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 <img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260156/original/file-20190221-195879-p9teee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" alt="File 20190221 195879 p9teee.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" />
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 The Mediterranean diet.
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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/silvia-alonso-alvarez-694393">Silvia Alonso Alvarez</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/international-livestock-research-institute-2924"> International Livestock Research Institute </a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/isabelle-baltenweck-529850">Isabelle Baltenweck</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/international-livestock-research-institute-2924"> International Livestock Research Institute </a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lora-iannotti-694346">Lora Iannotti</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/washington-university-in-st-louis-732">Washington University in St Louis</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paula-dominguez-salas-694392">Paula Dominguez-Salas</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/london-school-of-hygiene-and-tropical-medicine-859">London School of Hygiene &#038; Tropical Medicine</a>



A <a href="https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/">team of 37 world-leading scientists</a> from 16 countries have just released the world’s first ever scientific eating plan. The <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31788-4/fulltext">“planetary health diet”</a> is designed to be healthier for people and more environmentally friendly. 

The team warns that the way we eat now threatens both our health and the long-term survival of the planet. They say the current food system dangerously overproduces <a href="https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=food-emissions">greenhouse gases</a>, misuses <a href="https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=food-emissions">fertiliser</a>, and causes large-scale <a href="https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=food-emissions">food wastage</a> and massive <a href="https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=food-emissions">land degradation</a>. 

Their solution is to shift to a diet that transforms this damaging food system. This diet would sustainably feed up to 10 billion people by 2050 and avert about 11 million premature adult deaths a year due to cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases. 

The diet sounds like a silver bullet, but we have found it to be slightly problematic. It doesn’t recognise the enormous differences across the world when it comes to food consumption and production systems. 

It suggests we need less livestock in the world because they damage the environment and produce health-threatening foods – like meat. To most people in developed countries, livestock are the source of neatly packaged foods, readily available in the supermarket. To <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/i0680e/i0680e03.pdf">one billion</a> people in developing countries, livestock are much, much more. They are a source of much-needed livelihoods, incomes, jobs, savings, and nutrition. In some environments, fruits and vegetables may be difficult to grow, and food security depends strongly on animal-source produce. 

The report doesn’t deny any of this: it’s simply rather quiet on it. This could easily lend itself to misinterpretation and push the international development community, donors and governments to reduce investments on increasing access and affordability of animal source foods in countries where positive contributions of these products remain essential for health and life. 

<h2>A healthy diet?</h2>

The authors describe what they call a “universal healthy reference diet” as an alternative to standard current diets which they qualify as imbalanced as reliant on red meat and sugar. 

Drawing on studies, mostly conducted in middle and upper income countries, they propose a diet that consists of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and unsaturated oils – a diet that’s not very different from the so-called <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/what-is-a-mediterranean-diet/">Mediterranean diet</a>. It includes a low to moderate amount of seafood and poultry, but little to no red meat, added sugar, refined grains or starchy vegetables, and only a small amount of dairy. 

One of the issues that has provoked the <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/397606855/Two-pager-Scientific-Evidence-on-Red-Meat-and-Health">most debate</a> about the report is whether the scientific evidence base regarding what constitutes a “healthy diet” is robust enough. Most of the evidence <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2698337">it cites</a> regarding healthy diets comes from observational studies – these can’t prove a causal link between the consumption of specific products, like red meat, and health issues, like heart disease.

<h2>Needs of poor</h2>

The report also claims that its recommendations are flexible enough to be tailored to the preferences and cultures of different populations, as well as to their specific livelihoods. 

But at no point do the authors explain how the world’s less well-off – who tend to subsist on poor quality starches and who have limited access to milk, meat, eggs, fish – could follow their recommendations.

Many rural households, for example, <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/I9553EN/i9553en.pdf">have limited</a> access to markets and generally depend on rain-fed agriculture for their foods. These families consume most of their calories from staple crops such as maize or manioc, foods that lack the variety of nutrients necessary for health and well-being. Even if they produce other foods such as eggs, dairy, fish from aquaculture, or cash crops such as vegetables or fruits, they will likely sell these foods to support other needs like school fees or health care costs. And many people who live in urban areas in emerging and developing economies <a href="https://glopan.org/sites/default/files/Downloads/GlobalPanelUrbanizationPolicyBrief.pdf">face similar</a> difficulties affording a healthy diet.

Sub-Saharan Africa is mentioned a few times in the report. The report notes that because carbohydrate intake is high in many parts of the continent, 

<blockquote>
the promotion of animal source foods, including livestock products, can improve dietary quality, micronutrient intake, nutrient status and overall health. 
</blockquote>

But the report doesn’t expand on these issues and many, in Africa and Asia, need to increase rather than decrease their consumption of animal source foods.

<h2>Divisive report</h2>

Another criticism is that much of the report focuses on adult diets, yet about one in four people in the world are children less than 15 years old. As they grow and develop they have very different nutritional needs to adults. 

The report has a short section that touches on the importance of breastfeeding for infants and iron for adolescent girls and pregnant and lactating women but does not fully address nutrition in these populations or in other phases of childhood. 

By touting diets low in meat or dairy, it could even be harmful as animal source foods <a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/92907/RR44_may2018.pdf?sequence=5&amp;isAllowed=y">are important</a> and provide nutrients that support rapid growth and immune protection. School-age children, in particular, require zinc, iron, iodine, vitamin A, B12, among others from animal source foods for brain development and health.

