Panel discussion on Classic Business - the Ramaphosa effect on SMEs

Yesterday evening I participated in a panel discussion on Classic FM's business programme, Classic Business.

The other panelists were Joe Schwenke, founder of what is now Business Partners, and Dawie Roodt, Chief Economist at The Efficient Group.

An interesting discussion, which you can download by clicking here.

The main point I tried to get across was that Cyril Ramaphosa is not the silver bullet the economy needs as he has to first make the hard choices on labour reform, BEE, tackling the unions and favouring the National Development Plan as opposed to the National Democratic Revolution before he can claim our support.

After the panel discussion I went home and sat up to listen to President Zuma resign as President of the Republic. What a relief. Today we vote on the election of a new president.

Assuming it is Ramaphosa, we will find him a tougher customer to oppose than Zuma but we must never lose sight of the fact that Ramaphosa is a child of the ANC too, and he has been complicit in all the misdeeds of the previous 5 years of Zuma rule.

Does he have the courage to strike out in a new direction? His choice of cabinet will be the first indicator or yes, no or maybe.

DA lays intimidation charge against ANC candidate in Ward 14 by-election

Case number Ref NR 326/1/2018 Contact 011 986 9272

DA activist Thenjiwe Mbete yesterday laid a charge of intimidation against ANC ward councillor candidate Makapane Mokwena at the Protea Glen police station.

This follows an incident yesterday morning at the Voting Station where Ms Mbete is volunteering during the registration day for the forthcoming by-election in Ward 14 of the City of Johannesburg.

At approximately 8:15 I arrived at the voting station in Protea North to greet DA activists. As I drove onto the premises I was confronted by a man who began shouting at me. When I asked him what the matter was he continued to shout and accused me of trying to run him over. I apologised and said I had not seen him and certainly did not try to run him over. After greeting DA activists I then drove off to another voting station. I was later told that the man is the ANC ward candidate. 

Video of my father's memorial service

My nephew Michael Chance made a video of my father's memorial service, which you can see here.

Though it does not include all the readings and hymns it captures the essence of the service, including the wonderful motets by the scratch Chance choir.

Memorial service for my father

Yesterday we said goodbye to my father for the last time. He died early in the morning of Christmas Eve in the Criccieth nursing home, Bryn Awelon, where he spent the last two weeks of his life.

His coffin was brought to St Catherine's church on Thursday evening where the vicar, Kim Williams, conducted a brief ceremony for close family members. On Friday morning the hearse led the cortege to Bangor crematorium where Kim led another ceremony, and at 2:30 around 80 family and friends gathered at St Catherine's for a wonderful service of remembrance. We assembled a scratch choir and sang Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus and Tallis' If ye love me, with our cousin Michael Chance singing a short solo piece in his inimical counter-tenor.

My sister Helena and I delivered the eulogies, which I reproduce below. We held the wake at the Lion Hotel and a dinner for 40 family and out of town friends at Dylan's restaurant. A splendid send off for my dearly beloved father.

Opinion piece in Business Day - why increasing the size of the pie beats redistribution

Today's Business Day newspaper carries my opinion piece on its main opinion page.

You can read it here.

Member statement in Parliament - 100th anniversary of the Russian Revoluion

Today is the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, the day the Bolsheviks took over Russia and ushered in 72 years of rule which included the formation and death of the Soviet Union. I was chatting to James Lorimer on the plane to Cape Town this morning and he suggested that I make statement to the House, which is reproduced below (thanks to him for most of the wording).

What I do not mention in the statement is that around 1967, when I was 7 years old, Alexander Kerensky paid a visit to our family home in Rugby, UK. He was very old by then (he died in New York in 1970) but I vaguely remember him, I think accompanied by members of his family whom my parents had got to know as they lived nearby.

ANC presidential hopeful Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma joins the PC on Small Business Development

Today, ANC presidential hopeful Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma sat for first time as a Member of the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development.

Her appointment was published in the Announcements Tablings and Committee Parliamentary papers on Friday which elicited some media coverage but little commentary as to why she had chosen or had been deployed to this committee.

She arrived shortly before the meeting opened along with another new member, Mervyn Dirks, also from the ANC (he replaced the late Timothy Khoza who was tragically killed in a car accident while on an Education Committee oversight visit in Paarl in August).