Author: Alec Hogg
-
BizNews Edge: WSM says Steenhuisen’s News24 interview wasn’t a confession — it was a ransom note
Listen here William Saunderson-Meyer has been watching South African politicians for more than three decades. His verdict on John Steenhuisen’s News24 interview is unsparing: it was a ransom note. Not a whistleblower’s disclosure, not a principled stand — a threat, published in the open, by a man who cannot accept his own demotion and needs…
-
Benfield: Treasury’s procurement overhaul — More rules won’t fix what’s broken
Brian Benfield argues Treasury’s draft Procurement Act regulations repeat SA’s oldest policy mistake: treating capacity failures as a regulation problem. With the state spending now over R1 trillion annually (15% of GDP), he cites global research showing procurement outcomes hinge on institutional capability, not rulebook complexity — and warns that added compliance burdens hit small…
-
Boardroom Talk: Behind Treasury’s shock move to pull the plug on 69 Municipalities — Joburg Included
National Treasury has withheld its July 2026 cheques from 65 municipalities, including Johannesburg, for persistent financial mismanagement and unpaid bills to Eskom, water boards and suppliers. It’s part of a broader crackdown touching 69 municipalities in total. To get the money flowing again, councils must prove they’re cutting wasteful and irregular spending, holding officials accountable,…
-
Shell sells forecourts to Adnoc: Abu Dhabi money and 28% BEE deal seals $1bn deal
A $1 billion deal hands Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc 580 Shell-branded fuel stations across South Africa, plus wholesale, aviation and lubricants operations — its first foothold in the continent’s largest economy. Shell keeps its brand on the pumps via a long-term licensing deal, while Adnoc plans to sell 28% to a local empowerment partner. It’s the…
-
The Economist: Mega mergers, big getting bigger — that should worry you
Forget the odd blockbuster deal; we’re now in an era where size itself is the strategy. Mega-mergers over $10bn account for a record 48% of total deal value this year, while billion-dollar venture rounds dominate startup funding — most with a corporate backer attached. Cheap-ish capital, AI capex gluttony, friendlier antitrust regulators and a “bigger…
-
Part 1: How homes became the fault line in America’s wealth gap
By Eugene Yiga The architecture of exclusion: How housing created America’s permanent underclass As America approaches its 250th anniversary in July 2026, a stubborn contradiction sits at the centre of its national story. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal, with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.…
-
Jaltech Private Debt Fund: What investors need to know before the July close
The Jaltech Income Opportunities Fund (“Jaltech IOF”) is open for investment, with a fundraise closing date of 31 July 2026. The fund gives retail investors access to a segment of the South African private debt market that has historically been reserved for large financial institutions and specialist credit funds. What does the Fund invest in?…
-
BN Daybreak: Iran hits tankers in Hormuz; O’Sullivan exposes recovery scam; $2 trillion arms race
Listen here Iran strikes commercial tankers near the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran enforces its shipping lanes, while Samsung’s shares slide despite a 19-fold profit jump and NATO allies brace for Trump’s push on defense spending. Herman Mashaba hits back at claims he left Johannesburg’s finances in ruins, and columnist William Saunderson-Meyer weighs the damage…
-
Investing offshore just got easier. Here’s how.
