BizNews Radio

At a time when news headlines across Africa highlight political friction, economic distress and security concerns, a guarantee of better times ahead may sound almost provocatively optimistic. Yet Dr Jakkie Cilliers, founder of the Institute for Security Studies and head of its African Futures and Innovation Programme, bases that guarantee not on hope, but on rigorous demographic data and structural modelling. In his latest book, Africa's Road to Prosperity: 10 Things to Know, Cilliers doesn't pin Africa's future on its youthful population, technological leapfrogging or natural resource wealth. In fact, he argues that a median age of 20 imposes a heavy dependency burden that constrains economic growth and can make democratic systems more volatile, not less. Technology, meanwhile, is an enabler rather than a shortcut. His confidence instead rests on demographic ratios gradually maturing and a larger, more integrated and productive African market emerging. The conversation also explores several of the practical policy ideas he sets out in the book, including scaling "industries without smokestacks", modernising land tenure systems and how converting communal land, such as KwaZulu-Natal's Ingonyama Trust, into a bankable asset could unlock capital for farmers. Cilliers also shares his views on Africa's geopolitical options, arguing for closer alignment with Europe and India, and discusses the risks facing South Africa as growing numbers of voters lose faith in the ability of democracy to deliver.

He was on the shortlist to run Eskom and lost out to André de Ruyter. Years later, Andy Calitz, who ran South Africa's transmission grid before a career that took him from Shell to Gazprom's control room and the helm of LNG Canada, still thinks about it most weeks. In conversation with Alec Hogg, he called load shedding a South African own goal with no equal among significant countries, and said Germany scored one of its own. He explained why the world's largest machine has nobody in charge of it, why no energy source is truly clean, how Sasol's Secunda plant out-emits an entire European country, and why South Africa keeps losing offshore gas investment to its neighbours. And he had one blunt message for voters about what they are entitled to demand.

US Ambassador Brent Bozell tells Alec Hogg he now looks back fondly on "strained" relations: given a 15-day deadline, Pretoria sent an eloquent six-page letter that answered none of Washington's five asks. BizNews unpacks the second seizure of suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu's phones - targeted, not a fishing expedition, 14 months on. Warren Wheatley breaks his silence on the FSCA's 20-year debarment over three test trades worth R301, and Andy Calitz, long tipped for Eskom, calls load shedding a South African own goal.

Three trades, R301 in total, and a 20-year ban from the financial sector. Warren Wheatley, the chartered accountant who helped put together the Capitec empowerment deal and went on to found Altvest, now Africa Bitcoin Corporation, broke his silence to Alec Hogg days after resigning as CEO. The FSCA says he, his wife Tatum and his chief investment officer coordinated trades to inflate the share price. Wheatley said the trades were a clumsy test of a broken brokerage platform, conceded they were "silly" and "ill-conceived", and denied any intent to profit. He explained why his own board stepped away from him, what the ruling has done to his family, why he will not blame his Bitcoin advocacy, and how quickly his appeal could be decided. Alec asked the question many in business are now asking: if this can happen to him, who is next?

Six months after warning a Hermanus room full of business leaders that Washington's patience was wearing thin, US Ambassador Brent Bozell returned to BizNews to explain what happened next. Five asks, a 15-day deadline and a six-page reply that, in his words, answered none of them. The result: visa bans on unnamed officials, every item on the negotiating table withdrawn, and a warning that there is more to come. Bozell told Alec Hogg how close the two countries came to a deal, what he offered to fund, why he says he never called for Thabo Mbeki to mediate, and why he believes Pretoria is wrong if it thinks it can simply wait out Donald Trump. He also had a message for South African business: the next move is theirs to push for.