BizNews Radio

The DA’s shadow minister of labour Michael Bagraim says his party will fight the ANC-driven proposal that will force thousands of South African estate agents to hand over to new owners or close down their businesses. In this vibrant interview with BizNews editor Alec Hogg, Bagraim also discusses suggestions that the party’s weakening in the polls is directly correlated to a refusal to rule out a coalition with the ANC (as a ‘least worst’ option for SA after May 29.)

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In the monthly update of investment markets, Corion’s David Bacher takes us through the highlights for April where South African equities outperformed - and quarterly results lent fresh volatility to Wall Street’s Magnificent Seven. Bacher explains the reasons for the past month’s performance of various investment markets - and looks ahead to what we can expect in May. He spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg.

BizNews will be taking its successful conference format to London on May 15, sharing insights with SA expats a fortnight before the watershed 2024 Election. Among the seven keynote speakers are SA informal market specialists GG Alcock and Warren Wheatley - one a rurally raised white zulu; the other a highly educated chartered accountant - offering a similar tale of a nation with huge potential and abundant hope. They shared a taster of their messages with BizNews editor Alec Hogg, who will be hosting the landmark May 15 event.

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In this powerful interview, Sakeliga’s CEO Piet le Roux unpacks his organisation’s fightback against the ‘third wave’ of BEE typified in efforts to make it compulsory for SA’s 40 000 estate agencies. Despite Pretoria’s growing legislative encroachment, Le Roux is upbeat about South Africa’s future: ‘State-proofing’ is being rapidly adopted by businesses and is laying the foundation for growth in the collective power of businesses to counter a weakening and increasingly ineffective central government.  He told BizNews editor Alec Hogg that the next decade will be turbulent, but is confident the nation will emerge a lot stronger.

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A controversial gas tender awarded to a man who was named 176 times in the Mpati Commission report into malfeasance at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) should be terminated with immediate effect. That is the call from Kevin Mileham, the Democratic Alliance's (DA’s) Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy following earlier warnings by his party that Equator Holdings “run, owned, and managed” by Lawrence Mulaudzi does not have the money and technical skills to fulfil the tender requirement of rebuilding PetroSA’s critical gas infrastructure - and is now “shopping around” for potential funders and technical partners for the project. “PetroSA is a failing State-owned entity. And you don't fix that by giving tenders to cronies,” Mileham says. Meanwhile Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe “is very, very quiet about this whole issue” - and is “more interested in campaigning right now than in dealing with the issues in the entities that are under his control”.

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In a wide-ranging, pre-election preview, United Independent Movement (UIM) President Neil de Beer torpedoes rumours of a Multi-Party Charter (MPC) collapse; gives his take on the daggers flying in former President Jacob Zuma’s MK party; and hails Patriotic Alliance (PA) President Gayton McKenzie’s combat strategy, saying the “Green Machine” is moving down to the Cape like an “oil slick” and has left the Democratic Alliance (DA) overwhelmed by the Brown Child Revolution. He discusses a post-election three-faction scenario comprising the MPC, the RET (Radical Economic Transformation), and the African National Congress (ANC). “And the question is, whom of those three are going to have coffee with whom, except I know they already having coffee.” However, De Beer vows that his UIM party would never form a government with the ANC or the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). “Then we go it alone. We cannot sit with this country's fiscal, economical enemy.”

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Patriotic Alliance (PA) President Gayton McKenzie has declared all-out war on the Democratic Alliance (DA) after his recent olive branch to the opposition party “expired”. Speaking to BizNews after another two by-election victories, he says:  “It's war. It's full-out war. We are not playing. I extended the olive branch because I do think that the Western Cape will not be best served with the ANC (African National Congress) coming back…And they then answered that by insulting me…” McKenzie says the PA has been winning 80% of the by-elections it has fought, and he doesn’t think the DA will get 35 per cent of the vote in the Western Cape. Meanwhile, he says Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) leader Julius Malema understands that the upcoming election is a match between the EFF and the PA. “So I'm saying that if you are a white person, it's no longer time to vote for your normal parties… Let's keep Malema out. I'm the only guy that can stand up to that fool. I'm the only one that can stand up to that mafia. South Africa doesn't deserve a guy like Malema.”

South Africa’s mining investment guru Peter Major has come out all guns blazing against Australian BHP’s “opportunistic” bid for Anglo American. In this powerful interview with BizNews editor Alec Hogg, Major calls on SA’s president and mining minister to step in quickly and promise to reverse legislative mistakes which chased away global investors. Doing so, he says, will save Anglo from BHP’s clutches and turbo-charge the country’s moribund mining sector. Major believes it’s easy to fix - but requires humility and realism from Pretoria. Starting with appeals to an alienated global investment community to stop Wall Street desk jockeys killing SA’s 107 year-old Golden Goose.

Wonderbag was a company established in 2008 methods as a solution to South Africa’s energy crisis providing families with a means to continue cooking daily meals during power outages. Resembling a colourful bag reminiscent of a pumpkin, Wonderbag employs ancient heat retention cooking technology, providing employment and income opportunities to entrepreneurs across the developing world. In South Africa, manufacturing is outsourced to 2000 entrepreneurs, primarily women, providing them with vital income. Founder of Wonderbag, Sarah Collins told Biznews in an interview about the business model she pioneered, her high-profile carbon clients including Sasol, Anglo American and Nandos. She also highlighted South Africa’s role in crafting legislation to bolster carbon credit projects.

President Cyril Ramaphosa does not even know where the Guptas are. That is the riposte from  Glynnis Breytenbach, the Democratic Alliance's Shadow Minister of Justice, to the National Prosecuting Authority (NP) calling in the help of the President to try and fast track the extradition from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of the Guptas. As for the few billion of State Capture loot recovered so far by the NPA, Breytenbach says “it's not even a drop in the ocean of the trillions and trillions and trillions of rands that we were robbed of - and that government officials and cabinet members assisted crooks to steal from us”.  She calls the close to 700 government officials thus far convicted of corruption “petty thieves” - and says “we need to see people at the top of the scale who stole at a breathtaking pace, held to account”. She also gives an update on the proposed establishment of DA-driven Anti Corruption Commission where prosecutors will have “no fear that their work will be undone by a bunch of politicians who don't like being held accountable”.