Here is a letter that Alan Knott-Craig sent out to his staff this past week, Read it. If he can remain positive, we all can.
Hi guys,
2008 has certainly started with a bang! The future was rosy on 31 December 2007, but suddenly everyone is buying candles and researching property in Perth!
A combination of recession in the USA, global equity market negativity, high interest rates, the National Credit Act and power outages have combined to create the perfect storm.
But don’t panic!
This is not the first time there’s been doom and gloom. Every few years the same thing happens. We experience massive economic growth, everyone is optimistic and buying Nescafe Gold, and holiday homes, and Merc’s. The positivity gets ahead of itself and the economy overheats, and then panic sets in because the economy seems to be collapsing when in actual fact it’s simply making an adjustment back to a reasonable level.
It happened in 1989, when SA defaulted on its international loans and the stock market and Rand crashed, it happened in 1994 when the ANC took power and everyone thought war would break out, it happened in 1998 when interest rates hit 25% and you couldn’t give away your house, and it happened in 2001 when a fairly unstable guy by the name of Osama arranged for 2 Boeings to fly into the tallest buildings in New York!
On each of those occasions everyone thought it was the end of the worldand that there was no light in sight. And on each occasion, believe it or not, the world did not actually end, it recovered and in fact things continued to get better.
I think 2008 will be a tough year, but I also see it as a great opportunity to seize the day whilst everyone else is whinging and get a front-seat on the inevitable boom that we’ll experience in 2009, 2010 and beyond.
Make sure you make a mental note of everything that is happening now, because it will happen again and again, and if you don’t recognize the symptoms you’ll be suckered into the same negativity, and forget to look for the opportunities.
It’s easy to be negative. Subconsciously, you WANT to be negative! Whenever you open the papers they tell you about the goriest hi-jacking and the most corrupt politicians. Why don’t they dedicate more pages to the fact that Joburg is the world’s biggest man-made forest, or to the corruption-free achievements of the vast majority of public officials? Because bad news sells. Good news is boring.
SA still has the best weather in world! We’re lucky enough to possess a huge chunk of the world’s resources, i.e.: gold, platinum, coal, iron. The growth in India and China will continue to accelerate (India and China sign 10mil new mobile customers every month), and so will their demand for our resources. The government has already embarked on massive infrastructure projects (some of them a tad late, i.e.: electricity), and this will pump money into the economy.
We are all lucky enough to be a part of the birth of a massive and all-encompassing industry. The Internet has and will continue to change the world. The enormity of its impact is up there with the wheel, electricity, TV, telephones, and possibly man’s greatest ever invention, coffee. Not only does it open up an entirely untapped world of commerce, but it is also the ultimate disseminator of information and news. Apartheid would not have lasted 40 years if the Internet had existed! And you’re part of it!
I’m looking forward to another year of ASA complaints, IR issues, Plug & Wireless parties, BTS roll-outs, billing runs, irate customers, happy customers, orange bubbles, faulty elevators, etc, etc. The nice stuff makes me feel good, and the challenges remind me why we can beat the competition. Most importantly I’m looking forward to having fun and making memories.
So ignore the doomsayers, install a timer on your geyser, and buy Ricoffee for a couple of months.
Cheers,
Alan
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- Don’t Panic, stick around, read this book!
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Popularity: 6% [?]
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:31 am
Sorry, tough to be positive about a guy involved with a company that is in the middle of running a huge sms scam, makes stupid amounts of profit while we still pay through our asses for telecoms in this country.
Stick it buddy.
its easy to be positive when your bonus for the year is in millions.
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Ah gMk yet another negative comment. Grow up dude.
There is always something positive to look out for, this is South Africa and it rocks!
Think about what Alon say very carefully.
We may be eating the “brown” all day long with services like Eskom etc but that should not cause us to give up. We are South Africans we have survived for hundreds of years and we will not be doomed now by a few silly problems.