The EAT-Lancet report has done an important job in bringing global attention to the question of how to sustainably feed the world’s growing population. But now it needs to take the next step and fully incorporate the perspectives of the poorer people in developing and emerging economies and of the vast emerging global middle classes.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112238/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/silvia-alonso-alvarez-694393">Silvia Alonso Alvarez</a>, Senior scientist &#8211; Epidemiologist, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/international-livestock-research-institute-2924"> International Livestock Research Institute </a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/isabelle-baltenweck-529850">Isabelle Baltenweck</a>, Deputy Program Leader, Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/international-livestock-research-institute-2924"> International Livestock Research Institute </a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lora-iannotti-694346">Lora Iannotti</a>, Associate Professor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/washington-university-in-st-louis-732">Washington University in St Louis</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paula-dominguez-salas-694392">Paula Dominguez-Salas</a>, Assistant Professor of Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/london-school-of-hygiene-and-tropical-medicine-859">London School of Hygiene &#038; Tropical Medicine</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-ever-global-scientific-eating-plan-forgets-the-worlds-poor-112238">original article</a>.

How the world’s first ever scientific eating plan forgot the poor

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank has borrowed $985 million from African banks including Mozambique’s central bank and the African Export and Import Bank to purchase fuel and other critical imports, governor John Mangudya said.



Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe dollar crunch and last month ditched a discredited 1:1 dollar peg for surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars, merging them into a lower-value transitional currency called the RTGS dollar.



Mangudya said the loans would be repaid from future gold earnings and had a tenure of between three and five years.



“These loans are well structured facilities contracted last year,” he told a parliamentary committee.



Mangudya also said government borrowing from the central bank reached $2.99 billion in December, about three times its permissible overdraft limit.



The government has promised to curb borrowing in 2019 as part of reforms to revive the southern African economy, after the budget deficit soared last year following a spike in spending ahead of elections.



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Zimbabwe borrows $985 million from African banks, what you need to know…

By Jared Jeffery, Political Analyst, NKC African Economics. 



On Saturday, February 23, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) chose former President John Mahama to be its flagbearer in the 2020 presidential election. 



According
to Myjoyonline the party primary election was the most exhaustive the country
has seen, with around 225,000 delegates in 275 constituencies casting their
ballots. 



So
while the decision to grant Mr Mahama, who lost against President Nana Akufo-Addo
in 2016 (by 44.4% to 53.9%), the opportunity to have another go may not be
wise, it was plainly the will of the party. He reportedly received 95% of the
votes cast at the primary. 



“Tonight,
I want to serve notice to Ghana that from the outcome of this election, the NDC
is strong,&#8221; Mr Mahama reportedly stated after the results were announced,
according to AFP. However, his overwhelming victory says exactly the opposite. 



The
fact that there is nobody within the NDC ranks that could challenge for the
flagbearer role speaks either to a lack of talent within the party, or else
dominance of it by Mr Mahama and his backers to a degree that does not allow
for lively competition. Neither is a sign of strength. 



There
may, however, be a third reason. 



If
we look at the issue from the perspective of an ambitious NDC politician, we
can perhaps understand why nobody was very keen to challenge for the flagbearer
role. 



Mr
Akufo-Addo has yet to make a significant misstep since taking the reins in
early 2017. Indeed, the economy is on a firmer footing, the free schooling
programme has been a hit, the new regions have been created, dumsor
(interrupted power supply) is seldom an issue, and there have been relatively
few corruption scandals to sully his record. 



All-in-all
he looks like a shoo-in to get another term (incumbents generally have an
advantage in any case). A rational NDC presidential hopeful would have good
reason to want to wait out 2020 and plan instead for 2024. 



The
country, however, needs a strong opposition to keep the government in check and
thus some healthy competition in 2020 would have been preferable. 



The
NDC, we believe, has a ‘Mahama problem’. By this we mean that the tainted
legacy of the former president continues to hamstring the party because every
time it raises an objection against Mr Akufo-Addo or his ruling New Patriotic
Party (NPP), the latter is able to point to a worse policy or scandal under Mr
Mahama. 



This
legacy has not faded (or been ‘reframed’) significantly over the past two
years, and it is not clear that it will be significantly different by the end
of next year. 



The
presidential election is still well over a year away, and a lot can happen
before then to change the prospects of either of the main candidates (there
will only be two in the running, and now they are known). 



With
that said, Mr Akufo-Addo will likely be happy that he is coming up against Mr
Mahama as it should be a relatively easy race. 



With
regard to political risk, this should ensure policy continuity and more
long-term thinking, but a lack of opposition strength could affect
accountability and the fight against corruption.

Op-Ed: 2020 Myopia for Ghana’s opposition party

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/">By Karen Gilchrist</a>



As the future of work changes, it&#8217;s more important than ever for employees to make sure they have the skills required to keep up. That was the message this week from <a href="https://www.techhrconference.com/">People Matters TechHR 2019</a>, Asia&#8217;s largest human resources conference.



The remarks out of that Singapore event form part of a growing discourse around the impact technology and automation will have on the jobs landscape. It&#8217;s estimated that by 2030, 75 million to 375 million workers (3 to 14 percent of the global workforce) will need to switch occupational categories,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages">according to one McKinsey report</a>.



