Rational Radio

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

Global internet champion Naspers hitting top gear with "best set of financials in two decades"

Getting into the diary of Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk is a lot more challenging nowadays. As the company’s investments have flourished, so too has the demand on the now 45 year old who succeeded Koos Bekker as the group’s CEO four years ago. But result’s time opens a window,…

25 Jun 2018 29 min

An hour in London with iconoclast Pieter-Dirk Uys, opening up on Mandela, Ramaphosa, courage, madness - and sex

I spent an hour with Pieter-Dirk Uys in the lounge of the Soho Hotel, just around the corner from the theatre and a convenient haven for his quiet time ahead of each performance. What transpired was a deeply personal, courageous, thoughtful and wickedly funny discourse. As you’ll hear, it ranges…

15 Jun 2018 1 hr 04 min

Meet the unheralded American introducing African talent onto global opera stages

My introduction to Cape Town Opera came via a soiree at Bonhams, the London Auctioneering house which operates at the very top end of its market. The patronage of mining mogul Mick Davis ensured an evening of high quality South African voices followed by a well supported fund raising auction…

7 Jun 2018 18 min

Six great shares to look at now. London's best value investors share their best ideas.

At £958 a pop, seats in the Queen Elizabeth conference centre for the annual London Value Investor’s Conference aren’t cheap. But after a day full of insights and specific investment ideas from the best in the value investing business, I didn’t hear any complaints. Superbly facilitated, the full day conference…

4 Jun 2018 16 min

Coal miner Peabody: A fast-rising phoenix - from bankruptcy to top value manager's stock pick

The world was first introduced to the term “cigar butt” shares in what Warren Buffett regards as the best investment book ever written. Published in 1949, Benjamin Graham’s masterpiece is called The Intelligent Investor. And Buffett reckons it provided the skeleton around which all his other investment knowledge was built…

31 May 2018 14 min

Dawid Krige's best ideas - buying shares in two giant Chinese companies you've never heard of

The performance of Dawid Krige’s Cederberg Capital China-focused fund has been astonishing, with a 75% return last year. That confirms the tightly focused portfolio’s ranking in the top one percent worldwide since it was launched seven years ago. I met Krige earlier this year and was immediately struck by the…

28 May 2018 16 min

Claudius van Wyk uncovers links between Deepak Chopra, Jan Smuts's Holism and Ubuntu.

Rational Perspective host Alec Hogg had his first direct exposure to Deepak Chopra this week when among the full house of 2 900 who were in the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. The unusual flavour of this episode is the consequence of a conversation with the brilliant Claudius…

25 May 2018 18 min

Educating The Donald – “Trade War” on hold as adults start surrounding Oval Office incumbent

Compared with the complexities of the portfolio he now manages, US president Donald Trump’s domain of real estate is simplicity itself. With more than 200 nation states and seven billion people, our world is a complicated place with an infinite number of moving parts. This complexity tends to deliver a…

23 May 2018 16 min