The events of the past week have forced The Point to ponder the uncomfortable topic of personal wealth. Or, to put it more succinctly, the lack thereof.

On the downside, the grand-total of all my worldly possessions and investments is roughly equal to Zwelinzima Vavi's (new) monthly salary. On the upside, I am not likely to rank high on the list of those whose personal wealth must be nationalised when South Africa, in a moment of delusional populist panic, adopts communist policies.

Yip, folks, if you nationalised The Point's wealth, you would be able to give every person in South Africa 0.1 cents. I'm not even sure if we still produce one cent pieces. Or five cent pieces for that matter.

And the cynics among you question the viability of a system that has seen? well? pretty much every country that has brandished the sickle in a sea of red, crash and burn.

SILLY SEASON

Castro Ngobese doesn't. It may be because he was blessed with the name Castro (it may also be attributed to a myriad of other reasons involving IQ and history books), but the spokesperson for Numsa reckons that it is a good idea to 'nationalise' the personal wealth of, well, rich guys.

"As Numsa, we are calling for the nationalisation, and eventually the socialisation of the massive and privately-owned wealth in the hands of Motsepes, Sexwales, Macozomas, Nhlekos, Mittals and Oppenheimers of this world."

The word 'nationalise' in this particular sentence can probably be quite comfortably replaced with the easier-to-understand word 'theft'.

Tokyo Sexwale ? yes, he whose wealth could be divided up amongst the people in R20-notes ? shrugged off Castro's suggestion. He can do this; he is personally worth R1-billion.

"The silly season starts in the middle of next month; I do not know why they bring it forward so early. I think we should not distract from problems that we have. These are people that have earned wealth genuinely."

He was backed up by the ANC's secretary general Gwede Mantashe: "It's talking to the resentment we have among ourselves as black people. If anybody progresses we feel very jealous and we resent their success. We should deal with that and not beat about the bush as if it's a nationalisation debate."

I suspect Gwede would fall quite comfortably into the category of those who have 'progressed'.

DO AS I SAY?

But what about trade unionist Zwelinzima Vavi? Surely (surely!) the secretary general of a trade union federation understands the dynamics of pay structures marked by vast discrepancies?

Perhaps he does, but the explanation he gave for the recent doubling of his salary made very little sense.

"My salary doubled because we were losing all the policy capacity in the federation," said Vavi. "The economists and accountants were all gone, because if you keep the salary at R250 000, it means the economists can't make those sacrifices for years and years. They lose out."

So? let me see if I understand this. It is okay for some individuals to earn vastly more than others. It is also okay for some (privileged) individuals to get obscene salary increases. Furthermore, if qualified individuals get increases, those higher in the pay-chain must, by default, also get increases.

Well, that would go a long way in explaining why all Cosatu members seem to do is strike.

SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPES

Some things are beyond explanation: Eskom; what Floyd Shivambu means when he says 'sleeping around'; hell, the continued existence of the ANCYL; that weird Vodacom meerkat; Schabir Shaik's terminal illness; and the salivating eagerness with which South Africans lap up all things Joost.

"It tackles everything head on [ahem]. It is probably the most honest book you'll read in your life [perhaps, if it is the only book you read in your life] for the simple fact that if I don't do this, the press will go on hitting at me and my family," said the guy who lied about a polygraph test.

Joostie may be being a little liberal with the truth again here. Until he came out with his money-making? ah? book, the media had all but forgotten about his sex, lies and videotape.

Missed last week's offering from The Point? Read it here.

The Point would like to point out that a certain someone has not been mentioned this week... feel free to share his juicy quotes from the week below!