BizNews Radio (OLD)
Welcome to BizNews Radio where we interview top thought leaders and business people from South Africa and across the globe.
NHI hammers Discovery, Aspen; Junk priced in; Rand falls; investment banks chop staff; Naspers India play
Moody hasn’t said it, but investors already think it: South Africa’s credit is junk. That’s according to Bloomberg, which says the market is pricing in a downgrade. The risk premium has climbed since mid-July, when the government announced it would increase borrowing to support Eskom. Monday was a hairy day…
Ramaphosa's contributors named; Rand keeps falling; Epstein commits suicide; MTN attracts attention
The storm around Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidential campaign funding ratcheted up a level as a weekend newspaper disclosed names of contributors, mostly well-known business personalities. The South African Rand extended its longest losing streak in two years on Friday as the currency dropped to R15.25 against the US Dollar - 50c…
Paul O Sullivan draws Hogan Lovells blood: "I'm a hyena onto your kudu"
The SA office of global law firm Hogan Lovells is fragmenting after a sustained assault on them by forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan and British peer Peter Hain. The firm, accused by the activist duo of facilitating State Capture, is to shrink to a quarter of its former size, with 71…
Cemair founder Miles vd Molen: Boxing on, despite State-sponsored abuse
Former pilot turned airline founder Miles van der Molen personifies the courage and persistence of a blue blooded entrepreneur. He's needed every ounce of it to keep the 23-aircraft Cemair afloat after predatory pricing by the State's heavily subsidised SA Express and what the court described as an "irrational" grounding…
David Shapiro on dumping Aspen, turbulent markets and Stellenbosch Mafia
In the country's latest bestseller, author Pieter du Toit tracks the first public mention of "The Stellenbosch Mafia" back to a decade and a half back when David Shapiro used the reference in one of our interviews. But as SA's favourite market commentator used it in a benign, almost admiring…
The back story to SA's new #1 bestseller with its author Pieter du Toit
Author of The Stellenbosch Mafia, Pieter du Toit, is almost made for the job. A graduate of the town's famous Paul Roos Gymnasum and Stellenbosch University, having breathed its air for so many years, Du Toit has insights that outsiders can never acquire. He applied this advantage together with his…
Molefe must pay; Eskom wants debt transfer; Business confidence drops; Glencore stutters, gold glitters
In today's business headlines: Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe has lost his Constitutional Court case over his R30 million pension. Eskom wants the majority of its R440bn of debt transferred to the South African government. Moody’s says Eskom urgently needs to action a turnaround plan, or it will collapse under…
Paul Hoffman: Firing another two barrels at PP Busisiwe Mkhwebane
On Rational Radio this week, founder of Accountability Now Paul Hoffman revisits his nuclear attack on South Africa's embattled Public Protector. After launching an application at the Legal Practice Council to have the PP disbarred, Hoffman explains that this could take some months - so he has opened the attack…
The birthing of iThokazi - new four-into-one BEE renewable energy player
In this special podcast, RMB Infrastructure Transactor Sindisiwe Mbuli takes us into the deal which combined four previously independent BEE entities into iThokazi, a 100% black owned renewable energy company. iThokazi owns six solar PV projects and two wind farms which together generate 300MW of much needed electricity for South…
Bank stocks dive, strike chaos looms; Eskom Mr Fixit lacks 'wow' factor - BUSA; Steinhoff insider trading
Banks are taking strain, with the weight of bad news about the economy knocking JSE listed shares. Bloomberg reports that the index has dropped 15% since President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged a relentless focus on growth in his June 20 State of the Nation address. South Africa's biggest financial union is…
Invest in raw materials for coming electric age - resources researcher
I learnt just the other night from a geologist family friend that most of the world’s very finite lithium deposits lie in the salt pans of Bolivia - and that he’s spent years prospecting for rock-based lithium deposits just north of Upington while employed by a major parastatal. It’s pretty…
Johnny Rabie: LX Living close to sold out, more Lisbon projects beckon
Over the past four decades, Cape Town property icon Johnny Rabie has built a solid reputation in his hometown - culminating with the development of the 250ha Century City project. After being approached by his new Portuguese partner, Rabie is now applying skills learned in South Africa into the LX…
Not only two Scoops for ice cream queen Amanda Maidman
When a woman locates herself with her daughter to South Africa after a successful career opening gastropubs and Wagamamas in London; she is bound not to sit still for long. She is Amanda Maidman who found herself in Ballito looking for an idea for a business when her daughter suggested…
SAX bailout scandal; SA pvt sector shrinks; trade war rattles financial markets; JSE gold stocks glisten
Another government entity is at the centre of a money scandal - this time SA Express, which has sucked up more than R1.5bn in taxpayers' funds to cover losses. The Free Market Foundation crunches numbers that will make your eyes water. President Cyril Ramaphosa and his team have more work…
Now for some good news. PPGI shows Business and Govt CAN pull together
For centuries, it seems, South African culture has divided public and private sectors into "us" and "them". Partly for historic reasons, but also because of disrespect for the other side, mostly born from ignorance. It doesn't have to be that way, as countless examples from elsewhere in the world has…
There are NO angels in tobacco industry: just bag snatchers, robbers - Van Loggerenberg
Growing up, I never thought I’d be a smoker. My parents were smokers, one of my grandmothers died of a smoking-related cancer and I hated the haze of passive smoke that hovered throughout our home. But, at Rhodes University, I found myself sampling free Benson & Hedges at various university-hosted…
Buffett buys Berkshire shares; Huawei booms in China; Multichoice competitor folds.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed over the weekend that it bought back $440m worth of its own shares in the three months to end June. The world’s number two smartphone maker Huawei Technologies is reaping an unexpected benefit from continued attacks by US president Donald Trump and his allies. In…
Big banks threatened by fintech, smaller nimble banks - Kokkie Kooyman
It is a fact of modern life all over the world that the days when you actually go in to a bank for transactions are officially over, apart from those big moments for a mortgage or a big loan which requires a branch manager and even that is a maybe…
Unilever whistleblower on terrible cost he has borne for speaking out
It's an understatement to say whistleblower Juan Lerena has borne a terrible cost for exposing abusive practices by his former employer Sime Darby and fellow multinational Unilever. Forced into defending himself in a court action where top legal firm ENS represented Sime Darby, the judgment against Lerena (which we published…
Rand battered by Powell; BAT smoking hot; Woolies takes Aussie hit; Discovery blocks Liberty; Post Office CEO quits
In today's business headlines The Rand has been battered by the dollar after the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell ruled out extending the cycle of rate cuts; British American Tobacco shares jumped by more than 8% as smoking alternatives cushioned the decline in cigarette sales; Woolworths has taken a…