While&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/14/linkedin-careers-advice-how-to-get-ahead-at-work.html">research from LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;suggests that young people are more optimistic than any other generation about the shifting trends — after all,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/wef-machines-are-going-to-perform-more-tasks-than-humans-by-2025.html">many of those jobs are expected to be replaced by new ones</a>&nbsp;— the need to acquire new skills to keep apace with that change is undeniable.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>&nbsp;spoke to careers experts on the ground at the conference (as well as those responsible for the technology reshaping employment methods) to find out what they believe will be most important skills for the future.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Asking &#8216;why?&#8217;</h4>



&#8220;When I think about being a millennial entering the workforce,&#8221; said Peta Latimer, partner and CEO for Singapore at global human resources firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MGL-NZ">Mercer</a>, &#8220;I think the two biggest skills that we need are the ability to ask why &#8230; and then, secondly, to listen.&#8221;



The &#8220;why?&#8221; is important for questioning norms and developing new ideas, but the listening is also crucial for understanding those norms &#8220;before you start criticizing.&#8221;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;What I&#8217;ve found is that it&#8217;s not just a learning ability but the ability to bounce back&#8221;-Nora Abd Manaf, group chief human capital officer at Maybank</blockquote>



Nora Abd Manaf, group chief human capital officer at Southeast Asia&#8217;s Maybank, agreed that employees of the future need to work on developing their skills, but she also said it&#8217;s important to develop a future-proofed mindset.



&#8220;What I&#8217;ve found is that it&#8217;s not just a learning ability but the ability to bounce back. So when you fail, know how to pick yourself up and continue your learning process,&#8221; she said.



For Rudy Karsan, managing partner at Karlani Capital, a venture capital firm, it all comes down to one word: &#8220;Courage.&#8221;



&#8220;It is the single hardest thing for young people to have because of the amount of time they spend on the screen. You forget the difficulty it takes to really, really get to know people,&#8221; he said.



Meanwhile, Aileen Tan, group human resources officer at Singaporean telecommunications firm Singtel, who has been learning the programming language Python to future-proof her career, said the answer is threefold.



&#8220;For me, the three things are agility, curiosity, and a sense of divine discontentment,&#8221; said Tan. &#8220;Because you&#8217;ve really got to be discontented with the current to change the future.&#8221;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Making future leaders</h4>



Once employees manage to master those skills, they can then start positioning themselves as leaders of the future, the experts agreed.



That will require drawing on some of the aforementioned skills, such as curiosity, as well as developing new ones, according to Duncan Hewett, a senior vice president of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/united-states/">U.S.</a>&nbsp;software business VMware.



&#8220;The key skill that leaders need in the future is both curiosity and a level of humbleness to reach down through the organization and tap into all the different skills,&#8221; he said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;For me the most important skill is to appreciate the value of people development&#8221;-Morne Swart, Vice president, global product and transformation, SumTotal Systems</blockquote>



Morne Swart, vice president of global product strategy and transformation at U.S. software company SumTotal Systems, agreed, noting the need to value your team.



&#8220;For me the most important skill is to appreciate the value of people development in your organization,&#8221; Swart noted.



Niraj Jain, group chief finance officer at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/indonesia/">Indonesian</a>&nbsp;retailer Kanmo Group, meanwhile, said leaders of the future will need to be increasingly adaptable and willing to change what they think they know as the work landscape shifts.



&#8220;It&#8217;s very important for future leaders to unlearn what they&#8217;ve learned in the past and continue to learn something new,&#8221; explained Jain.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/hr-experts-share-the-skills-employees-will-most-need-in-the-future.html and is republished with its permission.

Improperly appointed boards spell disaster for organisations

HR experts share the skills they say employees will most need in the future

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya will sell a 25-year amortized infrastructure bond this month to raise up to 50 billion shillings ($500.25 million), the central bank said on Friday.



The bond, which will be auctioned on March 20, will come with a coupon of 12.200 percent, the central bank said, adding that it be tax free in line with the government’s policy of encouraging investors to bank infrastructure bonds. .



($1 = 99.9500 Kenyan shillings)



Reporting by Duncan Miriri

Why Kenya plans to sell 25-year infrastructure bond this month

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/cat-clifford/">By Catherine Clifford</a> 



Between <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AMZN">Amazon</a> and space company Blue Origin, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jeff-bezos/">Jeff Bezos</a> — <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#version:realtime">currently worth $134.5 billion according to Forbes</a> — obviously has a lot of work to do.



So Bezos has a system to organize his time.



&#8220;I try to organize my personal time so that I live mostly about 2 to 3 years out,&#8221; Bezos said at the Yale Club in New York City in February, according to a transcript from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-wings-club-presentation-transcript-2019-2">Business Insider</a>.



Bezos has enormous goals: He wants Amazon &#8220;to be Earth&#8217;s most customer-centric company,&#8221;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518121161/d456916dex991.htm">according to his 2018 annual letter</a>, and wants&nbsp;<a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/our-mission">Blue Origin</a>&nbsp;to help create a way for the solar system to support 1 trillion people (&#8220;then we&#8217;d have 1,000 Mozarts, and 1,000 Einsteins,&#8221; he said at the Yale Club).



And &#8220;vision is absolutely important,&#8221; he said. But &#8220;we&#8217;ve got to get started.&#8221;



Vision, he says, &#8220;doesn&#8217;t deserve your day-to-day attention. You need a vision, then, that&#8217;s a touchstone: It&#8217;s something you can always come back to if you ever get confused. But mostly, your time should be spent on things that are happening today, this year, maybe in the next 2 or 3 years,&#8221; Bezos said, according to the transcript.



While there may be a few goals five to seven years in the future that are on Bezos&#8217; mind, he sets his day-to-day schedule based on what he is looking to happen in two to three years.



His top leaders at Amazon also work on a similar timeframe.