Our country is famous world wide for apartheid, why is it not famous for being one of the only countries on earth that did not kill out huge populations with genocide. Think about it, USA killed their indians, Australia killed the aboriginals, Cambodia, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, etc etc.. Look at what they did. It is shocking to saythe least.
When Britain came into africa they tried to kill out the africans over tax issues and then they tried to kill the boers.
How much genocide have we had in our country?
a few thousand farm murders, hijacking etc etc is not genocide, thats what happens, when i was in the states i was nearly carjacked, does that mean the states is bad and gloomy, no it means here are criminals everywhere..
We may have sh1t in our country every now and then, our crime may be out of control, or so they tell us. When last have we had a suicide bomber blow something up? When last have we had a war?
My friend, we live in a very nice country and although sometimes things are low it will always pic up.
Life is like a rollercoaser, you must site back and enjoy the ride.
And as Alon says always look out for ways to profit from the low times.
Think how many generators and candles and batteries and solar panels etc etc are being sold nation wide? If you where a generator salesman you would be smiling all the way to the bank. There is always ups and down and sometimes its the other guys turn to have a good run.
South Africa truly rocks. Cheers up mate
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
If I was a multi-millionaire scam artist I would also be lank positive living in the crime capital of the world with one of the lowest conviction rates and the worst privacy laws in the world…. Rock on buddy
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
Thanks for the reminder about why I read your blog – the positivity, which balances out so much of the negativity I see all days long. Knott-Craig is right, that we face serious challenges – power, HIV, etc…
But countries lifting themselves out of poverty (like South Africa) present tremendous opportunities which just aren’t there in the rich world. I just spent some time in India – 8% GDP growth p.a., and they’re lifting 700m people out of poverty – growth on that scale is incomprehensible.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
sb, sorry bud, all grown up already, and if you actually read closely what i wrote it has nothing to do with SA.
It has to to do with what Alan, not Alon, telling us to be positive when he contributes to a significant block towards economic growth. High priced Telecoms.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Nice to see some corporate leaders at least trying to speak positively into their organisations. Would be great if everyone did this – we all have some sphere of influence, even if its not a multimillion rand conglomerate – maybe even just one person that we influence.
I can’t comment on Vodacom or Alan’s other activities, so I won’t
In the end, how we live is all about attitude – http://www.timesurl.at/b83c3d
February 6th, 2008 at 10:16 am
You have to love the unstoppable optimism of the rainbow-tinted New South African. Of course, Alan is speaking specifically here to his employees, so his views are coloured by the state of the mobile tech market, which is a little different to the state of SA as a whole. Still, a great post. There’s something slightly similar, although much more tongue-in-cheek, at http://www.timesurl.at/10bd63
February 8th, 2008 at 3:52 am
I read the letter that Knox-Craig wrote and funny enough, I have not met one South African over here in OZ who does not share the same sentiments. There are only a handful of South Africans here who actually run the country down(for whatever reason they may have and the apt saying is “never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes”). I an all my conversations with expats and Aussies, we deliberately pick out the positives and inform all the will listen that SA is the best country in world. Yes, many people have packed for Perth thinking that they will land in a first world heaven. Alas, this is not always so. Yes, they do have power-cuts( for 5 to 10 minutes every other month), yes, they have problems with healthcare(big problems), yes they have problems with crime and it’s on the rise and yes, they have many other problems which the average person faces each day. Certainly not the heaven that people think it is and I believe there is no place in the world that is perfect. So what is the attraction of OZ? Why do people leave SA and come here? If this Knott-Craig guy took the time he would have found some interesting answers. I have answers from people living here if he is interested in the truth. No, they did not move here because of power cuts, pot holes in the roads, high food prices, uncut lawn on verges, taxis on the roads, a failing health system and all the other day to day stuff. These are things that all agree they could live with. They could adjust their lives to fit in with these problems. So I ask them “So what made you leave?” and the answers are all the same and I’ll get to them later.
