that’s exactly what they’re doing. Especially if it’s a communist.

There was “broad consensus” at the African National Congress’s (ANC) policy conference in Midrand on the need for a developmental state with more government intervention, but ratings agencies need not worry, the party said on Thursday.

“We’re not sending out a threatening message. That’s not what we intend to do,” ANC national executive member Jeremy Cronin told a media briefing at the conference.

Thus reports the Mail & Guardian. It continues:

Cronin, who is also deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, and fellow national executive committee member Joel Netshitenzhe were reporting on the 1 500 delegates’ behind-closed-doors debates on the draft ANC strategy and tactics document.

“There is broad consensus that we need to construct a developmental state,” Netshitenzhe said, adding that the ANC is “not satisfied with the current order of things”. Such a state should have the capacity to intervene in the economy in the interests of national development, higher rates of growth and social inclusion.

There was no resistance to this sort of leadership from the labour movement or capital, “so the ratings agencies have got nothing to worry about”, he said. International ratings agencies issue assessments of countries’ risk, which affects how much their governments pay for loans.

The article proceeds with the usual justification for this kind of policy. The markets haven’t worked. “Monopoly capital” is at fault. Of course, the most egregious monopolies in South Africa are wholly or partly state-owned, and protected by law. No mention of those.

But let’s just break down the assumptions here. The South African economy is partly free, but also features extensive state control, bureaucratic red tape, regulation to achieve social goals, and other interventionist policies. Now if the “current order of things” is unsatisfactory, why conclude that market freedom is at fault? Why not identify the lack of market freedom as the problem? Why not recognise that the interventionist measures already in place are what hampers growth, institutionalises unemployment, hampers trade and limits opportunities? More intervention will only make matters worse. You can’t fix broken regulation with more regulation.

The developmental state is another of those roads paved with good intentions. It sounds nice and sells like hotcakes, but it is nothing more than cheap populism. It works neither in theory nor in practice. By contrast, those countries that have opened up their economies to trade, that have removed the rules restricting the economic activity of their citizens, and that have forsworn interventionism and central planning, are the countries where poverty and unemployment have reduced and standards of living have risen.

Rating agencies might have nothing to worry about. But South Africans, both rich and poor, do.

Look, I like the idea that The Times, the daily newspaper available online (or in print exclusively to Sunday Times subscribers) has recruited popular South African bloggers to write for them. Very with it. But why, oh why, did they have to call them “blogumists“? If they insist on an ersatz portmanteau, why not be consistent and make it “blogumnists”? At least it won’t sound like they’re sacrificing literacy on the altar of new media.

• This column was first published in ITWeb Brainstorm, 1 March 2007. They pay me, so please subscribe to the print edition.

The more Alec Erwin intrudes on the communications minister’s portfolio, the more absurd the comedy show gets.

Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and Alec Erwin, telecommunications ministers one and two (as the DA’s Dene Smuts calls them according to the Financial Mail), could use a few civics lessons.

Last time I checked, private citizens of a country were required to obey the law – even if they don’t know what the law is. It follows, therefore, that Erwin risks unwittingly committing any number of crimes, since he doesn’t seem to know what law Matsepe-Casaburri’s department wrote and got parliament to pass.

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• Reposted: Let’s try this again. For some reason, an old version of this got posted first time around.

This SA Press Association story was picked up by the Independent Online:

ANC conference left in the dark
Debates at the ANC policy conference in Midrand were on Thursday being held in the dark after a power failure.
A security guard at Gallagher Estate said that generators were powering electricity in one area of the venue. However on the other side delegates discussed policy matters in the dark.
A shopping centre across the street had electricity and so did the garage on the corner. - Sapa

I’m thinking here’s a profit opportunity. Not just in selling them gas lamps, but in betting against all those who wouldn’t have the nous to profit from the needy bureaucrats.

After all, they are the people who keep believing the politicians when they say government service delivery is a good idea. They believe the very people who sit in the dark claiming there’s no crisis, while thousands of businesses lose millions because of frequent, large-scale and prolonged power failures. That belief is false, and from false beliefs, money can be made.

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Something about truth and jest comes to mind:

Temba Nolutshungu, at the Free Market Foundation, writes an eloquent piece about what freedom should mean for South Africans. I’ve long held that replacing one brand of national socialism with another does not constitute freedom, nor does it achieve the non-racial society the liberation movement once dreamed of. It would appear Temba agrees:

If we want our SA nation to have true freedom we must remove racial discrimination from our statute books. Otherwise nothing will have changed except that victim and persecutor will have exchanged roles.