By Suzean Haumann* In February, the finance minister doubled the single discretionary allowance (SDA) from R1 million to R2 million a year. This is the biggest change to exchange controls in 15 years, yet the true opportunity this presents isn’t clear to everyone. This is especially true for South Africans thinking: “Great, but I don’t…
-
Herman Mashaba: The “curse” of the GNU – and the missing mayoral chain…
Listen here In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, ActionSA President Herman Mashaba speaks about the collapse of service delivery in Johannesburg where he is campaigning for a second stint as Mayor. He reveals the shocking admission made to him by current African National Congress (ANC) Mayor Dada Morero, and why he doesn’t speak to…
-
Matisonn: Mkhwanazi’s whistle-blown year – SAPS rot exposed, but far from fixed
A year after General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s bombshell press conference, John Matisonn takes stock. The fallout has been seismic: Police Minister Senzo Mchunu suspended, dozens facing charges, and crime kingpin Cat Matlala reportedly poised to turn state’s witness. The Madlanga Commission’s latest revelations implicate General Feroz Kahn and his links to the Carnilinx cigarette empire —…
-
BizNews Edge: Chery, Rosslyn, and the R40bn subsidy nobody wants to talk about
Listen here Trade expert Donald MacKay joins BizNews to unpack what really happened at the old Nissan plant in Rosslyn. On the surface, Chery’s arrival looks like a foreign investment win. Underneath it is a subsidy programme costing South African taxpayers over R40 billion a year — spread across just seven companies — and a…
-
Corrigan: “Vibes Politics”: Why SA voters keep choosing charm over competence
Terence Corrigan takes aim at the voter tendency to reward likeability over capability at the ballot box – “vibe politics”. From Jacob Zuma’s charm masking a decade of state capture to suburbanites who won’t vote DA on purely aesthetic grounds, Corrigan argues voters bear real responsibility for the governance failures they then complain about. His…
-
Eskom’s monopoly crumbles, “death spiral” looms as SA business flocks to private power
South Africa’s energy shift: Off-gridding, solar mini-grids, and rising inequalityBloomberg’s Bonolo Mokonoto charts how South Africa’s corporate sector has quietly ended Eskom’s century-long grip on power supply. With over 40 JSE-listed firms announcing renewables plans this year alone, companies like Impala Platinum are turning to wheeling and solar to dodge both unreliable local grids and…
-
Black South Africans own two-thirds of the JSE — the numbers race nationalists ignore
This article was first published by The Common Sense Common Sense’s Econ Desk crunches the numbers on JSE ownership and lands on a striking figure: black South Africans hold an estimated 66.55% of locally owned JSE capital, compared with 33.45% held by whites. The analysis strips out foreign ownership (roughly a third of the market) and…
-
Korean tanker king cashes in on Hormuz “dark fleet” runs — with a ship waiting off SA
Bloomberg’s team unpacks how secretive Korean shipping tycoon Ga-Hyun Chung and his Sinokor Group turned the Iran war into a windfall, ferrying UAE crude through the Strait of Hormuz on tankers running “dark” — transponders off, often under cover of night. Backed by Italian giant MSC, Sinokor now controls roughly a third of the supertankers…
-
VW’s make-or-break week — for the German parent and its Eastern Cape operation
Bloomberg Opinion’s Chris Bryant lays out the stakes as Volkswagen’s supervisory board confronts Chinese competition, a battered share price and pressure to shut German plants. The Porsche and Piech families, who control half of VW’s voting shares, have watched their investment implode to a fraction of what they paid for their stake in 2022. For…
-
BN Daybreak: NATO Summit tension; AI stocks slump; Zuma’s Gupta meeting
Listen here Kyiv faces fresh Russian missile strikes ahead of the NATO summit in Turkey, while tensions linger following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader. Meanwhile, OPEC+ quotas drop oil prices, Alibaba blocks a US blacklist order, and investors fret over an AI chip stock pullback. Locally, Jacob Zuma’s Gupta meeting and Cyril Ramaphosa’s controversial…
-
Boardroom Talk: A R57bn handshake – How Chery cashed in on two subsidies
Cameras loved the Rosslyn ribbon-cutting on Friday. As did the controversial politicians Paul Mashatile and Panyaza Lesufi. The substance is thinner. Chery didn’t build a factory — it inherited Nissan’s ageing one – once listed on the JSEW as “Automakers” – promised to retain a few hundred existing workers, and dressed it all up as…
-
Gabriel Makin: Why illegal immigration hurts Europe but helps SA
Illegal immigration is condemned everywhere, but does it do equal damage everywhere? Gabriel Makin of The Common Sense, who has lived in both South Africa and Europe, argues no. Drawing on Milton Friedman’s warning that free immigration and welfare states can’t coexist, and a Dutch study showing low-skilled non-Western migrants cost the fiscus roughly R5.5…