BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

UK acknowledges it is breaking the law in a ‘limited way’ amid latest Brexit talks

London — Britain headed into a fresh round of Brexit trade talks on Tuesday acknowledging it could break international law but only in a “limited way” after reports that it may undercut its exit treaty with the EU. As the pound fell sharply on fears of a no-deal exit, the…

8 Sep 2020 12PM 3 min

LETTER: Why the anti-DA rhetoric?

Business Day has by far the finest group of business writers and reporters in SA. Their opinion pieces and reports are normally of a very high standard. But why the regular stream of anti-DA rhetoric? SA is a country where the governing party has created nothing of value, and has…

8 Sep 2020 11AM 1 min

LETTER: SOEs have to change their models to survive

The continued bailout of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is unsustainable. There is a great need to develop comprehensive strategies that will enable their continued survival. This is a changing world. We probably need to rationalise and decommission some of those entities that are no longer necessary to drive government strategy. It…

8 Sep 2020 11AM 1 min

Salga calls for tax amendments to penalise individuals owing municipalities

SA’s local government association is proposing that legislation be amended to allow Sars to divert tax refunds from individuals who owe municipalities money to help pay for the outstanding debt municipalities have been struggling to recover. “We can improve municipal revenue collection instruments through measures such as amending the Tax…

8 Sep 2020 11AM 4 min

LETTER: Superrich bosses the fault of too little capitalism

The fact that we have overpaid executives is not due to too much capitalism, but to too little. Capitalism has become a term too easily abused by anyone looking for a quick fix or an excuse. There was a time when businesses were managed by their owners. There was a…

8 Sep 2020 11AM 1 min

LETTER: Transit route gives Ethiopian Airlines advantage

There appears to be one major error in John Fairwell’s letter on SAA (SAA plays into Ethiopian Airlines’ hands (, September 6). He says Ethiopian Airlines “operates in a regulated market in the absence of any competition, similar to the SA market before 1991". In fact, Ethiopian Airlines only operates…

8 Sep 2020 11AM 2 min

LETTER: Old boys’ club behind excessive executive pay

I hope Nathan Cheiman's letter on CEO pay was written tongue-in-cheek (Give CEOs their due (, September 2). If not, it perfectly reflects what is wrong with the attitude of company directors in SA and elsewhere. As I understand the matter, directors are appointed by the shareholders, and the “old…

8 Sep 2020 11AM 1 min

Cyril Ramaphosa urges South Africans to help rebuild the economy

The significant drop in the country’s GDP is an anomaly due to the Covid-19 lockdown, but it should spur South Africans on to do all they can to help rebuild the economy, President Cyril Ramaphosa said. This was after Stats SA revealed on Tuesday that the economy shrank at an…

8 Sep 2020 10AM 2 min

LETTER: Mistaken projections led to drastic lockdown policies

It is not clear to me what substantial points were being made in the article by some of SA’s most eminent epidemiological modellers (“Uncertainty governs Covid-19 projections, so multidisciplinary research is vital (../2020-09-03-uncertainty-governs-covid-19-projections-so-multidisciplinary-research-is-vital/)”, September 3). They were replying to Prof Graham Barr’s earlier article (“Government shunned proper statistical tools to…

8 Sep 2020 10AM 2 min

Ignorance and the perception of negative risk has Africa paying a high premium

Abuja — Macky Sall had a bone to pick with creditors. Sitting before the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), investors and diplomats during a conference on African debt in December, the Senegalese president complained that Western prejudice keeps borrowing costs unfairly high on his continent. “This negative-risk perception…

8 Sep 2020 10AM 8 min

End of impasse over Polihali Dam construction bodes well for Gauteng

The good news was hidden in the jobs and tenders section of last week’s Lesotho Times. That’s where the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) announced the cancellation of prequalification for the construction of the Polihali Dam and transfer tunnel because it did not address “lenders’ requirements”. It will now go…

8 Sep 2020 9AM 4 min

When will Wall Street bosses order workers back to the office?

New York — Up and down the new virtual Wall Street, the question has started to creep in: when will the bosses order us back to our real offices? Almost six months after the coronavirus pandemic emptied towers and trading floors in New York and beyond, JPMorgan Chase executives have…

8 Sep 2020 9AM 6 min

NEW YORK TIMES: Secret briefings on election meddling are not acceptable

The logic offered by the US director of national intelligence for restricting in-person briefings for Congress on foreign meddling in the election campaign doesn’t pass the smell test. John Ratcliffe indicated in so many words that he was worried there would be leaks of classified information, so Congress will receive…

8 Sep 2020 9AM 2 min

Capitalism 2.0 requires more social capital and trust in government

London — If you think long and hard about the climate crisis, you may (a) get depressed and (b) agree with many activists who say the only solution to the problem is overthrowing capitalism. Or you may conclude, as Andrew McAfee does, that we don’t have the right kind of…

8 Sep 2020 8AM 4 min

Calls to boycott or ban Disney’s Mulan escalate in Hong Kong

Shanghai — Walt Disney’s release of Mulan, which is set in China and meant to appeal to audiences there, has provoked a backlash on social media over its star’s support of Hong Kong police and for being partly filmed in the Xinjiang region. Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong and…

8 Sep 2020 7AM 3 min

SA is flush with barley and needs to find new export markets for it

The SA barley industry is set to face a demand slump emanating from the coronavirus-induced alcohol ban, when there is a predicted record 2020/2021 farm production harvest. SA could produce about 505,215 tonnes of barley in 2020/2021, up 46% from the previous season. This is a result of increased area…

8 Sep 2020 7AM 5 min

Let UK pay levels and working hours adjust to the market, says top BoE economist

London — The Bank of England’s (BOE’) chief economist has thrown his weight behind the government’s controversial plan to let its wage-support programme end, saying that prolonging it could delay the economy’s much-needed restructuring. Calls have been mounting for the subsidies to be extended beyond September, but Andy Haldane said…

8 Sep 2020 7AM 4 min

China’s ‘self-sufficient’ city is built on lessons learnt during the pandemic

Bangkok — A new city near Beijing featuring wooden apartment blocks, rooftop farms and renewable energy is being designed with drone-friendly terraces and ample space from which to work at home in case of future pandemics, its chief architect has said. Barcelona-based Guallart Architects won a contest in August to…

8 Sep 2020 6AM 3 min

Last two Australian journalists in China flee

Canberra/Beijing — Two Australian journalists based in China have fled the country as diplomatic relations between the trading partners worsen. Bill Birtles, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Beijing correspondent, and Mike Smith, the Australian Financial Review’s Shanghai correspondent, left the country after Chinese police demanded interviews with them, according to Smith…

8 Sep 2020 6AM 3 min

Somali architect wants healing public spaces amid the rubble

Mogadishu — Mogadishu is a city of ruined glory: crenellated towers crumble by the sea and sand whirls against the pockmarked archways of the roofless old cathedral. But one young man, returning to his family’s homeland, walks through the streets and dreams of their future. Omar Degan was born in…

8 Sep 2020 6AM 2 min