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South African ports have been grappling with high levels of congestion and long queues of trucks waiting to enter the ports, which has now reached crisis proportions. To deal with the congestion in Richards Bay, Transnet has suspended processing trucks carrying coal. In Durban harbour, more than 70,000 containers are anchored off the coast of Durban with a three-week waiting period for offloading. This backlog, Transnet says, would likely only be cleared by February or March 2024. The state-owned enterprise said in a statement released earlier this week that it was implementing “a number of urgent interventions to address the backlogs at the Port of Durban and to ease the congestion at Richards Bay to minimise the impact on the South African economy” However, trust in South African ports has already suffered a blow been with Maersk, the global shipping giant, deciding that it will ditch Cape Town as a port of call in favour of Mauritius. In an interview with Biznews, Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association in South Africa said the issues at harbours have been coming for several years. Warnings have come from various industries, including mining for the past five to six years, signalling the impending collapse of core export corridors. He criticised Transnet for not foreseeing the disaster and stressed that South Africa, currently home to the largest port in Africa in Durban, risks losing this status. Kelly said a couple of years ago, exporters used to laugh at Dar-es-Salaam where it took 21 days to clear a container out of the port, it is now down to seven days. South Africa is going in the opposite direction. “We can no longer let state-owned entities that have proven to be absolutely useless to run these sort of crucial logistical nodal points and infrastructure points,” he said. These key points should be given to the private sector to run.

On Sunday, Argentines broke the political mould when 56% of them voted for a Libertarian to become the president of a proud nation with a broken economy. In this honest assessment of new president Javier Milei’s challenges, top SA money manager Piet Viljoen explains how Argentina got to a place where socialism’s decades long spell was finally broken - and the chances of the new leader’s radical economic reforms being achieved. Viljoen also explains the parallels between Argentina and the path his own country is following. He spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg.

There are strong signs that the youth of South Africa is emerging from its apathy to take part in next year’s general elections. This after a surge of voter registrations the past weekend by people under the age of 40. The Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC’s) Manager in Electoral Matters, James Aphane, says there were 568,374 new registrations. Giving a breakdown by age, he says: “Under the age of 29, we have 158,000 females and 130,000 males, and the total is 288,000. But if I were to just say, all the people that registered new amongst the 568 000 under the age of 40…that is actually 90% of them that accounts for that figure. So we have a very high number of registrations that are people under the age of 40, or 40 years and younger. So we are very impressed with these figures, because it means the younger generation is actually participating in this election.”- Chris Steyn

Numerous studies highlight the pivotal role of fibre broadband connections in fostering economic growth in emerging markets. In South Africa, the rollout of fibre has worked well in leafy middle-class suburbs but for 60% of the population that is not a reality. Two companies leading the charge in bringing fibre internet to townships are FiberTime, recently infused with an R39.9 million investment from Finnish development financier Finnfund, and VulaCoin, who is offering digital wallets for micropayments. Providing connectivity at half the price with uncapped internet and speeds up to 100Mbps, their inaugural fibre-to-home project launched in Kayamandi Township near Stellenbosch last year. In an interview with Biznews, Cobus Venter from the University of Stellenbosch’s Bureau for Economic Research who is a consultant for VulaCoin and Fibertime said their model could be rolled out by larger fibre networks, enabling townships to leapfrog straight into the modern digital era. Venter cites a call centre worker's savings of R900 a month in travel expenses and an extra four hours a day with her children as a compelling example of the social development impact. South Africa, he says, is slowly but surely shifting to pay-as-you-go for many other services as well.

With May 22 the most likely date for the big vote, South Africa’s watershed 2024 national election is now just six months away. A change in government, implausible a few years ago, is now a distinct probability with the gap between the two leading parties shrinking fast. On Friday night, the DA’s internal polling put the party at 32% of the national vote compared with the ANC’s 39% - its lowest yet. As momentum is with the DA and its coalition partners, their “path to victory” rallying call has been upgraded from hopeful to possible. DA election campaign manager Greg Krumbock explained why to BizNews editor Alec Hogg.

