My soapbox: What a lekker week it was
The last 14 days have been interesting to say the least. We saw the experts perfecting the art of circumventing the law; ostrich-type business practices and the newly discovered art of becoming invisible.
It appears that there are still some companies that are operating in contravention of a section in the short term insurance legislation. These are companies that are doubling up as administrators and brokers, and openly trading.
It also appears that one of the clever ways around it has been to establish two separate companies. For those private detectives out there, the clue can be found in the list of members or directors, who happen to be the same people listed for both entities, and in some instances they even use the same postal address.
Now I need to ask myself why this hasnt been dealt with yet? Could it be that some companies and people consider themselves above the law?
Be that as it may, let me prepare the ground for something else. Consider the following scenarios: People receive bonuses based on good performance every day. What doesnt happen every day is that people receive bonuses for under-performance.
What happens even less frequently is that people manipulate the performance to receive the bonus. And then there are the people that create the performance, get the bonus and then volunteer to pay back the performance to the people they made it from in the first place, as an act of good faith.
In the last scenario these people have yet to offer to pay back their bonuses makes you think, doesnt it?
And my third thought relates to the ostrich approach to doing business in South Africa, which is becoming more and more apparent. A week ago we asked a certain grouping to provide some input into why they had not acted in the public interest and taken a public stand about the alleged nefarious activities of a certain industry leading business. We are still waiting for a response.
It then turns out that the person in charge of this public-focussed entity had made a decision not to talk to the media at all. Not bad considering that he fulfills a regulatory role. Ah well daars n ding, ne?
