Welcome to My Blog
Articles and advice on all things legalSnippet 2021 – 17
Economy Progress: is unlocking embedded power generation not perhaps a catastrophe? Much has been made of the surprise move to increase the generation threshold for companies without a licence from 1 MW to 100 MW, holding that this would unlock investment and growth,...
Snippet 2021 – 16
Economy The sums involved in dodgy and dishonest deals brokered by our political incumbents in government are staggering: just those in Eskom are said to amount to R178bn; easily enough to vaccinate everyone in South Africa against CV 19. Then there is the R500bn lost...
Snippet 2021 – 15
Economy Let’s forget about tomorrow .. Let’s forget about the money.. For tomorrow never comes… (Sinatra) – us old folks would recall. Today’s generation is in the throes of central bank spending like there is no tomorrow and, we are told that if this had not been...
Snippet 2021 – 14
Economy Aside from the mining sector, high on a commodity-driven boom, our agricultural sector emerged from the pandemic relatively unscathed: the latest Stats SA figures showed a production expansion of 13.1%. Our Reserve Bank losing its bite? Switch Auctions are...
Snippet 2021 – 13
Economy Us ordinary folks reasonably expect the Rand to weaken, our economy and our politics being in tatters and all… Yet the Rand touched its strongest levels in two years this past week: why (in an answer we can all understand)? Because our economy is weak, we...
Snippet 2021 – 12
Economy The NUM wants a wage increase of some 68% for the lowest paid miners, up to a minimum wage of R15K per month, with an average of between 15 – 20% for the others. The rationale is said to be the high profit currently made by mining houses: it is true that the...
Snippet 2021 – 11
Economy SAL has reduced its liabilities from R38bn to R2.6bn and has cut its workforce by almost 80%. The question now is how it will operate and whether it will really be viable, given that air traffic is expected to remain depressed for years and now it needs...
Snippet 2021 – 10
Economy What budget? The ink on the latest budget is hardly dry when we have Ace encouraging students to stand up for their rights to education which he says is ANC policy; Blade immediately folds and extra NSFAS funds are found. Similarly, with the impending lapse of...
Snippet 2021 – 09
Economy Our economy shrank by 7% during 2020 – no longer news but, you might recall that, a year ago, a GDP shrinkage of 7% was the minimum projected loss when lockdown was introduced. Upper GDP loss limits were estimated at some 15%. Even our projected maximum state...
Snippet 2021 – 08
Economy At a loss with pension opportunities? It has become clear that South Africa’s financial future is no longer stable. So, where does one invest one’s pension? If you invest here you get tax relief but the investment is risky. If you invest elsewhere you get no...
Snippet 2021 – 07
Economy The Rand and our bourse strengthened post Budget, positive growth figures were bandied about and things appeared rosy. Inexplicably (really?) economists are wary ( Reference ) and Fitch has doubts. The fact is that belief will be suspended pending the...
Snippet 2021 – 06
Economy Hungry for good news: a somewhat startling prediction, made by PwC, is that our economy should grow by 3.4% overall this year. I confess to being somewhat sceptical as we could, even in recent memory, not get near to this kind of figure. The fact is that our...
Snippet 2021 – 05
Economy What’s in a word? Our pretend leaders have this habit of bandying around or repurposing words which I perpetually must look up – the latest crop are: Monetisation Not that new but repurposed – a report held that ACSA will have to monetise its non-core assets....
Snippet 2021 – 04
Economy The latest predictions for South Africa’s spend/income ratio are that a deficit of 15.7% to GDP will result in this financial year. This is a given, and not much can be done about this. So, what do we look forward to? FDI is down by 45% on the previous year...
Snippet 2021 – 03
Economy Boundaries: economic buzzwords abound. Last year’s fiscal cliff is so…last-year: we are flying; the mere fact that this is a fly-now-pay-later scheme (like the wills Banks give us “for free”) shouldn’t hold us back. Today’s boundary (i.e., thou shalt not...
Snippet 2021 – 02
Economy Broke: a year ago, our economy was trundling along without any great prospects but with cracks starting to show. It took a decent crisis, exacerbated by decisions that would probably not be taken again in hindsight to highlight the fragility of our state...
Snippet 2021 – 01
Economy Almost as aside, the SEF and SFF obtained a Western Cape High Court order setting aside the 2015 sale of its strategic oil reserves at $31 per barrel to Glencore. The somewhat bland report says that a former SFF executive had unlawfully concluded a series of...
Snippet 2020 – 41
Economy The original sin, in economics, is having to borrow in a currency other than your own; especially if your currency may weaken. And we are there despite the fighting talk: politicians tell us that we will (read must) borrow money from the IMF, on our terms....