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Articles and advice on all things legalSnippet 2020 – 39
Economy This week past Mr Ramaphosa, seeking investments, said that our state needs to be recalibrated and refocused; its capability having been deeply compromised. This view is shared by Business Maverick which ran an article headed: We are in such a deep hole that...
Snippet 2020 – 38
Economy Spending more: South Africa is burning up money it does not have at the rate of R2.1bn per day and has extended social assistance payments. The Fiscal Cliff Study Group has said that our public sector remuneration, social assistance payments and debt service...
Snippet 2020 – 37
Economy Res non verba is the motto of our family crest of arms, which my old man was desperate to perpetuate and I, probably the least suitable in our family (heck, my sister was bigger than I!), am the only surname bearer to produce sons (explained by the 1-sock...
Snippet 2020 – 36
Business Snippets: A newspaper reported that Transnet had made a mistake in rehiring errant CEO Gama – a mistake! The taxi industry declares itself ready for regulation – amazing! Eskom accepts renewable energy then discovers this that its network cannot handle a...
Snippet 2020 – 35
Economy Our economy is starting to pick up and hope springs… There are, however, a few issues which simply will not go away, and few are as urgent as the governance and financial issues in local government. It is pleasant to argue about tax but if you have no water or...
Snippet 2020 – 34
Economics When the Prez, this week past, addressed us on the shortcomings of our public services, he touched on the essence underlying our current dilemma with the implementation of political policy. I grew up with the (British) understanding that the civil service...
Snippet 2020 – 33
Economics You will recall that growing our middle-class was a hot political topic some years back – the thinking was that “we” needed a substantial middle-class to ensure the retention of a democratic capitalist state. This week past there were mutterings of our...
Snippet 2020 – 32
Economics Mr Godongwana debunked the notion of using pension funds to bail out SOEs this week past. This pleased me immensely as, on checking, the only SOE that is making a profit, appears to be SAFCOL ; investing in trees is hardly a great pension move. The idea is...
Snippet 2020 – 31
Economics The current economic stats are old news: consumer confidence the lowest in 15 years; the BCI consumer confidence is up, but still negative, and so on. Interestingly and unexpectedly our JSE is up to pre-lockdown levels. Why? Essentially because the large...
Snippet 2020 – 30
Economy Last year’ s downgrade of SA Inc has led to R54bn in stocks being offloaded by foreigners. For the past 30 years, emerging markets have provided diversification opportunities for global equity investors. South Africa is listed on the MSCI index which tracks...
Snippet 2020 – 29
Economy Investing in South African infrastructure: I recall having been repeatedly over the past 10 years, told by those who govern us, that the state will invest in infrastructure. Factually, fixed investment in South Africa, has grown by a mere 0.2% since 2009 ....
Snippet 2020 – 28
Economy Restive: the volk is becoming restive – the economic damage (it’s about the economy, stupid!) wrought by the junta-imposed lockdown, is becoming such that folk are openly ridiculing, indeed disobeying, those that govern us. Examples of this abound and are not...
Snippet 2020 – 27
Economics South Africa is reportedly in the 80th month of a weakening economic cycle, of which only the last three can fairly be attributed to CV 19. Self-made? Certainly. I was intrigued to hear a political commentator decline naming Zimbabwe as a failed state,...
Snippet 2020 – 26
Economy B4SA, supported by BBC, and BUSA, made a proposal that infrastructure forms the flywheel of our financial recovery to the tune of R3.4Tr. What is true is that such development would create jobs and multiply the value of the sum spent considerably. Our problem,...
Snippet 2020 – 25
Economy More or less? I am confused as to where we should go, economically speaking. Should we tighten our economic belt, spend more, or both? Tito has called for the former; this week a bunch of PhD’s and similar, called for more expenditure. My gut says that you...
Snippet 2020 – 24
Economy I don’t believe we have an economic or financial problem in South Africa. We have a political problem. Dawie Rood ‘Potamus rising: the world debt is, on average 100% of world GDP. Ours sits at 81% of our GDP. Better than many, but, when we are spending 21% of...
Snippet 2020 – 23
Economy Can Dr Doom be right again? Roubini, a New York University Prof, sprang into prominence when his 2006 warning, that the US housing market would collapse, proved true. He now predicts a post-CV19 economic rebound, followed by a collapse beneath the weight of...
Snippet 2020 – 22
Economics Economic news in Africa, and closer to home, is not great, as may be seen from the following: the average share of African government revenue that goes towards external debt service has tripled over the past 10 years to 13%; Angola, Africa’s second-largest...