Saffers optimistic about future – survey; lottery scandal; Naspers into second-hand clothes

By Jackie Cameron

• South Africans are more optimistic about the future, a trust barometer shows. The Edelman Trust Barometer, released at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, shows SA was one of only two countries surveyed where economic optimism actually improved in the past year. A healthy 57% of South Africans now believe they will be better off in five years’ time. For context, only 15% of Japanese feel the same, 19% French, 27% British and 32% of the Australians. only 40% of South Africans trusting the media, that’s still double those who trust the Government, an area where the country continues to prop up the global table with an appalling 20% approval rating. For more on that, visit BizNews.com.
• A scandal involving lottery funds has erupted. The National Lotteries Commission has given more than R11 million to a non-profit organisation (NPO) called I Am Made for God’s Glory, which has in turn paid R2 million to a private company of which the sole director is the cousin of the chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission. That’s according to GroundUp, an investigative journalism unit that has unpicked a trail of transactions to uncover corruption involving lottery money. According to leaked bank statements, R2 million was paid to Upbrand Properties by I Am Made For God’s Glory (IAM4GG), which received a R11,375,000 grant from the Lottery to develop an “integrated sports facility” in Limpopo. The sole director of Upbrand is Kenneth Tomoletso Sithole, first cousin of NLC chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba. You can read more about that story, produced by veteran investigative journalist Raymond Joseph, at groundup.org.za.
• Movement for Democratic Change will hold a series of demonstrations this year over the government’s failure to address the deteriorating economy, reports Bloomberg. Zimbabwe had the continent’s fastest-shrinking economy last year, after Libya, and its annual inflation rate was outpaced globally only by Venezuela, International Monetary Fund estimates show. “This year is going to be a year of demonstrations and action,” MDC leader Nelson Chamisa told party supporters. Zimbabwe is grappling with shortages of food, fuel and foreign-exchange, while its inability to pay for adequate electricity imports and breakdowns at power plants have led to outages of as long as 18 hours a day, adds Bloomberg.
• Major central banks are looking at the case for issuing their own digital currencies, the Bank of England and European Central Bank reportedly said on Tuesday, amid a growing debate over the future of money and who controls it. The central banks of Britain, the euro zone, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland will share experiences in a new group headed by former European Central Bank official Benoît Cœuré and assisted by the Bank of International Settlements, reports Reuters.
• Naspers, which was once the major force behind the SA media sector and then found Chinese tech start up Tencent before it became a giant, is eyeing the second-hand clothing market. Naspers, Africa’s biggest company by market value, expects second-hand clothing sales online to pick up as companies around the world look to cut production of new goods to help address climate change. “We are big investors in trading in second-hand clothes – we think the world will need more recycling over time,” Chief Executive Officer Bob van Dijk told Bloomberg Television in Davos.