The Auditor General is about the only section of government which is still credible. Last week the Auditor General released a report criticising the management of Statistics SA, stating that they used long outdated figures when calculating the consumer price index (CPI). This in turn gives inaccurate figures on the rate of inflation as published by Statistics SA, which is a government body. The AG also found that Statistics SA failed to compile census results timeously and this resulted in labour survey results not being benchmarked in time, and in incorrect information being published.

The AG report also cast doubt on the calculation by Statistics SA of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It found that the contribution of the informal (Black) sector of the economy to the GDP was based not on actual research, but guesswork.
We are not surprised at this revelation by the AG.  The figures published by Statistics SA are therefore giving a total distortion of the GDP to debt ratio and as we always said, it in effect means that South Africa is already in a black debt hole. Our CEO regularly questioned the GDP figure, stating that it is phoney, pointing out that the economy is in an obvious nosedive and with all the strikes and a with the real unemployment figure of over 50%, how can the GDP show an increase?

Economists had to recalculate their growth rate of the economy in the last months of 1998. The reason is that with the fake CPI figures given, their calculations gave a  positive growth rate which now turns out to be negative. The false growth rate given also gave a false GDP figure. 

The head of Statistics SA, Dr Mark Orkin, as expected denied these allegations saying that the results of the AG was for the year 1996, thus implying that the results that Statistics SA now publish, are true and correct. This is of course merely an attempt to whitewash the incompetence of his department. The figures they give must look good to make this totally incompetent Communist government look like the saviours of the White man and the economy.

Our Chief Executive Officer, Fred Rundle was the only financial analyst in South Africa that took a public stand as far back as 1995, stating that the CPI figures are phoney. As a guest in the studio of Radio 702 during the early part of 1995, he told the listeners that the CPI figures are being manipulated in an attempt to make the Black government look good. He motivated this by pointing out that traditionally the inflation rate tracked the Prime Bank lending rate and the Mortgage lending rate by not more than two percentage points. How, he asked can the prime lending rate presently be 18,5% and the Mortgage rate be 19,5%, while the inflation rate was given as 7%. He then said that the only logical conclusion is that either the banks are ripping us off, or the government is lying to us, the latter of which he believed to be true.

He followed this up some months later on the same Radio program, by phoning in when a well-known economist and a representative from Statistics SA were guests on the program. Totally disagreeing with them, he asked the Statistics SA gentleman what percentage do they use as an input for house rental when calculating the CPI? He replied that it was 20,25%.  Fred Rundle then pointed out that this figure is long outdated, pointing out that the Mortgage lenders pushed up their figures to 30% many years ago as their basis for calculation. Both vehemently disagreed with Fred Rundle. 

Our CEO followed this up over the years with many letters and also articles in the press. Although many individual people agreed with him, his was a lone public voice amongst a multitude of political correct analysts and commentators. We are happy to state that our CEO was correct all along and he is now vindicated by the report of the Auditor General.

The soothsayers of the economy and their Communist bedfellows are trying to create a make believe world of prosperity in South Africa. They assisted in creating this decadent; plundering monster Communist government and they must now try and prove that they can make this corpse walk. The fact is, the informed people can see through this charade and they are deluding nobody but themselves