Please take the time to read this document in its totallity, Our South African currency has devalued against the US Dollar at an alarming rate since the anc took power in 1994. The exchange rate in January 1995 was R3.5373 to $1 and in January 2014, R10.8171 to $1, this equates to an approximate 203% devaluation of the South African Rand to the US Dollar. As a business person based in the Gauteng area of South Africa, I have on occasions have the necessity to import earthmoving spare parts from global sources. All of my trading partners globally, trade using the US Dollar, from Turkey, China, Italy and of course the USA. With each devaluation of the Rand, my costs increase and to remain in a profitable business, my retail has to be increased to accommodate this devaluation. This affects everyone in South Africa due to our oil which is imported, which is US Dollar based, this means that due to the devaluation, our price of fuel (petrol & diesel) is increased. In turn this means that the price of everything we purchase is increased. It does not stop at that alone, all of our power stations are coal powered besides 1 in the Cape (Koeberg) which is nuclear powered. In order to power these coal powered stations, coal has to be mined and in the case of Koeberg, Uranium has to be mined. All earthmoving equipment is diesel powered and as a result of the cost of diesel, the extraction cost of the coal is increased. This mined coal has to be then transported to the various coal powered, power stations at a cost to power provider (Eskom) and I doubt whether they will take a hit in the cost of power production. This means that the man in the street has to pay more for the electrical power utilised. The equipment used in the opencast mines to extract the coal has to be maintained and the majority of the maintenance items are imported, all US Dollar based. This again affects the costing of electrical power. We reflect the history of the exchange rates in 5 year periods: January 1995 : R3.5373 to $1 January 2000 : R6.1253 to $1 January 2005 : R5.9396 to $1 January 2010 : R7.4344 to $1 January 2014 : R10.8171 to $1 All of the above historical information is as extracted from the internet at: oanda/currency/historical-rates As seen, everything imported, has increased substantially in retail price, in other words WE pay more, additionally we pay 14% VAT on top of the increased price, who is making money here would you rather make 14% on a R1000.00 (R140.00) or 14% on R100.00 (R14.00), it looks like finance minister gordhan is laughing all the way to the bank. No wonder he does nothing about the situation. Has the decline in our economy been because of the global community losing faith in the anc and the anc run government? This due to R30.8billion being squandered last year, or the R246m government funds being spent on the president’s personal home (Nkandla) and the public protector, Advocate Madonsela almost being gagged from exposing the wastage, or the number of Criminal charges that President zuma has wormed his way out of. Is it the crime statistics, our corruption record, our weak health system, our pathetic police force, who would rather shoot and or drag behind police vehicles and kill, before asking questions, our non performing education system. Could it be the unemployment rates as a result of the number of promises made but not met (lies) or is it due to the pure fact, that the global community finally realise that the current national assembly of South Africa, are just plain Incompetent, from the president down. The only industry that I can think of that would benefit from the above is the Tourism industry, a tourist that arrives in South Africa with $1000.00 immediately exchanges this for R10000.00, what a bargain. May 7th, is time for the people of the country that we love, to answer the above questions, Please make the correct choice. I Thank You.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:16:02 +0000
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