Boardroom Talk: Xi’s deliberate murdering of Chinese company profits sends us a prescient reminder

Some really powerful reminders of late that politicians sometimes need to be taken at their word. In SA, the furore around Joburg Metro governance is a lesson that the PA's controversial leader Gayton McKenzie means what he says. Ditto the DA's self-styled 'rottweiler' Natasha Mazzone who has tired of warning seditious Julius Malema and now wants him behind bars.

But compared with ructions in China, that's small beer. Over the weekend, president Xi succeeded where Thabo Mbeki failed in Polokwane – got the rules changed to grant himself a third term, making him as powerful as the murderous Mao. But instead of a 'cultural revolution', Xi is massacring Chinese business, especially its internet giants.

This is really bad news for South African listed Naspers and Prosus. Over the past five days,  the stocks mirrored a 20% plunge in the price of their Hong Kong-listed foundation holding Tencent. As one of the elephants in the crosshairs of Xi's "common prosperity" policy, Tencent has not just gone ex-growth. It is now slashing costs in an effort to survive.

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