BizNews Radio

Cape Town created 418,000 jobs in five years while the rest of the country's economy shrank last quarter. Its new DA leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, thinks that number is the party's best argument for why voters should hand it six or seven of South Africa's major metros on 4 November, from Johannesburg to Durban. He talks to Alec Hogg about the jobs data, the ANC's Gwede Mantashe getting caught on camera implying a voter's grandchild's grant comes from the ANC, a pet permit bylaw row he calls misinformation, and a Bloemfontein court fight that could keep the ANC off the ballot in Mangaung altogether. Fifty four days out, he says nobody else is even campaigning yet.

In this interview with Chris Steyn, business icon and author Sam Montsi, gives his take on revelations at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, as well as the worldwide impact of US President Donald Trump’s actions. On political and police capture by crime cartels, he says: “It's frightening what has happened in the leadership of some of the organs of State where people have infiltrated and tried to make money very unscrupulously - and they were facilitated and helped by some of the very senior people in the leadership of these institutions.” On Trump, he states: “I can't believe that the United States of America could allow such a person not only to emerge as their leader, but to allow him to do what he's doing throughout the world…it means we really need to be very careful and cautious who, in our little country here, we allow to…lead the country. And we also have to put measures in place to make sure that there are checks and balances so that you don't have crazy people that come into power who will tear the country apart or create problems with our relationships with other countries.” Montsi, whose memoir is titled “Defying Barriers” - also dissects the problems surrounding BEE and SOEs, and shares words of advice for both entrepreneurs, as well as politicians. He declares himself optimistic about the future of South Africa. “I think we are beginning to see the ship of State being pointed or being moved to point in a different direction, which is constructive and positive for the economy and the country.”

South Africa has already mined a quarter of all the gold ever pulled out of the ground, and it still has 48,000 tons sitting under the Witwatersrand. So why has annual output collapsed from 1,000 tons to 88? Dr Duarte da Silva, once South Africa's go-to tech guru and now a gold analyst, tells Alec Hogg why central banks are dumping dollars for gold, why he thinks the Witwatersrand's "death" has been declared four times and been wrong every time, and why he calls the way mining majors offload worked-out shafts onto smaller players "nothing short of criminal." He also doesn't hold back on Stilfontein, on JP Morgan's call for 20% gold portfolios, and on why, despite everything, he's not touching crypto.

A parliamentary watchdog says someone inside SAPS management is lying about missing vehicles, and the good cops are paying for it. A CEO who once got locked out of his own email explains how he turned around a company that had defaulted on its debt for sixteen straight months. A veteran gold fund manager weighs up whether Bitcoin can ever do what gold has done for centuries. An investor who bought into a business after it lost 99.5% of its value tells you exactly how he made the board earn its keep. And overnight, OpenAI's newest model wiped billions off software stocks while oil climbed on Middle East tensions. All of it on today's BizNews Daybreak.

Rhys Summerton bought into a company that had lost 99.5% of its market value and told the independent directors their pay was being halved on day one. At BNC#9, the Milkwood Capital founder and iOCO joint CEO laid out how a fund manager turned operator actually runs the acquisition game: why control of the cash flow matters more than a board seat, why he thinks South Africa's King Code has been "not net positive" for corporate governance, why US executives paying themselves 4% of market cap is a warning sign, and why he wants nothing to do with companies burning billions on AI capex.