.By Chris Bishop, Head of Programming at CNBC Africa 



The new man charged with the devilish job of turning around South
Africa’s state owned power generator Eskom may enjoy a merry Christmas next
month, but can’t be sure of a happy new year.



Outsider Andre de Ruyter will take up his post on January 15
in a rudderless organisation, without a permanent CEO for eight months, struggling
to keep the lights on and wallowing in debt ahead of what threatens to be a
complex unbundling of Eskom this year.



“He will need a backbone of steel,” says James-Brent Styan,
a journalist and author of a book on Eskom’s woes called Blackout. Many have
questioned the appointment of a CEO from the struggling packaging outfit
Nampak, but energy analysts agreed the new man could make a fair fist of the job
in difficult circumstances.



“He will need the full support of cabinet and the full
support of the ANC,”Styan adds.



In many ways de Ruyter has credentials for the job: at 50,
he has youth on his side for a CEO job; he has 20 years international
experience with coal-to-liquid giants and recent experience of cutting down
debt at Nampak where he was CEO for five years. Yet, Eskom, with around 46,000
workers, may prove a very different package to Nampak with 5,600.



“He will have to deal with the faceless, nameless,
politicians who will want to tell him what to do. In many ways his hands will
be tied. He will be charged with the difficult job of running Eskom as a
business while dealing with the politicians,” says Chris Yelland, an Eskom
expert with EE Publishers.



“He has to find a way of providing sustainable electricity
at a cost that the economy can afford.” 



The new CEO’s biggest task will be to cut down Eskom’s debt
estimated at about R450 billion and proving a hazard to the power generator
securing new credit lines in the world money markets. Yelland says the power
generator is servicing a mere 47% of this debt. Any attempts to cut jobs at
Eskom are likely to be opposed by powerful unions.



“The problems are going to be massive and immediate,” says
Yelland.



“Ït is going to take de Ruyter at least six months to come
to terms with the bureaucracy at Eskom and the very complex paperwork that goes
with the procurement system,” says Styan.



Styan also says the cutting of coal, staff and interest
costs will loom large on de Ruyter’s desk when he starts work in January, but
all of this will be dwarfed by the difficult task of unbundling Eskom into
transmission, generation and distribution units. This has been promised by the
politicians as the first step towards curing lumbering Eskom’s ills, but is
long overdue.



“Ï think it is going to take the new man at least six to eight
months to get to grips with this,”says Yelland.



All agree de Ruyter needs the eye of a hawk for his new job.
Eskom has seen a dozen CEOs in the last decade – all have struggled to deal
with Eskom’s complex issues. It is unlikely to be a happy new year for anyone
at the national power generator.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Why the new man at Eskom needs a backbone of steel and the eye of a hawk

By Chris Bishop



The Africa Investment Forum declared it had secured $40.1
billion in investment – an increase on last year – after days of talking and
intense boardroom negotiations at the Sandton Convention Centre in
Johannesburg.



Hundreds of delegates from scores of countries around the
world got together in South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised
country, to try to attract billions from foreign investors to boost business
and fill a huge infrastructure gap. Organisers and delegates joked that it was
like : “speed dating on steroids”.



“We are winning because you are here, we are winning because
you have invested…we are winning together,” said Akinwumi Adesina, the head of
the African Development Bank and the proponent of the investment forum.



Fifty six deals worth $67.6 billion made it to the boardroom
discussions at the forum, a 44% increase on last year, of those, 52 made it to
approval. The deals , from 25 countries, secured investor interest worth $40.1
billion – an increase on the $37.1 billion garnered last year in the first
forum..



At the closing ceremony many of the scores of delegates
shared their experience of three days of talk of investment in Africa. Most
agreed the talks had been rigorous and disciplined.



“Risk is real,” said one delegate.



Ïf you are not in Africa you are not in business,” says
another.



The investment secured four projects in Nigeria, Africa’s
biggest economy, including a 500 MW power plant.

This is how much was raised at the Africa Investment Forum

By Chris Bishop, head of Programming, CNBC Africa



Africa will be the home for the first NBA basketball league outside of the United States, but the question is will investors see it as a slam dunk?



The NBA announced its foray into the continent at the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg, Tuesday, with an international league among the champions of 12 African nations to start in March. The champions of six nations have qualified so far: Nigeria; Senegal; Egypt; Angola; Morocco and Tunisia. Twelve other African nations will play off for the last six places. The league appears to be funded completely by the NBA but in the long term will have to find money from heavyweight investors. It may be a hard sell in a continent where football is king of the sports dollar.



Ä straw poll among
bankers and foreign investors at the launch at the Sandton Convention Centre
showed how hard a nut to crack investment may be.



“No,” says one
African banker shaking his head.



“Not now but maybe
if the sport grows in the future,” says another African investors.



