Rational Radio

Peter Hain on Mandela, Ramaphosa and white South Africans

It’s always special to visit with Peter Hain, the anti-apartheid icon who had a highly successful half century in British politics. Last time I watched him deliver a killer speech in the House of Lords which smashed any hopes the Guptas had of slinking away into the shadows. This time…

13 Sep 2018 27 min

Bill Browder, Putin's #1 enemy, warns SA: Recoil from Russia

I was first exposed to Bill Browder in 2006, at a hedge fund conference at Nice in the south of France. He was one of the star attractions, his Russia-focused Hermitage Fund, hailed as the best performing money fund in the world. Confident, brash, outspoken, Browder was riding a wave…

6 Sep 2018 37 min

Meet Chris Steyn author of nation-rocking Lost Boys of Bird Island

I’ve always been a huge fan of my former colleague Chris Steyn, having seen close up how she has always made exposing the truth her only priority, regularly speaking out against the powerful on behalf of those without a voice. Much has happened in the few weeks since the publication…

3 Sep 2018 22 min

Johann Rupert's "aha" moment sparks Reinet's R10bn share buyback

South Africa’s leading businessman, Johann Rupert, has taken the empire inherited from his father to another level. In 1988, just three years after joining his father Anton’s industrial group Rembrandt, Rupert junior created Richemont, today one of the world’s top luxury goods businesses. When Richemont restructured a decade ago, its…

28 Aug 2018 13 min

Elon's $420 a share bubble has burst: Why Tesla isn't going private anytime soon

Earlier this week, Elon Musk’s biggest fan in the investment world urged Tesla’s founder to stop his ideas of taking the company private. Catherine Wood of ARK Invest re-iterated her bullish earlier projections in an open letter on the money manager’s website where she reckons the company’s shares will be…

24 Aug 2018 25 min

Disruptor Rowan Gormley: From Boksburg via Branson to Majestic

When I arrived for our interview at his farm near Bungay in Suffolk, Rowan Gormley, in shorts and a pink golf shirt, was busy watering plants in a small greenhouse. There was no indication from him that a few hours later he’d be hosting 300 people in a marquee set…

21 Aug 2018 30 min

Paul O'Sullivan on court ruling ejecting NPA chief Shaun Abrahams: "Prosecution floodgates will now open."

Three years into a proposed ten year term, South Africa today ridded itself of the deeply tainted head of National Prosecuting Authority. Its Constitutional Court ruled that NPA head Shaun Abrahams - who has catapulted four levels into the top job from the legal equivalent of the backbenches - should…

13 Aug 2018 18 min

As authorities start investigating, big bets in wake of Elon Musk's "Tesla going private" tweet

In the 30 years since he left the relative backwater of South Africa, Elon Musk has come to personify the American Dream: the brilliant, entrepreneurial immigrant transformed from pauper to billionaire through hard work and ingenuity. Musk has attracted fame and fortune through a series of audacious business adventures, always…

9 Aug 2018 23 min

Another big promise from Musk, but serious investors aren't biting, treat $82bn Tesla buyout as a joke

How did it all go so wrong between Musk and Wall Street? On a day when investors in his stock should be celebrating his promise to give them a quick profit, most just don’t believe him. The FT’s front page lead story mused that Musk might have been making a…

8 Aug 2018 15 min

Man who saw the GFC coming, The Big Short star Steve Eisman, warns Tesla's bubble is going to burst

The fact that Tesla beat the Street's expectations by losing a couple hundred million dollars less than expected doesn’t change the reality that its cash pile is still shrinking. Indeed, all it seems to do is slightly postpone the day of reckoning – certainly not remove it. But Elon Musk’s…

2 Aug 2018 14 min

The whitewashing of Zimbabwe’s ancient history

In the early 1970s, when I was 12 years old, my British immigrant father married a South African. Part of his integration was visiting her siblings, one of whom lived with his family in what was then called Fort Victoria, part of then recently independent Rhodesia. Beyond seeing television for…

28 Jul 2018 13 min

Magda Wierzycka: Helping SA back from brink - and that infamous convo on SAP's corruption

It’s been my privilege to have followed Magda Wierzycka’s progression from the time she helped build Coronation Fund Managers through to leading a turnaround at African Harvest and as the creator of financial services disruptor Sygnia. And then to watch in admiration as the super-smart qualified actuary transformed into an…

27 Jul 2018 24 min

Eskom on retribution mission against McKinsey and others which plundered R19bn since 2012

Leading the charge to clean up Eskom is chairman Jabu Mabuza, a straight-talking entrepreneur who started his career as a taxi driver and a man fully aware of what's at stake. Having recently turned 60, Mabuza's own focus has switched from accumulating to serving – apart from chairing Eskom, he…

24 Jul 2018 18 min

Naspers CPO Aileen O'Toole on the outperforming group's secret sauce: Executive pay is 90% based on risk

Setting pay scales is among the most vexing of challenges for multinational corporations. But the complexity becomes almost overwhelming for a group like Naspers which competes against global tech titans but is headquartered in one of the most unequal societies on earth. Adding to this complexity is the double edged…

23 Jul 2018 17 min

Paul O'Sullivan: We'll force Hogan Lovells to come clean on SA State Capture role

I’ve found that travelling South Africans tend to speak more openly. Perhaps it’s a function of being away from home. Whatever the cause, it certainly adds an element of freshness to my interviews here in London. But forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan falls outside that generality. Whether we’ve been together in…

18 Jul 2018 18 min

Meet Tshepo Mahloele - Big Capitec shareholder, ABSIP's "CEO of the Decade" now accused by Holomisa as kingpin of corrupt network

There’s a bucket full of toxins floating around South Africa right now as those who engaged in industrial scale plunder during the Zuma era shore up their defences. In the court of law they are applying the Stalingrad tactic (endlesss delays in the hope of eventually exhausting your opponent). In…

11 Jul 2018 36 min

McKinsey’s South African mea culpa bombs as it claims "no corruption", critics reject apology as too little, too late

McKinsey gambled by apologising to South Africa for its role in the developing State Capture scandal. But from the mood of 165 people in the GIBS auditorium, it lost. New global managing partner Kevin Sneader is dealing with what rugby players call a hospital pass. To his credit, he stepped…

9 Jul 2018 19 min

GGA's Alain Tschudin: Providing context on SA's major flashpoints - history helps with solutions to crumbling municipalities, EWC

Good Governance Africa has big ambitions. Its intention is to set up centres across the African continent to monitor governance across the continent – using a carrot and stick approach by shouting out malfeasance and praising role models. It’s a lofty goal. But since opening its first centre in Johannesburg…

8 Jul 2018 20 min

After years of deep research, UK film maker Anthony Fabian convinced SA's new dawn will break soon

I first met Anthony Fabian just over a year ago in London. Our interview was conducted at one of the darkest points in recent South African history, and seemed out of place with its focus on an ambitious project that he felt would provide some balance to the global perspective…

29 Jun 2018 20 min

Jakkie Cilliers: We’re missing EWC point – rural chiefs in crosshairs, unleashing growth the priority

A year ago, founder of South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies Jakkie Cilliers produced a quite marvellous book which he titled Fate of the Nation. Perfectly timed ahead of December’s ANC Elective Conference, in our interview on the book a year ago, Cilliers shared with us the likely result of…

28 Jun 2018 25 min