Lets quickly go to a really expensive restaurant and order the Lobster Bisque(soup). The waiter brings you this gold edged porcelain bowl with a gold spoon. The soup looks great. The aroma is to die for(no ,no , they haven’t stormed the restaurant and started shooting people for the cellphones, no I mean it looks really great). The tablecloth is something you would only see in the movies. Thick pure white cotton adorned with jeweled edges and the most magnificent needlework you have ever seen. Life is great. You take the first taste of the soup and it tastes just as great as it looks. It’s superb. You get halfway and as you lift the spoon to your mouth, a small cockroach jumps off and scurries away. Is this soup still as great as you first thought? Is this something you will continue eating? Would you send it back and ask for more, hoping that the next batch was OK? Would you order your main meal after that?
South Africa is a great soup filled with a few cockroaches. Would we all come back tomorrow? A resounding yes! Everyone I speak to would drop everything this side and come back home tomorrow—- despite the “ups and downs” the Knott-Craig speaks of. Does he think South African adults are stupid and fickle? Does he think that we think that the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side? I hope his reasoning goes beyond these assumptions. Many South Africans have given up good jobs, debt free living, a great lifestyle, family and friends to come to OZ. Surely Knott-Craig is missing something in his analysis of the situation. Could all expats be wrong? The law of averages would not fit in well with this assumption.
Yep, I’m droning on as I really thought that people should know some of the truths.
So, what are the answers? Why do people give up their slice of paradise and move over to a foreign country to start all over again? These are from the proverbial horses mouths:
a) CRIME—–hiding the cockroach once it has bolted does not mean that the cockroach was never there! Hiding crimes stats to make things look rosier than they are does not help anyone. South Africa has to come down hard on criminals and make the lives of law abiding citizens safe. How do you do this when the Commissioner of Police is himself a criminal? How do you do this when the President of the country claims “I never knew” even though he was informed on many occasions.
b) BEE——apartheid is dead and buried. Why must we be subjected to a racist policy such as this? Big business have to look past this in order to get ahead in the economy and so they do not openly oppose it. The smaller businesses suffer and they are required to conduct day to day business on the basis of race. This is not right. Apartheid was wrong and so is BEE.
c) EDUCATION——well, we don’t even have to go there. We are not talking about all the private schools, they are still good but what about 95% of the scholars learning in government schools? These kids are the future and they are being let down by the government who would rather spend billions of dollars on arms and ammunition to fight a yet to be identified enemy( many made quite a pretty packet out of this one)
There are more reasons but you have probably dropped off by now. I feel I should add one more as it is one that is consistently mentioned:
d) THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN and THE SAFETY OF OUR WIVES——I can live without the luxuries I had back in SA, I can live with the pot holes, I can live with without power, I can drive a old car and live in a small house, I can eat beans on toast every day, I can work sweeping streets if I had to but I could not live without the love and support of my wife and children. I looked at what was happening around me: My wife’s father being hijacked at gunpoint—the trigger being pulled and the gun not going off, the attempted abduction of a good friend of ours—accosted by three 16 year old youths, and forced into a car(luckily she managed to escape), friends who lost parents to armed robbery, daily hijackings, daily cash in transit heists(s friend of mine happened to drive past one of these and was attacked by a gang of youths armed with AK 47 assault rifles. His car was riddled with bullets—luckily he was alone(his wife and children were at home) and even more luckily he escaped unharmed(physically). So my question to myself was, do I risk being caught up in this or do I make other plans? No contest.
And so what do I say to people like Knott-Craig who thinks that we are fickle and running away from day to day annoyances? I say that money is not everything? I say that day to day luxuries are not that important? I say that your average South African understands about economic ups and downs. I say that my family is more important to me than my business, than what car I drive and what coffee I drink. I say that moving away from a country that you dearly love is the hardest thing you will ever do in your life and that such decisions are based not on economics or personal comfort but on things that are much more serious, things of greater depth than he gives credit for.
