BizNews Radio

Exchange rates and the first set of US quarterly results in the global focus this morning - while in SA the smashing of resources stocks continues and analysts fret about the country's slide towards becoming a Failed State. Those topics dominate this morning's episode of the BizNews Breakfast Briefing, where we also share numbers on the incredible collapse of JSE-listed commodities counters since their recent peaks in March.

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BizNews A-Plus Show duo Alec Hogg and Michael Appel are back with episode 11 of their weekly round-up of business, investments, news and politics banter you need to know. In focus this episode: AfriForum working to "state-proof communities"; ANC veteran Mavuso Msimang says Ramaphosa must step down; mass small-scale power generation could end loadshedding in 12 months; Cape Town unrepentantly focused on purchasing power from individuals/businesses; SA on a slippery slope to failed statehood; Magnus Heystek on rand nosediving 17% in three months.

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South Africa’s future hangs in the balance because of a vacuum of ethical and courageous leadership, coupled with stunted GDP growth, political uncertainty and fragile social cohesion. The Institute for Risk Management South Africa’s 2022 Risk Report highlights several pitfalls bedevilling the country and informing three possible scenarios likely to play out in coming years. These scenarios include the perpetual hangover; fake it until you make it or not, and owning our future. BizNews spoke to IRMSA’s chief risk advisor, Chris Palm, about the prevailing risks for the country, what pivotal shifts could remedy the situation, and whether or not he believes we’re a failed state already.

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This episode of the BizNews Breakfast Briefing is dominated by the news that US inflation hit a 30 year record in June - but after an immediate shock, investment markets are already looking ahead to better days. There's an excerpt from Mavuso Msimang, ANC veteran and 10-year long chair of Corruption Watch, explaining why SA's president must step down. And insights into how Afriforum is helping SA's depleted and poorly equipped police force to counter unrest.

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Mavuso Msimang (80) is among a thinning group of ANC veterans who left SA in their youth to self-exile during Apartheid. In his case, working in Tanzania for the armed wing Mkonto we Sizwe after a year's training in Moscow studying how to create home-made bombs. The career public servant, conservation icon and inaugural chairman of Corruption Watch, is currently chairing a presidentially-appointed task team to advise on ways to cutting bureaucratic red tape. Msimang hit South African news headlines this month after calling for president Cyril Ramaphosa to step down over the Phala Phala scandal, the first high profile member of the 'good' ANC to adopt this stance. He explains why during this in-depth conversation with Alec Hogg of BizNews.com, airing the even more controversial view that losing power in the 2024 National Election may be the best thing that could happen to the ANC. Until recently it was inconceivable that the century-old political party losing a majority in SA's Parliament enjoyed since the country's first democratic election in 1994.

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In this episode of the BizNews Breakfast Briefing, highlights of interviews by the team with two well-researched thinkers promoting practical plans to fix loadshedding. Both conclude that with the ANC lacking political will to address archaic rules and policies over procurement and supply of electricity, it's up to society to implement its own plans. US markets took a late hit for a third successive down day after a tweet from the White House suggesting June's inflation number will be above market expectations (it is released today) and Joe Biden is flying into a lion's den, today meeting with Saudi leaders of whom he has been critical.

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Civil society organisation AfriForum is working together - albeit on an ad hoc basis - with law enforcement authorities and even the SANDF, on several initiatives aimed at creating robust civilian safety structures. The organisation has 155 neighbourhood and farm watch structures around South Africa encompassing 10,000 trained volunteers. It has been active on the South African border with Zimbabwe through its Border Watch initiative, and more recently assisted the Tshwane Metro Police Department with drones during flare-ups of violent protests in the west of Pretoria. AfriForum campaigns manager Jacques Broodryk tells BizNews they're trying to "state-proof communities" against the continued failure of the government.

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The Rand has taken a sharp fall and broken the R17 mark to the US Dollar, seeing it hovering at its lowest levels in two years. In this interview Arno von Helden of Shyft explains the likely local and global factors that have affected the tumble, and what educated information might expect from the Rand’s performance over the next six months.

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Adding thousands of decentralised small-scale power generation projects to the grid could end loadshedding within the next year. Head of the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), Connie Mulder, told BizNews’ Michael Appel they will be entering the generation space within the 100MW licence exemption threshold to sell power to end consumers, and he encourages thousands of others to do the same. Waiting on large-scale commercial projects to come to Eskom’s rescue over the next few years will doom the country to even darker days ahead. Mulder is technologically agnostic and doesn't care how electricity is generated, only that it's being generated. The inspiration for the approach the SRI is advocating for comes from Vietnam. It's a country that found itself in a similar loadshedding scenario to South Africa at the end of 2007. It opted for generous feed-in tariffs allowing small-scale solar power producers to supply the grid with simple rooftop projects. Vietnam added 4,500MW in the first year, and 9,000MW in 2019/20. He’s adamant that the South African government cannot or will not solve the electricity crisis, so it’s up to small-scale generators of power to bring an end to the crisis.

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The City of Cape Town is poised to use SA's electricity crisis to abrogate power over electricity supply long centralised in Pretoria - and intends to soon be buying solar panel-generated electricity from businesses and households. Its 35-year-old mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who campaigned ahead of last year's local elections on a promise to end loadshedding, says the unprecedented disruption of Eskom's supply of electricity has opened a legal door he intends kicking down. In this interview with BizNews.com's Alec Hogg, he outlines how the city will lead the way for other South African organisations to achieve independence by overturning SA's archiac laws on energy procurement. It is a watershed, he reckons, in the national devolution of political power.

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