&#8220;We&#8217;ll announce our Amazon quarterly results and [people will say], &#8216;Great quarter, congratulations!&#8217; And then I say, &#8216;Thank you,'&#8221; Bezos said. &#8220;But what I really think about is [how] that quarter was kind of baked and done 2 or 3 years ago, and right now the senior executives at Amazon are working on a quarter that&#8217;s going to happen in 2021, 2022.&#8221;



&#8220;I would always encourage people to hold, powerfully, a vision and be so stubborn of it. Don&#8217;t let anybody move you off of your vision,&#8221; Bezos said. &#8220;But put the vast majority of your energy and attention on things that are in a kind of 2- to 3-year timeframe.&#8221;



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/27/how-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-organizes-his-time.html and is republished with its permission.

This is how Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos organises his time

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African retailer Steinhoff reported on Thursday a 3 percent rise in sales to 4.7 billion euros ($5.4 billion) for the three months ended Dec. 31.



The firm, trying to clean up its finances after uncovering an accounting fraud that nearly tipped it into bankruptcy, also said a forensic investigation into the problems at the firm by accountancts PwC would be delivered to the board in mid-March.



($1 = 0.8783 euros)



Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Mark Potter

Scandal-ridden Steinhoff reports a 3% rise in quarterly sales

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">By Courtney Connley</a>



One of the most common pieces of career advice given to young people is to network, network, network. But if you&#8217;re following it to the letter, you might actually be wasting your time.



&#8220;We&#8217;ve all been there,&#8221; bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>. &#8220;You meet someone at a work-related cocktail hour, or at the end of an industry conference, and as you say goodbye, they stick a business card into your hand and you do the same.&#8221;



Though this practice is common — standard, even — Welch says that she believes this kind of networking &#8220;actually hurts your career, and you should replace it immediately with a different approach.&#8221;



&#8220;I know, &#8216;Get out there and network,&#8217; is one of the most common pieces of advice given to job-seekers and career-builders,&#8221; she says. &#8220;The idea is, you&#8217;re supposed to attend everything, make small talk with anyone who&#8217;s got a pulse, and, yep, plant a card into as many palms as possible.&#8221;



But Welch urges job-seekers to consider how often they&#8217;ve actually gained a trusted contact or a promising lead this way. Probably not often — if ever. That&#8217;s because &#8220;human beings help friends, not &#8216;contacts.'&#8221;



Ignore the idea that you have to meet and connect with everyone. Instead, &#8220;focus your energy on forging authentic business relationships.&#8221;



&#8220;They may be fewer in number,&#8221; she says, &#8220;but they are far more effective.&#8221; While this more focused approach may sound risky, the &#8220;commitment, structure and discipline&#8221; it requires pays off.



&#8220;I have a friend who started a PR business from scratch,&#8221; she says. &#8220;At the outset, she scheduled three business lunches a week. But prospecting for leads wasn&#8217;t the only thing on the menu. My friend asked about people&#8217;s career dreams and talked a lot about the Philadelphia Eagles. If someone had a cold, she checked in on them a few days later.&#8221;



Now, Welch says, that same friend&#8217;s business is nine years old and bringing in over $5 million in revenue &#8220;because she played the long game.&#8221;



&#8220;Giving a card or getting a card — that&#8217;s just not how anything of substance gets done,&#8221; explains Welch. &#8220;Don&#8217;t bother. Don&#8217;t network. Make friends instead.&#8221;



Suzy Welch is the co-founder of the <a href="http://jwmi.com/?mcv=jdg469">Jack Welch Management Institute</a>and a noted business journalist, TV commentator and public speaker. Think you need Suzy to fix your career? Email her at gettowork@cnbc.com.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/suzy-welch-to-be-successful-do-this-instead-of-networking.html and is republished with its permission.

Suzy Welch: If you want to be successful, don’t network—do this instead

MBABANE (Reuters) &#8211; eSwatini’s economy probably contracted in 2018 and is set to continue faltering as the southern African kingdom faces slowing rates of foreign investment and a fast-growing wage bill, Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg said on Wednesday.



The tiny landlocked country, formerly known as Swaziland and with a population of 1.4 million people, is ruled by the increasingly powerful King Mswati III whose rule has faced growing resistance as state revenue and employment have slowed.



“eSwatini is facing an unprecedented economic crisis. Preliminary estimates suggest a contraction of 0.4 percent in our GDP for 2018 and the economic outlook remains subdued,” Rijkenberg said in a budget speech to lawmakers.



Reporting by Lunga Masuku: Editing by Catherine Evans

eSwatini is facing an unprecedented economic crisis – finmin

By Bryden Morton, B.Com (Hons) Economics, Executive Director and Chris Blair, B.Sc Chem. Eng., MBA – Leadership &amp; Sustainability,  CEO. 



Minister Mboweni opened the 2019/2020
South African budget speech by bringing along a typical South African plant, the
Aloe, and painting a picture of how this Aloe came to be. He said that we must
sow the seeds of renewal and growth, cultivate the soil and protect the plant
from the elements and pests by pruning away the rot. Although used as a
metaphor, the metaphor is clearly referring to stopping corruption and state
capture efforts – something that has directly affected You in South Africa



