Rational Perspective

JOHANNESBURG — If you're one of the unlucky few (like myself) who don't have a second passport in South Africa, you've probably found yourself banging your head against visa requirements when travelling to places such as Europe. Apart from the costs, the sheer time wasted in obtaining visas for a South African passport remains a painful and excruciating process. A key reason for why us Saffers need all these visas is because of corruption in Home Affairs as well as the generally shoddy security status of our passports. South African passport holders then probably won't find it unsurprising to hear that the Green Mamba has fallen 18 places since 2009 on the globally renowned Henley Passport Index to occupy position 50 in 2018. The Index notes that while the Green Mamba has gained access to new travel destinations since 2009, it's failed to keep pace with increasing its global access levels as quickly as other high-performing countries. It also doesn't have visa-free access to the biggest economies, including t

JOHANNESBURG — Futuregrowth Asset Management has made a substantial investment, through its Development Equity Fund, into a very interesting local technology company called 'Symion'. Symion is a commercial and industrial technology group that focuses on 'intelligent infrastructure' and bringing smart connectivity to physical systems. Some of the sectors that Symion plays in includes smart buildings and cities, industrial automation and robotics, intelligent manufacturing, renewable energy and electric vehicle infrastructure. In this interview, Futuregrowth Investment analyst, Amrish Narrandes, and the MD of Symion, Rick Basson, explain the investment deal. - Gareth van Zyl See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fact that Tesla beat the Street's expectations by losing a couple hundred million dollars less than expected doesn’t change the reality that its cash pile is still shrinking. Indeed, all it seems to do is slightly postpone the day of reckoning – certainly not remove it. But Elon Musk’s Bitcoin-like following among supporters is such that no matter what he does, they keep the faith. Among those who warn they are playing a dangerous game is Steve Eisman, an expert spotter of bubbles, who was immortalised in the Michael Lewis bestseller The Big Short. Eisman, the managing director of Wall Street investment bank Neuberger Berman, was among a handful of those who bet big and profited hugely ahead of the 2008 financial crash by selling Collateralised Debt Obligations, or CDOs, before they imploded, sparking 2008's Great Financial Crisis. The meltdown that followed required hundreds of billions in central bank bailouts to keep the financial system solvent. In the movie based on Lewis’s book, Eisman’s name

JOHANNESBURG — Uruguayan-born Chartered Accountant, Monica Singer, is legendary in South Africa's financial space as her 18 years at Strate included the hugely innovative introduction of electronic settlement of securities in the country. She also helped Strate become known as one of the most progressive Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) in the world. She left Strate in October 2017 and relocated from Johannesburg to Cape Town. But shortly thereafter she joined ConsenSys, which is a world-renowned blockchain software technology company founded by Joseph Lubin, one of the co-founders of well-known cryptocurrency Ethereum. The decentralised nature of ConsenSys means that Singer continues to live and work in Cape Town while taking on many global and local tasks for the company. Interestingly, ConsenSys also helped the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) recently with a recent major ground-breaking interbank settlements pilot on the blockchain. It looks like disruption is well and truly part of Monica Singer's

JOHANNESBURG — Here's a very interesting interview with a very smart young South African guy who's still just in his twenties. Joshua Miltz, a computer programmer by training, is one of the co-founders of a South African FinTech business dubbed 'BitFund'. Now, BitFund describes itself as a single-entry point for investors to choose structured cryptocurrency investment portfolios. Currently, BitFund has three different types of portfolios that investors can choose from and they take a fee of 2.4% as well as a 1% exit fee. The minimum investment amount is R1 000 and with that, you get a spread of cryptocurrencies to invest in as well as the ability to track your investments, in Rand terms, on an online dashboard. BitFund, as Miltz explains, consists of three young cofounders all under-30 who span the financial and legal space, and they have some serious, experienced shareholders as well. It's a very interesting business to watch going forward, especially as they have plans to expand to Europe. Take a listen. -

The African Continent possesses enormous mineral wealth but bringing this rich endowment to account can be a complex matter. For decades Johannesburg-based RMB had specialised in the region. It has now played a major role in supporting the development of Sentinel, a $2.1bn operation, which when completed in 2 years’ time, will be Africa’s biggest copper mine. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early 1970s, when I was 12 years old, my British immigrant father married a South African. Part of his integration was visiting her siblings, one of whom lived with his family in what was then called Fort Victoria, part of then recently independent Rhodesia. Beyond seeing television for the first time and marvelling at how many people drove Peugeots, the thing I remember most from that adventure was a visit to what the whites called the Zimbabwe Ruins, a short drive from the town. Its symbol, the powerful Zimbabwe bird, made a deep impression. A replica dominates the mantlepiece in my office here in London, a permanent reminder of the continent which will forever own my heart. I remember my newly minted uncle explaining how Great Zimbabwe’s impressive structures had been built by some ancient civilisation that had mysteriously departed. It was a story that suited the propaganda of the time. But was so absolutely and completely wrong. This material is reproduced with permission of the BBC's Witness p