Basketball has had
a chequered past in Africa when it comes to money. In Angola, there is a
televised league. In Mozambique, along with a number of other Lusophone
countries , it has a big following, but even less money. In Africa’s most industrialised
economy, South Africa, fans follow the NBA but efforts to popularise the sport
have been slow.



Albert Zeufack, the
economist for the World Bank Africa, is a basketball fan who follows the LA
Lakers. He believes tycoons pouring billions into African basketball may not be
as farfetched as it seems. &nbsp;



“I think it is
promising as an investment. The talent Africans bring to the NBA its exploding,
it shows the potential. It is an opportunity for investors to grow training
centres here for new talent and bring hope for the continent,” he says.



Akinwumi Adesina,
the head of the AfDB, said at the launch that he had followed basketball
matches while he studied in the lab at university in the United States. He
encouraged investors to plough billions into the new African league.



“I am very happy
about this launch…Africa has the talent when it comes to basketball. All I ask
is that they change the name from NBA to NBIA to National Basketball Investment
Africa !”he joked. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{user:chris.bishop@abn360.com}}

Africa’s first NBA basketball league launched, will it be a slam dunk?

By Chris Bishop, Head of Programming, CNBC Africa.



Xolani Gwala, veteran broadcaster, hard-working professional and outstanding human being; the sort of comrade you would want next to you in a trench &#8211; farewell. I will never forget your joyful laughter, nor your kind and gentle spirit. In this bitchy, back stabbing world of the media I never heard an unkind word from you or about you. That is the measure of the man.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="693" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-1110x693.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-348931" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-1110x693.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-300x187.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-768x479.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-696x434.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-1068x666.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-673x420.jpg 673w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879-1920x1198.jpg 1920w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AJAV3879.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>Veteran broadcaster Xolani Gwala with South Africa&#8217;s President Cyril Ramaphosa. Photo courtest EWN and 702 </figcaption></figure>



The last time we met, a few months ago, we laughed from the
first second we spoke to the last moment we hugged farewell on the car park at
Cresta in Johannesburg where we had spent a joyful few hours at a restaurant.



The get together, in May, was born of Xolani’s famous
mischief. I had phoned another comrade of ours, political analyst Aubrey
Matshiqi, to ask him to sit with me on the desk for CNBC Africa’s election
coverage. Xolani, who was with Matshiqi at the Cresta restaurant, saw my number
come up on the phone and pretended to be the man himself. He proceeded to ask
me all kinds of strange and personal questions. I was taken in for about three
minutes before realisation hit me.



“Gwala!!” I shouted in mock indignation at the other end of
the line. I can still hear his trade mark rapid-fire laughter at the other end;
a laugh that could light up the sky. 



It took me 20 minutes to get to the restaurant and the three
of us sat for hours of stories and more laughter. Xolani was clearly in pain
and was preparing to go to Israel for another bout of treatment. He told me how
he was diagnosed with cancer when he got the sweats after completing a marathon
in London.



“Ï just thought it was just flu!” he said.



I am still struck by the bravery and serenity with which he
faced his illness. He told me of his treatment and showed me the remains of his
poor liver in pictures on his phone.



We talked of the old days when he was a young producer and
aspiring TV presenter at the SABC and I was his Senior Executive
Producer/mentor more than two decades ago. We laughed about the snotty,
privileged, people who used to ring up to complain about his Zulu accent. To
their annoyance, and often to a heap of abuse in return, I would tell them Mr
Gwala was going to be a big name in broadcasting in South Africa and they had
better get used to it. Down the years a big smile of satisfaction spread across
my face when I heard him going like a steam train on the airwaves.&nbsp; 



As the evening around the restaurant table drew to a close.
We talked of the best of the gilded days. The laughs and mishaps at work, the
frenzied parties and how Xolani always knew a place downtown where we could buy
booze around the clock.



As we hugged goodbye on the car park, Xolani looked me
square in the face.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“They were the best of times,” he said before turning away
to his car.



Indeed Mr Gwala they were and you were the best of
broadcasters. I salute you.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

7024946

Farewell to Xolani Gwala: veteran broadcaster, hard-working professional and outstanding human being

By Chris Bishop, Head of Programming, CNBC Africa 



As the business minds ready for the World Economic Forum Africa
in Cape Town next week the finance minister of the continent’s most advanced
economy revealed Treasury’s plan how to revive growth and create a million jobs.
Economists say the plan is nothing new and cast doubt on what good it will do.
It is likely to generate talk – the fear must be that it is all it may do.



The forthright South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni
published the plan this week, <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/comm_media/press/2019/Towards%20an%20Economic%20Strategy%20for%20SA.pdf">on
the Treasury website</a>, giving the public until mid- September to comment,
just ahead of the mini-budget in October. Many are seeing this as an unspoken challenge
to the slow moving cabinet following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise in the
state of the nation address, in February, of better economic times. &nbsp;



Analyst Peter Attard Montalto, the head of capital markets research
at Intellidex in London, says the timing of the growth plan is significant
ahead of the mini-budget in October.



