Nuclear physicist Dr. Kelvin Kemm of Stratek Global, the company behind the local development of a Small Nuclear Reactor system, aims to be ready to export the reactors in five years’ time. He tells BizNews that there has been interest from places as far afield as Canada, “great interest” from Australia, as well as from parties in the Middle East that want to put small reactors in the desert and on the coastlines. Even the US is “very interested”. So are a number of European countries. Several African countries also want to acquire the Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Dr Kemm stresses that nucle ..read more

Ahead of his keynote to the BizNews Conference in London, GoSolr CEO and co-founder Andrew Middleton shares some unappreciated good news on South Africa’s energy front. With 75MW in rooftop solar of its initial target 500MW already installed, GoSolr is part of a surge in private sector electricity provision. Middleton agrees with money manager John Biccard who reckons the worst of SA’s load-shedding is behind us - a view which has huge implications for JSE-listed stock prices which continue to discount the very worst on this front. He spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews. Sign up for your early morn ..read more

Lauren Eventhia Bernardo, the founder of the Organic Humanity Movement (OHM) Party, advocates a political system that will remove political parties - and in which only independents will run for public office. In this interview with BizNews, she says that will enable the voter to vote directly for all of their public representatives, including the President of South Africa. "And we believe this will completely transform our country. We also want to implement a mechanism that votes public representatives out if they're not doing their jobs.” She says a vote for a small party is not a wasted vote ..read more

BizNews editor Alec Hogg drew upon the great investment guru Howard Marks for inspiration in his address this morning to a packed room of Third Age University members in Hermanus. Among the hallmarks of Marks’ approach to investing (and life) is accepting that rational conclusions require ‘deep, complex and convoluted’ thought. Hogg uses this foundation to delve beyond the ‘First Level’ narrative that dominates so much of the South African discourse, using examples from politics, society and business to support his case ..read more

The DA’s shadow minister of labour Michael Bagraim says his party will fight the ANC-driven proposal that will force thousands of South African estate agents to hand over to new owners or close down their businesses. In this vibrant interview with BizNews editor Alec Hogg, Bagraim also discusses suggestions that the party’s weakening in the polls is directly correlated to a refusal to rule out a coalition with the ANC (as a ‘least worst’ option for SA after May 29.) Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter ..read more

In the monthly update of investment markets, Corion’s David Bacher takes us through the highlights for April where South African equities outperformed - and quarterly results lent fresh volatility to Wall Street’s Magnificent Seven. Bacher explains the reasons for the past month’s performance of various investment markets - and looks ahead to what we can expect in May. He spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg ..read more

In this powerful interview, Sakeliga’s CEO Piet le Roux unpacks his organisation’s fightback against the ‘third wave’ of BEE typified in efforts to make it compulsory for SA’s 40 000 estate agencies. Despite Pretoria’s growing legislative encroachment, Le Roux is upbeat about South Africa’s future: ‘State-proofing’ is being rapidly adopted by businesses and is laying the foundation for growth in the collective power of businesses to counter a weakening and increasingly ineffective central government.  He told BizNews editor Alec Hogg that the next decade will be turbulent, but is confiden ..read more

A controversial gas tender awarded to a man who was named 176 times in the Mpati Commission report into malfeasance at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) should be terminated with immediate effect. That is the call from Kevin Mileham, the Democratic Alliance's (DA’s) Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy following earlier warnings by his party that Equator Holdings “run, owned, and managed” by Lawrence Mulaudzi does not have the money and technical skills to fulfil the tender requirement of rebuilding PetroSA’s critical gas infrastructure - and is now “shopping around” for poten ..read more

In a wide-ranging, pre-election preview, United Independent Movement (UIM) President Neil de Beer torpedoes rumours of a Multi-Party Charter (MPC) collapse; gives his take on the daggers flying in former President Jacob Zuma’s MK party; and hails Patriotic Alliance (PA) President Gayton McKenzie’s combat strategy, saying the “Green Machine” is moving down to the Cape like an “oil slick” and has left the Democratic Alliance (DA) overwhelmed by the Brown Child Revolution. He discusses a post-election three-faction scenario comprising the MPC, the RET (Radical Economic Transformation), and the Af ..read more

Wonderbag was a company established in 2008 methods as a solution to South Africa’s energy crisis providing families with a means to continue cooking daily meals during power outages. Resembling a colourful bag reminiscent of a pumpkin, Wonderbag employs ancient heat retention cooking technology, providing employment and income opportunities to entrepreneurs across the developing world. In South Africa, manufacturing is outsourced to 2000 entrepreneurs, primarily women, providing them with vital income. Founder of Wonderbag, Sarah Collins told Biznews in an interview about the business model s ..read more