BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

TikTok and WeChat show up Silicon Valley apps

The jockeying by Microsoft and possibly other US companies to buy TikTok’s US operations shines a harsh light on how the country’s domestic technology giants are falling behind on innovation in social media and other areas of opportunity. Both ByteDance’s TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat are living on borrowed time in…

13 Aug 2020 10AM 4 min

Time for a Boeing-Airbus settlement

New York — The long-running trade dispute between Boeing and Airbus has been a source of political grandstanding for years, but with the US’s aggression reaching new levels of hypocrisy, the time may finally be right for a settlement. The US trade representative’s office announced late on Wednesday that it…

13 Aug 2020 9AM 4 min

EDITORIAL: Abel Sithole faces huge challenge at PIC

The long road to recovery for the embattled state-owned asset manager took flight last week with the Public Investment Corporation’s (PIC’s) first permanent successor since Daniel Matjila rolling up his sleeves and sliding his shoes under the desk for the first time on Monday. The challenge facing new CEO Abel…

13 Aug 2020 9AM 3 min

LETTER: ANC-led national government has destroyed much Western Cape industry

In the absence of an immediate relaxation of the lockdown regulations that are stifling economic activity in the Western Cape, the DA as the governing party in the province should take urgent action to restore a state of viability to the economy and the wellbeing of its citizens. For too…

13 Aug 2020 9AM 1 min

LETTER: Don’t Zim lives matter?

After decades of quiet diplomacy with Zimbabwe, which achieved nothing and allowed Zanu-PF to destroy the country and repress its people, SA has again whispered when it should have been shouting damnation and applying real pressure for change. However, just as the ANC places far more importance on solidarity and…

13 Aug 2020 9AM 1 min

LETTER: Musings on capitalism

Tom Eaton’s perceptive, accurate and this time not humorous analysis of the ANC was conflated with musings on capitalism (“Yes, the ANC is a dud but show us the money, opposition parties”, August 10). The latter deserves more space. Perhaps next week? People are, with few exceptions, essentially concerned first…

13 Aug 2020 9AM 1 min

LETTER: Corruption is more complex than black vs white

Steven Friedman’s main argument in his most recent column is that the R1-trillion worth (at least) of corruption that happened during the Jacob Zuma era is because “the political deal of 1994 left much of the economy untouched” and in white hands (New ways are needed to deal with deeply…

13 Aug 2020 9AM 3 min

LETTER: Envoy diplomacy will fail in Zimbabwe

Your editorial on Zimbabwe was erroneous and ignores the complicity of the ANC-led government since Thabo Mbeki in underwriting the pitiless regime north of the Limpopo (“SA’s impotence means more repression in Zimbabwe (”, August 11). There is a belief in this SA government that a free Zimbabwe would set…

13 Aug 2020 9AM 1 min

LETTER: Disappointed in Batohi

I want to express my gratitude to your publication for finally deciding to take up the task of exposing our ineffective and seemingly hapless national director of public prosecutions, Shamila Batohi. We hoped she would be a breath of fresh air to our disabled prosecuting authority when she took over,…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

LETTER: Hiroshima message

A year ago Jean Michel Bouvier, one of your regular contributors, reminded readers of the August 6 1945 dropping of the first atomic bomb. A terrible event, but no more terrible than the treatment and torture suffered by thousands (many more than those who died in the bomb attacks) between…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

UK finance firms mobilise to address domestic abuse

London — Some of Britain’s biggest financial and legal firms have stepped up support for staff and customers suffering domestic abuse as the coronavirus lockdown sheds new light on the scale of a problem affecting millions nationwide. Legislation now progressing through parliament suggests this costs Britain £66bn a year, with…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 4 min

LETTER: The curse of Eskom

Eskom is one of SA’s many curses. That we are back to power outages annoys everyone. Call a spade a spade and not a garden implement. Load-shedding my big toe! All the time, when there was ample opportunity for maintenance to be carried out during the hard lockdown, everyone was…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

Fintech can deliver answers for gig workers pushed to the brink

In recent years digital platforms — such as e-hailing and delivery services — have made it possible for workers around the world to participate in the gig economy, providing a degree of formality and stability to their work. But Covid-19 has highlighted the fragile nature of work for people in…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 4 min

LETTER: Teachers smuggling smokes in taxis

In my view, and bearing in mind his past, President Cyril Ramaphosa is a decent and honourable man. In another place and with proper support he could be an acceptable voice of reason on the world stage among leaders who seem to have gone mad. But it is impossible to…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

NEAL FRONEMAN: Earning the trust of our neighbours is crucial for miners

Developing and maintaining trust, and getting the support of stakeholders, are fundamental bases for companies to be successful and sustainable. And while this is critical in any business anywhere in the world, it is even more important in the mining industry in SA given our demographic profile and social challenges…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 5 min

LETTER: Nigeria must get its act together

My first impression on reading Dianna Games’ article was: No! You don’t say? (“Shoprite exit shows Nigeria is not an easy place for business (”, August 6). Let’s say it as it is — Nigeria is a difficult place to do business. Speaking up may even help. A range of…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 2 min

LETTER: Where’s the integrity councillors?

As unpalatable as it is to acknowledge, the biggest problem for municipalities is that they are afflicted with too many overpaid, underworked councillors. They fight tooth and nail for what is quite a lucrative career, with no qualifications required other than being able to talk the talk. Many people have…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Lai a danger to a repressive regime

It is tempting to argue that China must be a weak country if it feels compelled to arrest a leading publisher in Hong Kong under a national security law for his advocacy for democracy. But the truth about Jimmy Lai is that he is a man of courage who holds…

13 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

LETTER: SAB loves to play the victim

How convenient for SA Breweries (SAB) and Heineken to economically blackmail SA with the loss of multibillion-rand investments due to the ban on alcohol sales. As much as I should be loyal to SAB — my late father was a truck driver for the company — it has a reputation…

13 Aug 2020 7AM 1 min

BONANG MOHALE: Trust in SA can begin with sending state-capture miscreants to prison

“True leadership demands complete subjugation of self, absolute honesty, integrity and uprightness of character and fearlessness and above all, a consuming love of one’s people,” said Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe in a speech of the Completats’ Social, at Fort Hare University in 1948. There are at least two laws that are…

13 Aug 2020 7AM 6 min