“Treasury is not really reinventing the wheel with this,”
says Attard Montalto.



“I think the purpose of this is to deliver a giant kick up
the backside to cabinet.”



Treasury and Mboweni claim the plan will create growth of
2.3% as well a million new jobs. It plans to boost agriculture with better
marketing of exports, telecom reform promising more broadband, more development
finance, a 25% decrease in red tape over five years to make business cheaper
and easier. How the latter will be calculated boggles the mind.&nbsp; 



“Ï think there is nothing new here. It is very clear that
the Ramaphosa administration is weakening and I think his ministers are getting
scared,” says economist Lumkile Mondi, Senior Lecturer at the School of
Economic &amp; Business Sciences, Wits University.&nbsp; &nbsp;



“What they need to do is implement and take the political
flak. Trevor (Manuel) took the flak for his economic reforms many years ago –
why can’t they?”



At least one of the proposals for growth put forward by
Mboweni is a no-brainer. He calls for the changing of the visa regime to boost
tourism. The former Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom told me last year that it
would be done at the stroke of a pen and would give the industry a fillip. Why
the government is still debating it a year later is beyond most people in the
industry.



There is another proposal in the plan that may also raise
eyebrows. Mboweni proposes that the government could auction off South Africa’s
ageing coal-fired power stations.



“Private business could make money out of this with the
contracts that are attached to these power stations, but this plan is a bit
pie-in-the-sky. Politically, it is not on the table.”



Reform towards growth, creating a million jobs, would be as
welcome as a glass of water in the desert for the dry South African economy
right now.



Yet, talk can be as abundant as jobs are scarce when it
comes to growth plans. Earlier, I checked my notebook from a hot sweaty December
afternoon, in Pretoria, back in 2009.



I was at the Union Buildings with the then President Jacob
Zuma as he gave us a report back on his pledge to create jobs, in response to
the global economic crisis, back in 2008. In that year, President Zuma set up a
task team to work out how to create millions of jobs.



The report back didn’t go well. It turned out that the
government had lost 959,000 jobs in that first year of job creation. True, Zuma
assured us, 4,482 had been saved through arbitration, 7,000 more through training
instead of retrenchment…The Industrial Development Corporation claimed to have saved
an estimated 7,700 jobs by lending to distressed companies.



Yet, nearly a million jobs were lost, not created. A note to
the Ramaphosa administration that talk and task teams won’t get you far; the
time for action is now.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Tito Mboweni’s tips for economic growth in SA – is it more talk and task teams?

Botswana-born supermarket chain Choppies <a href="https://www.cognitoforms.com/RedfordCapital/ChoppiesEOI">plans to exit its South African operations</a>, either in whole or part. It entered South Africa in 2008 opening its first store in Zeerust North West, where most of its SA stores with concentrated.



The retailer has been battling several headwinds since last year when its shares were suspended on the JSE and Botswana Stock Exchange over the delayed submission of its results as PwC uncovered several accounting irregularities that needed further investigation. In May 2019 its co-founder Ramachandran Ottapathu, <a href="https://choppies.co.bw/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CEL-EGM-Circular.pdf">following recommendations made in an investigation report</a> by Desai Law Group, was suspended. In an <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2019/05/24/choppies-suspended-ceo-to-fight-back/">interview with CNBC Africa</a>, Ottapathu, who hails from Kerala in southern India, explained why he felt his suspension was unjustified. 



Ottapathu came to Botswana on the offer of an accountant’s
job in Botswana. All he knew about the southern African country was that it had
a lot of diamonds and elephants.



Ottapathu’s first job in Botswana was to look over the books at the Wayside supermarket in Lobatse near the border with South Africa – the then ailing predecessor to Choppies. He steered the books to safety by 1997 and in 1999 the company opened its first superstore in Gaborone. Ottapathu was appointed CEO of the company in 2000 and by 2015 it was turning over $533 and by 2016 it had 170 stores across Botswana South Africa and Zimbabwe. It had plans to expand in Kenya Tanzania and Rwanda.



“Africa is an addiction. I don’t even want my dead body to
go out,” he was quoted by Forbes Africa as saying.



The expansion of Choppies made Ottapathu a fortune that he
estimated, in 2016, to be worth around $300 million.



Yet, <a href="https://choppies.co.bw/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CEL-EGM-Circular.pdf">allegations of accounting irregularities</a>, at least one payment that the board didn’t know about, boardroom squabbles with chairman and former Botswana President, Festus Mogae over the direction and running of the company saw Ottapathu ousted in 2019. A sweet growth story in Africa that appeared to come to a bitter end.



Now Ottapathu has requested an extraordinary general meeting, which will be held in September, in which his Excellency Mogae will step down as chairman and Ottapathu will attempt to get his job back.

