BizNews Rational Radio

Rational Radio

Rational Radio is the weekly business news show hosted by BizNews editor Alec Hogg. It runs for around an hour and features leading commentators from the investment and financial world, including regular guest David Shapiro.
Weekly English South Africa Business News · Investing
421 Episodes
172 – 192

Audiobook of Ramaphosa biography - sample before you acquire

Have a listen to the first seven minutes of the Preface to Anthony Butler's masterful biography on Cyril Ramaphosa.......it gives you taste of what to expect in the 22 hours that follow of the new audiobook now available for purchase and downloading at https://gumroad.com/l/ramaphosa-biography-audio  
18 Jun 2019 7 min

Bruce Williamson: Tongaat hit by "perfect bad news storm", probably not fraud

The chief investment officer of Integral Asset Management, Bruce Williamson, has been a long-time follower of KZN's iconic and now embattled corporation Tongaat Hulett. The veteran analyst, who has held senior positions at stockbrokers SBC Warburg, ABN Amro Securities and Imara Asset Managers (whose team left to form Integral), reckons…
17 Jun 2019 7 min

WEF's Han Yik: Most of us will outlive our retirement savings - by many years

The World Economic Forum is best known for its annual meeting in Davos every January. But in between that week in the spotlight, lots goes on at this multilateral institution, including a great deal of groundbreaking research. The release of a WEF report on retirement funding last week delivered a…
17 Jun 2019 7 min

Tony Fabian: Finding Good Hope for SA - and telling the world about it

I first met British film maker Anthony Fabian in London two years ago. At the time he was hoping to soon put the finishing touches to a series of eight documentaries he expected would help rebalance the awful global image of South Africa. We engaged a few times thereafter, contacts…
17 Jun 2019 7 min

Kulula creator Gidon Novick thriving in entrepreneurship, opens first hotel

Gidon Novick went into the family business (Comair), left when a major shareholder (Brian Joffe) wanted to change things and then worked for three years as CEO of Vitality and head of digital at global financial services disruptor Discovery. A chartered accountant with an MBA from Kellogg, he escaped the…
16 Jun 2019 7 min

The Editor’s Desk: Truth and lies at Tongaat Hulett

Bruised from the Steinhoff debacle, South Africa is facing a fresh corporate scandal with the news that Tongaat Hulett has requested that its shares be temporarily suspended over concerns about the accuracy of the company’s published financial statements. While the Tongaat situation seems to be more a matter of poor…
16 Jun 2019 20 min

Paul O'Sullivan on fresh accusations against Ramaphosa; Here's my verdict

South Africa's ace forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan has re-entered the fray after the country's Public Protector issued a report accusing president Cyril Ramaphosa of misleading parliament. O'Sullivan takes us through the steps he took when called in to investigate whether the president, and his first born Andile, are guilty of…
13 Jun 2019 9 min

The Editor’s Desk: The economy is tanking, what now?

This week was all about the economy. The shock GDP figures brought home the grim reality of what we’re up against in the fight to rebuild. But Alec Hogg believes that South Africans should not give up hope, no matter how difficult things may seem. The problems that the country…
9 Jun 2019 16 min

Russell Loubser, who led 2012 board walkout: "Here's how to fix SAA"

Seven years ago, former JSE president Russell Loubser quit his national service as a director of South African Airways, leading half the board in a very public walkout. He cited the incompetence of a Public Enterprises department then run by since disgraced Zuptoid Malusi Gigaba. On Rational Radio this week,…
7 Jun 2019 9 min

Bernard Swanepoel: Set small businesses free and the result will shock SA

Mining entrepreneur Bernard Swanepoel has transformed from CEO of one of the world's biggest gold miners into a champion for small business. In this interview on Rational Radio, the chairman of the Small Business Institute (former the AHI) talks straight about where the SA economic recovery will come from. He…
7 Jun 2019 10 min

Roelof Botha: here's why SA's interest rates should be at least 2% lower

In this insightful Rational Radio interview, heavyweight economist Roelof Botha unpacks why South African interest rates are 200 basis point too high. The economist to the Optimum Group, whose son is the managing partner of Silicon Valley's top venture capital investor, explains why he believes something went seriously wrong at…
7 Jun 2019 10 min

David Shapiro on the big winners from Southern Cape gas strike

On Rational Radio Live, market veteran David Shapiro reports back on his "homework" from last week - what stocks should investors be loading up on now in anticipation of benefitting from the gas bonanza that could flow from Total's billion barrel strike off the Southern Cape Coast. He also applies…
6 Jun 2019 9 min

AlphaCode's Maseko: Wanted - next generation of financial services giants

The AlphaCode Incubator is hunting for disruptive financial services startups with the intention of giving them a couple million rand hand-up. An application process which began on May 15 closes in just over a week. AlphaCode's head of ecosystem development Andile Maseko was a guest on this week's Rational Radio…
6 Jun 2019 9 min

SA Govt seeks help finding solution to "biggest threat to economy"

South Africa’s mining and energy minister Gwede Mantashe provided plenty of food for thought at this morning’s Junior Mining Indaba in Johannesburg. Including his call for an end to the “insane and silly” debate into the future of Eskom, coal, renewables and the nation’s energy security. Given that Mantashe arrived…
4 Jun 2019 5 min

Gwede guides miners towards SA's unexploited mineral riches

Confirmation of how South Africa’s government has turned business friendly came this morning at the Junior Mining Indaba in Johannesburg. Less than a week after his reappointment and fresh from a three day cabinet Lekgotla, mining and energy minister Gwede Mantashe provided some quite astonishing and very specific guidance guidance…
4 Jun 2019 6 min

Mantashe confirms business friendly face of new Ramaphosa Era

Ahead of South Africa’s May 8th general election, president Cyril Ramaphosa put a lot of emphasis on following a business-friendly agenda that would get the country working again. And to do so quickly. True to his word, over the weekend Ramaphosa called together his cabinet for the first Lekgotla of…
4 Jun 2019 13 min

The Editor’s Desk: The new Cabinet and the future of the DA

Ramaphosa has named his Cabinet and we now have some insight into what the president is thinking and where he is heading. In this week’s episode, Alec Hogg and Felicity Duncan discuss the Cabinet appointments and reflect on what they may mean for the country. They also ask some serious…
1 Jun 2019 20 min

David Shapiro goes shopping - shares unexposed stocks he likes

On Rational Radio Live tonight, after lambasting some of the fallen favourites, market veteran David Shapiro shared some of his own investment ideas. The man who professes to read all the daily financial data from reporting companies, came up with some interesting names that are worth investigating. Naturally.   
30 May 2019 12 min
172 – 192