Tag Archives: rates

Knysna Budget & Rates Jump 2015/2016

Mike Hampton Posted on by

“As often happens in politics, you can be heroes and liberators but if you hang around long enough, you can be the villains too…” – Speaker Eleonor Spies, at the start of the Budget Meeting. The Knysna Council meeting of May 29, the one that would decide the budget for 2015/2016, was a mixed bag of positives and uncertainties. Most concerning is that negatives were generally bypassed and positives highlighted whereas all should have been addressed equally. I’m going to end this blog on a positive but the fact is … Read the full article…

The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!

Jaco Londt: Bottom of the DA barrel

Mike Hampton Posted on by

Bottom of the barrel, where Those-Who-Could-Do-Better can be found, is where you will find Jaco Londt. I am responding to his absurd and unhelpful DA response to my letter in the Knysna-Plett Herald last week. Understand how important Jaco Londt is. He is the DA Constituent Leader for Knysna! He is the DA Manager of the Eastern Region (Klein Karoo/Garden Route)! He is a member of Parliament! Somehow, incredibly, most DA voters don’t know who he is (that is the way the DA likes it as they manage us from … Read the full article…

The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!

Save the Middle Class

Mike Hampton Posted on by

The health of a nation is not, ultimately, decided by the state of its poor or its rich but by its middle class. The middle class keeps a country or a town, like Knysna, stable. It provides jobs and rates (which in turn provides services to the poor). But if you take too much from it, it collapses… and everything with it.

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The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!

Joke: How to Squeeze a Lemon

Mike Hampton Posted on by

At Oldes Pub & Grill in Grey Street, Jumbo, the bartender, was so sure that he was the strongest man around, that he offered a standing R500 bet. Jumbo would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass and then hand the lemon to the patron challenging him. If anyone who could squeeze two more drops of juice out of the lemon, they would win the money. Many people had tried over the year; plumbers, electricians, fisherman, weightlifters, gym lovers, cops etc., but nobody had ever been … Read the full article…

The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!

New R6.6m Financial Crisis for Knysna

Mike Hampton Posted on by

“Our maintenance budget is sunk.” – Louisa Hart (DA) “We need to find out how to raise money for what is becoming a crisis.” – Michelle Wasserman (DA) “It’s coming at us like a speed train.” Lauren Waring (Municipal Manager) Those were quotes from a very tense Section 80 meeting held by the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, September 10 2014. Despite the Knysna Municipality’s claims in the media to financial stability,  the reality, as i’ve often said, is that our town is facing a very challenging future. … Read the full article…

The truth may be bitter but sharing it is sweet!