African supermarket chain, Choppies to chop South African assets

Former President Jacob Zuma said the “Zuma must go”&nbsp;campaign
of 2017 where hundreds of thousands&nbsp; of South Africans took to the streets
to protest against him was part of the intelligence-fuelled campaign to vilify
him that upset his family.



Zuma was giving evidence to the Zondo Commission on State Capture in Johannesburg where he is expected to answer questions on the controversial Gupta family and alleged corruption in the function of the government of his day.  



Read: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/zdnl-mc/2019/07/15/i-have-been-vilified-over-the-years-zuma-and-his-comrade-conspiracy-theories-open-day-one-of-statecaptureinquiry/">“I have been vilified over the years!” Zuma and his comrade conspiracy theories open day one of #StateCaptureInquiry</a>



“People were calling,&nbsp;
Zuma must go. What can be done? No one can do anything he is corrupt.
What has he done ? Nothing. No president has been brought before a commission
but if it is Zuma we must do it…Zuma must resign. It is part of the
intelligence plan against me. Then he must be brought before the commission and
answer questions,” he said.



Zuma sounded a little bitter as he hinted that he was going
to retaliate and told of the pain suffered by his family. 



I have been provoked and provoked to the last degree, by
people purporting to save the country they make stories they do everything. My
own family suffered out of this leaving me, as a soldier I can take everything,
people forget I have a family who do not want to hear lies being told against
me.”



The hearing continues.&nbsp;

#StateCaptureInquiry: The Zuma must go campaign was part of the conspiracy

Former President Jacob Zuma made it clear his comrades were out to get him when he began giving evidence to the Zondo Commission in Johannesburg.



Supporters clapped and cheered as Zuma walked into the
hearing where he is expected to answer scores of questions for the rest of the
week on everything from the controversial Gupta family to the hundreds of
thousands he is alleged to have taken as a bribe every from the security
company BOSASA. Zuma told the hearing that he was there because he
believed&nbsp;it was important that people say things they know, that than
telling things they can’t prove.



“Ï have been vilified over the years!” Zuma told the commission
clearing his throat&nbsp;frequently and blaming a bout of flu.



This commission from my understanding was really created to
have me coming here and perhaps to find things on me…This is why, in the
background I am going to give&#8230;There has been a drive to remove me from
everything a wish that I should disappear…Why it is important I will deal
with…Work in the ANC and also because of who I am…This conspiracy against me
has been stressed at all material times when there are things to be done. It
has come in different forms and that is why people who are trying to dodge
things in one thing or another. I am going to connect the dots as to why I am
here.”



Zuma claimed that three intelligence organisations, one from
South Africa, in 1990 decided to remove Zuma, then head of ANC intelligence,
from all structures in the party. He claimed it was a clear character assassination
on the grounds that he had information that his party had been infiltrated by
spies.



Zuma also claimed his removal from power in 2005, in
reaction to South Africa’s controversial arms deal, smacked of a campaign
against him.



“Before I was charged, I was removed as deputy president in
2005 because I was implicated in the arms deal. Of all the people implicated in
the arms deal there was not a single one investigated but they investigated me.
I had been investigated in a very strange way, the head of the NPA and the
minister where they announced there is a prima facie case against him but it is
not winnable in court. There are investigations and then there are
investigations. I have never heard of an investigation against anyone being run
like that in the media.”



The hearing continues.

“I have been vilified over the years!” Zuma and his comrade conspiracy theories open day one of #StateCaptureInquiry

Media icon Bonang
Matheba told a bunch of Africa’s brightest young entrepreneurs how they should
pay their taxes forget entitlement and fail spectacularly if they have to.



Matheba was the lead
speaker at the FORBES
AFRICA Under 30 Meet-Up in
Johannesburg Friday. More than 90 of the 120 young entrepreneurs chosen by the
magazine flew from across Africa for the event. They included everyone from a
kickboxer from Uganda to fashion designers and tech wizards.



Matheba told the gathering that she began dreaming about her future at the age of 15.



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“I loved to speak I
love to hear my voice and I thought why Renu don’t I do TV? So then I found a
school that taught TV,” she says.



Matheba had many
lessons for the aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience.



“Every single day
there is a lesson there is a lot of strength in knowing yourself being honest
with yourself, how good you are, how bad you are. Number two, always be kind to
yourself don’t be hard on yourself don’t expect too much too soon.



No one has to do
anything for you not even your mother has to don’t expect anyone to do anything
for you this entitlement must stop,”she said.



She concluded her
talk on a cautionary note.



“Don’t undermine
people the person you undermine today can be the CEO of the company you want to
work for tomorrow. Pay your taxes the more you know about money the smarter you
become you navigate it easier. When you fail you need to fail
spectacularly&#8230;People have to learn from it and see it can happen to anyone.”

