Historical Monthly Vehicle Sales in SA, 1960 – 2020: A Reflection of Events and Society

By Dean McCleland in Animals, Historical, Landscapes, Other Galleries 0 Comment

Events

  1. June 1976 – Soweto Riots and preceded by the invasion of Angola in October 1975.
  2. 15 August 1985 – Rubicon speech when PW Botha dashed hopes of a ‘soft’ landing for Apartheid.  This had been preceded by more than a year of money outflows and devaluation of the Rand
  3. 27 April 1994 – Democratic elections
  4. 5 October 2007 – Dow peak before subprime crisis
  5. 15 September 2008 – Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy
  6. 27 March 2020 – Covid lockdown

Periods

  1. Good economic growth rate in the 60’s and early 70’s.
  2. Tumultuous times and the uncertain future kept sales flat for roughly 26 years.
  3. The rise of the nouveau riche with AA and BEE seriously kicking in.
  4. Subprime crisis and the global recession and its resolution.
  5. The onset of serious state capture and the policy chickens coming home to roost. The drop in car sales started in about 2012 pushing car sales back to 1975 levels although the population had increased by 2.3 times over that period – not a pretty sight and it is mirrored by our massive unemployment and a nearly bankrupt fiscus.

The Great Depression of the 1930s

By Dean McCleland in Historical 0 Comment

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939, and was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks had failed.

The motto of the era was “Use it up — wear it out, — make it do or do without!” 

This photographic depiction of the era vividly highlights the devastation that it left in its wake in America.

 

Main picture: Amongst the countless millions reduced to penury
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Twenty Historical Photos That Are Rarely Seen

By Dean McCleland in Historical 0 Comment

Helen Keller and Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin was a famous silent film movie actor and Helen Keller was an author, political activist and lecturer who was deaf and blind. She still learned to communicate. Bizarrely there is a photograph of Charlie Chaplin and Helen Keller meeting each other in 1912 Hollywood. They are standing face to face and Helen appears to be touching Charlie’s face to read his expression. It’s probably not seen often because it looks like a photograph a friend may have taken as a keepsake of the meeting.

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