I see that SANRAL have been advertising extensively for sometime that if you register for an e-toll before 1 July, you can pay all accounts that you have incurred in the meantime at a discounted rate.  That means anyone with an invoice between 3 December 2013 and 28 February 2014 can still now pay the old rate if they e-mail [email protected] for a discounted settlement amount.  It would be interesting to see how many people take up this option and one would assume that after this they will start with more aggressive tactics to get payment.  In the meantime, the share price of Kapsch TrafficCom has fallen from €38 to €33 and obviously it means that behind the scenes not as much money is being collected as they anticipated.  I still don’t see them reversing this project, and quite likely those who continue to resist it are next going to be targeted with more punitive action, such as civil court procedures, because it seems that this is really the last effort of waving the carrot in front of the nose of consumers, and next is going to be the stick.  

On Friday 13 June 2014, South Africa’s credit rating was dropped by Standard & Poor.  Our credit rating is now BBB and that is the lowest investment grade rating that you can get – the next grade down is the so-called Junk Status which many investors will not invest in.  These credit ratings are very important because they ultimately decide at what interest rates other countries lend money to us and also assist overseas investors as to whether or not they want to invest in a country.  They rely on the credit ratings of the various credit agencies and they have basically all lowered their views of South Africa.  For example, Fitch Ratings already have a BBB rating for South Africa but they have changed their outlook for South Africa, which used to be stable, to negative.  

S&P said that they don’t believe South Africa will manage to undertake the major labour laws or economic reforms that are needed to boost growth in South Africa.  I realise that every time I write about labour laws, there are a lot of people who always write about how our laws are perfect and wonderful, but you need to see it from an international perspective.  International investors are not interested in the labour laws of South Africa and we will continue to chase away investment and will continue to have our credit ratings lowered until such time as the government stands up against the Unions and changes the law.  I am not optimistic about them doing it soon and nor are the credit agencies.  On the plus side, Brazil, India and Russia all have the same bad rating, but we used to be ahead of them.  Fitch said that amongst the problems with South Africa are strike activities, high pay demands as well as problems with electricity supply.  

I am particularly proud of the way we communicate with our clients at our firm, and we have many features and systems that allow us to communicate in a way that I believe are unmatched in South Africa in our field of work. For example, if a medico legal report comes in today, it is loaded onto our network and our system, and the client automatically within a minute or so gets an e-mail giving them access to the entire report!  

We are now taking those features and building them into a further step which is going to be an Internet interface and page for each client, which we are calling Client Zone at the moment, which will include access to all of their past medical reports in case they wish to go through them again, future medical appointments and information relating to the current status of their case.  The reality is that clients of our firm can never say they are not updated enough – because firstly they get an update every two weeks as to the status of their case as well as information relating to pre-trials between attorneys and when they are being held, not to mention reminders via SMS and e-mail as to medical appointments, but they also get information from us relating to various other aspects of their case on a regular basis – for example, the current status of the serious injury aspect of their case, if indeed there is such an aspect.  I am particularly proud of the service we provide to our clients, and it is something we aim to continue to work on, to improve, to take to new levels and generally ensure that we provide clients with a service which is unmatched in South Africa.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency in America have announced that they are going to make a new recommendation for food to be eaten by pregnant or breastfeeding mothers.  They are going to recommend about three servings of low mercury seafood a week to be eaten by such mothers which would include light canned tuna, salmon, shrimp and cod.  Reports have found that about one in five women in America ate very little fish or none at all and studies have shown that women who consumed fish have children with higher IQ’s and better cognitive development than children born to women who do not.  

They say that the studies are very consistent in this regard in that while there are benefits to fish oil and Omega-3 fatty acids, they do not have the same benefit as actually eating fish.  The FDA is also recommending that young children eat a weekly minimum of two fish servings. Certain fish, which are high in mercury should not be eaten when women are pregnant and that would include sharks and marlin may also be added to the list in future.  

Doctors who have done studies on the benefits have been disappointed by the recommendation, because they don’t think it goes far enough saying that they believe, for it to be effective for child development, you need at least three servings a week.  Fish like salmon can often be an expensive meal, but when you read about the benefits like that, it is one of those meals you can’t afford not to feed your children.  In many respects we have all become used to cheap food to the extent where poisons like alcohol and cigarettes cost more than many foods, but it does not make sense that good food is cheap and there are many other things you can cut out of your budget long before giving up on eating decent quality, fresh and healthy foods.

