Page 6 - Integrated Annual Report
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INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2021
HOSKEN CONSOLIDATED INVESTMENTS LIMITED
JA Copelyn
Chief Executive Officer
My letter to shareholders was finalized prior to the unbearable collapse of law and order in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng. The full effect of this disaster will no doubt unfold over the next while. It may well jeopardize the ease of some of the calculations we have relied upon to date, though I do not believe it will affect the ultimate direction of the group. It certainly emphasizes even more the need to remain resilient against such adversity.
We have been put through a terrible test of wills between suicidal forces of anarchy and those who want the country to move forward despite its warts.
Our subsidiaries managed to ward off threats to shops at Shell House in the Johannesburg inner city and our property at Sydney Road in Durban. Likewise all of our shopping centres, hotels and casinos survived intact. We were however unable to save bingo sites in three shopping malls in Pinetown, Empangeni and Orange Farm where the malls were targeted and thoroughly trashed in their entirety.
The madness of this movement is nothing less than a modern day Nongqawuse incident. Whether it has anything to do with assisting former President Zuma or not seems remote though clearly the organizers were not able to get significant numbers of people outside of that base to throw themselves into looting their own futures. Nevertheless the fact that malls, distribution centres and other key infrastructure were systematically set alight
after being looted, exposes the hand of an organized force committed to the ruin of the country rather than permitting its reemergence as a modern constitutional democracy. The idea that such an insurrectionist strategy might be employed to obstruct the progress of the government in pursuing criminal claims against those formerly in positions of power who were guilty of gross abuses is unthinkable anywhere but here. How utterly shameful that attempt has been.
HCI remains committed to supporting all efforts by the state to clean up the sordid period we have been dragged through. Re-establishing the rule of law with its punitive power over anti-social and corrupt forces is the political challenge of our country and we will do whatever we can to be supportive of those efforts. As a people we have dislodged those suicidal forces from power. Standing firm in the face of their dying kicks against the re-establishment of law and order by a final abuse of the hardships of the poor, is a must.
Unquestionably the negative effects of this will take quite some time to reverse. Nevertheless one can only hope their failure will allow us to finally shrug off a totally self centred incompetent group of pretenders dressed in the guise of ‘liberators’ and rededicate ourselves to building a society on solid economic principles that promotes growth and constitutional democracy.