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AfriForum's Morné Mostert tells BizNews the ANC's plan to merge Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni into one mega metro fails the science test - bigger municipalities don't perform better - and mainly boosts councillors' pay, which scales with size. From BNC#9, Dawie Roodt tells Alec Hogg he'd rebuild confidence by literally cleaning up the country, then hand himself the finance ministry to build the world's simplest tax regime. Ian Cameron revisits the Philippi ambush that nearly killed him a year ago, and Reuters wraps a Wall Street slide as bonds sell off and oil spikes on Iran.

According to Nomvula Mokonyane, First Deputy Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC), the party is considering a fundamental review of the country’s municipal structures, including the possible amalgamation of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni into a single “megatropolis”. In his reaction, Morné Mostert, Local Government Affairs Manager for AfriForum, tells Chris Steyn that his civil rights organisation would “tackle it legally - full scale” as “this won't benefit any citizens on ground level”. He also points out that municipal councillors remuneration is based upon how big the municipality is. “So it's very obvious for political structures to say, yes, let's create a larger municipality as it will benefit them personally.” Mostert further details the large-scale municipal litigation AfriForum is currently involved in. “Our latest primary focus with regards to litigation are shadow fees and taxes that our municipalities put into the tariff bylaws and put into the budgets… most of these municipalities are just running to get funds together and they're not doing that in a legal or lawful manner.” Describing the mood on the ground, he says: “...most people are frustrated. No economy can function properly if there aren't regular, efficient and readily available services… people are in dire straits.”

The taxman, the Reserve Bank and your crypto wallet: Dawie Roodt doesn't hold back. In this Q&A straight after his BNC#9 keynote, the Efficient Group chief economist explains why officials want your phone and your passwords if you try to take money offshore, why roughly 200 000 taxpayers are propping up the entire country, and why he thinks the new Transformation Fund could spell the end of BEE as we know it. Along the way: a blunt take on land versus cattle, why South African schools spend big and still underperform, and why he'd rather fix the tax code than lower the tax burden.

A brigadier's pips on a secretary with zero police experience. A rape kit that costs the state eight times what it should. A cocaine pipeline running through a West Coast holiday town. One year after he was shot at during an oversight visit in Philippi, Police Portfolio Committee chairperson Ian Cameron sits down at BNC#9 to talk about what he's actually found inside South Africa's police service, and it isn't just bad apples. He names the patronage machine, explains why whistleblowers can't afford to go public, and says exactly how long he thinks it will take to turn the SAPS around. Then the floor opens, and the questions get sharper.

Prince Mashele has a warning for KwaZulu-Natal: when Jacob Zuma dies, he believes MK's hold on the province won't survive him. On this Daybreak, the political analyst spells out the party he's quietly building to replace the ANC, who he says is bankrolling it, and why he'd rather copy Singapore than "African democracy." Then Rob Hersov makes the case that Johannesburg is being run like 1920s Chicago, except the mafia here has captured the police, the courts and the boardroom too, and nobody agrees on who the city's Al Capone actually is. Johnny Copelyn, in one of his last interviews as HCI's boss, explains why South Africa is still sitting on oil and gas its neighbours are racing to exploit. Riël Malan explains why 36 failed startups taught him more than any MBA could. And Wall Street closes out August in the red as a hawkish Fed chair and a spiking oil price rattle markets, with one Californian utility down 20% in a single session.