I was quite interested to hear an advert placed by the Financial Services Board on radio the other night.  It was the first time I have heard an advert advertising the FSB and what they do, and I do hope that they widen their campaign and advertise more extensively.  The FSB regulates financial products in South Africa and simply by dealing with somebody who has an FSB licence, you are likely to already have a higher level of protection and less chance of losing your money than by dealing with somebody without an FSB licence. There are thousands of sharks out there, preying on the ignorant, in particular often the elderly, trying to get them to invest their money in all sorts of products, and in all sorts of dramatic promises of increasing their money 25% or 30% a year and anything that can be done to make people more astute, can only be of great benefit.  Of course, people who start saving earlier won’t be as desperate as those who don’t and then succumb to the stories.

I recently watched Tom Cruise’s blockbuster, Edge of Tomorrow.  One of the reasons to go to movies is definitely not the stale popcorn, but watching something on a big screen in 3D can’t be replicated at home.  Anybody who remembers the movie Groundhog Day will feel that this movie is quite familiar, but it really has got superb action and is wonderfully produced and put together.  It currently has a 90% rating on RottenTomatoes and it is all about an alien race that attacks earth and Tom Cruise plays an officer who basically has to die, again and again, and relive the same day until he gets it right.  The critics love it, the fans have given it great reviews saying it is one of those big budget movies that is still very entertaining and clever and the only disappointment is that it is not doing as well at the Box Office as one would have thought.  With a production budget of $178 million, it has only grossed $60 million in America so far.  Once you add in the foreign takings of $181 million it is already showing a profit at $241 million, but perhaps not doing as well as I would have thought, but profitable nevertheless.  

With the World Cup on, and there is still controversy about the 2022 World Cup which will be played in Qatar.  It is apparently so hot in Qatar that they need the event to be held in winter, which unfortunately would coincide with the middle of the English Premier League and various other leagues in Europe – and that would mean that they will take a financial hit in that year which of course they are not prepared to do.  They of course are objecting to a date switch, but if the World Cup is held, as it normally is, in June or July, Qatar will be too hot.  

Qatar does not have much of a soccer tradition.  At the moment fans are apparently paid to go to the games and get tickets to win prizes and given that you get tickets for supporting your side, many “fans” apparently during the day start supporting the one side at the beginning of the game and then go to the other side of the stadium and collect the prize tickets to support the other team for the second half of the game.  If those were the only problems FIFA was facing, that would be fine, but there are allegations that the former Vice President of FIFA, Mohamed Bin Hamman paid R54 million to football officials around the world to win support for the bid.  Out of FIFA’s six main sponsors, five of them have issued statements expressing concerns about the allegations of corruption and so a shadow hangs over the event at the moment and FIFA, under Sepp Blatter, seems to do little to try and uncover corruption in its ranks.  

I was delighted when the caning of children at school was ruled unconstitutional.  I was refused a testimonial by my school, Capricorn High in Polokwane, because I refused, on the second last day of Matric, to be caned by the principal.  I am not sure though if the government’s latest idea is going to fly – and that is to ban the spanking of all children by their parents.  

There is no doubt that corporal punishment is really not the ideal way to achieve results, but one cannot help but feel that there are certain stages when smaller children do need a small smack, even if that smack is not about being sore at all, but about indicating to the child that they are wrong.  I appreciate that there are many ways to tell a child that he or she is wrong, but they laugh off many other efforts.  The Social Development Minister said that our Constitution guarantees the rights of all people to freedom from all forms of violence, torture and cruel inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment and on that basis they intend introducing legislation to stop children being smacked.  It will be interesting to see if a light smack will be defined as a form of violence, but that does seem to be the implication at the moment.  Is this a good idea?

I recently went to see an ophthalmologist, Dr Sara, at Netcare Linksfield Clinic.  It was quite interesting for me, particularly when I was told that I am farsighted in my right eye, where I think I have a +1 rating and short-sighted in my left eye, where I think I have a -1 rating.  He checked the pressure on my eyes and told me that the normal score is 20 and anything below that is good and mine is 14.  He did confirm my suspicions however that I was going to need reading glasses.  What I found of interest, for most people, is that he said that generally when you get to the age of 40 you should have your eyes checked because there are certain conditions that you could develop around then and thereafter, which if treated early, never become as serious.  Prevention is the best cure.  

