Celebrating South African business success abroad
Investec celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. My front row seat to this remarkable story began with a short walk down Mooi Street in 1981.
Undictated
Alec Hogg’s regular column covering investment, economics, moneycraft and, occasionally, something very personal.
SA business execs to UK counterparts: Let’s swap challenges. Please?
Two things hit me during this visit to London. First is how good walking is for the human body. Second: the vast difference between the challenges SA businesses face compared with those in the UK.
Recalling Berlin’s ugly grey smudge: “Mr Gorbachev: tear down this Wall!”
It is popular for commentators to recall the 1960s as time of carefree love, peace signs, flower children, drugs and rock & roll. But it was also the decade of Sharpeville, Vietnam and, as we were reminded yesterday, the erection of the Berlin Wall.
Electrocution of DA councillor Ken Denysschen: Cadre deployment strikes again
The ANC’s policy of cadre deployment above merit has sowed destruction everywhere. Add Ken Denysschen’s name to the long list of needless victims.
Wendy Machanik has paid for her crime – and then some
Yesterday provided a reminder to not judge until you have walked a mile in the other person’s shoes. For the past three years, the short, middle aged, erstwhile real estate icon Wendy Machanik has been struggling to keep afloat.
Stripping away the hype from SA’s Karoo Fracking opportunity
Ever since reading the late Tony Twine’s research report into the Shale Gas potential of the Karoo, I’ve been absorbed by the subject.
Another Simon from Allan Gray shows Dr Marais’s legacy lives on
My relationship with Allan Gray started 17 years ago with a tall gent with a strong Afrikaans accent. He is quite possibly the smartest man I’ve ever met.
Eskom: Rosebank Gridlock not load shedding – it’s “systems failure” (video)
As this video shows, not the brightest sparks managing the latest wave of Eskom “load shedding” – power-less business node in rush hour is not a happy place.
Something in SA’s water that grows great entrepreneurs?
If anything, SA’s entrepreneurs are doing even better. This week’s London Sunday Times ran a story about Mick Davis, one-time financial director of Eskom (in his 20s) who last year sold his creation Xstrata to Glencore for almost R300bn.
Tougher economic climate, end of QE, could be disguised blessing
We may well look back on the American QE splurge as providing us the best of times. Then again, tougher economic conditions have a way of refocusing a nation onto what is really important.