It was a long year

2005 was one of those landmark years. We had our second daughter, born in March. Does anyone know of any insurance cover to payout if either of the girls meets more than one idiot in their lives, and heaven forbid, marries them?

We had Zumagate and all the repercussions we will feel leading up to the 2007 SA presidential elections. What a bun fight thats going to be. What with no clear contenders ready to stick their necks out just yet for fear of having them chopped off.

My bet and please bear in mind that Im not a political commentator - is we shouldnt forget about the Mandela factor and Im not referring to our esteemed ex president but his ex-wife Winnie.

Staying in the realm of politics, how about South African rugby? Lekker ne? Its almost a microcosm of South Africa, or at least the political landscape. What with all the windows of opportunity, excuse me I meant windows to change parties, and all those winds of change

Then there was all the change in the industry, with a new white knight in the shape of the pension funds adjudicator. And judging from the responses we received to an interview we recently published, people may not like his politics but they are evenly split on whether he is doing a good job or not.

There is no doubt that the consumers definitely believe that he is doing a good job, and if truth be told if it werent for him all that lovely lolly would still be sitting in the coffers of the life offices earning ill-gained interest.

And just recently that so-called statement of intent, with nothing firm other than an undertaking to build a slush fund to reimburse consumers for something they should have been reimbursed with some time ago.

A thought should the life offices not also be paying interest on the funds at the level and time that the transaction actually happened. Can you imagine an early surrender penalty figure plus interest at those wonderfully high rates as they were several years ago lekker ne?

And then that very interesting commission debate everyone is so sick of hearing, reading but definitely not writing about? And all that wonderful support from those organizations that suddenly developed an interest in the educational aspect of the business; or the organizations that got into a mud slinging match about who said what to whom and when.

And lets not forget that lekker leaked email from the LOA about illustrative values, no I meant values on funds and how the back pedaling would have made even Lance Armstrong jealous with the amount of effort and energy put in?

On that note its time for me to get on my bicycle and hit that road again. Until later - Angelo