Sasol "expects" earnings to increase

THIS was the headline above a Reuters story in today's Cape Times, the irony expressed in Spigot's inserted quotation marks, the original sub-editor no doubt blissfully unaware of what lies behind this smug announcement. Sasol exists in its highly profitable present privatised form courtesy of the South African taxpayer who for years subsidised Sasol when it was unable to compete with conventional oil companies.

Has Sasol ever paid the exchequer back for all the cash it was loaned? Not bloody likely. Of course Sasol "expects" earnings to increase. It can hardly do otherwise. Straddling the bulk of our economy, trumpeting its patriotic contribution to the economy at every opportunity, Sasol's smugness truly epitomises big capitalism -- far more than the subsidiaries of crude oil manufacturers and marketers like Shell, BP and Chevron. Take a gander at the art works that adorn the walls of Sasol's headquarters. Better still; take a wander through the corporate underground car park where Sasol managers park their perks. There you will see the evidence of a corporation awash with cash. This is the same corporation that began life as a small parastatal in the Frees State, struggling to make fuel from coal, using a technique first established by the Nazis. It is also the same corporation that injects its fuels with MMT, a manganese-based additive that is a known neurological poison -- because its much-vaunted manufacturing method cannot produce high octane fuels without it.