>>84703
>He organised a meeting with a key character in Johannesburg: Marius De Kock, son of the former governor of the South African Reserve Bank [Gerhard de Kock (sixth Governor of the South African Reserve Bank); 1981-1989 during Apartheid. Coincidentally, his father Dr. Michiel H. de Kock was the third Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, 1945-1962 (from British rule into Apartheid rule)], and a sight-holder for De Beers, one of the world’s leading diamond producers. Sight-holders are authorised to bulk-buy rough diamonds on behalf of De Beers [Mail & Guardian failed to mention this!]

“Former finance minister on economic events of SA's past” - Former Finance Minister Barend du Plessis talks about Gerard De Kock

https://youtube.com/watch?v=N_sGdOfxWCg [Embed]

Former Finance Minister Barend du Plessis has wished current Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, well when he delivers his Medium-Term Budget Statement tomorrow. Du Plessis tells SABC News Economics Editor, Tshepo Mongoai, that it's a pity issues such as unemployment and inequality were not properly addressed during the Codesa negotiations. He has also lamented the fact that there were not enough experts involved to guide the 1991 transition talks.

6:04 – “I can truthfully say to you that the late Dr. Gerard De Kock, who was President and Governor of the Central Bank, before his death he undertook a ‘goodbye’ trip to say goodbye to his fellow workers at the World Bank years before. He came back and said to me that the way that we dealt with the debt standstill and the sanctions was a textbook way of dealing with it responsibly.”

His statement about Eskom

21:52 – “Before 1994, especially before 1992 while I was still there, we were proud of Eskom. Their finances were in order, they didn’t have any international problem to raise capital for any new ventures. It was recognized worldwide as one of the best organized and managed power generation corporations in the world supporting economic growth, actively. After ‘94, I remember my complete shock when I read that huge quantaties of prime quality coal was laying in reserve, all of a sudden, started being used or sold or it was just disappearing. It appeared apparently in the form of profits and accordingly huge bonuses were paid out for something that shouldn’t have happened at all… If there is one example of the mess that follows if you destroy the institutional values and the institutional memory built over decades by replacing skilled people, experienced people with unqualified, inexperienced cadres purely on political considerations. Eskom, being what it is today, arrived there by doing all the things wrong that can be done wrong in an organization of that kind as far as incompetence and bad management and hugely inflated numbers of staff and hugely inflated average of salaries and it will require some King Solomon coming from somewhere with a lot of gold in his back pocket to fix that disaster.”