The immediate past CEO of Eskom, the South African government-controlled power company, has recently declared that for many years the theft from Eskom was of the order of £25m per month. Essentially, instead of the Eskom managers paying away this sum on much-desired infrastructure repairs and replacements, it was paid out as naked bribes – which of course would be cycled in favour of all sorts of interested bribe-takers, most of whom would be senior members of the ANC.
The effect of all this was to cause extended outtages and damage to the South African economy. Successive South African governments did nothing about this since they were all receiving bribes.
Anyway, apparently, this absurd general fraud and theft scheme has been lately curtailed very extensively and, lo and behold, power is much more reliably to hand. Who would have believed it!
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This week’s hero is Carles Puigdemont since, in his role of Catalan top dog, slipped into Barcelona and was observed speaking to thousands of his supporters by hundreds of policemen who were dead set to get hold of him and initiate fraud proceedings. But Carles’s supporters spirited him away and, so far, the cops have yet to catch up with him. He reminds me of Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel and definitely an admirable fellow. “They seek him here, they seek him there.” He wants Catalonia to secede from Spain since he and his supporters are fed up with bent government dished out by Madrid. I don’t blame them.
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The Dhaka Stock Exchange has reopened now that the rioting has come to an end. It’s important to maintain the means of exchange.