The budget speech was dominated by concerns
over South Africa’s rising debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, as well
as the poor financial state of a number of state owned entities. These issues provide
a conundrum for the Finance Minister as he would need to seek additional funding
from an already strained tax base. In an election year, major changes to the
tax structure tend to be put off until after the election has passed. The
entire budget speech lived up to the expectation that no drastic changes would
be implemented (from a tax point of view) and that it would be a somewhat
neutral budget &#8211; the main points impacting You in the economy include:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Personal
Income Tax: Although a slight adjustment to the tax threshold of the income
tax bracket has been made, the remainder of the brackets have remained
unchanged. The impact of this is that You may experience a slight bracket creep
– this means if You move into a new income tax bracket because of a salary
increase then You will pay more tax. The impact of this creep should be
relatively neutral to individuals given South Africa’s progressive tax system
because You earn more money in the new bracket.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Fuel
Levies: The fuel levy will increase by 30c per litre for petrol and 29c
per litre for diesel. The Finance Minister acknowledged that this was below the
amount required by the beleaguered Road Accident Fund. This may be amplified by
world oil prices and the Rand/Dollar exchange rate.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Sin Taxes: The taxes
on sin tax items increased. If You are a person who enjoys any of the following
products expect to face the following price increase.</li><li>A beer will cost you 12c more and the total
levy stands at R1.74</li><li>Wine increased by 22c per bottle and the total
levy stands at R3.15</li><li>Sparkling wine increased by 84c per bottle and
the total levy stands at R10.16</li><li>Whiskey increased by R1.14 per bottle and the
total levy stands at R65.84</li><li>Cigarettes increased by 64c per pack and the
total levy stands at R7.80</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Social
Grants: Social grants were increased moderately to attempt to appease both
the socialists who expect larger social grants and capitalists who believe that
they need to be reined in. The following changes to the value of social grants
were announced.<ul><li>The old age and disability pensions increased
by R80 to R1770 per month</li></ul><ul><li>The foster care grant increased by R40 to
R1000 per month</li></ul><ul><li>The child care grant will increase by R10 in
April and R10 in October 2019 to reach R430 per month.</li></ul></li></ul>



Increased
taxes increase net revenue for the State whilst grants decrease the net revenue
for the State. These taxes and grants have not been altered in any significant way
which then begs the question of how will South Africa combat rising debt and
financially distressed state owned entities (SOEs)? The Finance Minister‘s main
solution to this problem is to implement a reduction to the size of the state’s
wage bill of R27 billion over 3 years. But how will this be achieved? This
would be done by offering older servants early retirement and placing limits on
overtime, bonuses and pay progression in the future – will this be enough to
arrest the growing GDP deficit and ailing SOEs? Probably not and therefore Minister
Mboweni gave an indication into the potential philosophy for raising tax
revenues in future when he spoke about his belief in the “user must pay”
principle. Undoubtedly, Mboweni was referring to the existing E-Toll and Eskom
sagas. These statements provide sufficient evidence to suspect that when the
new electricity tariff is announced, NERSA will grant Eskom a larger increase
than in recent years. Similarly, this suggests that the E-Toll system will not
be scrapped in the short term. Both of these possible outcomes are negative to
You, the user.



Finally
the overall themes that characterised this year’s budget speech are as follows:




<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Tax changes on individuals are to be kept as
neutral as possible.</li><li>The Finance Minister is an advocate of the
“user must pay” principle which could see tariffs charged on individuals, such
as electricity and E-Tolls being increased as a means of moving the financial
burden more onto the user than the state. </li><li>Indebted state owned entities will not be
bailed out and will need to repay any loans they receive from government and
comply with government’s requirements for lending them money.</li><li>For the time being government believes that we
are on track to peak at a 60% debt to GDP ratio.</li></ul>



In summary, it was a fairly uneventful
budget speech &#8211; in line with most expectations that it would be lacking
surprises as this is an election year. Whether or not foregoing making
meaningful changes to the revenue raising model this year will impact our debt
to GDP in the future remains to be seen, but for now, the tax burden on
individuals has remained relatively unchanged. It is the future we should worry
about.

Op-Ed: What South Africa’s #Budget2019 speech will mean to you personally

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s commercial banks are under orders to restrict U.S. dollar transactions to companies and individuals with foreign payments to make, according to a central bank directive that demonstrates the slow progress of currency reforms. 



The document, a measure of the foreign exchange controls that remain in place six days after authorities announced moves to ease chronic cash shortages, also states such transactions should be aimed at stimulating economic growth.



It was sent to banks on Friday and seen by Reuters on Tuesday.



Zimbabwe abandoned a discredited 1:1 dollar peg for its dollar-surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars last week, merging them into a lower-value transitional currency called the RTGS dollar.



It launched the RTGS dollar in a “managed float” at 2.5 per U.S. dollar, but as of Tuesday, banks had yet to start selling hard currency in cash.



Banks were only selling U.S. dollars to firms and individuals with invoices or receipts for imports deemed a priority, such as fuel and medicines.



“All interbank market sales to individuals and corporates shall be restricted to funding of external obligations,” and banks should submit dealing reports every two hours, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) directive said.



Dealers were encouraged to take steps “to ensure efficient utilisation of foreign currency that is tilted towards the productive sectors of the economy,” it added.



The state-owned Herald newspaper reported that Botswana had offered to lend Zimbabwe $600 million to support its diamond industry and private firms.



Economists say the RTGS reform shows promise provided the government makes good on a plan to let the new currency fluctuate.



Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told Reuters in an interview on Monday that, while the market should determine the RTGS rate, the government wanted to avoid excessive volatility.



However, the current official rate values the RTGS far higher than on a thriving black market that many ordinary Zimbabweans use to buy and sell U.S. dollars.



‘SEED U.S. DOLLAR CAPITAL’The central bank has sold small amounts of U.S. dollars to banks at 2.5 RTGS in recent days, and a currency dealer told Reuters the RBZ had authorised banks to buy and sell U.S. dollars at 2.5 percent either side of that rate.



Tellers at two banks in downtown Harare said they could help clients make payments for overseas purchases at 2.5625 RTGS, the rate that other banks offered on Monday.



