It is common cause that our SOE’s have been managed into financial difficulty. What to do? Lend money from the public service pension scheme to such an entity and convert the loan to equity and voilà, the problem is solved. The government still controls the SOE involved and the debt disappears.

 

How does one predict whether a person will succeed in life? IQ certainly does not cut it as predictor. Enter the marshmallow test: the discovery was partly accidental but very interesting; the ability to delay gratification is a predictor of success. Take a look: Reference

 

For my sins I drink wine on a regular basis with a bunch of engineers (it kinda loosens them up). They tell me times are hard. ProjCore says: “It used to be about time, cost and quality. Now contractors have to do training, enterprise development and many other things in order to comply.” The Consulting Engineers SA Economic and Capacity Survey for June to December 2017, reports debts due to the construction industry of R6.6bn. These represent payments outstanding for longer than 90 days. Several giants amongst construction companies in South Africa are in business rescue or on the cusp thereof; the Liviero Group, Basil Read, Group 5, and Aveng. If these entities are not preserved by our government, Moneyweb suggests that the Chinese might well take their place as the constructors of South African infrastructure. Our government makes much of intended infrastructure development, but does not put its money where its mouth is.

 

Whilst on the subject of development and such: the mantra of job creation by small business may not hold true. An SBI (Small Business Institute) study has found that there is only about ¼ million formal small and medium businesses in South Africa rather than the estimate of 1.2 – 6 million. Furthermore, these entities create only approximately 28% of South African job opportunities. Job creation is concentrated within the thousand largest companies, including the government, which gives work to 56% of those employed.

 

It is interesting to note that Huawei has pulled ahead of Apple to claim the number 2 position in global smartphone shipments in Q2 2018. The fact is that these guys sell very good phones which are also more affordable than iPhones.