I did not realise either that once you got reading glasses that basically every year you have to get a stronger pair of reading glasses than the year before and he said typically most people start reading glasses at about the age of 40 and that once they get to about 55 they would then move on to bifocal lenses and at about 70 you normally have cataracts.  I am at that point when I hold books and newspapers quite far away from my eyes to read them, and eventually you get to a point where your arms cannot hold them far away enough and you need reading glasses.  I am not there yet, and I told the doctor that I will only be using them at night when I read.  He reassured me that that is how everybody starts, but eventually you are wearing them all day and even have to wear them when watching TV!  The joys of getting older – but there are far worse things that can happen in life, and one cannot complain about all the ailments with getting older.

I think, when I look at our firm, De Broglio Inc, that there can be no doubt that clients are attracted to the firm given our track record of good results.  However, what keep clients at a firm are not just good results, but service.  In that regard, we have always emphasised on clients meeting with our attorneys as often as the client is able to and we have spent a considerable amount of money on IT and document management so that our clients receive an unparalleled customer service.  It allows us to update our clients every two weeks as to the current status of their case, to instantly notify our clients via e-mail of a trial date or a development with the serious injury aspect of their case in terms of news that we may get from the opponents or the Health Professions Council.  We also have reminder systems to remind our clients about medico legal appointments that they have to attend.  

Without going into too much detail, if a medico legal report is received from a doctor that our client has seen today, it is scanned, it is loaded onto our document management system and within a minute or two our client receives an e-mail with a link so that they can access the report immediately.  I don’t believe any of our competition is doing that, and of course we still post a copy of the report to our client, as well as give them a file at together with all of their medico legal reports in preparation for the trial.  So, we do things the traditional way as well, but I don’t think one can underestimate the power in a day and age of instant gratification, of supplying clients immediately with their medico legal report in a matter as we receive it.  I recently spent some time trying to think of how best to describe that in an advert, because in all of our adverts we have generally just spoken about the results that we achieve, but I do think that my advertising should also, at some time in the future, focus on the service that we provide to our clients because I honestly believe it is unparalleled, in our field, in South Africa.

I was quite impressed with the website set up by the Platinum mining companies, and which can be found at www.platinumwagenegotiations.co.za.  The site has lots of facts and figures, as well as various PDF’s with information for the employees of the various mines.  It also has a rather impressive figure indicating the financial impact of the strike, since the beginning of the strike.  It gives a constantly updated figure for employees’ earnings lost which are approaching R10 billion and the company’s revenues lost which are over R22 billion.  Of course there are many other losers in this, including all of the businesses in the area who make money from the mines and miners, the government in terms of lost tax and all of us in terms of a weakening currency which then feeds through into the petrol price which then feeds through into inflation and the price we pay for food and everything else.

I was caught behind the bus in the photograph recently with my family, and we managed to take a photograph indicating the dark clouds being omitted by the rear exhaust.  I must say that however desperate times are, and however badly somebody’s business is going, they surely can afford to prevent polluting the environment to such an extent.  There surely has to be a budget for servicing the vehicle or replacing it, rather than ruining the planet we live on.  

These are the types of vehicles I would like the traffic police to pull off the side of the road, impound and cart away.  It would achieve a lot more in checking whether somebody’s licence has expired by 3 weeks, fines for vehicles such as this should be extreme – R30 000,00 on the spot and your car not released until such time as a government approved garage has serviced it properly, fixed it and made the owner pay before they are allowed to take it away.  If you come down on people hard and treat the offences seriously, you will very quickly send the message around that people cannot put unroadworthy vehicles on our roads.  Many people forget that it is not just about the pollution, but unroadworthy vehicles also lead to considerable numbers of deaths and injuries on our roads and hurt our economy.  The offenders have to be severely punished.

Our new TV advert is being finished and will now be appearing on TV from this weekend.  I have a sneak preview, alongside this blog, of the advert which will be flighted for the first time this Sunday on Carte Blanche.  I am looking forward to the response to it – it being our fourth or fifth advertisement that we have done over the last 5 or 6 years and it is 10 seconds longer than our current advertisement.  Let me have your comments!

The 2014 World Cup is starting and one can imagine the excitement in Brazil.  I was in London for the London Olympics and like all of you I was in South Africa for the World Cup in 2010.  The one thing that all these events seem to have in common is that the people of the country, who are either apathetic or are negative towards the event, get very excited and involved once it actually starts happening.  One can only imagine the excitement and the vibe in Brazil.  South Africa was a tremendously exciting place for those 3 or 4 weeks four years ago, and I would like to hear your predictions as to whether this event is going to be a huge success or not, and in particular which team you are supporting – always made a lot easier by the fact that, it appears unless South Africa hosts a World Cup, we don’t even qualify!