This all reminds me of another saying and all I will say is that the EMPORER DOES NOT HAVE GREAT CLOTHES ON. The rest I leave up to the Knott-Craigs.
So yes, South Africa is great ,and we all think so ,but not greater than the safety of my family. Is it possible that we may suffer at the hands of criminals here—-absolutely but the odds here are in our favour that we will be lucky enough to escape this.
Now finally, I promise. Immigration or even leaving your beloved country for an extended period of time is akin to experiencing the death of a loved one. The decision must not be taken lightly. It requires a “pros and cons” approach and will be different for every person involved in the exercise. Knott-Craig should take off his rose tinted lenses, step out from his fortress somewhere in an affluent area and go to ground zero to see what is happening down there where the average South African exists( not the average WHITE or new Black Elite South African but the population as a whole—-the people still using bucket toilets, the people still going to bed hungry, the people living in cardboard houses, the people all alone in the world as a result of crime, the people dying of AIDS, the people sitting in hopsital waiting rooms for DAYS, the people living inside their HOUSE PRISONS, the people living on ridiculous pensions,the people who thought their tomorrows would be different but nothing changed,—-in fact it got worse, the people living on the streets, the people working in hospitals, schools, police departments). If he still tells us that the Emperor has great clothing then me thinks maybe he is the Emperor’s tailor or maybe his multi million rand pay packet blinds him for the everyday stuggles of ordinary South Africans, black, white, coloured, indian etc etc.
Come on Knott Craig, South Arica does not need your RA RA speeches, we need you to stand up and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. WRONG IS WRONG. You need to say “Give our people freedom—-freedom from violence, hunger homelessness, abject poverty, basic health care, basic human respect and dignity. The list goes on.
South Africa is THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD and of that there is no doubt. BUT to many things are wrong. We cannot overlook them because they influence the lives of to many people.
Cockroach soup!
February 13th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I don’t get any of you negative soothsayers, prophets of doom. It would appear that many people who run from South Africa don’t have the guts to stay and fight for it to get better. You want us who stick it out and when everything is right, then we will see a large influx of expats returning ‘home’. How cheap and shallow is that?
For those who ran away don’t come back. Of course knowing the government as I do, they probably will accept you back, yet you will be the first to stand on some or other SCHOOPIT (check my spelling, Mr/Miss Word Smith) soap box to find fault and run away again.
To the people making comparisons with other countries get your facts straight toe! Your comparisons are if nothing else short sighted and highly uneducated. If you compare you compare apples with apples not with the sour lemons where from you drink.
I am gatvol with all the anti-South African sentiments; it makes me sick to my stomach because it shows immaturity and laziness. If you want South Africa to come right you need to work, don’t run away like the bunch of freaking cowards that you are. Let’s not try and get sentimental about the fact that you left because you don’t have what it takes. We all have families, we all face the hardships. That you left South Africa I have no problem with but don’t try to justify it with the sanctimonious hog wash in long drawls, be brave enough and say, “I left because I can’t handle it, not because of the state of South Africa.” Look within yourself before you cast blame. Nobody wants you to overlook the challenges, we expect you to work together to overcome then. People through out the world suffer under worse conditions that what we face here in South Africa yet they weather the storm because they know that their efforts are not for themselves or even their kids, but they see beyond that they look further into the future.
“With every difficulty there is relief”. The relief though only comes when you work for it. Nothing you say can counter my beliefs I am dedicated to my country come crime or no crime; electricity or no electricity. If you said to me, “I live in another country and I am working to find ways to make South Africa better” then for this I will applaud you, other than that you’re a bunch of lazy cowards, hiding behind the name of your children. The fact that some of you would even dare to still say that South Africa is the best country in the world makes it even worse. SIES!
Let’s also not be pedantic about spelling because that is hardly the point. Alan/Alon/Alin, the point is simple, the bra is giving hope which is what many of you lack the foresight to see and appreciate. Well done AKC jnr (p.s not the CEO of Vodacom but his son).
