No Free Lunch With Greg Stewart

n the latest episode of “No Free Lunch,” host Greg Stewart engages with Sekadi Phayane-Shakhane, the pioneering CEO of the South African Institute of Engineers (SAICE), to discuss the pressing issues surrounding South Africa’s infrastructure. The conversation delves into the deteriorating state of infrastructure, the high costs associated with transport, and the challenges faced by the public transport system.

Sekadi highlights the critical need for lifecycle-based maintenance strategies to combat the crumbling infrastructure. She emphasises the importance of integrating maintenance into long-term planning and ensuring that funds are allocated specifically for this purpose. 

In this episode of “No Free Lunch, host Greg Stewart engages with Garth Klintworth, the Chief Representative Officer for ABSA’s New York office, to explore the dynamics of African capital markets. 

Garth, an economist with extensive experience in global markets, shares insights on the transition from Johannesburg to New York, highlighting the surprising momentum and scale of the U.S. economy. 

We discuss the critical role of Africa in global trade, emphasising the continent’s rich endowment of critical minerals essential for the fourth industrial revolution. Garth Highlights the need for Africa to harness its potential by improving policy harmonisation, collateral management, and local currency markets to attract investment.

This edition of South Africa’s Freshest Business & Tech podcast – “No Free Lunch” features an insightful conversation between host Greg Stewart and Dion Harvey, the regional General Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Red Hat. 

The discussion centres around the transformative potential of open source software in Africa, particularly in the context of AI and digital transformation. Harvey, with over 25 years in the technology sector, shares insights on how open source can drive innovation and address Africa’s unique challenges, such as cost-effective cloud migrations and AI ethics in resource-constrained environments. He emphasises the collaborative nature of open source, which allows for a broader range of contributions and enhances software security by exposing bugs and malicious code more effectively than proprietary models.

This Special Budget Speech Episode of No Free Lunch features Ricardo Smith, where he discusses the South African medium-term budget speech and its implications for South Africa’s economy:

Host Greg Stewart introduces a summary of the medium-term budget speech delivered by the finance minister, Enoch Godongwana on 12 November, highlighting a projected 20 billion Rand surplus and a strategic shift from consumption spending to infrastructure investment. 

Ricardo Smith, a prominent South African economist and investment strategist, emphasises the importance of the surplus, noting that while commodity prices have contributed significantly, tax efficiencies have also played a role. Smith discusses the challenges of managing South Africa’s growing debt, which is projected to reach nearly 80% of GDP, and highlights the need for a firm commitment to containing debt.

In This episode of No Free Lunch, Host Greg Stewart chats with Mamello Mofokeng, founder and CEO of IT company Saturated. Its a great conversation about the journey of an entrepreneur and Mamello shares her journey from a small-town upbringing to becoming a leading young Women leader in South Africa’s tech industry.

Our conversation highlights the significant growth in the ETF market, with a market cap increase of 28% in 2023 and 36% in 2024. 

We also tackle the pressing need to address the importance of financial education and the role of technology in making investments more accessible, especially for younger investors.

In this episode of “No Free Lunch,” host Greg Stewart interviews Leith Collyer, the Managing Director of Pink Elephant South Africa. We speak around the evolving role of women in IT leadership, noting the increasing presence of female leaders and the unique empathy they bring to the industry.

Leith shares her journey from a service delivery manager at Dimension Data to leading Pink Elephant, emphasising her passion for IT service management (ITSM) and its transformative potential in Africa.

Leith discusses the challenges and opportunities in the ITSM sector, particularly in emerging markets like Africa, where infrastructure gaps and skill shortages persist. Our discussion highlights the importance of next-gen service desks and AI-enhanced support systems in driving business value and economic growth.

In this episode of “No Free Lunch,” host Greg Stewart engages with Nick Hudson, co-founder and chairman of PANDA (Pandemic, Data, and Analytics), to discuss the skepticism surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and its perceived value. 

Nick shared some of his controversial perspectives on AI developments that cast a serious shadow over the current narratives around AI by tech companies, who claim that the future will be built on the back of AI technology.

In our lively conversation, Hudson critiques AI as a significant misallocation of capital, likening it to a speculative bubble driven by hype rather than substance. He argues that the capital resources being thrown at AI developments should rather be redirected towards infrastructural development

In this episode of “No Free Lunch,” host Greg Stewart sits down with Jonathan Thomson, the Executive Head of Commercial at Kazang, a leading FinTech company in South Africa. The discussion delves into the informal economy, particularly the Tavern industry, which is a significant part of South Africa’s economy, estimated to be worth around a trillion rand. Jonathan shares insights into the challenges and opportunities within this sector, emphasizing the massive cash flow and the need for technological solutions to streamline transactions.

In the latest episode of No Free Lunch, I chatted with Fintech entrepreneur and founder of the investment app Frank, Thomas Brennan. Thomas shared his journey from an engineering background to becoming the CEO of Franc, an investment app aimed at democratising wealth-building in South Africa.