The Editor's Desk - Thurs 8 Jan 2026: David Shapiro’s wise counsel, and the truth about the Ozempic "quick fix"

In today's Editor's Desk, Alec Hogg discusses the "higher purpose" Andy Mothibi brings to the NPA and reunites with market legend David Shapiro to track down South Africa’s missing business titans. From the broadcasting "dungeons" of the 90s to a modern reality check on the Ozempic weight-loss craze, we explore why there is truly no free lunch in politics, markets, or health..PS. You can book tickets for the post BNC#8 golf day sponsored by Shyft, by clicking here..Don't miss out on future episodes of The Editor's Desk. Subscribe to BizNews Premium and get the podcast delivered to your inbox daily..Listen here.Read the full transcript of The Editor's Desk podcast below.I had one of those just terrific interviews this morning. David Shapiro and I go back a long, long way. In fact, the very first night that I introduced business radio to South Africa—there's a whole story in that as well—David was the man who came on air. It was in April 1997 and we were in the "dungeons" of the SABC Radio Centre. Those dungeons were clearly created for a time, perhaps, when the apartheid government thought they might be invaded and then they'd be able to talk to the nation from deep underground. I suppose they also helped because, in those days, the recording equipment wasn't as sophisticated as it is now; you had what were called condenser mics, and these microphones picked up everything. To do broadcasting, you needed absolute soundproofing, and the dungeons under the ground in the Radio Centre were exactly the right idea.David came through, we produced that programme and, my goodness, it went from strength to strength. It was 20 minutes after a show called Well Versed where a man of the cloth would ramble on for 10 minutes or so, by which time most listeners to SAFM had disappeared. But there were a few who hung around, we gave them some business news, and it grew and grew. Today, I think there are almost half a dozen business shows being produced at the time that we made our own, from six to seven. David Shapiro had a big part in that. He is such a wise man and so well informed.Today we had an hour—it was a fascinating hour. We spoke about an article that he felt moved to write. It was the result of an interview we had in November where I asked David, "Where are the Brian Joffes, the Raymond Ackermans, the Sol Kersners, and the Bill Lynches of today?" He said it had been bugging him; he thought a lot about that over the holidays. He actually wrote a piece for us, which we published yesterday—a really good piece. This morning we had a terrific chat about that subject. We're going to be repackaging and using parts of it over the next week, but I would strongly recommend that you keep an eye out for the full hour-long interview, because I think you're going to find it quite moving. Thank you, David, as always, and I look forward to seeing more of you on BizNews in 2026.I suppose we worked together so closely for so long that when I left Moneyweb, it wouldn't really have been appropriate to continue to speak to David every day. I didn't want to impose on him with this fledgling little business that we started, but BizNews is a big operation now. I actually offered—I said to him, "Come on, David, start writing for us for money, please, man." He said, "Not a chance. I will never charge you. It would always be a privilege." That's the guy. He's a mensch. I've known him for a long time and he's always been consistent. He's never kowtowed to vested interests; he's a man of his own mind and extreme independence—someone so many of us can look up to as a role model.That’s on the site today, but so is someone else who is a role model. Although he isn't mentioned in the article, there is very much the spirit of Pravin Gordhan in the piece that Paul Hoffman has written about Andy Mothibi. Andy Mothibi is the new National Director of Public Prosecutions; he's succeeding the unlamented, departed Shamila Batohi, for whom we had such high hopes seven years ago, but who really underwhelmed us. Batohi was keen to get someone called Andrea Johnson to take over from her—she had the inside track—and then we had the Matlanga Commission, and I don't think she covered herself in glory at all.Of the 32 applicants for the post and the six finalists (which included a guy who the Constitutional Court said was unfit for the job, Menzi Simelane), Cyril Ramaphosa went right outside of that whole grouping and he plucked Andy Mothibi. Boy, am I amongst those who are delighted by this. Having reflected on it, he studied at the feet of Pravin Gordhan. Of all the people in politics that I've met since South Africa became a