Corruption Buster Paul O'Sullivan has revealed how a Hawks police officer and a senior State Prosecutor “filled out their own arrest warrants” when they completed and signed hunting permits for a weekend with a fraud accused. He speaks to BizNews following their appearance in court - and his safe return from Brazil where he thwarted machine gun-toting armed robbers. O’Sullivan has words of praise for the police’s handling of the corruption case involving one of their own, and says there is “a golden thread of goodness in our criminal justice system, and if we have hope, which I have, otherwise I would have been long gone, if we have hope, I think justice will prevail and we'll see these people go to prison, and I'm hoping that all three of them will get a minimum sentence of 15 years.” Meanwhile, he urges the millions of poor in South Africa “to take a strong, hard look at who is committing the corruption, why the corruption is being committed” - and says the best way to deal with it “is when the elections come around”. - Chris Steyn

After being wiped out by the March 2019 COVID lockdown, serial entrepreneur Zuziwe Maphalala dusted herself off and started again with a grubstake of R2 000. The ’Kasipreneur listened closely to customers in her modest grocery - and the result is an innovative, successful and scalable concept she has branded as Zoezie’s Weigh & Pay. She explains how it happened, with gaps filled in by informal sector guru GG Alcock. They spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg.

In bustling Covent Garden in London, Paul van Zyl, originally from South Africa and former Executive Secretary of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and his co-founders, have established The Conduit. This private members’ club is dedicated to uniting the world’s brightest minds in a social enterprise committed to changing the world. In an interview with Biznews, Van Zyl discusses his journey from the TRC, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to co-founding The Conduit. He describes how he embraces the philosophy of Ubuntu and his efforts to introduce this concept to entrepreneurs. Van Zyl explains that The Conduit merges elements of private members’ clubs like Soho House with ideas festivals and business incubators, hosting 200 talks annually on global issues with a solutions-oriented approach. The Conduit boasts a diverse community of 3000 members, including philanthropists, CEOs, activists, and entrepreneurs. Speakers have included Nobel Prize winners and other influential global figures like Malala. The Conduit also operates a sister business functioning as a business incubator. Van Zyl reveals that the Conduit has expanded to Oslo and has plans for New York, Geneva, Copenhagen, and Singapore. They also plan to launch an academy to deliver recorded talks to a wider audience. He comments on the global leadership deficit in addressing the world’s challenges and reflects on his time with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I try to live up to the optimism and leadership principles embodied by Archbishop Tutu, and Nelson Mandela, he says. They demonstrated “a kind of leadership that rises above pettiness and partisanship and thinks above the horizon, not on the things that are immediately in front of them.”

Traditional financial planning focuses on investments, pensions, tax or insurance and aims to optimise the individual components to achieve financial goals. In contrast, holistic financial planning takes a more comprehensive and strategic approach. In this interview with Biznews, Claire Moorhouse, a wealth Manager at Overberg Asset Management outlines the benefits of holistic financial planning and how a personal long-term financial roadmap could be created which incorporates wealth creation, wealth protection and estate planning. Moorhouse says traditionally intergenerational financial planning has been seen as making preparations for when you die, but a more modern approach is to act while they’re still here to protect their families and their legacy. She says It is important to be aware of your tax residence status as well as that of your beneficiaries. As many South Africans have externalised their funds, a situs tax could be imposed in the US and the UK on assets located in their jurisdiction. Moorhouse highlights a the possibility that you could be over-insured and reveals that the younger income earners in South Africa are overwhelmingly open about financial planning.

After an illegal - and costly - strike of almost four months, Tshwane is pulling back from the brink of collapse to get back looted money and crack down on lawlessness. The MMC for Community Safety Grandi Theunissen of the Freedom Front details the steps being taken to return stability and safety to South Africa’s capital city.  Those include the appointment of highly experienced chiefs of Police and Emergency Services; a crack-down on illegal liquor traders and spaza shops; as well as plans to establish an Illegal Electricity and Water Connection Unit, a multi-functional By-Law Enforcement Centre, and a Community Safety Directorate. He also reveals how 33 cases of fraudulent activity contributed to the City being in such deep financial distress - and describes the fight to bring those people responsible to book - and recover the money. - Chris Steyn