[sustran] Private Monopoly and Vested Political Interests in SA

[Alex Welte]

>
> > To Eric and the group ---
> >
> > Please forgive me if a version of this arrives --- I seem to have lost a
> > previous draft, but hopefully this will say the same thing....
> >
> > The private bus companies (commuter) are highly subsidized. They also hold
> > monpolies. There has been some competitive tendering in the past (little
> > compared to the total private service) and much more will happen now under
> > the Mandella government's new initiatives. Around the world private bus
> > operators that hold monopolies have told me they are unsubsidized --- more
> > often than not they have concocted an interesting way of defining subsidies
> > as operating revenues.
> >
> > There are good reasons for "appeasing" the kombi-taxi industry ----

There are ?

> >
> > 1. It provides more than 40 percent of the black work trips --- a non-SOV
> > market share not matched by any mode in western Europe or the US.
> >
> > 2. The kombi taxi industry has political power --- which means they must be
> > appeased. Just like the transit unions in the U --- whose political power
> > has routinely violated the interests of transit customers and the cities
> > they serve by providing (shall we say rationing) services through the
> > imposition of higher than market costs.
			    ^^^^^^^^^^ vide infra
					Or take the NYC Transport Workers
> > Union, which is standing in the way of expansion and development of the van
> > industry, which many people find superior in terms of mobility compared to
> > the fixed route service. It is no wonder that people seek alternatives, and
> > begin commuting by car. All of this is to say that political reality is
> > political reality. The kombi taxi industry has political power. The US
> > transit unions have political power. There seems to be little in recorded
> > history to suggest that powerful political interests are inclined to put
the
> > good of society ahead of their own interests. Too bad that in all of this
> > the people and our cities are the victims.
> >

Lots of thugs have power - and in this forum the taxi wars have been
referred to as Mafia type turf wars. I don't think people usually
buy statements like "the Mafia must be appeased."

You seem to regret the power of the unions and the taxi warlords,
but I see nothing regreting the power of consumption driven profit
generators. Perhaps we might spare a moment to note that it's too bad that
our descendant are the victims of these powerful interests which
constrain our choices by protecting their 'markets'.

As for all this talk about 'markets' - I hardly expect a better reception
than for denouncing  god to a misionary - but this is all just vague
talk some people are brought up on till they start speaking the same
words, without comprehension or capacity to doubt. The truth is that
there is no division of economic life into 'market' and 'non market'
forces. Everything is competing power, appealing by various means
to individual and collective power, beliefs, and motivation. This doesn't
mean we should not discuss values, or promote certain ones ahead of
others - but pretending that the things business owners like are 'free'
and 'market' forces, while others are 'interventionist', 'statist',
'state run', 'centrally managed' or otherwise worthy of perjorative
labeling is hardly accurate, nor credible in the face of detailed
questioning. Profit driven planning, especially in the recent climate
of 'consolidation' (monopolisation) is in fact many of the things
it pretends to be the cure for, vide supra.

> > None of this is to retreat from my position that the kombi taxi industry
> > represents a very important resource in SA ---

But this is the problem - not the solution. In a more functional
society, people's best options would be better, and the constraints
you cite below are not imposed by fate - they're the result of
policies the ANC pursues through choice - policies we can evaluate
and lobby for and against.
						 it seems to me that the
> > appropriate direction of policy is to make the best use of what is there
> > already, while supplemnting that with things that make sense and truly
> > improve transport in the urban areas. All of that has to be pursued in the
> > context of the financial limitations facing the central, provincial and
> > local governments.
> >
Another standard slight of hand. I asumed lobbying for changes in policy
is not a foul. Yet when the prevailing 'limitations' are not unsuited to
ones argument, it's easy to throw up ones hands and say one 'has to'
work within the present situation. As mentioned by others, employers should
pay to make their employees mobile, either through taxes, which the ANC
is pathetically reluctant to impose, or by making employers pay directly for
transit for their workers, with some protection to prevent them from getting
it back directly by renegotiating wages downwards.

Actually - the ANC is presently committing grave transgressions against
the people who gave it power. There has been little more than appeasement
of big business, local and international, and many people in the street will
confirm this view. Another clip from the M&G: Note R1 = $0.20. Now you
go and pay several rand for a taxi ride. The government and employers
should make transit available FREE to workers below a reasonable
threshold PERIOD. The argument for this conclusion follows:


						HALF OF SA LIVES IN
                                               POVERTY ABOUT 53%
                                               of South Africa's population
                                               lives below the R301 per
                                               month poverty line,
                                               according to statistics
                                               released on Wednesday at
                                               the launch of a nationwide
                                               campaign to give a voice to
                                               South Africa's poor. The
                                               Speak Out on Poverty
                                               campaign, organised by the
                                               Human Rights and Gender
                                               Equality Commissions and
                                               the South African NGO
                                               Coalition, will consist of 10
                                               public hearings throughout
                                               the country from March 17
                                               to June 4. The results will be
                                               submitted to Parliament and
                                               used to draw up a "poverty
                                               budget". Campaign
                                               organisers said in South
                                               Africa the ratio of a
                                               managing director's salary to
                                               that of the lowest paid
                                               worker is 100:1, compared to
                                               7:1 in Japan. It is estimated
                                               that 65% of SA's adult
                                               population is illiterate and at
                                               least 12-million South
                                               Africans do not have access
                                               to potable water inside their
                                               dwellings or on site.