However, “the RBZ hasn’t given us any U.S. dollars in cash yet,” a teller at a CABS bank branch said.



The central bank sold what it called “seed foreign currency capital” to banks, but the sums in question appear to be tiny.



A senior RBZ official told The Standard newspaper around $5 million had changed hands on the interbank market on Friday.



Bureaux de change can in theory sell people U.S. dollars in cash, but they are few and far between and the central bank directive said some would have to re-apply for operating licences.



One exchange bureau at the Road Port bus station in Harare was not selling U.S. dollars in cash yet but hoped it would start making sales next Monday.



Exchange rates on the black market for the bond note &#8211; which many people still use in shops &#8211; were at 3.6 to the U.S. dollar, unchanged from Monday, informal currency traders said.



Reporting by Alexander Winning and MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by John Stonestreet

Here’s why Zimbabwe is limiting dollar sales to foreign payments only

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kate-rooney/ ">By Kate Rooney </a>



Billionaire investor <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/warren-buffett/">Warren Buffett</a> is doubling down on his bitcoin criticism. 



&#8220;Bitcoin has no unique value at all,&#8221; Buffett told CNBC&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/becky-quick/">Becky Quick</a>&nbsp;in a &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/squawk-box-us/">Squawk Box</a>&#8221; interview Monday. &#8220;It is a delusion, basically.&#8221;



The Berkshire Hathaway CEO said he is sympathetic to optimists who bought the world&#8217;s largest cryptocurrency in hopes that &#8220;it would change their lives.&#8221;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC%3D">Bitcoin</a>&nbsp;has lost more than 80 percent of its value since reaching a high near $20,000 at the end of 2017. The cryptocurrency was trading near $3,781 on Monday, according to CoinDesk.



&#8220;It attracts charlatans,&#8221; Buffett said. &#8220;If you do something phony by going out and selling yo-yos or something, there&#8217;s no money in it — but when you get into Wall Street, there&#8217;s huge money.&#8221;



Buffett has been a long-time critic of cryptocurrency. He called bitcoin &#8220;probably rat poison squared,&#8221; ahead of the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting. A &#8220;mirage,&#8221; &#8220;not a currency,&#8221; and &#8220;tulips&#8221; are among the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/27/warren-buffett-has-been-ragging-on-bitcoin-since-2013.html">descriptors</a>&nbsp;Buffett has used for bitcoin, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://buffett.cnbc.com/">CNBC&#8217;s Warren Buffett Archive</a>.



In the interview Monday, he did point to potential in bitcoin&#8217;s &#8220;important&#8221; underlying technology blockchain but said its success does not depend on cryptocurrency.



Buffett is not alone in his skepticism. Business leaders including Bill Gates, economists Nouriel Roubini and Robert Shiller, and fund managers Ray Dalio and Howard Marks are among those who have questioned bitcoin&#8217;s legitimacy. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon was also a vocal critic of bitcoin. Yet earlier this month, J.P. Morgan became the first major bank to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/jp-morgan-is-rolling-out-the-first-us-bank-backed-cryptocurrency-to-transform-payments--.html">launch</a> its own proprietary cryptocurrency for cross-border payments.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/warren-buffett-says-bitcoin-is-a-delusion.html?&amp;qsearchterm=Warren%20Buffett and is republished with its permission.

Why billionaire Warren Buffett says bitcoin is a ‘delusion’ and ‘attracts charlatans’

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Africa’s biggest pay-TV group MultiChoice debuted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Wednesday with shares opening at 95.50 rand, giving the company a market capitalisation of 42 billion rand ($3.03 billion).



South African ecommerce giant Naspers decided to spin off MultiChoice after coming under pressure in recent years to find ways to narrow a valuation discount between its market value and that of its one-third stake in Chinese internet group Tencent.



As of 0727 GMT, the stock was trading at 105.04 rand, adding to opening gains.



Naspers did not raise any money from the listing with the 439 million shares instead being distributed to current Naspers shareholders on a one-for-one basis for its listed shares and one for five unlisted A class shares



Founded 30 years ago, MultiChoice reaches around 14 million households in 50 African countries, offering both paid-TV products and a fledging streaming service called Showmax.



The company has said there are more than 25 million households across the continent yet to be captured by its traditional pay-TV business.



The spin off leaves MultiChoice — whose strong cash flow helped Naspers evolve into one world’s biggest players in e-commerce &#8211; free to fend for itself in an increasingly competitive market where Netflix is already supplying viewers with TV content and Hollywood hits.



“This is a momentous time for our business&#8230; This marks the next chapter in our development and growth,” said MultiChoice CEO Calvo Mawela.



($1 = 13.8603 rand)



Reporting by Emma Rumney; editing by Alexandra Zavis and Jason Neely

Africa’s top pay-TV group MultiChoice debuts on JSE with $3 bln market cap

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa is close to signing an interim trade agreement with Britain that would replicate arrangements with Europe and ensure trade will not be disrupted in the event of a hard Brexit, South African Trade Minister Rob Davies said on Monday. 



With just a month to go before Britain is due to leave the European Union, London has been trying to strike agreements with trade partners around the world to replicate the terms it now has as a member of the bloc.



“We are very, very close to concluding a bilateral agreement with the UK which is essentially a roll over &#8230; of the partnership agreement,” he said in a phone interview, referring to South Africa’s current agreement with the EU.



South Africa is Britain’s biggest partner in Africa with trade worth over 9 billion pounds ($11.77 billion) in 2017. Metals and other commodities, cars and car parts, machinery, fruit and beverages are among the main traded goods.



