Author: Bloomberg
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Infantino puts the FIFA ‘Greed Machine’ into overdrive with $20bn proposal
FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to sell a minority stake in a new $20 billion commercial entity to outside investors, dangling $20 million in development funding for each of football’s 211 member associations, including the South African Football Association. UEFA has voted to boycott FIFA tournaments if the plan proceeds, and Britain’s prime minister has…
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Magnus Heystek: Why I didn’t bring one cent back from abroad
Magnus Heystek defends his long-standing recommendation to keep client money offshore, despite the JSE’s standout 2025 (53% vs the S&P 500’s 17%). He argues that the rally was narrow and misleading, driven mainly by gold shares and Naspers/Prosus — with gold alone estimated to account for roughly 40% of the ALSI’s five-year gains despite representing…
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BN Daybreak: Apple earnings; Amazon AWS; RMB housing; Anglo’s SA exit; Tesla China sale
Listen here Today’s BizNews Daybreak covers Apple’s quarterly results, Rivian’s SUV success, and Anthropic’s AI breach, alongside a semiconductor rally driven by Microsoft and Oracle. Football federations oppose FIFA selling World Cup stakes, while Donald Trump claims a Gaza disarmament agreement. Meanwhile, Alec Hogg discusses Anglo American’s South Africa exit, RMB launches a R1bn housing…
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Can you still qualify for the €250,000 Greece Golden Visa?
The Greece Golden Visa remains one of the most attractive and affordable European residency-by-investment programmes. Launched with a minimum €250,000 investment threshold in 2013, it is still possible – even today – to invest into qualifying property at this low threshold. However, it is important to be up to date with current guidelines as significant…
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Cityboy is back: his tip to win big in financial services? Trade your soul
Listen here A former top-ranked City of London stockbroker has written a manual for winning at business, politics and life. There’s just one catch: to follow it, you’d have to think like a psychopath. Geraint Anderson, the man behind the legendary “Cityboy” column, tells BizNews editor Alec Hogg why he built his new book around…
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R1-billion blended finance programme to transform real estate – Alessandro Scalco
Listen here In this interview with Chris Steyn, Alessandro Scalco of RMB Sustainable Finance shares the details of a R1 billion Blended Finance Programme to formalise and scale South Africa’s burgeoning affordable rental market. Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has partnered with INDLU, a property financial technology company that empowers landowners to build, manage, and earn…
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Washington’s blind spot on SA: Punishing a state its own people are already rejecting
This article was first published by The Common Sense The sharp Common Sense editorial below argues that Washington has South Africa exactly backwards. The White House’s Afrikaner refugee policy assumes black South Africans are besieging a white minority, but the real fault line, the piece argues, runs between the ANC state and citizens of all races…
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Study finds over half SA’s workers are gambling, most to pay expenses, debt
Old Mutual’s 2026 Savings and Investment Monitor surveyed just over one and a half thousand working South Africans earning over R8 000 a month. It revealed a widening divide: while higher earners grow more confident and take on more investment risk, lower-income workers face deepening debt distress – using gambling as their coping mechanism. Over…
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BizNews Edge: Anglo says goodbye to SA; Old Mutual’s gambling warning; Microsoft-Meta AI tension
Anglo American just posted the kind of interim numbers investors dream of. But look past the headline and the real story is a 109-year-old Johannesburg company quietly finishing its exit from South Africa, with its head office bound for Vancouver and De Beers set to go for a fraction of what Anglo once paid the…
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The R3.7tn PIC needs independent leadership, not another political appointee: Justice Malala
South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, the $220 billion (about R3.7 trillion) fund managing pensions for 1.2 million civil servants, is now without any executive leadership after a wave of suspensions and resignations, writes Justice Malala. CEO Patrick Dlamini and CIO August van Heerden are suspended, board chair David Masondo has resigned, and Finance Minister Enoch…
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ANC councillor fined R50,000 for forwarding hateful WhatsApp message to groupchat
A Free State High Court ruling has driven home a warning for South African WhatsApp users: forwarding a message can carry the same legal consequences as writing it yourself. ANC councillor Sibongile Tsoleli was ordered to pay R50,000 in damages after sharing messages containing unproven corruption and adultery claims against a fellow councillor, alongside discriminatory…
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Anglo American’s interims confirm the retreat from South Africa
Anglo American’s 2026 interim results to end June, released today, reflected a strong operational performance — underlying EBITDA up 35% to $4 billion, free cash flow up 149%, and the dividend up almost three fold — driven almost entirely by copper. But beneath the good numbers sits a continuing retreat from South Africa: Anglo confirmed…
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The Fermi Paradox: If aliens exist, where is everybody?
