EDITOR’S LUNCHBOX: Who might have benefited from S&P’s downgrade?

Stories of note

Bytes from the digital world

Imagine the fortune the new finance minister, Malusi Gigaba, may have made by shorting the rand with four days’ advance knowledge that S&P Global Ratings would downgrade SA’s sovereign credit rating to junk.

"Weekend special" Des van Rooyen caused an outcry when he arrived at the Treasury flanked by Jessie Duarte’s son-in-law Ian Whitley and Regiment Capital principle Mohamed Boba, and ordered staff to let them authorise expenditure and access sensitive information (which was later found to have been e-mailed to Gupta cronies).

Now "midnight special" Gigaba appears to have topped that.

The entourage Gigaba brought to the Treasury acts as a reminder: whatever happened to Trillian chairperson Tokyo Sexwale’s promised report that was supposedly going to clear the allegations it was a front to siphon money from state-owned enterprises?

To be fair, the advocate Sexwale appointed to do the investigation, Geoff Budlender, has been very busy for the past few months with, among other things, representing the Black Sash in its Constitutional Court case to stop Net1 taking money from welfare recipients.

In my opinion

Matters of debate

Gareth van Onselen provides a snapshot of the growing list of organisations calling for President Jacob Zuma to go.

Zuma will not go voluntarily and is drafting in reinforcements. It can also be expected that he will mobilise ANC supporters in the strongholds of his strongmen and put on a show of force.

Finding alpha

The long and the short of the markets

The first quarter has ended and emerging markets are winning hands down. By the end of last week, developing-market equities had achieved a 12.4% return in 2017, twice that of developed stocks and their best start to a year since 2012.

Net1 UEPS shareholders did not appear to be impressed with the company’s contribution to ensuring uninterrupted delivery to 10.6-million social-grant recipients. The share price eased R2.65 in low-volume trade, closing at R156 on Tuesday.

Very Twitty

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