BizNews Radio
Welcome to BizNews Radio where we interview top thought leaders and business people from South Africa and across the globe.
Edible bowl creator from Cape Town munching to rid the world of plastic
We are confronted daily with reports of how plastic is polluting the environment. Sea turtles are filmed with straws in their noses, a recent study into plastic pollution concluded that half a million hermit crabs have died that confused trash for shells and polar bears have been snapped fighting over plastic. It…
Eskom sabotaged! Ramaphosa apologises for power cuts, police called in; RMB warning on SA growth; UK election
* President Cyril Ramaphosa put the blame for widespread power cuts on sabotage when he cut short a visit to Egypt to handle the latest Eskom crisis. * "SA is rapidly becoming a forgotten country and has stopped being talked about as an investment destination,” James Formby, the chief executive…
Piet Viljoen joins Sam Houlie just in time for SA market like post-2001
In what he describes as a reflection of the changed asset management industry, Re:CM founder Piet Viljoen is merging his firm with Counterpoint, led by his former Allan Gray and Investec colleague Sam Houlie. The new firm will trade under the Counterpoint name and have R6.5bn in assets under management…
After Tongaat's shocking R12bn loss, critic Chris Logan is hopeful. Here's why.
Financial results published this morning by Tongaat Hulett are far worse than the company itself had projected when the bombshell first hit six months ago. The asset write-off is more than double the R4.5bn maximum that was anticipated and the financials released show a business that is hopelessly insolvent with…
Fallout from Eskom lights out; Palladium record; Manufacturing production falls; Changing spending habits; Comair CEO
• President Cyril Ramaphosa is cutting short a trip abroad to deal with the escalating crisis at Eskom while mining companies cut production and cel phone companies are struggling to cope. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Affairs is considering short-and medium term interventions to address the electricity shortage…
Smart investing: 12J and renewable tax incentives deliver effective 21%pa
It took a while for the market to warm up to the SA government's section 12J tax incentive designed to encourage private investment into the small business sector. But with private sector innovation now having sucked in billions, the State has decided to cap the maximum investment per taxpayer -…
Disrupting SA education: High school from home and get into Harvard, Stanford, Oxford
In early 2017, the Robert and Sam Paddock pocketed R1.8bn when selling their Cape-headquartered online education business Getsmarter.co.za to Nasdaq listed 2U. Getsmarter has relationships with the world's great universities, offering its global student base access to MIT, Harvard and Oxford degrees through online studies. Having served their obligatory earn-out…
Stage 6 loadshedding; Prasa follows SAA; Ramaphosa’s tough love; Zim can't pay SAA; Prosus and Just Eat
In today's business headlines: Eskom intensified rolling blackouts to a record stage 6, signalling a deepening crisis at the debt-ridden utility and raising the risk of a second recession in South Africa. The Passenger and Rail Agency has been put under administration and its interim board has been dissolved. This…
Insider on Eskom's loadshedding debacle: It goes far beyond "wet coal".
Former Eskom coal scientist turned energy consultant Mike Blenkinsop has as good a handle on the state of the SOE as anyone - and in this fascinating interview provides a comprehensive perspective on the latest loadshedding debacle. Having trained under the late Mark van der Riet, the CEO of NET…
Wet coal extends loadshedding; SAA’s bailouts can’t continue; Cricket SA loses sponsor; Teflon Musk
In today's business headlines: Stage 2 load shedding is set to continue this week, after Eskom has been battling to keep the lights on since the end of last week. South African Airways can’t keep counting on bailouts. That was according to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan who told the…
Investec dons Santa’s hat: Cancels mortgage bonds on 3,600 properties in Gauteng townships
The Rupert Family handed out full freehold title deeds to 70 residents of Aberdeen in the Karoo in November this year and a further 326 title deeds have been sponsored in Stellenbosch by Johan Rupert and his wife Gaynor. It represents land reform, not enforced by government but out of…
SAA bankruptcy protection; Loadshedding strikes back; Trump's impeachment; Glencore and bribes
In today's business headlines: Glencore is being investigated for bribery by UK authorities, deepening the legal troubles that threaten the world’s biggest commodities trader. The company’s shares fell as much as 8.6% to a three-year low in London, while on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange the fall was more than 5%…
Meet Jerry Selwane: Bringing moral progress to the nation through animal care
Mahatma Ghandi advocated that the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Jerry Selwane, founder of the Soweto Animal Rescue and Advisory Centre (SARAC), is providing the means for our youth to carry out this legacy. During his 18…
Johan van Loggerenberg: Tito's right - SARS needs "intrusive" investigative units
A policeman by experience and lawyer by training, Johann van Loggerenberg is best known for heading the ill-fated SA Revenue Services Investigative Unit. As he wrote in his co-authored book "Rogue", miscreants got the unit closed down through the combination of a fake news campaign and a dodgy KPMG report…
'Dark kitchens' - a new force to be reckoned with in SA take-away delivery market
Ghost or so-called dark or virtual kitchens are a well-known concept in many overseas destinations. A Cape Town based start-up is pioneering the concept in South Africa and have announced the launch of Darth Kitchen. The company has secured seed capital in excess of R5m to date with a further R30m…
ANC controls Joburg again; Private sector activity shrinks; RBM shuttered; Mining charter in court
In today's business headlines: The ANC is back in power in Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub after Geoff Makhubo was elected as the city’s mayor. Activity in the private sector in South Africa shrank for the seventh consecutive month due to reduced output, less new orders and a contraction…
Tracey Davies takes us into Sasol's feisty AGM where activists roared
Environmental activist investor Tracey Davies of JustShare helped turn Sasol's AGM last week into a feisty affair. In the latest episode of Rational Radio, she reports back on the meeting, and explains her beef with SA's second largest polluter. The day after the Sasol slugfest, Davies went along to a…
Duncan Artus on Allan Gray's poor performance, the Sasol disaster and buying Naspers
Once in a while, the country's biggest investors lift the veil on their strategy, sharing ideas on how they intend applying the hundreds of billions entrusted to them. That's exactly what Allan Gray director and portfolio manager Duncan Artus did for us in the latest episode of Rational Radio where…
SA recession risk rises; SAA close to collapse; Zimbabwe starvation crisis; PIC demands Steinhoff reports
In today's headlines: SA is staring down a recession, says Bloomberg. South Africa’s economy contracted for a second quarter this year economy hasn’t expanded at more than 2% annually since 2013. SAA is on the brink of collapse. Its bosses are trying to buy more time by asking all the…
Chris Logan: Where Tongaat has gone, Hulamin, Nampak are following.
Back in 2014, independent money manager Chris Logan spoke out publicly against the strategy being followed by KZN's leading company, Tongaat Hulett. He urged the board and executives to drop their approach of selling off prime commercial real estate to pump the cash into the sugar sector - an area…