BizNews Radio

Fifty four days out from South Africa's local government elections, Geordin Hill-Lewis told BizNews nobody else is even campaigning yet, and made his case for why the DA could end up governing seven of the country's eight big metros. Sam Montsi, whose memoir Defying Barriers charts a career from exile in Lesotho to running businesses on two continents, told Chris Steyn where the politicisation of state-owned company boards went wrong. Dr Duarte da Silva made the case that South Africa isn't running out of gold, it's sitting on 48,000 tons of it, and explained why almost nobody in Pretoria seems to be listening. And at BNC#9 in the Drakensberg, value investor Piet Viljoen answered a delegate's question about executive pay, incentives, and what he calls his investing North Star. Plus the latest from Wall Street, via Reuters.

Editorial note: This session was recorded at BNC#9 on Thursday 13 August 2026. In the days after this Q&A, the FSCA announced 20-year debarment orders against Warren Wheatley and two colleagues over share trading in Altvest Capital (Africa Bitcoin Corporation's predecessor) in September 2022, along with a combined R10 million in administrative penalties. Wheatley has resigned from the board; Stafford Masie, referenced throughout this session, is now interim CEO. All three dispute the findings and are seeking reconsideration from the Financial Services Tribunal. Nothing in this Q&A relates to that matter, which concerns trades from roughly four years before this conversation, but readers should have that context. See the flags section of the publish package for detail and sourcing.

At BNC#9, Warren Wheatley told David Shapiro that Bitcoin has become boring, and he meant it as a compliment. The Africa Bitcoin Corporation founder walked through the mechanics: borrowing dollars from a European bank at 3%, using the money to buy Bitcoin, then lending to South African SMEs at 18%, less than half what most of them pay elsewhere. He explained the loan-to-value discipline that keeps it safe, why he'd rather fund a farmer hiring 80 people than a two-person AI unicorn, and what he thinks the Reserve Bank's draft crypto rules would do to the industry if they pass as written. He also covered how Bitcoin miners quietly became a buffer for AI data centres, what Eskom missed out on, and his own advice on keeping Bitcoin safe.

Piet Viljoen doesn't read the news, doesn't watch the Fed, and thinks most of what the investment industry sells you is jargon designed to make simple things sound complicated. In his Q&A at BNC#9, he went after executive pay, looked at private equity's real return profile, explained why he avoids AI stocks entirely, and unpacked the regulations that let his fund own crash-prone stocks but cap it at 10% gold. Then the floor opened up to questions: offshore allowances, Bitcoin, HCI, and whether the asset management industry is about to consolidate.

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.”