It’s been my privilege to have followed Magda Wierzycka’s progression from the time she helped build Coronation Fund Managers through to leading a turnaround at African Harvest and as the creator of financial services disruptor Sygnia. And then to watch in admiration as the super-smart qualified actuary transformed into an anti-corruption crusader – the unlikely pioneer of a fightback against South Africa’s seemingly inevitable slide into a corrupt failed state. One of my most popular tweets of the past year was the one where I suggested that Magda possessed more testicular fortitude than most male CEOs. But the business community’s highest profile maverick has paid a high personal price, needing full-time bodyguards and being regularly attacked on social media as the system’s antibodies fought back. We caught up yesterday in London where she is exploring global opportunities for her company – and reflected on how South Africa managed to reverse away from the abyss, what happens next and that infamous conve

Mozambique's huge new export earner, the Moatize Coal Mine, reflects what's possible when private sector incentives and public sector support and banking facilitation comes together. A project that involves Brazilian mining group Vale, Japanese industrial giant Mitsui and SA banks led by RMB, the project includes a railway line of 912kms that will take the coal to a new port facility. RMB's Inal Henry shares the back story of a massive project whose capital value is close to Mozambique's annual GDP ($11bn in 2016). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever since Steve Jobs put his Apple Mac pirates into a separate part of the building, complete with a Jolly Roger and a different dress code, corporates have seen the value in hiving off their new product teams. In SA, the best example of this approach is life assurance group Sanlam, which has a policy of investing into innovative businesses, for example Brightrock and EasyEquities, and internally by hiving off it’s own disruptors, like IndieFin, which is the subject of this discussion. As you’ll hear, it’s a very different approach to the process of financial product development. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leading the charge to clean up Eskom is chairman Jabu Mabuza, a straight-talking entrepreneur who started his career as a taxi driver and a man fully aware of what's at stake. Having recently turned 60, Mabuza's own focus has switched from accumulating to serving – apart from chairing Eskom, he also holds the same position at Business Leadership South Africa. Mabuza’s appointment was an important part of the new broom wielded by Pravin Gordhan, South Africa’s corruption-fighting minister of public enterprises who returned to the national cabinet when new president Cyril Ramaphosa took office in January. Gordhan was twice dumped as finance minister by former president Jacob Zuma, most famously in a midnight reshuffle last March when the last remaining bulwarks against rampant corruption were removed by then president Jacob Zuma. Instead of leaving politics, Gordhan spent the next ten months as a back bencher – keeping up pressure on the plunderers with a starring role in numerous Parliamentary inquisitions

Setting pay scales is among the most vexing of challenges for multinational corporations. But the complexity becomes almost overwhelming for a group like Naspers which competes against global tech titans but is headquartered in one of the most unequal societies on earth. Adding to this complexity is the double edged sword of its early investment in Tencent, the Hong Kong start-up that has become one of the world’s biggest internet businesses. Because of the huge impact of Tencent’s uplift for Naspers, shareholders fret that executives who weren’t around when the investment was made are now are getting a free ride. Then there’s the impact of a European-based executive team being paid in hard currency which appear extreme in terms of the rand reporting base. Naspers’s Chief People Officer Aileen O’Toole has the responsibility for this hot potato. As you will hear in this episode of the Rational Perspective , her approach has been to push for the highest possible level of transparency to encourage rational de

I’ve found that travelling South Africans tend to speak more openly. Perhaps it’s a function of being away from home. Whatever the cause, it certainly adds an element of freshness to my interviews here in London. But forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan falls outside that generality. Whether we’ve been together in his Johannesburg office, a hotel near Heathrow Airport, or, as here, a pub in Central London, he’s consistent: speaking from the heart, sharing what he knows, holding little back. South Africa’s most famous private sector crime fighter is in London this week to support his friend Lord Peter Hain, who arranged a series of events to celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth. We met last night ahead of a well-attended DA Abroad event. As you’ll hear, the discussion quickly moves onto matters close to the corruption busting O’Sullivan’s heart – like last week’s apology from McKinsey and why he and Hain are determined to force the global legal firm Hogan Lovells to break cover and admit its

