As investors pour into Africa, chasing returns from resources, agriculture and the goods and services demanded by its growing and increasingly wealthy population, the need for good quality information is growing too. However, countries and companies remain opaque and this makes it very difficult for investors to decide where to put their money. That is […]

With President Jacob Zuma signing the new Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act into law, it is clear that the battle over the land is heating up. The latest change to the legislation will, among other things, change the cut-off date for lodging a claim for restitution and change the rules around the appointment, tenure, […]

The President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) is usually a very dull affair. Jacob Zuma gives off an air of grudging compliance and, because of its dominance in the house, the ruling party generally gets to take up most of the allocated discussion time with its bland, self-congratulatory platitudes. Opposition parties have a chance […]

Some social media and comments on many mainstream websites would have you believe that South Africa was on the brink of an all out race war and that a social and economic implosion was imminent. However, if you look a little further afield it’s clear that those opinions are a gross exaggeration…and that, thank goodness, South […]

UPDATE: News out earlier today raised hopes that the five-month strike on the platinum belt would soon be over but, according to Eye Witness News (EWN), the Association of Mineworkers and Contruction Union (AMCU) have rejected the deal and the strike continues … This morning we wrote that Reuters was reporting that the end to […]

South Africa is often lambasted for its labour relations environment and it has become common cause around SA boardrooms that if you want business to hire more people you, paradoxically, have to make it easier to fire them. This is borne out by several studies. The World Economic Forum, for example, placed it in 147th […]

South African Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Gill Marcus says that the solution to South Africa’s current poor economic performance must come from within, and that difficult conditions globally are no longer the main cause for the slowdown at home. In her written speech delivered to the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) in Johannesburg this morning, Marcus acknowledged the […]

South Africa’s benchmark Kagiso purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 44.3 in May, the lowest it’s been since September 2009. It fell from an already dismal 47.4 in April. When the PMI, which is compiled by the University of Stellenbosch-based Bureau for Economic Research (BER), comes in below 50 it shows that the economy is shrinking […]

Labour unrest, slow growth in developed countries, high levels of youth unemployment and low levels of consumer and business confidence all pose challenges for the South African economy, but the country remains an important regional hub for mining, the automotive sector and financial markets. The latest Africa Economic Outlook report for 2014 paints a picture of […]

South African cabinet ministers named yesterday by President Jacob Zuma were, in the main, not chosen because of their technical knowledge, skill or sector experience. Rather, Sunday’s promotions, demotions and new appointments reflect the need to reward the loyal, appease some opponents and punish others, and perhaps most importantly, reflect the myriad ethnic and class […]

Today’s inauguration of President Jacob Zuma, which marks the start of his second and final term as state president, will be attended by around 20 000 people who will feast their eyes and ears on the best pageantry that South Africa has to offer. But amidst all the pomp and ceremony that marks one of the biggest days […]

The other day I wrote a piece explaining why I had voted for Agang SA’s Mamphela Ramphele, and why I was glad for having done so despite her party’s poor showing in the polls. I argued that small parties can do good work and that somebody of her calibre could play a meaningful role in South African politics. […]

I remember the first time I voted. It was in Grahamstown in 1994. I had just got married for the first time and we returned from honeymoon to cast our votes at the City Hall in the heart of Settler Country. Just like everywhere else, the crowd was festive: South Africa was having one of those […]

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Well, Mother’s Day to be exact! Us guys who live in the UK thought we’d already adequately fulfilled our obligations for Mother’s Day on 30 March. Cards, coffee mugs, flowers, you name it, we bought it. Little did we know that the UK is one of the only places in the world that […]

#Elections2014 is done and dusted. The hashtag is, of course, by now de rigeur – these were the social media elections and Facebook and Twitter, blogs, followers, likes and trends are now as important as traditional media in defining the conversation. With over 95% of the vote now counted, it is clear that the African […]

South Africans awoke to the news that with just shy of a third of the votes counted, AgangSA and all the small parties with the exception of Julius Malema’s new Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, had surprised on the downside and the country had moved inexorably closer to becoming a two-party democracy. AgangSA, whose leader […]

CNN seems determined to make those of us far from South Africa’s autumn sunshine even more homesick than we were. It has published a list of top 10 sensational wine farms. Journalist Claire Hu notes on CNN that “I’ve spent a decade visiting the most famous vineyards around the world. For sheer beauty, the winelands of […]

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan has promised a continued focus on Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) when the African National Congress (ANC) is returned to power after this month’s general elections. The ANC is expected to win a sizeable majority again this year, as it has done in every election since 1994. Even the most optimistic opposition […]

The response to this year’s general elections from South Africans living abroad has been, in a word, underwhelming. As reported by SAPeople this morning the authorities have hardly gone out of their way to make it easy for its far flung citizenry to exercise their democratic rights and this may be partly responsible for the […]

Taking Stock, a South African documentary exploring the “conflicted connections between business and family, community, and country” is within touching distance of getting made. The Kickstarter-funded project needs to raise just a further $150 within the next three days. The documentary will be filmed over June this year and will take an in-depth look into the life […]

This Freedom Day, as you settle round the braais, maybe with a beer or two, or hunker down to watch the sport or whatever it is you do on a Sunday, take a minute to cast your mind back 20 years to when you stood in those long queues to cast your first “proper” vote. […]