Small Business Development Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has claimed that there will be no racial requirement for small business support as a result of the national shutdown and that this claim was ‘fake news’. But a range of questions still needs answers. It’s common cause that one of the biggest problems in the 21-day lockdown that begins at midnight tonight (Thursday 26 March) to combat the spread of Covid-19 will be the survival of small businesses. Small businesses, especially in SA,...

The coronavirus pandemic has well and truly infected the global economy and South Africa is hardly immune. If ever there was a time for the South African Reserve Bank to make a significant cut to its key lending rate, it is now. With inflation a diminishing threat and no real fiscal tools available, someone needs to step up to the plate. The South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets this week and will render its judgment on interest rates on Thursday, 19 March....

Not since the Last Supper, has any single meal had a greater global significance. Somewhere in the Chinese province of Hubei, a family sat down to have, we think, a scrumptious meal of pangolin. The consequences are now unfolding at a furious rate. You could call it the trillion-dollar meal, except that it has already cost eight times that and will cost more. To the extent that we can know, what are the likely financial consequences of that one solitary meal in a Chinese province with the...

Business Maverick editor Tim Cohen chats to Investec Bank CEO Richard Wainright and Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop about government's 2020 budget. The topics covered include whether this is a "sea-change" budget, will business confidence rise, is a sovereign wealth fund a good idea and what are the chances a state bank will help bank the unbanked.

Cosatu’s proposal to use government pension funds and development bank finance to slice Eskom’s debt in half is gaining traction and has conditional approval from President Cyril Ramaphosa and government as well as, surprisingly, some support from business. Yet the proposed bailout raises the issues of moral hazard and is more vulnerable to a considered critique than has been presented so far. The idea of using government pension fund savings to bail out Eskom has enormous superficial appeal,...