The word “freedom” has unfortunately been interpreted in various ways. In the sense in which most of us understand the word, it means individual liberty. However, to others it means freedom from want, imposing obligations on others to supply whatever is needed. A free society can only exist if we interpret “freedom” to mean individual liberty.

He cites pertinent examples:

What evidence is there that SA is going astray? The signs are to be found in a lack of equality before the law; a perpetuation of the discrimination endured under apartheid. There are arbitrary compulsions and prohibitions that are imposed on some and not on others.

We find young medical graduates being instructed to work in places that are not of their choosing, while other graduates are not. Taxi owners who own roadworthy vehicles, who have not been found guilty of any offence, being instructed to hand them over to the government for destruction. These people are being deprived of legitimate choices to achieve their ends.

Firms are instructed as to whom they may employ, whom their business partners should be, at what prices they may sell their products, and increasingly their choices are being limited. We have mass unemployment because the unemployed have been deprived of freedom of contract; they are not entitled to make any agreement they wish with employers – it is forbidden.

What kind of society are we creating for future generations? Do we not want a warm, generous, affluent and peaceful nation? If we do, we must choose liberty as the most important human right, and all the best characteristics of our people will gain the upper hand.

I wish the voters would recognise - because the socialists in government never will - that state planning of, state control over, and state interference in people’s lives does not build prosperity nor establish liberty. It didn’t work for Stalin, it didn’t work for PW Botha, and it won’t work now. When politicians make promises they can’t keep, that’s a reason to vote them out, not keep them in power in the vain hope that their good intentions will magically become reality.

Rising prices are good for you. I just had this apparently strange notion beautifully illustrated to me.

I just bought some 9kg gas bottles for my heater. This may not sound remarkable, but if you were in Johannesburg last year you would remember that after the first cold snap gas couldn’t be had for love nor money. The shortage lasted most of the winter. At the time, the typical price of a 9kg refill was around R100. I offered one fellow ten times that, and the only response I got was from a petrol attendant who overheard the conversation. “Eish, don’t they want to make business?” I shrugged ruefully. He was the smartest guy I’d met that day.

Now, the price is R170. At 70% year on year, that’s a pretty damn hefty hike. However, this winter there isn’t a shortage. Not even the small corner petrol stations have run out, despite what must be a temptation among consumers for pre-winter hoarding. Which just goes to show that rising prices serve to raise supply in order to meet demand. What would you rather have? R100 a bottle but no gas to buy, or as much as you can burn for R170 a pop?

I’m not sure how (or even whether) LPG prices are regulated in South Africa. I’d be surprised if they weren’t, but if you can enlighten me, please do. I heard one lot of cretins want the price capped, to encourage the use of LPG instead of more polluting fuels. Good thinking, fellows. I’m all for less pollution, but you don’t promote something by causing a market shortage.

• This column was first published in Maverick, 22 February 2007. Go to www.maverick.co.za to subscribe to it in full print glory.

The ANC government is falling into the same socio-economic policy trap that bedevilled the Nats. And it will fall much harder.

What would one call an economic policy that lauds public works programmes to combat unemployment, that indulges in grand social engineering schemes involving forcible market interventions, or that advocates price caps and wage floors in the vain hope that this will solve perceived supply or demand problems? What about an industry of which half is state-owned and under-performing, and half is highly regulated and subject to a myriad tariffs, quota requirements and levies to protect favoured local industries at the expense of local consumers? What would we call a policy that is opposed to the self-indulgent materialism of the modern, Western world, as Mbeki declared himself to be in his previous State of the Nation speech?

If it reminds you of national socialism, you wouldn’t be far wrong. It is little different from the economic policies of the old National Party, other than that instead of benefiting a small minority, the policies are now intended to benefit all South Africans – critical though that one difference is.

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Is this thing on?

Okay, I’ll bite. I’ll blog. I’ll add my off-key tune to the white noise of the internet.

Who am I? I’m Ivo Vegter. I write and argue for fun and profit. I live and work in South Africa as a columnist and magazine journalist, but I always keep some orange gear ready in support of Holland, the country of my birth.

As a bass line, I’ll publish some of my work here. I write columns (and other stuff) for several magazines. In the usual course of events, expect a couple of monthly columns to appear here for your online convenience. As accompaniment, I’ll post observations, arguments, notable quotes and quirky quips about technology, economics, politics, and anything else that’s mildly entertaining. Sometimes, they may even be my own.

You may wonder about that avatar. It’s what I’d look like if I wore a trench coat and carried a lantern and morning star. Actually, it’s our unofficial family emblem. It represents a Danish night watchman, which appears to be the medieval origin of the surname “Vegter”.

Now that I’ve figured out how to write stuff, please excuse me while I figure out the rest of this blogging software.