WORLDVIEW: Understanding Molefe reappointment. Cock-up rather than conspiracy.

We are all on journeys of discovery. When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears. My path accelerated a dozen years back when I started attending Berkshire Hathaway AGMs in Omaha. Among the learnings was when the bookish, owl-faced Charlie Munger encouraged studying great minds of the past because "we can learn a lot from dead guys."

This is an obvious observation, or aphorism in Charlie-speak. For everyone alive today, 16 direct line ancestors have walked the earth before them. And those people mostly had more time to reflect than we who inhabit this warp speed world. So when something is confusing me, the search for an answer begins with dead guys. Usually with satisfactory results.

Last week, the deeply compromised former CEO of Eskom Brian Molefe was reappointed. Howls of outrage drowned out attempts at an explanation by public enterprises minister Lynne Brown. Emotional politicians, social activists and media commentators added to the furore with shrill accusations of malfeasance and corruption.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___