Two Bits: I can feel a good year coming

After all the lefties had fallen down, clutching their breasts in horror at having this brash New Yorker take the helm and trash much that is sacred, there is a small but growing recognition that perhaps not everything he has done is wrong.

The US economy running like a train, unemployment is down and the anti-Donald lobby is noticeably quieter.

Britain has been in a dither since the Brexit decision of last June and has spent the past 18 months flailing about, trying to decide how to leave the European Union gracefully – or at least with fewer bruises.

All this turmoil is being blamed on social media and dastardly clever Russian hackers. Blaming the Russians when things go wrong has become the political equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework’.

Closer to home, social media caught up with the Democratic Alliance’s Helen Zille, who shares with Donald an addiction to Twitter, but whose incautious tweeting unleashed a political storm that saw her sent to the naughty corner and spells the end to an otherwise impressive career.

The fate of another political career will be decided at the ANC national conference next week, when Jacob Zuma faces the chop after an exhausting year of revelations of capture of his presidency by the Gupta family.

Reading journalist Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers is a bit like going to drink from the tap and being hit in the face by a waterfall. There is so much detail of greed, corruption and outright criminality at all levels of Zuma’s government that by the end you are left exhausted, wondering where this is all going to end.

But will it end? Will Cyril Ramaphosa prove to have a backbone after all? Has he been hiding his light under the proverbial bushel just to keep out of Zuma’s sights? Or could Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma prove everybody wrong and be the woman to rip the heart out of the corrupt dragon that has captured the state?

Don’t hold your breath. If even half of what Paauw said is true, then rooting out corruption in government will be even more difficult than digging up the roots of the strangler fig that threatens to capture my entire garden. The first thing the corrupted will do is launch counterattacks, which will call for our new leaders to have strong backs and brave hearts.

Two years almost to the day that the economy was shaken by the firing of finance minster Nhlanhla Nene, the overnight collapse of Top 10 company Steinhoff last week has caused a massive ripple on the Johannesburg stock exchange.

For years the evidence has been that Steinhoff was safe, it had great management, the figures were good, etc. What could go wrong? On the other hand, conventional wisdom is that Bitcoin is a huge unknown, you’d be stupid to invest in it and so on.

Which is like a red rag to a bull for me. I sold out of Steinhoff last Wednesday, having lost half of my investment in the shares and count myself lucky to have rescued anything at all. I lost on what should have been safe, so why not take a run at something that looks risky? I threw caution to the wind and bought some Bitcoin. It proceeded to rocket up 40% in a few days. Halleluljah! Then it fell by half overnight. Eeek! Then it shot up 45%. Hallel . . . you get the idea. It’s a rollercoaster every day.

I promise myself that I will be sensible and take profits soon, but the above events are perfect examples that things don’t always turn out as expected. Nobody could have forecast what happened to Steinhoff, nobody can foretell how our next president will behave. Life happens.

It has been an exciting year on the local front. The new Ballito Junction brought Gateway to our doorstep, which caused the Lifestyle Centre to buy a new suit and a haircut. Mt Richmore started on its own shopping centre, which will house another Checkers. Craig Hulett is rebuilding the Salt Rock shopping centre that apparently will house another Food Lovers’ Market, which is great.

And after biding their time since the property market collapse of 2008, Tongaat Hulett has sprung into development mode with a start on the Sibaya precinct and Zimbali owners IFA launched their new Lakes development, effectively the start of Zimbali No 2. There has been a rash of new development launches, spelling new confidence in the future that has long been lacking.

I’m as confused as you are, I expect, but we can’t say we live in a dull place. I am going to make a concerted effort to ensure that 2019 will be a great year for the Dolphin Coast, full of hope, new investment and even more surprises. Watch this space!

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Did you hear about the new corduroy pillows? They’re making headlines everywhere!