Business confidence is at debilitating low levels and trust between government and business remains fragile after the abusive Zuma years. Nevertheless, there are some encouraging signs that the... 

Analogies between the state of South Africa and Bafana Bafana were easy to make after the team’s disappointing draw with Libya in Durban earlier this month. As with the national team, the... 

During a recent panel discussion on the ‘electricity utility of the future’ the Energy Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa’s Piet van Staden made the point that industry could deal with... 

The release of a draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2018) for public comment, is an extremely positive development. Likewise, the document’s acknowledgement that the least-cost new build option... 

Electricity nerds such as myself are bracing themselves for a breathless few months, with significant developments on the horizon. Much of the focus will be on the updated Integrated Resource Plan... 

Fresh analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), showing that the combined installed base of wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generators breached the one-terawatt mark at the end of June,... 

Asset manager Stanlib is currently flighting a fascinating series of radio adverts, which pose the question: Was your money ready for this week? The fast-paced spots, which air on Fridays, pull... 

The dust has well and truly settled on of the tenth Brics summit, hosted in Johannesburg last month. While the event was generally viewed as positive from a South African perspective, it failed to... 

It would arguably be easier for a novice cyclist to take on Tour de France’s fabled Alpe d'Huez ascent than for the new leadership at Eskom to restore credibility. Besides load-shedding and extreme... 

The national security veto included in the Competition Amendment Bill, tabled before Parliament last week, has attracted much attention and criticism. Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel... 

The evacuation of the 12 members of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand serves as a powerful reminder of just what is possible when people unite... 

The great leadership challenge of our times is to make the correct decisions, and implement them, in a world that is increasingly failing to recognise that the destiny of all humanity is as tightly... 

The term ‘too big to fail’ came to the fore during the so-called Great Recession, which arose after America’s sub-prime mortgage crisis triggered the collapse of Lehman Brothers in late 2008. The... 

At any gathering where South Africans convene to deliberate on the country’s economic predicament, one well-worn narrative will inevitably arise. It begins with the statement that South Africa is... 

Eskom may have a technical case for reviewing the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) tariff determination for 2018/19. However, it’s not fully clear how the move gels with its... 

One of the more interesting exchanges during the recent gathering of energy stakeholders in Johannesburg arose as a result of a question posed to Energy Minister Jeff Radebe by Wits Business School... 

South African energy policymakers would be well advised to take note a few recent reports as they move to finalise the long-awaited update to the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity, as... 

With so much attention having been paid, correctly, to electricity in South Africa over the past ten-and-a-bit years other energy subsectors, such a liquid fuels, have been left to evolve in... 

In a new book published by the World Bank and UCT Press, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan for crafting a new social compact with business, labour and civil society is described as an “essential... 

While President Cyril Ramaphosa was having a breakfast meeting with his Economic Cluster Ministers at Genadendal last week, to deliberate on ways to deliver on the $100-billion-investment goal, the... 

Over the past couple of months megaphone, or more accurately, Twitter, diplomacy seems to have borne a degree of fruit. Images of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong... 

A new academic study, titled ‘Structural Transformation in South Africa: moving towards a smart, open economy for all’, offers a brutal, and somewhat depressing, assessment of the state of... 

The new, credible boards appointed at South Africa’s largest and most troubled State-owned companies (SoCs) – Denel, Eskom, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and South African Airways – must be... 

South African business needs to sit up and take note of new analysis that not only confirms South Africa as the world’s most unequal country, but that extreme inequality is now a major constraint... 

Asset manager Futuregrowth attracted praise and criticism, possibly in equal measure, when it announced in August 2016 that it was suspending lending to six large State-owned enterprises (SoEs),... 

The signing, by 44 African countries, of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is encouraging, albeit that the development is at odds with the current global backlash against freer... 

One of the few positives arising from the disastrous period during which President Jacob Zuma occupied the Union Buildings is the fact that it appears to have woken up Parliament, albeit belatedly,... 

South Africans should be in no doubt that the content and tone of the conversation about electricity has shifted decisively, notwithstanding the unexpected decision by the Department of Energy to... 

The change to South Africa’s electricity balance over the past few years has been well documented. Nevertheless it is still quite remarkable. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa)... 

Having initially exercised some restraint in his retention of Dipuo Peters as Energy Minister from May 2009 to July 2013, former President Jacob Zuma grew increasingly agitated by the lack of... 

Necessity, it is said, is the mother of invention. However, in the case of South Africa’s embattled State-owned companies (SOCs), necessity is undoubtedly also the mother of pragmatism. In his... 

South Africans have become more than accustomed to the slow-slow-quick-quick-slow steps of the national political dance. However, if there is to be any prospect of a sustained economic, social and...