Bonang Matheba on how you should fail spectacularly

In this narrow, bad tempered, age of nationalism and petty
racial tension it is heart-warming to see an independent African nation honour a
man born on the other side of the world for sharing its values and its struggle
for freedom.



This happened on June 25 2019 as Mozambique celebrated 44 years of independence by making Scottish-born journalist Iain Christie an honorary citizen in the land he believed in and spent 25 years  of his life living with tight knit family in Maputo.



Christie came to Africa to work on newspapers in Dar es
Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, in 1970. Here, he reported on the many
liberation movements using Tanzania as a base: including FRELIMO, the
liberation army led by Samora Machel. &nbsp;The two got on like a house on fire and
friends for life. Decades later, the first picture you saw when you entered the
Christie home was that of the first president of Mozambique in army fatigues
with rifle; when the two met, in Machel’s days of power, there would be a :
“Hey, Christie!” followed&nbsp; by a
presidential bear hug. 



“I liked the party because I thought it approached
liberation and socialism in a very interesting way,” he once told me in a long
chat about politics in his lounge in Maputo.



In 1975, the Portuguese government had given up its military
rear guard action against majority rule in Africa after the remnants of the
late President Antionio Salazar’s right wing Estado Novo was kicked by a
peaceful coup by the socialists in 1974. It ushered in rapid change as Portugal
rushed to hand back its so- called “overseas provinces” in Africa, from Cape
Verde to Mozambique, within a year, after more than 400 years of colonial rule.



The flamboyant former medic turned military commander Machel
decided to march through Mozambique to spread his message of Liberation among
the people. He invited journalist Christie to go with him and the Scotsman went
every step of the way made Mozambique his home. The two would spend hours,
under the stars ,talking into the African night of a brighter tomorrow. 



In later years, Christie recalled the trip to me as a
magical experience where the villagers would cook food and stage plays for
their new president.



In Maputo, Christie set up the English service of the
Mozambique News Agency and later trained journalists and broadcasted on The
Voice of Zimbabwe, a radio station broadcasting from Maputo as the next door
neighbours inched towards independence.&nbsp; Whatever
his reservations, in latter years, he was firm in his belief that Mozambique
was better off for achieving liberation.



The fact that Mozambique remembers Christie’s
enthusiastic&nbsp; contribution to the country,
with his pen, is commendable – if not just a little nostalgic for brighter,
better, days of hope.&nbsp;

Mozambique honours the Scot who stood for freedom

Billionaire Christo Wiese says he was on the verge of losing everything in the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/steinhoff/">Steinhoff scandal</a>.



<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2017/12/22/steinhoff-scandal-knocks-12bn-off-value-blow-tycoon-wiese/">Wiese’s net worth plummeted</a>, at the beginning of 2018, as the Steinhoff share price went into free fall. In March 2017, his net worth, according to Forbes magazine, was at $5.6 billion. Less than a year later it fallen to a mere $300 million. It had dropped so far that when CNBC Africa contacted the Forbes Wealth Unit in the United States to verify the net worth they thought it could be a computer glitch and asked for time for the technicians to check. When they came back the head of the wealth unit Kerry Dolan was astounded.



“This is the biggest and fastest drop we have ever seen in
the real time net worth of any individual on the Forbes rich list,” Dolan said.



It could have been a lot worse Wiese told CNBC Africa in an
exclusive interview at his Pepkor headquarters in Paarl, near Cape Town.



“I count my blessings because if this fraud had been allowed
to go on for another year or two, I would have lost everything, including Shoprite.
I decided not to become a bitter person because that destroys my life,” says
Wiese.



The retail billionaire, who has recovered his net worth by extricating himself from Steinhoff to around $1.1 billion, according to Forbes, believes that culpable Steinhoff decision makers should feel the full might of the law.





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“Everyone who has participated, and remember they have not
been found guilty yet, in fact they have not even been arrested yet, which is
also something that puzzles me. But everyone who has perpetrated this fraud
should be made to pay,” he says.



Wiese also defended his decision to get involved with Steinhoff in the first place.





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“I had businesses in more than 30 countries before I did the
Steinhoff deal, let’s put that in perspective. I looked at Steinhoff and its
widespread of interests, its apparent very strong balance sheet and a number of
other factors. I thought that by putting these businesses together we could
create what we called a prospective African champion. In other words a retail
business that had become global, that was the vision for the business as a
whole.”



Yet it all turned sour and Wiese says he faces a long legal
battle for the chance of seeing a penny back from Steinhoff and admits it is
going to be tough. 



“I shouldn’t be paid first, I should be dealt with on the
same basis. Today what is in Steinhoff 60 or 70% came from my companies of what
is left in Steinhoff belongs not to shareholders but to Steinhoff creditors.
That is how the legal system works and it is those creditors who will have to
sit around the table and decide how the assets that are still in Steinhoff have
to&nbsp; be divided there is no way in the
world any one of these creditors can be paid in cash, only paid in kind,” he
said.