democracy—and I won’t say I knew Pravin Gordhan well, because he had a very tight group around him—I certainly interacted with him enough to know that this was a national treasure. Helen Zille probably comes closest, but outside of Helen, Pravin Gordhan was just an extraordinary man.I remember having lunch with him at SARS when he was gunning for Dave King. Dave King, the tax fraud... what Dave King had done was in the time before you had to report your share sales as a director. He brought a company called Specialised Outsourcing onto the JSE, introduced quarterly reporting, gave these hyped-up figures, and the share price went from around 50 cents to around 50 Rand. It was almost like a multi-level marketing scheme where unit trusts that didn't have Specialised Outsourcing in their portfolios were lagging, and those that did were outperforming.As a consequence, Dave King would be fielding calls all the time from unit trust managers asking if he knew anybody selling stock. He then said to those managers, "No, I don't have any shares to sell you, but I do know somebody who does." And that was his own trust, the Ben Nevis Trust. He was effectively selling his own shares while telling them it was somebody else. He made over a billion Rand in offloading these equities at the peak of the market and then compounded the error by telling SARS this was a capital gain, not income. SARS took him on.It was a long court battle, which Dave King eventually settled for a payout of over 700 million Rand. During all of this, Pravin Gordhan invited me to have lunch with him and his team at SARS in Pretoria. The real hero of the Dave King story was "Mr. Chips"—a much-forgotten SARS investigator, a bit of a Columbo-type character at the Rissick Street office. He picked up the story from Moneyweb in the early days and built a case.That time I spent with Pravin Gordhan brought home something that helped me in the coverage of the State Capture period: this was a guy driven by a higher purpose. People in the private sector don't always get this. They often look at the public sector and think they are just lazy or want job security. Conversely, people in the public sector sometimes think those in the private sector are only there to screw everybody for money. Having worked in both, I know there is great misunderstanding. I have huge regard for many in the public sector, like Pravin Gordhan, Edward Kieswetter, and their teams. These people could earn a heck of a lot more in the private sector, yet they serve the social good.When he took over after "Nenegate," Zuma was trying to put the Guptas' people into the Treasury. There was a big revolt, the Rand fell out of bed, and eventually, even Zuma realised it had gone too far. He asked Pravin Gordhan—whom he did not like—to come in and rescue the situation as Finance Minister. Pravin did a splendid job. The last time I saw him, he looked grey; you could see he wasn't well, but he was still fighting the good fight. We lost a hero when Pravin Gordhan left. Andy Mothibi, the new NDPP, is someone who aligns with and is very much in the Pravin Gordhan mould.That makes me excited. Our criminal justice system has been captured by criminal elements. We know how much criminals are paying off police and even judges. There's a big job to be done by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The National Director must be someone serving society in a Pravin Gordhan-type way. Paul Hoffman has written a piece on Andy Mothibi for Daily Friend which is now on BizNews. Go and read it.The last thing I'll mention today is another pal of mine, Rob Hersov. He will be at the BizNews conference in March in an unusual spot as a fireside chat guest. Rob just loves these weight-loss drugs. The GLP-1 research we’re running today comes from universities in the UK, including Cambridge and Oxford. They’ve done research over two years on 9,000 people on Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. The conclusion is scary: once you stop, within two years you'll be back to your previous weight, and chances are it could get worse. There is no free lunch in life—forgive the terrible pun.I’m going to leave it there for today. Keep an eye on your Premium newsletter for links to our freshest content. Please remember to pick up my early morning efforts called BizNews Daybreak. It's available on WhatsApp channels or in the daily newsletter sent out around 6:00 AM. It covers what happened overnight in the US and the latest on our own markets.Thank you for trusting us with your time.I'm Alec Hogg. Until tomorrow, cheerio.

The Editor's Desk - Thurs 8 Jan 2026: David Shapiro’s wise counsel, and the truth about the Ozempic "quick fix"

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