BizNews Radio

At the BizNews conference last week, David Bacher invested time with Sean Peche to better understand the whistleblower's perspective on SA money manager performance fees - and was particularly interested in the way big companies restrict access to the investment platforms (which they own). He shares his conclusions on both aspects in this interview with Alec Hogg of BizNews. Plus Bacher also provides insights into the Corion Report, the regular review of investment markets over the past month - and takes a stab at a trifecta of accurate forecasts after being spot on with his predictions for July and August.

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In this podcast we revisit SA's performance fee scandal exposed a fortnight back by Sean Peche whose investigation showed that the big money managers are harvesting billions from savers despite delivering poor returns. OMBA co-founder Mark Perchtold, who like Peche is a South African based in London, shines more light on a subject that has evoked considerable debate - opening up a new avenue of inquiry around acccess to investment platforms, which in SA are owned by the oligopoly.

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While most of the BizNews team's focus was on its fourth conference (BNC#$) in the Drakensberg last week, the rest of the world was absorbing sobering news about the global economy - with the oil price losing 6% and stock markets falling sharply. In this episode of the BizNews Business Briefing we take a look at the big losers, including the Rand which fell 59c against the US Dollar to R17.30. Also in this episode, BNC's two time golf champion shares his perspectives on the Spring 2022 event.

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BizNews spoke to Dr Mark Pimentel, a gastroenterologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, California, about irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a disorder which has gained a reputation as a default ‘leftover’ diagnosis due to the medical fraternity’s inability to conclusively define or diagnose the condition. Pimentel, who created a test capable of conclusively diagnosing IBS caused by food poisoning, shared invaluable insight into his work. Spoiler alert: IBS is not, as previously defined by doctors, a psychosomatic condition. It is a bacterial disorder, the discovery of which has elevated the landscape of IBS and its treatment.

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As the Covid-19 waves have decreased, various resultant issues, either ignored or wilfully bypassed in the midst of the pandemic frenzy and subsequent mass vaccination drive, are now coming into focus. Sharply. In July, BizNews published an article by veteran SA journalist Brian Pottinger in which he pointed out that those companies that implemented vaccine mandates may eventually have to face up to their accountability for sequential injury and even possible death resulting from these mandates. But what about the South African government’s culpability? To explore the culpability of both the state and companies that implemented vaccine mandates, BizNews spoke to Dr Herman Edeling. The esteemed neurosurgeon who specialises in a medico-legal practice succinctly laid out the case that the SA government’s move to indemnify vaccine manufacturers for adverse events and death occurring as a result of their vaccines was unquestionably unconstitutional and fraudulent – a fact which can be proven in court. Edeling spoke at length about a Covid-19 vaccination phenomenon which is currently evident across the globe and supported by data. A must watch interview.

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Independent analyst Dr Frans Cronje's think tank, the Social Research Foundation (SRF) has issued a report showing the ANC would likely win an absolute maximum of 52% of the vote in an election modelled on voter turnout of 56%. The SRF report has garnered significant attention primarily because polling company Ipsos puts the ANC at only 42%, according to its latest polling data. The big difference between these two is the SRF report dealt only with registered voters while Ipsos didn't. South Africa's voter turnout is historically poor. In the 2019 national election, about 66% of the electorate turned out, dropping from 73.4% in 2014. For the 2021 local government elections that figure is even bleaker, at 46% down from 57% in 2014. Among registered voters, Cronje says they're polling the ANC at 46.9%, "and then when we start creating election scenarios, factoring in voter turnout levels, the highest we can get the ANC to is 52%." He says the data regarding the slumping fortunes of the ANC is unambiguous. The SRF report highlights that if only urban South Africans voted, the ANC would muster only 33%. Conversely, if only rural SA headed to the polls, the ANC would win a two-thirds majority. ANC voters are ageing and rural in an urbanising economy. Cronje is adamant that the future survival of the ANC come 2024 is less dependent on anything it does or says, but "is a question of whether the people who wish to beat it are able to pull together sufficiently to shore up confidence in coalition options". If the ANC manages to scrape by in two years’ time, it will be a reflection of a disjointed and ineffective opposition in South Africa which simply couldn't get their act together.

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Karam Singh, Director of Corruption Watch, is well aware of the cynicism among South Africans when it comes to any anti-corruption initiative borne from the government - but he's optimistic the new National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (NACAC) is fundamentally a progressive development. He told BizNews that the mere announcement of the establishment of the council isn't in itself something to be applauded as "the proof will be in the pudding", but it remains laudable. In this discussion, Singh touches on NACAC's role in assisting President Cyril Ramaphosa to compile government's implementation plan flowing from Zondo's State Capture Inquiry recommendations. The window for Ramaphosa to emerge as an anti-corruption champion is closing fast, bedevilled by allegations he himself is facing, coupled with a dubious cast of characters, fingered in Zondo's reports, he continues to keep in his cabinet.

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OUTA chief investigator on state capture Rudie Heyneke reacts to the arrests of former Transnet and Gupta-linked Regiments executives charged with contravention of the PFMA, fraud, corruption and money laundering. Former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe and the parastatal’s former finance head Anoj Singh were joined in the dock by Regiments Capital executives Litha Nyhonyha and Niven Pillay. The Hawks affected their arrests on Monday morning in relation to a R93m Transnet corruption matter in which former Transnet group chief executive Siyabonga Gama, former acting group CFO Garry Pita, former group treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi, Regiments shareholder Eric Wood, Trillian Asset Management director Daniel Roy, and Albatime's Kuben Moodley, are all co-accused. OUTA is calling the latest round of arrests "better late than never".

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The spaza shops, bakers and other retail outlets running their small business in townships have a heap of challenges. They close often to go and source products, carry cash and have no access to credit. Intrigued by these township markets, Jessica Boonstra, originally from the Netherlands, started her business, Yebo Fresh from her garage, delivering products to a local township. When Covid hit, she became “really entrepreneurial” and with “a bit of bluff” secured funding from the Scheinberg Fund to build infrastructure to distribute food parcels. Since then, Boonstra, with the help of her team, including sales and marketing director, Lerato Ramollo, has grown Yebo Fresh from a “playful young company” into a proper scale-up with R41.5 million in annual sales in the last financial year. Boonstra told BizNews, “People keep looking at a township as a place for charity, but maybe not so much for business, whereas it is actually the next frontier.” – Linda van Tilburg

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With both supply and costs of electricity having changed dramatically for SA in the past few years, many are wondering it's time to dust off the blueprints of Eskom's groundbreaking Pebble Bed Modular Reactor nuclear power programme. Cancelled in 2010 due to affordability, the PBMR project had sucked in a staggering R30bn in State investment, employed hundreds of scientists and even created a working prototype at NW University. Theuns Eloff, who was NWU's vice chancellor at the time; and Andrew Donaldson, then DDG at National Treasury, discuss why the project was canned - and whether the new energy equation justifies revisiting the PBMR idea. They spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.

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