Attention has, once again, recently been on South Africa as the country eagerly awaited a ruling from the Constitutional Court on an application by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to have this year’s elections postponed. On Friday, the ConCourt dismissed the IEC’s application, ordering that the local government elections be held on any day in the period Wednesday 27 October to 1 November. The ConCourt ruling carries potentially devastating consequences for the continued power of the ANC as they missed the deadline to register ward candidates in 93 wards. Helen Zille, the former Premier of the Western Cape who has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019, joined the BizNews Power Hour to discuss the implications of the ConCourt ruling and the ‘sleight of hand’ exercised by the IEC which provided the ‘gap that the ANC so desperately needed at least to register their candidates.’

The horse racing industry in South Africa recently celebrated a victory when the Public Protector report of Busisiwe Mkhwebane, which ordered wide-ranging changes to the horse racing industry, was set aside by the North Gauteng High Court. Mkhwebane’s report, which was released in 2019, recommended that the Gauteng Gambling Board cease payment to Phumelela of a 3% levy on winnings from horse racing bets taken by fixed-odds operators in the province. To discuss the setting aside of the report, BizNews founder Alec Hogg spoke to the former CEO of Phumelela, Rian du Plessis, who stated that the implementation of this recommendation cost Phumelela around R80mn per year and ‘pretty much hastened its demise.’

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Alec Hogg is joined by David Shapiro as co-host; Helen Zille on ConCourt's ruling on election date; 4AX CEO Eugene Booysen on the launch of the Cape Town Stock Exchange; Bernard Mostert provides an update on the Steinhoff settlement and the BizNews Team.

As is customary for a Monday, David Shapiro shares his pearls of wisdom on all things topical in the investment world, with the veteran analyst having recently returned from a month-long trip to the US. David emphasises the need for all South African's to think out-the-box and encourage critical thinking, as he experienced in America. He also mentions the importance of financial literacy, a fundamental skill which is sorely missing in South Africa. The controversial topic of mandatory vaccination, which Adrian Gore's Discovery is now forcing upon employees, was also spoken to at length.

News headlines: *President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved to prepare the ANC for anticipated criticism in the Zondo Commission report – to be published in October – and ‘to engage with and prepare ourselves for implementation of the recommendations’. *South African consumer confidence ticked up in the third quarter as the reintroduction of temporary welfare measures and a public-sector wage deal countered the adverse impacts of deadly riots, looting and arson that disrupted supply chains and put thousands of jobs at risk. *The Constitutional Court has ruled that South Africa’s 2021 elections will go ahead on schedule and should be held no later than 1 November 2021.

10x founder Steven Nathan joined the BizNews team to discuss an array of financial results as reporting season draws to a close. JSE heavyweights Aspen, Impala Platinum and Discovery results were all on the agenda, with the medical insurer turned conglomerate the hardest hit after announcing plans to raise R1.5bn in order to increase its stake in Chinese insurer Ping An. Other topical investment and political related discussion centred around the withdrawal of the green paper for the state pension plan and whether Nathan favours investing in businesses that are founder-led.

In our second conversation, Dirk explains the inns and outs of Libstar, a company that is increasingly making waves in the private label and branded fast moving consumer goods space in SA.

In this episode, Charl Botha speaks to Dirk Van Vlaanderen of Kagiso Asset Management about Omnia. They like what they have seen recently and their view is that there is more of the same to come.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Steven Nathan joins as our co-host again, discussing the results of Aspen Pharmacare, Discovery, Impala Platinum and more. Two clips from the BizNews Investment Conference gives listeners a taste of the myriad rational perspectives shared, with snippets from GG Alcock and Mmusi Maimane. BizNews journalist Nadya Swart talks to Gabriel Theron, the CEO of Cilo Cybin - a pharmaceutical company looking to raise funding on the JSE in the next 12-18 months, and more.