SB thanks for this blog, I really needed it especially after seeing all the k@k that comes from so many people claiming South Africa heritage.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Just to set the record straight, this was a quote of a letter sent by Allan Knott_Craig (Jnr), who happens to be the CEO of IBurst, to his staff and not AKC from Vodacom.
February 17th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I’m with Expat
February 18th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
You guys still manage to focus on all the negatives…given one chance in life, why focus on the negative aspects….we can change SA through positive thought… not through politics or shifting blame….
February 19th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Well said Andre.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
jesus’s how did the knot-craig gang get too control of all our hi-speed wireless infra ? They must know some serious jackie selebi types to get all licenses…
March 9th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Alan Knott-Craig appears to be on some pretty strong medication. Either that, or he is world champion in turd polishing.
Whatever direction is heading in, it sure as hell ain’t the right one.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:03 am
That should have read:
Whatever direction SA is heading in, it sure as hell ain’t the right one.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Jy weet wat, nê, hierdie stukkie maak my nie beter voel nie. Dis sulke ouens wat manteldraaiers is, wat lekker veilig in sy R10mil-mansion sit, met “state-of-the-art” security, wat probably nog nooit die werklike lewe gesien het nie, wat nog nooit van gesteel was, of ge-hijack was nie, wat in die land van Utopia bly, want al hierdie goeters wat hy “positief” noem, is bollie – wat van Johannesburg is die grootste brothel, en dat dit al die rykes ryker maak en die armes armer, en wat van dat Joburg se companies uit die middestad beweeg want daar is soveel crime jy kan nie bybly met versekering nie, wat van al die mense wat reg in hulle woonplekke oorval word en reg voor hulle families doodgemaak word, en wat van fietsryers wat sommerso omgery word deur taxis, en wat van die besoedeling waarvan daar nie veel gepraat word nie, en wat van die land wat nie regtig vooruit gaan nie, maar als verval en almal moet net “sukkel” en betaal, want die regering is wet en wat hulle sê moet almal maar net by inval – alles kry verhogings en ons salarisse word nie elke keer met dieselfde aangepas nie, so ons “buying power” sak al hoe meer, al hoe meer mense raak in die skuld want hulle kan nie meer bybly nie.
Vooruitgang en “lucky” en “great opportunity” en “part of the birth of a massive and all-encompassing industry” – se voet! Die ou “kid” homself en lieg vir homself – hy sal een van die eerstes wees wat sy goedjies pak en loop as die regte popo die fan strike.
Stuur DIT vir hom aan!
NOTE TO sb:
===========
You live on some other planet, dude! Stop lying to yourself and other people – we don’t have to have massive things happen in our country, like 9/11 or suicide bombers, but the value of life has depreciated dramatically in the last 14 or so years, I wonder why?
March 11th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Im really going to have to get someone to translate this comment for me. I don’t really read Afrikaans. Sorry mate!
April 12th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Ask AKC jnr who assisted him to get to top of iBurst and then bought the company into Vodacom??
April 12th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
What does a positive message from a guy who lives in a mansion have to do with positivity? Would it have made you feel better if it came from a guy in a squatter camp in Khayelitsha? Then you would have just turned it around and called him an ignorant ass who does not know anything about anything. Bottom line is, in a country where many people are battling to figure out the new South Africa and where it’s headed, some of us can sure use some positivity.
I grew up poor in the dusty streets of the former Bophuthatswana, I have family members living with HIV and have first-hand experience on how if feels to be homeless. But today, I am here!!
I don’t know where tomorrow will take me or this country, but I know that for me to get the life I want with this one life I have, wasting time and energy on negativity won’t give me the result I want. Those of you who view this letter from your half-empty glasses won’t understand, because you view the world from that perspective.