“I am putting in my claim with all the other claims, there
are 182 banks, there are at least&nbsp; I
think, there are at least 16 other claimants that are in a similar situation to
my company and we need to sit down and decide all these people need to sit down
and decide how they will take the company forward or if they so decide to
liquidate the company which will be bad because I think at the last count there
are 100,000 people working in Steinhoff there are very valuable businesses in
Steinhoff primarily my businesses that I sold to Steinhoff so it would be&nbsp; a shame if that was the outcome but at the
end of the day creditors have to make that call.



A legal battle that is likely to make even more headlines in
the Steinhoff saga. 



Watch the full interview with Christo Wiese at 7.30pm CAT on
June 25 CNBC Africa channel 410.

How Christo Wiese the rich dad of South Africa nearly became poor dad

Wars money and politics have divided families for centuries
– in the economic powerhouse of Singapore there can be another divisive factor
– corruption. There’s a good chance, if you bribe or cheat, your own family
will ostracise you, so says Hwee Hua Lim, and one of the former lieutenants to
Singapore’s guiding spirit in its economic revolution Lee Kuan Yew.



Singapore’s war on corruption, along with tight control of
its just over five million people through what its critics often call draconian
laws, has been part of the transformation of the island from a rundown port,
off the southern tip of Malaysia, into a manufacturing and financial powerhouse
considered one of the most robust and open economies in the world. It holds
lessons for South Africa as it tries to battle corruption on the road to
economic recovery under its re-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa.



“People take a very dim view of corruption; no one wants anything to do with it. It is in our DNA. Even members of your own family won’t talk to you if you are found guilty of corruption,” says Lim, who was in Johannesburg this week to speak at a conference.



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k7g5aNhpq-s" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>



Lim cited a common sense example that South Africa and a
score of other nations across the continent could learn from. It concerns
government contracts that are very lucrative and highly prized in Singapore’s
island economy. Each contract is ratified by three separate committees – one
dealing with procurement, one with assessment and the third with awarding the
contract. It is a system designed to make it difficult for one person to hold
sway over the contracts.



There is also the Criminal Breach of Trust Act that covers
business to stop everything from fraud, embezzling and bribery right down to
misrepresenting financial products, says Lim.



“The penalties can be years in prison, depending on the
amount of money involved,” says Lim.



“It is how we maintain our integrity as an economy. We take
the view that no one in the world owes us a living and that no one is forced to
do business with us. So we try to ensure clean fairness to encourage investors
to put money into our economy.”



Lim believes South Africa, with its rich resources, can
gather the political will to fight the corruption that has eaten away at the
economy over the last decade. 



“What it needs is a change of mind-set at the top and it
will percolate down to the people,” she says.



Lim’s life mirrors the rise of Singapore that set its mind
on economic growth following complete independence from Britain in 1965. Her
parents arrived in Singapore, during World War Two, from China and her father
eked out a living as a tea trader. The family of 11 lived in a two-bedroomed
flat, yet with the education, at the heart of Singapore’s economic boom; Lim
studied at Cambridge and became a name in business.



In 1996, she was elected to Parliament and in 2001 became
the first ever woman cabinet member in Singapore. She spent seven years as a
lieutenant to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who died in 2015, and argues he was
not as forbidding as many thought him to be.



“He was a visionary and used to say ‘fix it now and then we
will find a better way of doing it’ Everyone through he was unapproachable, but
he would always listen to people and learn from what they had to say. He was
like a sponge,” chuckles Lim. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Lessons from Singapore for SA’s newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa deviated from the
campaign trail to tell how youth unemployment keeps him awake at night and how kissing
a frog can make it better.



Unemployment is one of the issues of the election on May 8
as South Africa’s population grows faster than the economy. The official
unemployment rate is around 27%, but many economists think it may be even higher.
More than half of the jobless are under 30 creating fear among politicians of a
growing idle, restive, yet educated, mob.



“We send our young people away to college, they come back
waving a certificate of a degree and then spend the next four years sitting at home,”
Ramaphosa told a group of interns, among more than 3,000, sponsored by one of
South Africa’s biggest financial institutions Nedbank.



“It keeps me up at night, the unemployment of so many young
people.”



President Ramaphosa said South Africa had to review its
education system.&nbsp; He said he was more in
favour of the German system where study and work experience work side-by-side
to help ease young people into jobs after graduation day. 



More than half a century ago, the young Ramaphosa worked his
first job hauling milk churns around in a dairy. In his relaxed, avuncular,
style he related a story, from his humble roots in Soweto, that he hoped would
inspire the young to find to transcend the lives they were born into.



“My father was a policeman and my mother was a domestic
worker and we had very little money. When I wanted to go to college I walked
the streets, knocking on office doors. I used to go in with a letter asking for
sponsorship for my bursary,” he says.