Author, speaker, and businessman GG Alcock was raised in a mud hut in one of the most poverty-stricken and violent parts of KwaZulu-Natal - Msinga. Brought up in a Zulu community with no running water, electricity, or modern conveniences, Alcock is fluent in Zulu and has an intimate knowledge of the Zulu culture. He joined the BizNews team at the spring BizNews Investment Conference to shed more light on the social unrest which took place in early July. Alcock has previously said he does not believe the looting was carried out by the poor and unemployed. In this excerpt, he appeals to the business community to help elevate and invest in businesses in the informal sector because that's where the opportunities lie. "I don't believe in charity. I don't believe in employing unemployed people because they're unemployable. I believe in the fact that if the people are doing something out there, even if it's selling snacks to school kids, those are the people we should be working with or employing," he says.

The BizNews Investment Conference is currently in full swing, with myriad delegates and conference goers converging on the Drakensberg for thought-provoking speeches and conversation from esteemed guests. One such person is Mmusi Maimane. The former leader of the opposition spoke with BizNews founder Alec Hogg about a number of topics, including the inauguration of Zambia's new president Hakainde Hichilema. Maimane also touches on changes to the Electoral Act and how it came to be. - Jarryd Neves

South Africa's favourite market commentator David Shapiro joins the BizNews team hours after his return to South Africa after a month-long trip to the US. David shares his experiences of the US, having visited the cities of Boston and New York. On a more investment focused front, David delves into the goldilocks era of the technology, at a time where brick and mortar businesses have simply fallen by the wayside. Other talking points are JSE heavyweights Naspers and Prosus as well as its big brother Tencent and Cashbuild, who announced sublime financials on the local bourse today.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, David Shapiro joins as our Wednesday co-host, discussing Naspers, Prosus Tencent and other tech-centric related businesses all over the world. Chris Bateman chats to Henru Kruger about the Certificate of Need - and whether this will lead to the expropriation of private medical practices. Anthony Clarke shares his insights on Advtech and Stadio. Also, listen in on an interview with Linda van Tilburg and a young engineering student who started his own business, growing hops on a Joburg rooftop and the BizNews team.

Small and mid-cap JSE analyst Anthony Clark joins the BizNews team on a day when two private education providers, Advtech and Stadio, released upbeat financials. Advtech and Stadio both operate predominately in the tertiary education space which has seen a boost in profitability as the shift to a more blended, online form of learning has been accelerated due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. This has improved margins to the burdensome nature of a brick and mortar type business in the modern world. Although Clark is a big fan of Advtech, his preferred pick in the education sector is Stadio.

As is customary for a Tuesday, 10X Investments founder Steven Nathan talks all things company related on a busy day for JSE-listed counters. Heavyweights Naspers and Prosus announced the acquisition of Indian payments Gateway firm BillDesk for R70bn. To put the acquisition into perspective, a company of that size would waltz into the JSE Top40. Bob Van Dijk and the rest of his management team have been on a spending spree, although due to the sheer size of Tencent, the investments seem to get lost within the stable. Other talking points include results from a variety of JSE companies, namely - Harmony Gold, ADvTECH and Old Mutual.

The social unrest in South Africa in July caused extensive damage to 161 malls and shopping centres, as well as 11 warehouses, eight factories, and 161 liquor outlets and distributors. Clothing retailer Mr Price Group Ltd. saw 109 stores entirely cleaned out and hundreds more closed. As Bloomberg reported, while some claims would be assessed by Old Mutual Group and Santam, the bulk of the burden fell to state-owned Sasria Insurance. "We are well capitalised and have adequate reinsurance in place that gives us the comfort that we can facilitate these claims," Sasria’s executive manager for insurance operations, Fareedah Benjamin, said in an interview. Sasria also claimed that it had centralised all applications so "its most experienced handlers are able to process them quickly". However, Stuart Pringle, risk transfer consultant at Royal Union, is concerned that, due to the sheer number of business claims, Sasria won't be able to pay out in time. "Nobody's saying Sasria doesn't know how to do its job. Nobody's saying that they're not trying and they're not really looking at the situation. But the capacity and the numbers don't add up so let's get together and sort it out as an industry. The big insurance companies are there to help," he says. He joined BizNews to spread more light on the issue.