I’m glad some guy who’s made some money still has the humanity and encouragement to push others into a view that can make their lives better. But then again, we do not see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I think Alan’s letter should be seen as a source of inspiration to others to make a change and do good too. We have such a huge culture about complaining about things (BEE, electricity, crime, etc) but the fact remains that those complaining the loudest are doing the least, if anything at all. This doesnt take away from the fact that those things are terrible and that they’re ruining our country – don’t get me wrong – but why not make a difference instead of making a noise?
Another thing is accountability. The reason that South Africa suffers (and the whole of Africa too) is that its people let the powers that be get away with murder! When the government, the police, eskom or whoever screws up, we, as the citizens and children of this country, have a responsibility to hold them accountable for their actions and ensure that it never happens again. If we just sit back and accept it without making a constructive effort to rap those who deserve it on their knuckles, then nothing prevents it from happening again. They’re like unruly children that need to be kept in line!
June 13th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
let’s all sit down, close our eyes and think, think, think, positive thoughts, rainbows, table mountain, honest government, friendship, tolerance, think guys think.
when you open your eyes, SA will be all that…..
June 13th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Ha! chicken run leader. good one. you are very clever.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
We are in the process of immigrating and after having invested substantially into our immigration campaign, very little would convince us to stay in South Africa.
So buying “Don’t Panic” by Mr AKC had nothing to do with us wanting to change our minds about leaving. What we were hoping to gain from reading it was a new perspective and insight into the opinions of positive South Africans, maybe with the hope going overseas with a new, inspired, positive view of South Africa to share with the new friends we are going to make.
The concept of economic cycles is not new, and we pretty much understand it. So, in all honesty, we are not really panicking about the current economic state of affairs, not because we are affluent enough not to be affected by it, but because there is little we can do about it, except wait it out and do the best we can to minimize the damage to our personal economic situation, by, like Mr AKC suggests, drinking Ricoffee instead of Nescafe and being more aware of our consumption habits. In fact, my husband and I have taken to baking our own bread, growing our own vegetables, raising our own chickens, sharing a shower:-))) and driving as little as possible. And, a lot of good has come out our new life style. We bought a stunning recipe book and now cook healthy gourmet meals at home instead of eating out. We switch off lights and use hot water bottles in our bed to keep warm. So we’re taking all this economic stuff in our stride despite the fact that the global crisis couldn’t have come at a worse time for us personally. Immigrating is expensive and our campaign has been compromised somewhat. But we’re not negative. We know that things will come right and that we’ll be ok.
We love the cheap old house we rent on a small game farm outside Rustenburg and appreciate being able to take long walks and watch beautiful sunsets in the relative safety of the surrounding electric fence. There is no denying that South Africa is beautiful. And believe me, I loved the loadshedding at night. It forced us to take some quiet time to reflect on the day. I read my daughter stories by candlelight and shared a bottle of red wine with my husband on our stunning red stoep, watching the stars and talking about stuff. We created a life for ourselves that we enjoy immensely and we’re enjoying every minute of it while we still can. The problems of the world are far from our minds when we’re in the comfort of our old farmhouse.
But we’re going to leave. Beautiful sunsets and picture perfect landscapes are not enough. Other countries have that too. With all due respect, most of the people who contributed to Mr AKC’s book offered nothing substantially positive other than pie in the sky dreams of our wonderful rainbow nation standing together as friends (which, quite frankly, they don’t), great weather, rugby world cup, table mountain, boerewors and melktert. We all know how lekker Mrs Balls chutney is on a boerewors roll. And there is no doubt the climate here is better than in England, which is where most of the books contributors seem to have returned from. There are better places than England to go to. Try Ireland or Scotland, and for some sunshine, there’s always the Greek Islands, a hop, skip and a jump away. I spent a few years in England myself, and the weather there is terrible most of the time, but I knew that before I went there. And I went anyway. And I appreciated and enjoyed the good things it had to offer, because I’m a positive person. Most countries have their good things and their bad things. No place is perfect. I am the first one to admit the grass is not greener on the other side and we have no romantic ideas of immigrating to Utopia for a happily-ever-after existence. But I’m ashamed to say South Africa has become something of a joke. There is nothing endearingly special about our health minister proposing the consumption of vegetables to cure HIV/AIDS, as one of MR AKC’s contributors suggest. Yes, he is a mere 12 years old. I guess that’s the endearing part. He doesn’t understand the ridiculous reality of the situation yet. There is nothing endearing about the propaganda going around in the health department that anti-retroviral medication involves colonial pharmaceutical company conspiracies against the African people. And when a doctor, frustratingly trying to help people, happens to throw a minister’s photo in the rubbish bin to express his frustration, a huge thing is made about it. But nothing gets done about corruption in government.