R L Drake explores the Fermi Paradox: why, given the Milky Way’s billions of potentially habitable planets and the Drake Equation’s estimate of 12,500 possible civilisations, we’ve detected no signs of extraterrestrial life. The piece surveys leading theories — from cosmic loneliness to self-destructive “great filters” — before concluding true isolation remains scientifically unlikely. By…
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Brian Judge on BizNews: The AI threat to financial stability
The US Federal Reserve’s new task force on AI is examining jobs and inflation, but glaringly ignores financial stability, writes Brian Judge of UC Berkeley. AI data-centre debt is set to overtake mortgage debt by 2030, with hyperscalers needing trillions in revenue just to break even. For South African investors watching Wall Street’s AI-fuelled rally…
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The Economist: Elon Musk’s vision of the future
Elon Musk, briefly the world’s first trillionaire, has told The Economist that AI could soon surpass combined human intelligence, potentially rendering work “optional” within a decade. In a rare 90-minute interview, the Tesla and SpaceX boss called for governments to issue “universal high income” as machines take over jobs, while admitting he is unsure whether…
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BN Daybreak: Ramaphosa interdict bid; Fed holds rates; Fauci’s Fifth Amendment; Zambian kwacha
Listen here In today’s episode, the Fed leaves interest rates unchanged amid a fractured vote and market sell-offs. Locally, four parties are challenging President Ramaphosa’s impeachment interdict, while Treasury controversially releases funds to 69 failing municipalities. We also cover Dr. Fauci invoking the Fifth Amendment regarding the Covid-19 response, Zambia’s kwacha surging against the rand,…
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A rare opportunity that may never come again: Historic St George’s Park Campus heads to auction on 27 August 2026
For more than a century, the landmark campus at 8 Park Drive, St George’s Park has been woven into the educational and architectural fabric of Gqeberha. Now, for what may be one of the last opportunities of its kind, this exceptional property is being offered to the market. Occupying an expansive 30,189 m² site in…
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Murder, mayhem, treachery, and court battles = SA politics: Solly Moeng
Listen here In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Political Commentator Solly Moeng, talks about four political parties joining in a Constitutional Court bid to try and overturn President Cyril Ramaposa’s impeachment committee interdict; a murder investigation into the death of General Sindile Mfazi, who was investigating an unauthorised undercover operation to cover up wrongdoings…
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BizNews Edge: Treasury pays 69 errant municipalities anyway, SARB rate hold is punishing the Rand
Treasury switched off the taps to 69 municipalities for doing nothing about corruption and mismanagement. Today it switched them back on anyway, days before its own deadline. Alec Hogg asks the obvious question nobody in government wants to answer. Plus: why last week’s Reserve Bank rate hold is already punishing the rand, a foundation funded…
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The other side of our Reinet bet – Piet Viljoen says “avoid”
In yesterday’s portfolio update, I swapped the Ricardo ZAR holding in SABVest for Reinet. Nothing wrong with the SABVest performance – Chris Seabrooke’s operation continues to deliver. But Mr Market has radically rerated the stock. We have done well with SABVest over the years, but it now trades within 7% of its stated net asset…