BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Calls for SA intervention as Isis gathers pace in Mozambique

With its minority Islamic State (IS) influence, the rising home-grown insurgency in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado — gateway to exploratory offshore gas-fields — is raising eyebrows at Southern African Development Community (Sadc) level.On July 29, the journal Africa Intelligence reported that SA’s Brig-Gen Xolani Mankayi had ordered…

12 Aug 2020 10AM 4 min

Good returns outweigh high risk in African private equity investment

African private equity investment has always been riskier than investment in other regions, but for those willing to invest long term and sustainably, the region provides opportunities that will outlast current economic shocks. With much dry powder around for private equity transactions (almost $2.5-trillion was waiting to be deployed globally,…

12 Aug 2020 9AM 5 min

Beneficiaries show Sukuma Fund the good in small things

Hope can be writ small as much as it can be writ large. This, at least, is the lesson we at the Sukuma Fund have learnt in recent months as we have attempted to assist the many thousands of entrepreneurs who have turned to us to fund them. Our mission…

12 Aug 2020 9AM 4 min

Kamala Harris: A giant leap for humankind

Half a century after the US landed men on the moon, a black woman is the nominee for vice-president, thus standing on the threshold of becoming president. As a measure of human progress, the first is to physics what the second is to social equality. Yet each is alike in…

12 Aug 2020 8AM 2 min

‘Digital capture’ looms large in SA

The word "capture" has become almost as popular in SA as the suffix "-gate" is in the US. It’s something I’m proud of, as our regular, almost unconscious, capitulation to the memes and tropes of American cultural imperialism is deeply annoying, if not downright pathetic. Of course, the whole world…

12 Aug 2020 8AM 8 min

UCT’s Graduate School of Business has a new director

The University of Cape Town has appointed an American academic, Catherine Duggan, as director of its Graduate School of Business (GSB). She will officially take over on September 1. GSB, which is rated one of the world’s top business schools, has been without a director since mid-2018 when Mills Soko…

12 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

STEVEN KUO: It’s not just US vs China — the EU is watching

Two of the world’s largest economies have been at loggerheads in 2020, and neither side will step back. When the US closed the Chinese consulate in Houston after accusing Beijing of espionage, the predictable retaliation came with the shutting of the US consulate in Chengdu. Last week, Donald Trump put…

12 Aug 2020 8AM 3 min

Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority to appeal VBS ruling

The SA Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority (PA) said on Wednesday that it will appeal a judgment setting aside findings that advocate Terry Motau made against ANC politician Danny Msiza in his explosive report about the wide-scale looting that collapsed VBS Mutual Bank. The PA, which is responsible for regulating banks,…

12 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

Urban design needs reworking in US

Washington — Justin Garrett Moore and his partner were walking across a privately controlled public plaza in New York when they were suddenly confronted by security guards asking about their presence. The night-time confrontation near Penn Station was quickly resolved, but Moore, a Black man in his forties, was outraged…

12 Aug 2020 8AM 7 min

Oil rises as US stocks fall building hopes of fuel-demand uptick

London — Oil prices rose on Wednesday after an industry report showed US crude inventories fell last week, more than analysts had expected, bolstering hopes that fuel demand in the world’s biggest economy can weather the coronavirus pandemic. Brent crude was up 67c, or 1.5%, at $45.17 a barrel by…

12 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

Donald Trump is likely to overpromise and underdeliver on tax cuts

Washington — President Donald Trump is tapping his presidential authority to make tax changes that Congress is refusing to do, but his limited power means he could end up overpromising and underdelivering on his pledge to slash IRS bills. Trump has deferred hundreds of billions of dollars worth of payroll…

12 Aug 2020 7AM 4 min

People trust the state less than doctors, which is where smoking comes in

A healthy recovery from Covid-19 in SA will require more effective and scientifically informed action from the government and doctors. Unfortunately, public trust in the former is less than robust. Our recent survey in July of more than 1,000 adult South Africans shows that respondents have substantially higher trust in…

12 Aug 2020 7AM 5 min

The EU country most reliant on tourism says things are looking up

Prague/Zagreb — Braced for a knockout blow from Covid-19’s effect on travel, the EU’s nation most reliant on tourism may yet get a reprieve. Croatia, which recorded a 96% dive in foreign visitors in May from a year earlier, revealed another similarly shocking number for June on Wednesday, showing a…

12 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

How the youth has borne the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic

Brussels — Young people are being hit especially hard by the coronavirus crisis as their jobs dry up and education is disrupted, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Under 30s often work in sectors suffering the most from the pandemic, making them particularly vulnerable. While that’s a familiar trait…

12 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

The good and the bad Kamala Harris brings to the Biden ticket

San Francisco — US senator Kamala Harris brings an aggressive approach to politics and public policy, deep electoral experience and hands-on expertise in the beleaguered US criminal justice system as Joe Biden’s running mate. Harris, at 55 a full generation younger than Biden, also imparts a youthful persona and diversity,…

12 Aug 2020 6AM 6 min

UK destined to employ iron fist in a velvet glove with companies

The pandemic has asked many difficult questions of Europe’s governments, from whether to close down schools to which companies to bail out. As economies continue to open up, politicians face a new daunting choice: should they leave their employment furlough schemes in place? These support programmes have kept workers in…

12 Aug 2020 5AM 4 min

World stocks are fairly static as gold goes on a wild ride

London — Europe’s stock markets held their own on Wednesday after doubts emerged about fresh US stimulus, while it was shaping up to be another wild day for gold and silver, as well as Turkey’s troubled lira. A lively start to European trading saw sterling shrug at news that Britain…

12 Aug 2020 5AM 3 min

India’s villagers flout virus rules saying it has ‘weakened’

Baihata Chariali/Karalapakkam — Harmahan Deka doesn’t wear a mask anymore to avoid the coronavirus, nor does he try to keep a safe distance from others. For the 25 men and women he works with in his construction materials business near the small town of Baihata Chariali in India’s Assam state,…

12 Aug 2020 5AM 4 min

How the West lost faith in Hong Kong’s judicial system

Hong Kong — The statements issued by China and Hong Kong after Monday’s arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai underline how quickly a national security law passed in June is undermining the city’s independent judicial system. The Hong Kong police force, on Twitter, disputed a claim it searched the newsroom…

12 Aug 2020 5AM 6 min

Questions about UK’s Covid-19 response as economy is battered

London — The UK suffered more than any major European economy during the coronavirus lockdowns, raising questions over the government’s handling of the pandemic and putting it under renewed pressure to deliver a recovery. The 20.4% slump in the second quarter, the biggest since records began in 1955, also outstripped…

12 Aug 2020 4AM 3 min