Tag: Pravin Gordhan

The 26th week of 2020 will prove decisive in the South African political sphere. The business rescue practitioners appointed to try and resurrect South African Airways (SAA), after three extensions and extensive (and perhaps unlawful) interference by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), published the proposed business rescue plan on 16 June. The plan, however, is more of a pipe dream than anything else. The political drama about to unfold would be majestic to behold if it were playing out on television. Unfortunately, this is all but fiction.

South African Airways’ sometimes-controversial CEO, Vuyani Jarana, has resigned. When the news broke on Sunday, many were caught by surprise, perhaps because it follows only a week after the resignation of another state-owned enterprise (SOE) CEO, Eskom’s Phakamani Hadebe.

The [fake] case of state protection failing employment justice? Given how I have spent the last twenty or so years of my career, I tend at second blush when evaluating individuals in their careers to view them through an employment relations lens (and with those higher profile employees a bit of governance oversight thrown in).

How should companies and organisations respond to the unpredictable consequences of the recent downgrade of South Africa’s credit rating by two major agencies? Business owners, senior managers and company executives need to prepare themselves for a bumpy second quarter in 2017, with the only certainty being that nobody really knows how much the downgrades by rating agencies and the weaker rand will impact on the economy.

It’s all about who owes what and how much of it as well as the colour of the owner - and a deep rooted grievance which still has to be settled. 1994 gave us temporary reprieve - but the Rainbow experiment has ended - and we're all to be blamed for it. In 2007, the so-called 'second phase' of the National Democratic Revolution was adopted in Polokwane. It advanced in 2012 in Mangaung. Business did not take any of that seriously - they thought (perhaps hoped) that things would remain the same. It didn't.

Small business representative organisation AHI says the news that the rating agency, Fitch, has downgraded South Africa's credit rating to sub-investment grade will lead to catastrophically lower economic growth, with some estimating billions of Rands in outflows and a doubling of our current account deficit.

The Guptas rose to national infamy when a commercial airliner packed with guests for a family wedding was allowed to land at Air Force Base Waterkloof in 2013, sparking an onslaught of public outrage.

South African President, Jacob Zuma, has decided to remove the Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, from their posts.

After much speculation over the past few weeks as to how the Minister of Finance would ‘plug the deficit’ in his Budget Speech on 22 February 2017, he has chosen to rely on personal income tax (including trusts) by increasing the top-end rate from 41% to 45%, a dividend withholding tax increase from 15% to 20% (with immediate effect) and increased Fuel and Road Accident Fund levies.

Minister Pravin Gordhan and his team at National Treasury should be praised for striking the correct fiscal balance in this year’s budget. Gordhan understands...