Author: Bloomberg
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Cape Town’s wealth boom draws a new private members’ club to the V&A Waterfront
Kasada Capital Management, backed by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and Accor, is opening Maison Grace, a private members’ club at the Cape Grace hotel on the V&A Waterfront, next month. It’s the latest marker of Cape Town’s rising wealth and status, with Henley & Partners tipping it to overtake Johannesburg as Africa’s richest city by…
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China, not America, is the country African youth now admire most
The latest release of a biennial survey of nearly 5,000 young Africans has produced an uncomfortable number for Washington: 95% now view China’s influence on the continent positively, against 85% for the United States, with the UK, Germany, the EU and India all ranking higher than the Yanks. The finding comes from the Ichikowitz Family…
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Rate hold, Rand fall: The SARB’s costly miscalculation
This article was first published by The Common Sense When the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee held interest rates at 7.00% last week, defying near-universal expectations of a hike, the rand punished the decision within hours, shedding almost 3% of its value. The Common Sense Editorial Board, led by Dr Frans Cronjé, argues below that the…
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ASML’s China problem couldn’t have come at a worse time: Lionel Laurent
Bloomberg’s Lionel Laurent argues that reports of a Chinese firm nearing production of rival chipmaking machines have rattled ASML investors at the worst possible time, given the Dutch company’s AI-driven sales boom. While analysts still see China 7-10 years behind ASML’s technology, the bigger worry is that US-led export controls meant to contain Beijing have…
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Paul Hoffman: Scrap IDAC now – it’s unconstitutional by design
By Paul Hoffman* The good reason for closing down IDAC is not the resignation of its leader and her underwhelming showing at the Madlanga Commission. It is that IDAC is not a constitutionally compliant body and has none of the qualities required of it by the rulings of the Constitutional Court. Our anti-corruption machinery of…
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FT: If you think your profession is dying, it could soon be gone
The Financial Times’s Sarah O’Connor argues that fear of automation can become self-fulfilling: workers abandon a trade before machines actually arrive, creating shortages that then justify the very automation they feared. Her evidence stretches from horse-drawn “teamsters” a century ago to today’s truck drivers deterred by driverless vehicle trials, despite autonomous trucking remaining marginal. The…
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BN Daybreak: SA gun stats; Phala Phala; Fed rate debate; Oil scenarios; Nvidia on AI
Listen here In today’s BizNews Daybreak, SK Hynix posts profit gains while Nvidia’s CEO defends open-weight AI amid safety warnings and new hacking reports. Ford raises its outlook and Visa cuts 2,600 jobs. In South Africa, SAPS data reveals over 99% of gun murders involve unlicensed firearms, while the Phala Phala impeachment battle reaches the…
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Don’t sleep on medical aid in your 20s
By Dr Themba Hadebe Your 20s are a crash course in adulthood. Between your first job, submitting your first tax return, learning how to budget and figuring out what belongs in a washing machine, there’s no shortage of new responsibilities competing for your attention. Yet one responsibility that often gets overlooked is healthcare cover. For…
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BizNews monthly webinar: Strategic rebalancing in unpredictable markets
In this month’s Ricardo portfolio update, we unpack strategic shifts driven by changing margins of safety, market volatility, and historical investment cycles. On the global front, the team is pivoting away from high-spending tech giants heavily exposed to the AI infrastructure boom, shifting focus instead to the “picks and shovels” – the essential utility providers…
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Ian Cameron: 41,000 killed with illegal guns and the factional battle for control of SAPS
Listen here In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Ian Cameron, the Chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, talks about the revelation that – in the last four financial years – over 41,000 murders were committed with unlicensed firearms, but fewer than 400 murders with licensed firearms whilst the government is pushing for stricter…
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The Economist: How AI has helped turn the US into an entrepreneur’s paradise
US business applications have nearly doubled since 2019, and this piece credits AI with much of the surge, letting solo founders build websites, handle admin and launch ventures once out of reach for anyone without capital or a team. Full-time self-employment has hit a century high, though the share of “high-propensity” startups likely to hire…
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BizNews Edge: Cyril’s impeachment battle heads to ConCourt, billions wiped off AI chip stocks
Two judges signed the same court order and can’t agree on what it actually stops. Now Ramaphosa’s impeachment fight is headed to the Constitutional Court, with the ANC’s own GNU partner pushing Parliament to keep working in the background regardless. Meanwhile South Africa’s bookmakers want prediction markets like Polymarket treated as illegal, three JSE-listed companies…
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Cape Town’s governance lead, quantified: $12bn ahead of Joburg
Equal-sized commercial property markets, wildly different fortunes: office space in Cape Town now costs roughly double Johannesburg’s, and a new Gmaven study pins the difference squarely on governance rather than economics. Johannesburg’s strained finances, poor service delivery and corruption scandals are pushing capital, jobs and skilled workers toward the coast, while Cape Town’s construction boom,…
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Matisonn: Ramaphosa’s impeachment fight set to drag through November’s election season
ATM leader Vuyo Zungula has taken his impeachment push to the Constitutional Court after last week’s high court order halted parliament’s Section 89 hearings. Two judges split on how far that order actually reaches, leaving room for preparatory work to continue even as witness testimony stays frozen. A separate September review will test whether the…
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SK Hynix’s $600bn rout shows cracks in the AI boom
One of the AI boom’s biggest winners has become its biggest worry: SK Hynix shares have dropped 47% from June’s high, wiping out close to $600 billion in value on fears of overcrowding and now a report of Chinese progress on chipmaking tools. The stock still trades on a fraction of its earlier multiple even…
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BN portfolio star ASML slides on report of China starting DUV tool production
A report that an unnamed Shanghai-based firm has started mass-producing deep ultraviolet lithography machines sent ASML shares down as much as 8.3%, dragging equipment peers like Applied Materials, Lam Research and Japan’s Nikon and Canon lower too. The machines are far behind ASML’s cutting-edge EUV kit, but any dent in China’s reliance on Western chip…
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BN Daybreak: SARB rate shock; US-Iran tensions; Zuma MK finance battle; SAPS Estate raid
Listen here In today’s episode, we cover the US-Iran diplomatic talks and escalating tech wars with China’s new DUV lithography machines. Locally, Jabulani Khumalo warns of Jacob Zuma’s alleged plot to seize MK Party finances. We also examine a warrantless SAPS and Home Affairs raid on a Western Cape estate. Finally, Alec Hogg unpacks the…
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Zuma in crisis: Disgruntled MKP members to vote ARU – Jabulani Khumalo
Listen here In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, the real founder of MKP, Jabulani Khumalo, comes out in support of The African Renaissance Unity Party (ARU) founded to lobby for the interests of traditional chiefs and their communities. With Khumalo’s battle to reclaim control of the party – “hijacked” by former President Jacob Zuma…
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Eva Crouwel – When the State comes to your Gate….
Listen here An anti-immigration raid on a private housing estate in the Western Cape is causing a furore. In this interview with Chris Steyn, Eva Crouwel, a property owner on High Riding Estate, describes how police in a fleet of about six vans – accompanied by Home Affairs officials – descended on the estate last…
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BizNews Edge: Rand slides on steady rates, Musk’s AI warning, shake-up at IDAC, and more…
Elon Musk tells The Economist that AI will out-think the whole of humanity within five years, and he sounds strangely at peace with that. Back home, the Reserve Bank blindsided everyone with a shock rate hold, the Rand took its worst knock in months, and Citigroup walked away from a bet it had believed in…