Without an agreement in place, that trade would become subject to higher tariffs that would hit key industries in both countries essentially overnight in the event of a hard or no-deal Brexit on March 29.



The deal being finalised would create a transition period for the two sides to reach a more permanent deal, once Britain’s future relationship with the EU and its new trade profile becomes clear.



Davies said some elements couldn’t simply be recreated in the bilateral agreement, and required negotiation.



Some of those provisions were still being discussed, he said, though other difficult issues including tariff quotas on agricultural exports had already been settled.



However, some Brexit risks, such as the impact of an economic slowdown in the EU, could not be mitigated against, he said.



“If supply chains in Europe are adversely affected and Europe starts to have some kind of external shock challenges, there’s not too much we can do about that,” he said, adding this could hit industries like South Africa’s auto sector.



($1 = 0.7648 pounds)



Reporting by Emma Rumney and Joe Bavier; Editing by Peter Graff

South Africa and Britain could sign interim post-Brexit trade deal

ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari extended his early election lead on Tuesday based on official results from a third of the country’s districts as the death toll from sporadic election violence rose to 47. 



Provisional results announced in state capitals but not yet confirmed by the commission seen by Reuters showed Buhari on course to cementing a commanding lead over his main rival, businessman and former vice president Atiku Abubakar.



Atiku’s party has rejected the tallies thus far as “incorrect and unacceptable”. Buhari’s party said the opposition was trying to discredit the returns from Saturday’s vote.



The outcome is expected later this week. At stake is control of Africa’s top oil producer and biggest economy with a decade-old Islamist insurgency entrenched in the northeast and overlapping into neighbouring countries.



The winner is likely to be the man voters trust most to revamp an economy struggling to emerge from a 2016 recession. Analysts had predicted the vote to be Nigeria’s tightest since the end of military rule two decades ago.



A calm reaction to the election result could open a new chapter in the turbulent political history of Nigeria, where nearly six decades of independence have been marred by military coups, endemic corruption and secessionist movements.



But, Situation Room, a monitoring mission comprising over 70 civic groups, said on Tuesday the death toll from election-related violence since Saturday had risen to 47, and more than 260 in all since the start of the campaign in October.



Buhari, 76, is a former military ruler seeking a second term on a platform to reduce corruption. Atiku, 72, has pledged to expand the role of the private sector.



Initial results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission so far put Buhari in the lead, with victories in nine of Nigeria’s 36 states, the INEC said.



It said Atiku had prevailed in four states and the capital, Abuja, which is not a state but treated as a separate electoral district.



Buhari was leading Atiku by 56 percent to 41 percent, according to a Reuters tally based on available INEC figures.



In provisional results announced in state capitals but not yet confirmed by the electoral commission, Buhari had won seven states to Atiku’s three.



Seventy-three million people were eligible to vote in Africa’s biggest democratic election but the INEC has yet to release details of voter turnout.



Additional reporting by Paul Carsten; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram and James Macharia

Nigeria’s Buhari extends lead in election count as death toll from election violence rises

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Botswana has offered to lend Zimbabwe $600 million to support its diamond industry and local private firms, a state-owned newspaper reported on Tuesday, amid a severe dollar crunch in the southern African nation.



There are few signs the flow of foreign currency is improving in Zimbabwe after it ditched a discredited 1:1 dollar peg for its dollar-surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars, merging them into a lower-value transitional currency called the RTGS dollar.



James Manzou, Zimbabwe’s secretary for foreign affairs, said President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi are expected to sign the loan agreements in Harare on Thursday.



The loan will consist of $500 million dollars for Zimbabwe’s diamond industry and a further $100 million to help private companies, whose operations have been hamstrung by the dollar shortage, the state-owned Herald newspaper said.



“Zimbabwe is also appreciative of the $500 million diamond facility offered to it by Botswana,” Manzou was quoted as saying by the paper.



Manzou, who could not be reached for comment, did not give any details on the diamond loan.



Last month South Africa said it had turned down Zimbabwe’s request for a $1.2 billion loan.



Zimbabwe’s diamond sector has struggled since the government kicked out private companies from the eastern Marange fields in early 2016 after they declined to merge under the state-owned mining company.



Relations between Zimbabwe and Botswana have improved recently following a strained period when Botswana’s ex-President Ian Khama, who stepped down in 2018, routinely criticised Zimbabwe’s former strongman Robert Mugabe for holding on to power for too long.



A military coup in 2017 forced Mugabe to resign, ending his 37-year rule.



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Kirsten Donovan

What you need to know about Botswana’s $600 million loan offer to Zimbabwe

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ilana-van-wyk-692832">Ilana van Wyk</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/stellenbosch-university-1439">Stellenbosch University</a>



The prosperity gospel is back in the news in South Africa, this time over the <a href="https://ewn.co.za/Topic/Prophet-Shepherd-Bushiri">misdeeds</a> of one of its prophets. The prosperity gospel is a religious movement that has exploded in popularity and prominence in South Africa over the last two decades but has stirred up controversy globally for more than 40 years.

The gospel first reached South Africa in the late 1970s through churches such as televangelist Ray McCauley’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/inside-the-most-powerful-church-in-south-africa-2006129.html">Rhema Bible Church</a>. Due to apartheid restrictions on the movements of black people, the prosperity gospel’s reach was limited. But since the start of democracy in 1994, <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/jra/35/1/article-p66_4.xml">preachers</a> from across the continent have streamed into the country’s townships, converting large numbers to this new gospel. 