JOHANNESBURG — For years, Portugal's Golden Visa programme has become a strong plan B for many South Africans looking to hedge their bets against the uncertainty that exists in the country. There have been some recent changes to the programme that have actually improved the efficiencies of the Golden Visa Programme. In this interview, Sable International's Andrew Rissik runs through some of these key changes. - Gareth van Zyl See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — JSE-rival A2X has started to build some serious momentum after launching in October 2017. Last week, A2X announced that Growthpoint would launch a secondary listing on the exchange. This comes after Sanlam also launched a secondary listing on A2X in April this year, becoming the biggest listing on the exchange. To date, 10 companies have listed and by introducing much cheaper fees, it's started to have a major impact on end-investors. And A2X CEO Kevin Brady tells me in this interview that more listings are in the pipeline. In fact, the exchange has big ambitions to ultimatly make up 20% of total activity in the SA equities market over the next 3-5 years. - Gareth van Zyl See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Last week, I attended the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in Cape Town. It was the third event of its kind in the city and the attendance has surged from around 600 IT developers several years ago to over 2,000 last week. It's no surprise that demand for the event is on the rise, especially as Amazon's presence in Cape Town has quietly grown, apparently to several thousand staff. Of course, Amazon's growing South African base didn't come about by accident. It started with South African Chris Pinkham who set up an Amazon office in Cape Town in 2004. Pinkham, an internet pioneer in South Africa, was previously VP of Engineering at Amazon and a legendary player behind the company's foray and explosive rise in the cloud market. He would also go on to become VP of Engineering at Twitter for a brief period as well. At the AWS Summit then, I sat down with Geoff Brown, the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Manager for Amazon Web Services, to chat about the company's presence and future plans in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG — A recent R14.5m funding boost from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for Braamfontein's Tshimologong precinct is another feather in the cap for the digital innovation hub. The precinct - which is the brainchild of Professor Barry Dwolatsky, the director of Wits University’s JCSE (Johannesburg Centre of Software Engineering) - first opened its doors in 2016. And while it's owned by Wits University, it has an open approach that allows anybody to walk off the street, learn new digital skills and build technology solutions. It's the kind of initiative that we need more of in South Africa and in this interview, the precinct's CEO, Lesley Williams, tells me more about recent developments at the hub. - Gareth van Zyl See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a bucket full of toxins floating around South Africa right now as those who engaged in industrial scale plunder during the Zuma era shore up their defences. In the court of law they are applying the Stalingrad tactic (endlesss delays in the hope of eventually exhausting your opponent). In the court of public opinion, it’s a strategy of diverting attention by sowing confusion. And occasionally the dirty tricks hit the jackpot. Two weeks ago Parliamentarian Bantu Holomisa sent a scathing five page letter on his UDM Party letterhead to president Cyril Ramaphosa urging him to investigate four black businessmen whom he accused of systematically plundering the Public Investment Corporation. Holomisa names Tshepo Mahloele as the kingpin in a corrupt nexus with PIC chief executive Dan Matjila, former deputy finance minister Jabu Moloketi and Warren Wheatley, a director of Mahloele's rapidly developing financial business Lebashe. 51 year old Mahloele worked for Rand Merchant Bank, CDC, the PIC and the Devel

McKinsey gambled by apologising to South Africa for its role in the developing State Capture scandal. But from the mood of 165 people in the GIBS auditorium, it lost. New global managing partner Kevin Sneader is dealing with what rugby players call a hospital pass. To his credit, he stepped into a fire avoided by other global firms involved in South African State Capture like KPMG, SAP, Hogan Lovells, HSBC and a Chinese locomotive manufacturer. After witnessing the roasting McKinsey received today, you have to wonder whether CEOs of other multinationals have the bottle to follow Sneader onto this kind of public platform. Or, indeed, whether McKinsey itself will continue on the current course of owning up, profusely apologising, but still taking the hits. Perhaps now that it has repaid Eskom, the consulting firm will start to reconsider whether it is worth remaining involved in a South Africa that's quite obviously not in a forgiving mood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Good Governance Africa has big ambitions. Its intention is to set up centres across the African continent to monitor governance across the continent – using a carrot and stick approach by shouting out malfeasance and praising role models. It’s a lofty goal. But since opening its first centre in Johannesburg in 2012, the independent non profit has made huge strides. This year it opened its fourth office, in Harare, with the others in Accra and Lagos. GGA bases its opinions on facts. That makes it an invaluable source for those wanting to understand the back story of the continent and, more specifically, South Africa. This week I was invited to a briefing for its board members and contributors at the IOD in London. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.