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Welcome to BizNews Radio where we interview top thought leaders and business people from South Africa and across the globe.
Eskom warning: SOEs will be put into curatorship if not run properly - Mboweni
LONDON — Finance Minister Tito Mboweni warned the cash-strapped state owned enterprises and Eskom in particular at a news conference before his budget speech that the government will not allow the SOEs to continue wasting tax payers money. Shortly after the conference, he unveiled that Eskom will receive an annual…
Mboweni calls for debate on future of state owned enterprises...
LONDON — Many of the state owned enterprises in South Africa became synonymous with state capture and can be blamed for the economic crisis that the country finds itself in. Looting and sheer incompetence at Eskom, the SABC and SAA pushed them to the brink of financial collapse. At a…
Nowhere to hide for the illicit economy and tax abuse - warning from SARS interim head
LONDON — The man accused of being involved in smuggling cigarettes and falsifying documents, Adriano Mazotti found himself to be in the firing line of a new drive by SARS to clamp down on the illicit economy. High Court Sheriffs attached and removed all movable property from his house and…
25 to 30,000 civil service job cuts will be voluntary – Finance Minister
LONDON — Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced in his budget that the government will offer early retirement to civil servants which will reduce the public sector wage bill by R20bn over the next three years. He said at a news conference before the speech that early retirement will be offered…
In a drought, but resilient like an aloe – Mboweni on economy
LONDON — There was an acknowledgement by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni that many of South Africa’s economic woes are self-inflicted. At a news conference before his budget speech in Cape Town, he gave the backdrop of his budget and says the Government was taking steps to fix the problems and…
Maverick Tito Mboweni freewheels on his 2019 Budget - the full presser
What a difference a year makes. South Africa's recently appointed minister of finance Tito Mboweni was in great form this morning addressing a packed press conference where he fielded questions around taxpayers' R23bn a year capital injection into Eskom (Tito doesn't like it being called a "bailout"); what would happen…
First it was tobacco – now big food is in the firing line
LONDON — South Africa is high up on the list of the heavy weights in the world when it comes to obesity. Our diet of ‘slap chips’, ‘pap and sheba’ and increasing reliance on fast foods at outlets where you do not even have to get out of the car…
Cold War games in Venezuela? – ex CIA chief Jack Devine
LONDON — The Venezuelan people are bearing the brunt of the socialist policies of their President Nicholas Maduro. Images of people looking for food in the rubbish and telling the world of their plight can be seen daily on news outlets all over the world. But Maduro is blocking aid…
Why Brulpadda gas find may only see production in 2027
JOHANNESBURG — The recent announcement by energy company TOTAL that it had discovered a major oil and gas find off of South Africa's southern coast sparked a lot of excitement recently. There's been talk that the find contains up to 1 billion barrels and economists have already started calculating the…
Eskom split could light up foreign investment - Debtwire's Haffenden
LONDON — If anybody doubted the seriousness of Eskom's crisis, there was another dark reminder in the form of Stage 4 load shedding. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a range of measure that he is considering to switch on the lights; more details will be in the budget speech. To get…
Hitting highs with movie hit Matwetwe: Meet director Kagiso Lediga
JOHANNESBURG — Well known South African comedian and director Kagiso Lediga is starting to carve out a seriously successful film career. Coming hot on the heels of his Netflix debut 'Catching Feelings' (another must-watch SA film), he's now involved with the smash box office hit Matwetwe, a movie that puts…
Eskom’s existential crisis – CFO bares all to Yelland
CAPE TOWN — Unless Eskom gets the tariff hike they’re asking for, the power utility will have to ask government for another R83bn in three to five years’ time, says its new CFO, Calib Cassim. In the most revealing interview yet, Cassim admits to Chris Yelland, one of the country’s top…
SNAP defies forecasts of premature demise
LONDON — It has been a tough year for Snap, maker of the photo messaging app, Snapchat as it lost users to competitors like Instagram. It didn’t help when a Kardashian influencer tweeted that she did not open Snapchat anymore. The company managed to stem the flow by the three…
Top investment trends for 2019: Tech, lower fees to shape industry
JOHANNESBURG — The recent passing away of John Bogle, the low-cost investing pioneer and founder of Vanguard, put into sharp focus the continuing downward pressure on fees in the investment industry. It's a trend that - along with the increasing adoption of technology - will gather pace in 2019, according…
Growing SA demand for US visas: Here's what you need to know
JOHANNESBURG — There's surging demand from South Africans for the United States' EB-5 immigrant investor programme. This is according to Stuart Ferguson who is the CEO of American Dream - a business that helps secure US visas for families from countries such as South Africa and even the United Arab Emirates. It's…
Why private capital can bridge Africa's infrastructure gap - RMB
JOHANNESBURG — It's well known that Africa has serious challenges when it comes to sufficient infrastructure. In fact, it presents both a challenge to the continent's growing economies as well as an opportunity to leapfrog the rest of the world. To date, African nations have relied overwhelmingly on public funding…
RMB CEO James Formby on why SA business can't ignore India
JOHANNESBURG — President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to have a state visit to India on 25-26 January. The visit will present another opportunity for Ramaphosa to drum up further investment for South Africa, following a major summit that he held late last year. India is increasingly becoming a key nation…
Joburg, Cape Town in top 114 cities for talent competitiveness
JOHANNESBURG — There's some good news and bad news for Saffers when it comes to the latest Global Talent Competitiveness Index released at Davos this week. For starters, South Africa as a country has been slipping dramatically in recent years when it comes to attracting and creating competitive human resources…
SA president Cyril Ramaphosa goes off-piste in Davos - again
The annual Brand South Africa dinner in Davos was so heavily oversubscribed this year that I only got a seat because of some late cancellations. A huge difference to recent years where there were always plenty of no-shows – such was the decline in the nation’s appeal while Jacob Zuma…
Why Booking.com's VP is upbeat about Africa's travel market
JOHANNESBURG — Olivier Gremillion - who is in Davos this week for the World Economic Forum - spent 7 years at Airbnb before joining global travel bookings website Booking.com. Now, he's heading up Booking.com's non-hotel business, providing a competitive alternative to that of Airbnb. Olivier has a good knowledge of the African…