BizNews Radio

It was a bumpy March for investment markets, especially on the JSE, where share prices followed the rest of the world lower - but did not participate in the late bounce. However, Corion's David Bacher reckons that divergence opens up a buying opportunity for active investors, and his house has gone overweight SA stocks to take advantage. In this monthly recap, Bacher also shares which money managers are hot (and not) by performance and flow of funds. He spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

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In 2018, parliamentarian Bantu Holomisa went public with a slew of allegations against Harith founder Tshepo Mahloele - accusing him of being the kingpin in a network of corruption and worse than the Guptas. After being cleared by a fifth successive investigation, this time by the PIC and GEPF, Mahloele is moving onto the offensive, launching a campaign for South Africa to introduce US-style punitive damages - starting with the politician. Mahloele says the cost to his businesses of these baseless allegations runs into hundreds of millions of rand, including the aborting of numerous business opportunities caused by what has now been proved to be Holomisa’s lies. He says a proper deterrent is needed to force appropriate consequences onto those who destroy through propagating falsehoods. Mahloele spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

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Steinhoff's management and board were given a bloody nose at December's Annual General Meeting when all the important proposals were voted down because of the opposition of Germany's leading Shareholder Protection association SDK. The investment activist body, established in the 1950s, boasts numerous coups including imploded multinational Wirecard. It speaks for shareholders representing 23% of Steinhoff's equity - and board member Dr Marc Liebscher says it wants to add South Africans to the 1800 German shareholders who have already proved to be the Nemesis of Steinhoff's managers. By voting against the proposals, SDK says it stopped a board proposal that would have seen already in-the-money financial speculators profiting further while shareholders would lose virtually everything. Berlin-based lawyer Liebscher says SDK is well-funded and up for a fight. Among its options is calling a meeting to replace the Steinhoff board and its well-paid (R50m a year) managers who, he believes, appear to be acting for hedge funds and other creditors rather than in the interests of shareholders. He spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

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Professor Tim Noakes' presentation at the BizNews Conference in March detailed the failures of medical science and the imitation scientists who fervently serve at the behest of "The Science". Noakes' grasp of the complexities of the ongoing yet unseen pandemics of diabetes and obesity exemplified a perfect marriage between incontrovertible comprehension and the kind of simplicity only critical thought and accuracy could inform. Noakes also shared his unfiltered and uniquely qualified views on the parallels between the false COVID narrative and mainstream media's rejection and suppression of evidence refuting previously untouchable dictums. The combination of higher-order thinking questions posed by delegates and Noakes' discerning and informative responses prompted a profoundly valuable discussion.

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There’s much to digest from this interview with Jay Naidoo, a now 68-year-old who grew up as the last-born of eight children - and whose life was overturned when Apartheid’s Group Areas Act collided with the location of a modest family home. The social engineering system switched him from medical student to trade unionist; but it was intellect and passion that propelled the iconic activist into the top rank of anti-Apartheid warriors. In this moving, reflective discussion, Naidoo explains why he still refuses to accept the obvious, and continues to publicly pose thorny questions in a personal quest to leave the world a better place. He spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

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Mike Steven’s life changed drastically at the age of 12 when he became a double amputee after being electrocuted at the Vaaldam. After years in hospital, he could return to school, but it was in a wheelchair. Prosthetics changed his life and by the time he finished high school Stevens told BizNews he was “fully adapted, mobile and wanted to do things.” A period when Stevens could not afford his own prosthetics made him realise what other amputees, especially children go through, and he joined Jumping Kids, a non-profit organisation that provides access to prosthetic equipment for children. Stevens always enjoyed sport and being able to participate at a competitive level, he rowed, sailed and kite-surfed but the tricky Paralympic categories prevented him from following in the footsteps of his father, Geoff Stevens who was an Olympian sailor in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic. A chance meeting with another para athlete led to a path down an icy track at speeds of over 120km/h and Stevens became one of the few para bobsledders in Africa. Stevens told BizNews of his hope to include bobsleigh as a Paralympic event, where his ‘vasbyt’ comes from and how he wants to turn Jumping Kids into a social enterprise. South Africa, he said, could be a leader in Africa in providing prosthetics for the growing number of amputees.

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At 35, it's tempting to make parallels between Tshwane's new executive mayor Cilliers Brink and his counterparts in Cape Town and uMngeni, better exposed Young Lions of the Democratic Alliance. If anything, though, the legally-trained Pretoria lad faces an even more formidable challenge than counterparts Geordin Hill-Lewis and Chris Pappas. While they run local governments where the DA enjoys an outright majority, Brink leads a fragile political coalition recently embarrassed by a handful of members who secretly voted with the ANC/EFF rivals. But Brink sees his glass as half full. In this interview, he explains what is being done to overcome recent setbacks, including a missed opportunity to tackle load-shedding and an appalling audit report. He spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

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Another sublime contribution from South Africa's foremost political scientist RW Johnson. The historian, author and former Oxford Don expands on a BizNews Premium column where he called out SA presidential myopia with the looming "nightmare" scenario of an ANC/EFF coalition running the country after the 2024 Election. Johnson looks at Rob Hersov's efforts to get the Rainbow Coalition back on track - and explains in some detail why South Africans should be prepared for interference by Moscow. He spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

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After many years deliberately spent out of the public eye, Professor Tim Noakes returned to the public platform as a keynote speaker at the fifth BizNews Conference in March 2023. His presentation exceeded all expectations as he delivered hard truths about medical science failures he termed "crime scenes". In a manner only someone capable of publicly admitting that the beliefs upon which they had built their entire careers had, in fact, been completely wrong, Noakes proceeded to fundamentally shatter longstanding and dangerously widespread misconceptions about critical topics like cholesterol, statin drugs, diabetes and nutrition. This presentation is truly a MUST-LISTEN.

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Financial advisor Magnus Heystek has described investment into property in South Africa, as a destroyer of wealth. Heystek told BizNews at the beginning of 2023 that his advisors at Brenthurst “have been actively reducing direct exposure to listed property since 2017, where possible”. In contrast, he said, “offshore listed property over the same time had soared by more than 60%.” But, with rising interest rates and inflation over 10% in the United Kingdom, are overseas property markets still a good investment for South Africans? The Director: Offshore Real Estate Investment at Sable International says inflation has actually been good for property investments in the UK as it drove up rents by 20-30% and ”your annual yield can far exceed interest rates.” She said muted property growth takes pressure off buyers in a market that is often characterised by bidding wars

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