But really, we must all stand together, stay and fight, become more tolerant and think positive, to make this country a better place? While our president is so out of touch with what is happening here and refuses to acknowledge the crisis in Zimbabwe, with a shadowy candidate waiting in the wings to become our next president. Our chief of police suspected of illegal dealings and associations, judges allegedly trying to manipulate the course of justice. Where does it end? These are the values of our leaders and I am sorry, but changing people’s values is not something we can do by “thinking positive”.
My husband and I have been running a construction and retail business for three years now. We created jobs for about 10 and sometimes 20 people during that time, and paid out an average of R500 000-0O to R600 000-00 in wages, maybe more. We invested every last penny of our personal savings and pension funds into our dream of taking advantage of the South African entrepreneurial spirit – another positive in “Don’t Panic”. For the most part, through blood, sweat, tears and monthly panic attacks, we have managed to survive, with no help from anyone. Despite the growth of our business and a signed contract worth R1 025 000-00, the bank would not give us an overdraft of R50 000-00 for a few weeks to help us through a once-off cashflow crisis during January 2007. We had sold out all our shop stock during December (the construction holidays), and didn’t have cashflow after our bills and Christmas bonuses were paid to replenish it. “How can we help you?” the bank asked! A family member lent us the money and we paid it back within three weeks. We turned almost R2 000 000.00 through that same bank during 2007. But, again, in January 2008, by accident, we found ourselves with a R4000 overdraft, because a client who was supposed to pay us R250 000-00 missed our debit order deadline. How could he? Our debit order run did not feature in his budget? The banks were all over us and demanded that we make a plan immediately or they would disallow any more payments through our account. There was nothing we could do. Nothing. The next step might have been liquidation, but within a few days, the money from our client came through and we breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been on holiday overseas with his family. Thank you FNB, for encouraging and supporting the South African entrepreneurial spirit. You’ve been a great help.
Besides that, despite creating jobs and income for up to 20 previously unemployed, previously disadvantaged individuals, most of those same people lied to us, stole from us and tried to cheat us without a second thought to the personal sacrifices we had made in order to provide that employment for them. To them, we were “rich” business owners. For all they cared, we could have been some corporate company, like IBurst or Vodacom with gazillions of rands to spend on whatever they thought they were entitled to. We trained them. Most of them had no skills in the work we had given them. We helped them with loans as much as we could. On Fridays we’d buy a case of beer to share after work, to show our appreciation and our commitment to them. But, come Monday, they would use our truck as a taxi, our tools for moonlighting jobs, and they would take 20 days to finish a job that should have been finished in 10 days because in their minds, the quicker the work was done, the sooner they’d be out of work again. So drag the job on as long as possible. And on occasion, some of them would simply not pitch to work for days at a time. We never knew from one day to the next, how or if we would get the job done and enjoy the fruits of our investment, and we lost a lot of money because of that. So much for our dream of making a living as South African entrepreneurs and creators of jobs and upliftment for previously disadvantaged people, in the spirit of a united rainbow nation. At the end of last year, we terminated all their contracts and scaled down our operations. So now, most of them are back on the unemployment line.
There is a warped sense of entitlement that exists in a lot of South African people, and it’s those people who are bringing this country down. Unfortunately, a lot of them are in government and other positions of power. Most of them are completely uneducated and don’t even know what they’re actually entitled to. They’ve been promised all sorts of things by the government and they’re holding everyone and anyone else accountable.