I have recently been shooting my new commercial, firstly in the Michael Knight Studios and then in my offices.  The shoot was over two days and the new advert, once it is finished being edited, should flight for the first time on Carte Blanche on 20 June.  I think it is my fourth or fifth advert and I certainly have become more comfortable with appearing in them, but it still takes quite a number of takes before you get a scene right and even when you get it right, then there is often a noise that happened behind you or a big truck that just drove past or a staff member looking the wrong way in the scene and you have to re-shoot it.  I am not a natural actor, so I do find it quite mentally tiring and like most men I seem to struggle to do two things at once.  So, taking three steps down my stairs and talking at the same time felt like an incredible challenge and I had to do that scene on numerous occasions!  I am certainly looking forward though to seeing the final version on television.

My Logitech Wave keyboard broke a few months ago and since I have been through two other keyboards.  I was told that the keyboard I like and have always used is no longer available in South Africa and in fact is not being manufactured anymore.  Fortunately, that has not proved to be totally accurate – it is available on Amazon.com and I have ordered myself two.  One of the problems for people like me is that although I can type fairly quickly, at about 30 words a minute, I do it with two fingers.  So, the keyboard that I have at the moment, which has won all sorts of awards, and which is called the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop does not suit me.  It has a nice gap between the letters TGB on the left hand side and YHN on the right-hand side of the keyboard and because I use two fingers, and this is designed for a professional typist, who can type all the letters without looking at the keyboard, I continually hit the wrong letters!  It is also a perfect example of the sexist way that we were taught when we were young and that is that young ladies at school got taught how to type, and I was not.  I know that I could teach myself now, but basics like that, including the managing programmes like Excel and Word, are best developed when you are at school, and I am somewhat surprised that more schools don’t offer typing as a compulsory subject.  There has always been the approach that the academically gifted students do not need to do typing, whereas in fact you could argue that they are going to be writing more books, designing programmes and having to do more typing than almost anybody else and they probably need it more than the kids who are not getting straight A’s.  Either way, my marks at school were pretty shocking, so the very least I could have done would have been to learn how to type at 60 words per minute and not just the 30 I manage now!

When any staff member starts working at my firm, I give them a copy of the book by Dale Carnegie called How to Win Friends and Influence People.  The cover has a very nice quote from the second richest man in the world at the moment, although for many years he is the richest man, namely Warren Buffett where he says, “Carnegie changed my life.”  I think it is a bit of a dated book now, and I am sad that there is not a version for younger people, because it has some key truths in dealing with people.  

It tells you for example that you cannot win an argument, that when you are wrong you should learn to admit it, and that you need to know how to make a good impression, to remember people’s names and deal with them kindly.  I do think that if more people, including me, followed the principles, the world would certainly be a better place and if the world cannot be a better place, at least one’s workplace would be a far better and more peaceful place.  There is so much to learn from books like this and there had been many more in recent years, and we are so fortunate that we live in a time and age where we can often gain a lot of wisdom simply by purchasing a book and reading what may have taken many other people decades of research and time to find out.  Many people forget that this book was ultimately inspired by a wealthy industrialist who wanted to work out what the secrets to success were and arranged for Dale Carnegie to interview all the most successful and wealthy people in America at that time and the book condenses that knowledge.  It is timeless classic and although it is a bit dated it is one that every person would benefit from reading and people like me who have read it before, would benefit from re-reading it.  Ultimately, a chapter or so every week would be of benefit to anybody.

This blog article was inspired by my previous one, relating to the Doctors who will have to apply for certificates to open new practices from 2016.  I wonder why it is not possible that could be done with alcohol.  We allow everybody to smoke and drink as they please, but when it comes to running a business, we believe that as a country we could tell them even in which area they should run their business.  I would far prefer it if we required people to have a licence, and not just be 18 years old, before they can drink alcohol.  

A lot of people don’t have problems with alcohol but I have an alcoholic in my family, and it is devastating to see how, despite rehabilitation, the lure of the drink is so strong that a person just cannot give it up.  They will look for any excuse and any reason to have another drink, despite the fact that they are not even happy when they drink.  The alcoholic in my family does not even seem to have fun when the person drinks.  The person repeatedly breaks down and starts crying and is terribly emotionally traumatised after only a few beers.  For many people alcohol can be a source of fun and good times without too much of a bad hangover but for others it is a pure poison that they have absolutely no control over and are totally addicted to and it is a tragedy when you are dealing with somebody like that, that they can freely go and buy what is a dangerous drug for them at any bottle store or shop without a prescription as in the case of actual regulated medicines and drugs.  There has to be a way to prevent alcoholics and people with a problem with alcohol from buying drinks so easily, and it would not be so strange to licence it.  We after all licence guns also because we all prefer it if the government did not allow people with, for example, psychiatric conditions to buy guns because we all recognise the danger of allowing a mad person to buy a weapon.  There is not less risk when you give an alcoholic alcohol and set him or her free amongst people or in a motorcar.

