BizNews Radio

Chartered account Warren Wheatley has turned a dream of offering everyone private equity opportunities into a reality. Next month his brainchild, AltVest, will list its shares on the Cape Town Stock Exchange, enabling anyone with R100 to invest in an asset class which has always been the preseve of financial institusions and the ultra rich. Individual offerings ranging from game and wine farms through to classic cars and sports teams will be available for co-investment by retail investors. In this interview with BizNews editor Alec Hogg, financial industry veteran Wheatley explains where the idea came from and how it all works.

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Over the past 14 years Ronnie Apteker has forged deep roots into Ukraine, spending the last eight of them living in its historic capital city, the now embattled Kyiv. Two days after the Russian invasion of the country, Apteker, his wife and baby undertook a nightmare journey to get away from the war zone. Six week later, the co-founder of SA's dominant internet service provider, fresh from his first decent night's sleep since the trauma began, shares his harrowing story with BizNews editor Alec Hogg.

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In this interview, OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage, describes his journey from Chief Executive at Avis to battling against SANRAL and the unlawful creation of e-tolls. In recent years, OUTA has rebranded itself from a single-issue organisation to one that now focuses on fighting all forms of tax abuse in South Africa.

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In this debut of the newest BizNews offering, editor Alec Hogg and deputy Michael Appel share insights into the information you need to know about what happened in the past week - Hogg on business and investments, Appel on news and politics. In focus during this episode are the emerging political personality Nhlanhla 'Lux'; the troubles of Bathabile Dlamini and Cyril Ramaphosa; the investment appeal of cryptocurrencies; Non Fungible Tokens; the AltVest listing on the CTSE; and Tshepo Mahloele, recently appointed patron for Africa of the high profile, "Stand with Ukraine" organisation Globalcitizen.org.

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Cape Town has begun plans to move off Eskom’s grid and away from power blackouts. It includes procuring power from independent power producers (IPP) but the plan to use solar and wind power for grid electricity has not gone down well with everybody, including Andrew Kenny who is convinced it will push up his electricity bills. Another project to reduce the dependence on Eskom is the Mother City’s efforts to produce electricity from landfill gas. The Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste management, Alderman Grant Twigg, told BizNews the pilot project will soon be powering a couple of hundred houses and take an important step towards fulfilling Cape Town’s pledge to move away from reliance on Eskom. – Linda van Tilburg

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The World Bank has launched an innovative approach to protect and grow the population of endangered black rhinos by launching a Wildlife Conservation Bond, also called the Rhino Bond. Two parks in South Africa, Addo Elephant National Park and the Great Fish River Nature Reserve will benefit. It is a $150m five-year bond that includes a potential performance payment from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). If a positive rhino growth rate (what a nice investment term) is achieved and the bond is deemed a success, we could have bonds connected to elephant or chimpanzee growth rates in the future. Michael Bennett, the head of market solutions and structured finance at the World Bank Treasury told BizNews the bank had a great deal of interest in creating a new outcome-based financial instrument that would pay for conservation performance and benefit local communities by growing tourism and supporting job creation. – Linda van Tilburg

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In the immediate aftermath of last July’s riots and looting, a BizNews community member whom I’ve known and respected for decades, penned a powerful Open Letter to president Cyril Ramaphosa. The author’s name was withheld to avoid unnecessary retaliation against themselves or their organisation. It struck a chord, with 300 000 people reading it and over 180 000 watching the YouTube version (and over 1 000 commenting on it). The author, whose nom de plume honours the anti-Nazi pastor/activist Martin Niemöller, is back with a bang. Warning: not for the politically correct wokies. – Alec Hogg

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There seems to be a new kid on the block that political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga warns has all the makings of a vigilante grouping playing outside of the political realm of accountability. All of which, Mathekga says, makes for a worrying situation. Operation Dudula has been in recent headlines and rose to prominence as a single-issue movement intent on dealing with illegal foreign nationals. It has been accused of heightening xenophobic tensions in the country but fobs off this assertion. Its leader, Nhlanhla ‘Lux’ Mohlauli – forever clad in military fatigues complete with bulletproof vest – is out on R1,500 bail after his initial arrest on several charges, including housebreaking, theft and malicious damage to property. Operation Dudula members are accused of ransacking the home of Soweto resident Victor Ramerafe. The trial was postponed to 27 May following Monday’s bail application. Mohlauli is something of an enigma. A matriculant of St David’s Marist Inanda, and a former ANC Youth League Secretary at the University of Johannesburg, Mohlauli is also an entrepreneur, a pilot, a pro golfer and now the face of a movement that Mathekga says is filling in the leadership and policy vacuum on immigration issues in South Africa.

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Peter van Kets, a 54-year-old from East London who, decades back, gave up teaching to become a full-time adventurer, gave the opening address at the third BizNews Conference in March 2022. One of South Africa’s top extreme adventurers, van Kets shared fascinating, mind-blowing stories, the essence of which could be distilled into three words: sacrifice, suffering and struggle.

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While media headlines focused on the $130 000 which an expat based in the UAE paid for the digital version of Nelson Mandela's Arrest Warrant, there was a lot more to Momint's record auction of NFT's over the weekend. The Cape Town-headquartered business, whose co-founders include high profile businessman Rob Hersov, generated R8.1m from the Non Fungible Tokens sold on Saturday, including top price of R4.1m for one of the 10 000 Bored Ape NFTs. In this podcast, Momint CEO Ahren Posthumus explains why he believes the global NFT journey has only just begun - and unpacks why some people are investing heavily in the new asset class whose primary utility is in the metaverse.

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