Standing together and holding hands and thinking positive thoughts are not going to change the values of those people. And as long as government officials line their own pockets instead of investing in education and making good on their promises to the people who voted for them, they will probably never realize the error of their ways. Even if education does become a priority, it will take a long time to integrate new respectful values into this society, longer than I’m prepared to wait. In the meantime I have a child to raise and I am not prepared to raise her in an environment where it’s ok to burn the school down if you can’t pay the fees, or riot because you don’t like the province your town is in, or burn the train for being late, or fill your own pocket because you can and no-one is watching. There have been several occasions during the past three years that we weren’t sure how we were going to pay our bills or where the money would come from to feed our child, but we never went to burn the bank for not giving us that stupid overdraft. Debit orders would bounce and we’d pay dearly for those unpaid items later, but we still get up in the morning and do an honest days work.
Many of the people in our government have some kind of criminal record or have been suspected of some kind of illegal activity. Yet, nothing happens to them. And they all say there is some kind of conspiracy against them. Oh please!
I believe my husband and I have gone the extra mile. Hell, we’ve even contacted the crime line on two occasions. Model citizens we are. So there is no denying that we are doing our bit for volk en vaderland. But you know what, our small actions have not changed anything. I don’t feel any safer in this country for the little things that we’ve done to try and make it better.
June 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
By the way, how many south african people, except you Mr AKC, can actually afford a trip to Cape Town and go up the Table Mountain they love so much?
July 30th, 2008 at 8:18 am
So what would have motivated him to write
such an inspiring letter?
I guess he does not want his staff to leave.
Why does he want them to stay?
They must be hard to replace.
Why?
Because all the smart ones are leaving
and all the not so smart ones are
staying behind. (Brain drain)
How do you know that? Because to immigrate
you need some higher qualification or trade.
So I guess he might be saying these things
because he is just protecting is own interests.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Thanks Knott-Craig Jnr, – my questions to those moving away – if Perth experinece the same k@k as they call it, R they gonna move away again. I took some extract in a speech made by current president Mr. Mbeki in his inauguration, June 16 1999.
“For us, as South Africans, this day is as much a Day for the Inauguration of the new government as it is a Day of Salute for a generation that pulled our country out of the abyss and placed it on the pedestal of hope, on which it rests today.
I speak of the generation represented pre-eminently by our outgoing President, Nelson Mandela – the generation of Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Albertina Sisulu, Ray Alexander and others”…..he goes on to say
“But this I can say, that we who are their offspring know that we owe to them much of what is humane, noble and beautiful in the thoughts and actions of our people, as they strive to build a better world for themselves.
For throughout their lives, they struggled against everything that was ugly, mean, brutish and degrading of the dignity of all human beings”. …..
23 years ago this day, children died in Soweto, Johannesburg in a youth uprising which democratic South Africa honours as our National Youth Day.
As we speak, both our own, as well as international athletes, are competing in our annual Comrades Marathon which, this year, is dedicated to Nelson Mandela
Our best wishes go to all these, the long distance runners of the Marathon.
Those who complete the course will do so only because they do not, as fatigue sets in, convince themselves that the road ahead is still too long, the inclines too steep, the!!! loneliness impossible to bear and the prize itself of doubtful value.
We too, as the peoples of South Africa and Africa, must together run our own Comrades Marathon, as comrades who are ready to take to the road together, refusing to be discouraged by the recognition that the road is very long, the inclines very steep and that, at times, what we see as the end is but a mirage.
When the race is run, all humanity and ourselves will acknowledge the fact that we only succeeded because we succeeded to believe in our own dreams”.
..they’ve struggled a lot and that can never be comparable with what is happening now so if we dont join the Marathon but keep on making silly comments about our country we doomed to fail not becoz we cannot make it but becoz of the stupidity of ideas we upholding as a nation. Join the race so as to have full force to win the race.
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