This section houses interviews conducted by Biznews, both video and audio, and other interesting inputs sourced from Third Parties.
The technology sector in South Africa is a funny bird. In the US, there are a lot of software developers, social media companies, innovative manufacturers and such like, but in South Africa, the majority of companies listed on the JSE tech board are, essentially, resellers – companies that take existing items like servers, PCs, … Read more
Gijima is a cautionary tale for all businesses on the danger of having a few big clients that you rely on for major chunks of your revenue. In 2012, Gijima lost two big contracts, one with Absa and the other with the South African Police Service. The loss of these contracts was enough to shift … Read more
I’ve noticed over the years that corporate strategies tend to come and go – financial fashions, as it were, change. Consider, for example, the expansionary appetites of South Africa’s banks. Standard Bank has just divested itself of the bulk of its London business, selling a 60% stake in its London-based global markets business to Chinese … Read more
Big things are happening at Grindrod, things that seem likely to transform the company from a good bet to a major player, and to reward the good people at Remgro who took up a big stake not too long ago to boot. Grindrod is gearing up for some major projects in Mozambique, where a nascent … Read more
Last week the JSE’s Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) board grew to 40 through the addition of two palladium ETFs. One of them is Absa’s third precious metals ETF, and another feather in the cap of its innovative ETF Tzar Vladimir Nedeljkovic. Absa’s NewGold, introduced in 2004, is the biggest ETF on the South African market … Read more
Things are starting to get really nasty in the court challenge by the Free Market Foundation (FMF) to Section 32 of the Labour Relations Act. This week clothing and textile union SACTWU put the court case firmly onto the agenda in its wage negotiations. It insist employers in the sector distance themselves, in writing, from … Read more
Investment Solutions is in the business of rating the performance of asset managers. It recently  concluded another round of discussions with 41 of these teams. Chief investment officer Glenn Silverman came through to the CNBC Africa studio today to share the findings – including his assessment that where Allan Gray reigned supreme a decade back, … Read more
There’s something very familiar about Russell Loubser’s idea of Drift – a slow, incremental slide into bad behaviour and entropy. It makes me think about the times I’ve been on a diet. You know how it goes – you’re doing great for a few weeks, and then someone brings doughnuts to work, and you think … Read more
One sometimes forgets that, behind the headlines, there are real flesh-and-blood people, with families and feelings just like the rest of us. When the construction industry came under fire for corrupt practices, the CEOs of construction companies had a very tough time of it. They were vilified by the press, abused by angry members of … Read more
In this interview,Coface lead analyst Saijil Singh argues that South Africa’s two unemployment statistical publications, one of which measures employment by surveying companies, the other by surveying households, are both wrong. According to Singh, these surveys overlook a lot of the informal and marginal jobs that people hold, or their micro businesses, and so overestimate … Read more