Today it’s the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328070728_Pentecostalism_Politics_and_Prosperity_in_South_Africa">fastest growing</a> religious movement in South Africa. While precise statistics are lacking, scholars <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289353390_An_introduction_to_Pentecostalism_Global_charismatic_Christianity">agree</a> that prosperity gospel followers rival, if not exceed, the <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2006/10/05/historical-overview-of-pentecostalism-in-south-africa/">numbers</a> of so-called mainline churches. 

Not many South Africans had paid much attention to Prophet Shepherd Bushiri until the end of last year. But when three people died in a <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-01-06-69-year-old-among-trio-killed-in-bushiri-church-stampede/">stampede</a> at his Enlightened Christian Gathering Church in Pretoria, the “self-proclaimed prophet” received wide media coverage.

In February 2019, he was again in the news when the police’s special crime investigative unit <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-02-01-controversial-church-leader-shepherd-bushiri-arrested/">arrested</a> him and his wife on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and for exchange control irregularities amounting to over US$ 1 million. His R20-million private Gulfstream jet was also attached.

Bushiri’s followers also <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-02-05-from-major-1-to-daddy-the-craze-of-bushiri-supporters/">attracted media attention</a> when they gathered in great numbers waving placards outside court to pray for his release. Many prostrated themselves on the tarmac, tears streaming down their faces as they spoke in tongues or as they cried for their “daddy”, “Papa” or “Major One”. 

Paseka Motsoeneng, better known as <a href="https://informationcradle.com/safrica/prophet-mboro/">Prophet Mboro</a>, who is a preacher from a similar church, lent emotional and spiritual <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/beware-of-scams-to-bankroll-legal-battle-of-bushiri-19172963">support</a> to Bushiri’s “children”, traumatised by the loss of their “spiritual mother and father”. 

These scenes led many South Africans to ask questions about Bushiri’s supporters. Were they part of a cult? Or were they merely instruments in the hands of a man who manipulated their vulnerability for his own financial ends? 

Christian commentators <a href="https://city-press.news24.com/Voices/prophets-of-doom-a-sordid-tale-of-manipulation-and-money-20190211">called</a> for urgent government intervention to protect poor people duped by the improbable promises made by what they <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1855569/christians-march-against-false-prophets-bushiri-fights-back-in-court/">termed</a> as “scam” churches and “fake prophets”. 

As an anthropologist, I have been <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/a-church-of-strangers/;">studying</a> prosperity gospel churches in South Africa for nearly a decade. I have attended hundreds of daily services, watched scores of televised ones, analysed websites and chat forums and interviewed hundreds of prosperity gospel believers. And unlike theologians who argue about the legitimacy of Biblical interpretations and questions of doctrine, I have been interested in the kinds of people who swear undying support for men like Bushiri. 

<h2>Tenets of the prosperity gospel</h2>

The prosperity gospel explains poverty and illness in terms of sins against God, specifically the withholding of tithes. It also ascribes such “bad luck” to the work of demons engaged in a spiritual war against God’s kingdom. Converts typically renounce their past lives and their old churches.

They embrace spiritual “technologies” – these include offerings in church, paying tithes, praying strongly and exorcising demons – that promise to secure miraculous health and wealth directly from God. They also follow preacher-prophets who they believe have special powers to fight against the “spirit of poverty”. 

Many believers are strengthened in this faith through the persistent testimonies of those who had been “blessed” with jobs, houses, cars and healing in church. These testimonies are delivered from church pulpits and in person, and are endlessly repeated in church publications and on radio, television and the internet. 

<h2>What I found</h2>

My research showed that prosperity gospel churches attract people from all walks of life and a variety of educational backgrounds. While the majority of congregants, like the majority of South Africans, are typically poor and dependent on social grants, these churches also count significant numbers of professionals, business people and increasingly, politicians, in their ranks. 

I also found that Prosperity gospel believers are not captive victims of so-called cult leaders. In fact, they move constantly between churches as they search for more efficacious “technologies” and “stronger prophets”. 
Chances are that as Bushiri faces more legal troubles, more of his followers will desert him for prophets like Mboro. 

I often struggle to convince people that those who subscribe to this gospel are not simply credulous dupes. Detractors often refer to the figure of the improbably rich prophet, men like Bushiri, as proof that the prosperity gospel is illegitimate and that its believers are fools. 

<h2>God and money</h2>

There’s a long Western Christian <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270900267_Introduction_money_and_the_morality_of_exchange">belief</a> that money is a force that corrupts proper spiritual intentions and corrodes sacred social bonds. Stemming from the 16th century Reformation, this tradition has been very suspicious of any coupling of God and money, holding that the material world poses dangerous distractions from proper spiritual belief. 

But there are other Christian traditions such as the prosperity gospel that are much more materialist in their concerns. In these traditions, money does very different kinds of work. It is the proper medium through which their God “blesses” people, through which people petition God and through which believers come into social being and connect to others through their generosity. 

Some of these traditions have a long history in South Africa, going back to the 1800s. The mission record for instance shows that scores of early converts- and missionaries- demanded material proof of their new God’s power. Various Revivalists used Christianity to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248962308_The_Millennium_Comes_to_Mapumulo_Popular_Christianity_in_Rural_Natal_1866-1906">inform</a> more aggressive forms of millenarianism such as the “gospel of self-help” during the 1940s and the tent campaigns of the 1960s. The prosperity gospel is a continuation of this materialist Christian tradition. For its followers, it is not a con, just a different approach to their God.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111838/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ilana-van-wyk-692832">Ilana van Wyk</a>, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/stellenbosch-university-1439">Stellenbosch University</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-money-gospel-followers-arent-simply-credulous-dupes-111838">original article</a>.

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