“Eventually I came across two old Jewish ladies who ran a
trust and they gave me the money. They gave me that lift that I required. In
life, I had to kiss a lot of frogs before I found my princess. I advise you all
in life to kiss a lot of frogs along the way.”



Young people also had to work hard when life offered them a
chance of work.



“If you work hard you will be seen as a gem and nobody wants
to lose a gem.”

The problem that keeps SA’s president up at night

By Chris Bishop



If you listened to President Cyril Ramaphosa at Davos you
would have slept soundly amid the snow of this ski resort in Switzerland in the
belief that all was well in the South African economy.



Yes, Ramaphosa would have faced awkward questions over why
his government is propping up loss making state enterprises, taking time to cut
back government expenditure on items like the civil service and approaching the
thorny issue of expropriation of land without compensation.



“We are casting our nets here and finding big fish,” says
Ramaphosa, the master of the metaphor, at the press briefing at Davos
Wednesday.



At the customary presidential dinner, in Davos, that night
Ramaphosa, with microphone in hand, was even more effusive.



“When we see people here they ask us how we manage to get
business, government and unions working together for the economy of our
country,” says Ramaphosa.



“They say tell us what this magic that you have is. What I
tell them is that there is a renewal and determination to make South Africa
work. “



Ramaphosa also nodded to the fallow and corruption-haunted
years of his predecessor, President Jacob Zuma, whom he took over from in
February.



“We have the loss of nine years to make up,” Ramaphosa told a
crowd of cabinet ministers and millionaires at the dinner.



Reaction to&nbsp;
Ramaphosa’s speech was positive among many here at Davos.



“You certainly have more political stability in your country
than we do in ours,” says a New York-based billionaire.



Ramaphosa hopes this sentiment will help him catch big fish
in the aftermath of the gathering at Davos that winds down on Friday.

#WEF19: “We have the loss of nine years to make up,” SA’s President Ramaphosa

By Chris Bishop.



Does this bring a whole new meaning to banks weathering the
storm? 



Leading economist Gita Gopinath, a Harvard professor, told a
briefing at the World Economic Forum in Davos that many banks are adding the chance
of hell and high water to their stress tests. 



“The stress tests used to be merely about earnings and
outlook, now banks are adding natural disasters,” Gopinath



This is one of the greatest long-term threats to the world
in 2019, according to the World Economic Forum’s <a href="http://cnbc.africa/insights/world-economic-forum/wef-davos-2018/2019/01/16/these-are-the-top-five-risks-facing-africa/">Global
Risks Report</a> that paints a bleak picture of the year ahead full of trade
wars, cyber-attacks and unemployment.



Four of the five top risks by impact are posed by the
elements: failure to mitigate the effects of climate change; floods and storms;
water crisis, plus earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos and electric storms.



Economists Gopinath and Laurence Boone, a PHD from London Business School, painted a gloomy picture of globalisation. They identified trade tensions, Brexit, worsening financial conditions and the slowdown of China, plus the wiping out of jobs through increased competition as major downsides.



The economists recommended more training to overcome the job
losses; the downside to this? More taxes to pay for it, they said. A
recommendation unlikely to give much cheer to the world’s hard pressed
companies. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Why stress tests are now being applied to climate change

By Chris Bishop.



The next time you put your credit card into the machine, be
afraid, be very afraid. Ogenene man’s terrorist can be another man’s cash cow,
according to two of the world’s leading experts on cyber-terrorism.



Retired &nbsp;four star
general, in the US Marines, John Allen, a former commander of NATO’s
International Security Assistance Forces, and Karin Von Hippel, a former senior
adviser to the US Department of State, who worked on security for the United
Nations and European Union in Somalia and Kosovo, spoke at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland Wednesday. They painted a bleak picture of threats
and radicalism lurking on the dark web.



“I wouldn’t put my credit card into a machine today. This is
happening right now,” says Allen when I asked him about how far away were we
from cyber-terrorism cleaning out bank accounts.



“A cyber terrorist can open a bank account on a Monday;
start cleaning people’s accounts out on a Tuesday and start supplying money to
their cause on a Wednesday. I saw a case of a bank in Bangladesh that was
cleaned out of $80 million dollars in one day. We have to develop strong
systems to defend our financial systems.”



Cyber- terrorists were becoming ever more clever and
ubiquitous, said Von Hippel. The Islamic Isis movement, in Syria, attracted
40,000 volunteers from 120 countries and many of them used the internet to
further their cause.



“They are all out there in the cloud and the dark web doing
their work. They move so fast that it is very hard to keep up with,” says Von
Hippel.



Allen said it was up to the world to combat this by spending
more money of tackling the root causes of this so called cyber-terrorism.



“If we spent half as much money on easing the causes of this
terrorism, as we do fighting it, we would not drive so many youths into the
arms of the radicals,” says Allen.



