BizNews Radio

In this episode of CrypTalk, BizNews’ Ross Sinclair and Jaltech’s Gaurav Nair discuss the Binance Bridge hacks, the Celsius Network’s data leaks, miners moving from the Ethereum chain to Bitcoin after the merge, the likelihood that Bitcoin will be more volatile in the future, and more about the tokens in the Jaltech Cryptocurrency basket. 

For more information about Jaltech: https://www.biznews.com/jaltech-cryptocurrency-notes

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Over 220 South African students, furthering their education in Russia, face expulsion and eviction from residences after a funding debacle back home. The students are supposed to be fully funded by the Mpumalanga Education Department with costs covered for living expenses, tuition and accommodation. But the contract for the implementing agent the department was working with has lapsed leaving the students stranded. The department has vowed to make all outstanding payments to tertiary institutions in Russia by 14 October. BizNews correspondent Michael Appel spoke to Sizwe Mkhatshwa - a fifth year medical student - who faces not only eviction from his residence but also automatically being failed on several modules should payment not be forthcoming. The department said in a statement that: "Everything humanly possible is being done by the Department to ensure that the academic and plight of students is not compromised."

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SA's shadow mining minister James Lorimer had his hopes of a breakthrough in the war against organised mining criminals dashed when ANC and EFF members of Parliament's task force refused to visit an illegally-worked open pit coal mine. This was the second site scheduled for observation during Saturday's visit to Emalahleni (Witbank), unusual in that it avoided typical Potemkin-village staging by bureaucrats. But as Lorimer explains in this podcast, the risk of getting their shoes muddied apparently took precedence for the R95k a month taxpayer-funded ANC and EFF deployees. In this interview with Alec Hogg of BizNews, the DA veteran unpacks how illegal mining has become big business in SA's coal mining epicentre with criminal syndicates leasing heavy duty diggers and dump trucks to illegally strip-mine hundreds of tons of coal sold wholesale into the system at massive profits. Lorimer explains how this crime is facilitated through deliberately blind eyes of those paid to protect society against such abuse. Including, it appears, some Parliamentarians.

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Outspoken billionaire, viral sensation and vehement critic of the ANC, Rob Hersov, joined Alec Hogg of BizNews to share his practical solution “to save South Africa from the ANC,” as he puts it. Aside from extreme praise and death threats, Hersov has also received criticism for being “all talk and no action” following his latest scathing accusations against the corrupt ANC. In response and because of his own passion to see South Africa succeed, he has launched a decentralised autonomous organisation called New South Africa.org which has already gained 12,000 members in the four days since the blockchain-supported platform was launched. The initiative already has over 30 volunteers and sees endless possibilities to raise funds and support the projects that government should be spearheading, like getting Wi-Fi into townships or developing homeless settlements.

New South Africa.org is a libertarian, free-market, non-racial, apolitical organisation, that through decentralised blockchain technology, can raise funds and allow members to vote for investment proposals without bureaucracy, ensuring the transparent and accountable allocation of funds, powered by the blockchain ecosystem. An inspiring project that could yield real results with the groundswell support of South Africans, we wish Rob and the New South Africa.org team the very best in their vision to, “support fellow members and organisations … to create and endorse investment activities that will add value to our country, giving ownership of decisions back to the people and to restore our reputation and the dignity of the people.”

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DearSA chairman Rob Hutchinson is encouraging South Africans to make their voices heard in opposition to certain worrying elements contained within amendments to anti-terrorism legislation he believes "is a threat to constitutional democracy". DearSA is a non-profit organisation which created a platform through which citizens could participate directly in influencing policy, legislative amendments and proposals. Hutchinson says if the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Amendment Bill passes as is, it could see organisations like DearSA being labelled as a terrorist organisation under incredibly vague definitions of seeking to undermine the state. He told BizNews correspondent Michael Appel there is a danger of creeping authoritarianism as existing legislation is almost perfectly adequate but simply lacks implementation by the government.

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State prosecutor Adv Billy Downer, SC and New24 journalist Karyn Maughan will potentially face their criminal prosecution by Jacob Zuma on 2 February 2023. The date was agreed by the parties during a brief appearance in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday. Downer is accused of contravening sections of the National Prosecuting Authority Act related to unauthorised disclosure of information, while Maughan, as an “accomplice”, is charged with unauthorised disclosure of the contents of a document. BizNews correspondent Michael Appel explains.

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During the worst of the insanity in SA's airline sector, Miles vd Molen's Cemair stopped servicing the industry's Joburg/CT/Durban 'golden triangle' as it realised how first taxpayer (SAA) and then creditor's capital (Comair) was used to subsidise travellers in an attempt to bludgeon competitors into bankruptcy. Now that those market's distortions are over, Cemair has invested heavily and with a significantly increased fleer recently returned to servicing SA's three biggest airports. Its capacity has risen four-fold (1m passengers annually) from the pre-Covid number of 250 000. And there is lots more growth to come, not just in SA, but also in neighbouring countries as it secures licences to expand flights into neighbouring countries. Entrepreneur Van der Molen, a pilot himself, explains how Cemair waited seven years for the market to normalise and is now expanding aggressively (but he says sustainably) into the vacuum left by the demise of Comair and dramatic down-sizing of SAA.

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Fiercely independent financial advisor Magnus Heystek has turned even more bearish on SA assets after taking a deep dive into researching implications of a threatened 'Grey Listing' of the country's financial system in February 2023. Heystek says such action has never before been applied to a country of South Africa's size and consequences are likely to be dire. He reckons it could be similar to the massive fallout experienced in December 2015 with Nenegate which, he says, started the slide into SA's precarious position. In this sobering interview with Alec Hogg of BizNews, Heystek says the likely Grey Listing trumps all other factors for investors weighing up their options - and urges them to adopt an even higher offshore weighting for their savings.

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Despite having stepped down as DA Leader three years ago, Mmusi Maimane remains popular among South Africans, second only to Cyril Ramaphosa as their most popular leader. After realising promised Electoral Reform will take much longer than anticipated, on Heritage Day (Sept 24) Maimane re-entered the fray with the launch of Build One South Africa (BOSA), the country's newest political party. In this interview with Alec Hogg of BizNews, the former Leader of the Opposition explains why he identifies with Teddy Rooseveld's 'Man in the Arena', shares his dreams for SA and unveils plans for BOSA to secure a significant share of the vote in the 2024 National Election. These include applying an Obama-style digital approach in targeting 5m voters.

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In this Q&A session off the back of his presentation at BNC#4, Sean Peche of Ranmore funds answers questions regarding the performance fee debate, the switch from growth investing to value investing and his hope that money leaves the big institutions and makes its way to smaller fund managers. 

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