BizNews Radio

In their weekly chat Chris Steyn and political commentator Solly Moeng dissect President Cyril Ramaphosa’s tough week on several fronts: The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry is seeking answers from his very influential former adviser, Dr Bejani Chauke, particularly in relation to WhatsApp chats with a notorious late taxi boss; his close friend and CODESA co-star, US Ambassador Roelf Meyer has been accused of political interference in Apartheid-era prosecutions; and election pollsters predict former President Jacob Zuma’s MKP could be heading for an outright majority KZN in next week’s Local Government Elections (LGEs). “I think that the only way that South Africa and the Presidency of South Africa can be saved, can be rescued, would be for serious political change, for people to go in there and change the system so that nobody ever comes in there with charming English, who wants to be hugged and who can hug you, and then who goes rogue on us and there's nothing we can do about them because the systems protect them,” says Moeng. Meanwhile, the President has resorted to door-to-door campaigning in KZN.

Six days before the vote, four serious pollsters could not agree on who was winning Johannesburg. Gareth van Onselen, whose Victory Research polls have drawn fire from the ANC and ActionSA alike, told Alec Hogg why the metro numbers diverged, why turnout could swing a party by up to five points, and why the real result would only emerge from two weeks of coalition bargaining after 4 November. He set out the test he believed eThekwini would pose for every other metro, the squeeze facing the DA in Cape Town, an idea for running Gauteng's three metros as one, and the ANC strongholds that, if they cracked, would mark a change not seen since 1994. He also had a blunt verdict on Herman Mashaba's claim to Soweto, and a word on the eight weeks his own Joburg tap had run dry.

In this interview with Chris Steyn, Donald MacKay, the CEO of XA Global Trade Advisors, describes how anti-competitive behaviour is rewarded when investigations drag on. He was speaking out amid a long wait to find out whether the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) will be hit with a penalty of ten percent of its annual income following a complaint by a secondary stock exchange against the JSE for anti-competitive behaviour. MacKay predicted that should the JSE lose at the tribunal, “it will force a fundamental change in how stock exchanges operate” in South Africa. As to whether the tribunal would hand down specific directives in addition to the possible penalty, MacKays says: “Well, we don't know that. This is why the tribunal has to wrap this up and take a decision now, but it would be implied in all of this that if you're guilty of anti-competitive behaviour, you can't buy your way out of that by paying a fine. You have to stop the anti-competitive behaviour that started all of this in the first place.” Meanwhile, “many” alternative exchanges have “not even survived” while others are “on the verge of closing down”. MacKay adds that the problem has become “severe”. The JSE has categorically denied all the allegations.

Cy Jacobs has lived in Johannesburg all his life, and he told Alec Hogg he feared the city was close to the point of no return. The 36ONE co-founder explained why he had stepped into the election, why he believed Helen Zille had earned the city's thanks, and why another 50,000 to 100,000 voters could change the outcome. William Saunderson-Meyer said this election felt different, with the country in desperate straits and voters more disillusioned than ever, and he had strong words for anyone planning to spoil their ballot or stay home. And Willem Els brought Chris Steyn some good news: Angola and Uganda had joined South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania in a regional push against drug trafficking, at a time when local labs appeared to be producing far more than the country could use.

In June, Cy Jacobs predicted SpaceX would one day buy Tesla. Now that the boards are looking at it, he explained why he still wouldn't buy either, and how passive money may be doing more to hold up Elon Musk's valuations than profits. Then he turned to the city he has lived in all his life. The 36ONE co-founder warned that Joburg was close to the point of no return, said who he thought would win the mayoralty, explained what a change in government could mean for the city's bonds, the rand and house prices, and answered whether he would take a job in a new administration.