I was horrified to hear that certain parts of the National Health Act have recently been signed into law and that the government is currently consulting on regulations in that regard.  Horrified, because what these sections provide is that Doctors, before opening a practice in an area, from 2016, will have to get a certificate from the government that there is a need for a healthcare practice in that area.  In other words, if they apply in an area where there is no need, which would presumably be much of the northern suburbs of Johannesburg and Sandton, where there are a number of Doctors, they will be told that they cannot practice there. They will have to look and see whether or not there is a shortage of doctors in Ventersdorp or perhaps somewhere in a township in Mpumalanga.  I fully understand the good thoughts and the idea that goes into legislation like that. Would it not be a wonderful world if we could have doctors where we need them, and everybody has the right to having a Doctor?  

Unfortunately, that is a utopian idea that probably has its roots in communism.  There are very few people who study at University, for 7 years, who then go through the hardships of being a locum that are going to be interested in being told that they cannot practice in a lucrative area, but in fact have to go to a small town and start practicing there or worse, a poor township.  That is an economic reality and that is why governments often fail spectacularly when they try to control the market, because the market has to be left to itself to a large extent, although some regulation is always needed, to control itself.  The government can make all the laws they want, but all that will happen is that the people who will apply for a certificate to practice in an area where they want, and be rejected, will by and large simply decide to emigrate. So, they will not go to Mpumalanga or Limpopo, but they will go to London or Miami or possibly Perth.  

Our country will lose more qualified and educated people, our tax base will lose yet another productive and highly skilled worker who pays a decent amount of taxes and the poor will not be any better off.  There must be other ways to achieve those goals and normally those other ways would perhaps involve a government hospital paying higher salaries to be in less attractive areas.  That after all is how oil rigs or mines in the outback of Australia work.  They know it is not a desirable place to work and they pay far higher salaries to those types of workers who will agree to go and work there than the salaries that would be available in the middle of a beautiful city where everybody would like to live and work.  If you want people to go to a less attractive location with less wealthy people, and less of the attractions of a major metropolitan area, you need to pay them more money. Focus on getting the economy right, reducing the unemployment rate and getting everyone working and many of these other problems will be resolved – without you having to try and legislate and force professionals to go and work in areas where you say you need them.  

It seems that the approach to the Nkandla farce is going to be that we, as members of the public, will continue to pay for it.  We now have the various cabinet Ministers involved in the security of the State bringing a court review of the Public Protector’s report. She of course will also have to oppose that court review.  We are going to pay, as the taxpayers, for two State entities to fight a legal battle against each other and no doubt take matters on appeal as well.  In short, we will be paying both sides of the legal fight and spending millions on it, while not being privy to the advice that the attorneys are giving either side – at least one side is probably going to be getting advice along the lines of, “We have very little chance, but if you want us to play for time, we can certainly do so.”  As it is, we are paying a fortune in legal costs, including for the so-called spy tapes which the Supreme Court of Appeal previously insisted had to be handed over to the DA and Jacob Zuma and his attorney, have subsequently had disputes as to that order and that particular issue is heading back to the Supreme Court of Appeal again as well.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency, often known as JRA for short, is going to launch a new mobile application to assist people to report faulty traffic signals, broken drains, potholes and other issues. The application is called Find & Fix and they hope that that will make things more accessible to citizens so that we can all communicate more easily with the government.  It will apparently have an accurate location feature with GPS co-ordinates and make it easy to provide photographs of the problem. 

At the moment it is only available on the Windows phone platform but Android and Apple iOS applications will be launched shortly.  I would absolutely welcome a step like that as, amongst other things, I have written previously about the hotline number of the JRA as well as their e-mail address which is [email protected].  I must say that the service from this office is not very impressive and while on some occasions I have certainly had replies, on many occasions I had no replies at all.  I have written to them for example, repeatedly about the major intersection close to Lanseria Airport, namely the intersection of the R512 Malibongwe Drive and the R552 where the robots have been out of order for over two months and yet nothing has been done about this intersection to date.