In this week's Currency Focus podcast, TreasuryONE currency expert Andre Cilliers gives us the lowdown on the rand's movements. According to Cilliers, while further lockdowns and rioting could pose a risk to the economy (and investor confidence), the rand is mainly affected by what happens in the US and China. Overall, he maintains a positive outlook and says the rand's stability should continue for the rest of the year.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Steven Natha joins as our Tuesday co-host dissecting Naspers R70bn acquisition of Indian Payments Gateway firm BillDesk; CEO of BritBox Reemah Sakaan joins on the arrival of the streaming on demand platform to SA; risk transfer consultant Stuart Pringle on SASRIA claims and the BizNews Power Hour Team.

In this episode of the BizNews Power Hour, Jean Pierre Verster joins as our Monday co-host; all your vaccine facts and options with Dr Rust; Denker Capital's Kokkie Kooyman on Discovery's financial results; Neal Froneman unpacks Sibanye's results and the BizNews Power Hour Team.

The go-to man when it comes to anything in the financial services industry, Denker Capital's Kokkie Kooyman dissects Discovery's trading update. The medical insurer turned conglomerate has been one of the hype stocks of the last few weeks, with news that 2020's rockstar fund manager Cathie Wood recently bought R650m in her Ark FinTech Fund. Discovery, which is also owned by Counterpoint Value Fund manager Piet Viljoen, is seen as one of the few growth companies on the local bourse. Kooyman unpacks the conglomerate's huge runway, which extends over a number of business units and jurisdictions

With David Shapiro travelling back to local shores, hedge fund guru Jean-Pierre Verster took the reins as Monday's BizNews Power Hour co-host. Discussion centred around US Federal Reserve's speech at the Jackson Hole Summit on Friday, as well as focusing on hospitality and property sectors as investment propositions. Jean-Pierre said that whilst the consequences of the extremely accommodative monetary policy actions of Jerome Powell could be dire, the markets seem to have enjoyed his dovish stance. Jean-Pierre outlined that out of the big three Chinese tech giants - Tencent, Alibaba and JD.cot - his preference lies with Tencent, which would make a lot of South African investors sleep a lot easier this evening.

In this episode, I speak to Mark Tobin of Coffee Microcaps about the Australian stock market. We compare the JSE small cap sector to its Australian equivalent and Mark shares a few ideas on how the local market can learn from its cousin down under.

In the quietest corner of the Karoo, stands the 64 dishes of the MeerKAT radio telescope, which enables leading scientists to conduct research on the centre of the Milky Way - 25,000 light years away from Earth. MeerKAT is a precursor of a much larger project, to build the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) in SA and Australia. It will eventually extend into eight countries. The project was given the go-ahead in June 2021. Upon completion, it will be the world’s largest radio telescope. It is a testament to South African scientific capability and innovation, with Professor Justin Jonas (Rhodes University) as the scientist engineer - as well as founder and driver of this ambitious project. He told BizNews about how it created a new generation of scientists, about the data pouring from the telescope, his experience in developing ventilators - and how dealing with the health department made him an even bigger believer in a systems engineering approach.

Chief executive of diversified miner Sibanye-Stillwater, Neal Froneman joined the BizNews team on a day where one of the world's largest precious metals producers announced record financials. Froneman notes that although the robust commodity prices were a tailwind for the business, operationally performance was excellent. There has been much speculation around the renown deal-maker looking to merge with the likes of Gold Fields or AngloGold, creating a mining behemoth that could compete with international peers such as Barrick Gold or Rio Tinto. Froneman says this is off the table and Sibanye will rather try to accelerate its move to commodities that will benefit from the shift to a clean energy economy.

A first in South Africa’s post-1994 history occurred this week when a substantial majority of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) voted to uphold a gross misconduct finding against Western Cape judge president John Hlophe. This decision by the JSC paves the way for an impeachment process by parliament. In order to unpack the process and the allegations against Hlophe, BizNews spoke to Paul Hoffman SC from Accountability Now. While many many hope that this is a turning point for the country, Hoffman stated frankly that ‘I think the turning point should have come many years ago. If he is impeached, which I doubt will happen, but if he is impeached - that will be an indication that the ANC s commitment to the rule of law is genuine and not lip service to the rule of law. If the ANC votes in his favor, it will be a turning point towards the cliff that is marked 'failed state'.’