But despite these doomsday predictions, Von Hippel pointed
out that people should not panic.



“Despite all of this, you’ve still got a bigger chance of
dying in the bathtub than you do in a terrorist attack,” she quipped at the end
of the eye-opening session.

cybersecurity_shutterstock

Cyberterror: The next time you put your card in the machine- be afraid, be very afraid

By Chris Bishop



Carbon should be priced into infrastructure projects, not
only to help protect the environment but also to attract more private money towards
filling the world’s one trillion dollar-a year infrastructure gap.



Infrastructure dominated one of the first sessions of the
World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, that got underway, in earnest,
Tuesday. More than 60 heads of state and thousands of business and investment
experts from around the world will gather in the ski resort this week to
discuss how to fix a broken world, deal with new technology, and tackle climate
change.



“Carbon should be priced into infrastructure projects and
that will act as an economic trigger for private money to come in because not
only will it mean more revenue it will help us put more money into saving the
environment,” says Gregory Hodkinson, the CEO of one of the world’s biggest
infrastructure companies, Arup, that turns over more than a billion pounds a
year.



“The money is there. Investors sank six trillion dollars
into Untied States junk bonds last year. If investors are prepared to roll the
dice on &nbsp;junk bonds what about
infrastructure investment?”



One of the stumbling blocks for infrastructure investment,
in everything from roads and power to water, is securing government backing.
The panel discussion heard that 65% of world infrastructure projects are
unbankable without government guarantees and support. It can often be a
fractious relationship between investor and government officials, the session
heard. Heng Swee Keat, the Cambridge-educated finance minister of Singapore,
said the relationship between the public and private sectors could be “lumpy.”



“I remember a man coming to me and saying he was never going
to invest in infrastructure in your country again, I asked him ‘why’ and he
said, because the last time we invested and made money the government came back
to us and asked: ‘Why are you making so much money!’’’ says Swee Keat, who used
to be Parliamentary Private Secretary to the late father of infrastructure, on
the island, premier Lee Kuan Yew.



Hodkinson, who has been working in infrastructure for 40
years, said investment could no longer ignore the future, nor the environment,
otherwise next generation would suffer.



“Even if someone is building a car parking garage I ask what
else can they do with it because they won’t need it one day”,” says Hodkinson.



“We need political leadership in this fractured world…otherwise
we are going to get easy political leadership preying on people’s fears. 



Smart cities – tailor-made for people with the help of
information about their needs gathered from the interest – was touted as one
popular answer to the infrastructure gap.



“We asked people if they were happy to provide personal
information to this end. Even in this world where people are frightened of
sharing their personal information, 47% said they would to get better
infrastructure,” says Michael Burke, the CEO of the NYSE-listed AECOM in the
United States that turns over more than $18 billion a year.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chris Bishop

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Farewell to Xolani Gwala: veteran broadcaster, hard-working professional and outstanding human being

Tito Mboweni’s tips for economic growth in SA – is it more talk and task teams?

African supermarket chain, Choppies to chop South African assets

#StateCaptureInquiry: The Zuma must go campaign was part of the conspiracy

“I have been vilified over the years!” Zuma and his comrade conspiracy theories open day one of #StateCaptureInquiry

Bonang Matheba on how you should fail spectacularly

Mozambique honours the Scot who stood for freedom

How Christo Wiese the rich dad of South Africa nearly became poor dad

Lessons from Singapore for SA’s newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa

The problem that keeps SA’s president up at night

#WEF19: “We have the loss of nine years to make up,” SA’s President Ramaphosa

Why stress tests are now being applied to climate change

Cyberterror: The next time you put your card in the machine- be afraid, be very afraid

This is how Africa can pay for its infrastructure gap

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Chris Bishop

Why the new man at Eskom needs a backbone of steel and the eye of a hawk

This is how much was raised at the Africa Investment Forum

Africa’s first NBA basketball league launched, will it be a slam dunk?

Farewell to Xolani Gwala: veteran broadcaster, hard-working professional and outstanding human being

Tito Mboweni’s tips for economic growth in SA – is it more talk and task teams?

African supermarket chain, Choppies to chop South African assets

#StateCaptureInquiry: The Zuma must go campaign was part of the conspiracy

“I have been vilified over the years!” Zuma and his comrade conspiracy theories open day one of #StateCaptureInquiry

Bonang Matheba on how you should fail spectacularly

Mozambique honours the Scot who stood for freedom

How Christo Wiese the rich dad of South Africa nearly became poor dad

Lessons from Singapore for SA’s newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa

The problem that keeps SA’s president up at night

#WEF19: “We have the loss of nine years to make up,” SA’s President Ramaphosa

Why stress tests are now being applied to climate change

Cyberterror: The next time you put your card in the machine- be afraid, be very afraid

This is how Africa can pay for its infrastructure gap

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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