this bus news briefing is brought to you by invest business banking make the move from business as usual to invest de business [Music] banking Professor Arena fova had some very good advice for South Africa yesterday she said you should be focusing on your own economy which is struggling keep your mouth shut when it comes to International Affairs and trying get things right here because there's a lot of work to do well did we listen [Music] M yesterday foreign policy magazine in Washington published a sural Raposa byin article attacking Israel Donald Trump and the United States
in it Raposa and his co-authors called for the arrest of the Israeli president they said in essence it's a doubling down by thec in its fight with the Trump Administration I asked Dr France cronier who is one of our top political scientists for context on the vehicle in other words how important is this foreign policy magazine well very relevant it's a prominent International publication and the message you place in it regardless of who you are is that is one that will be picked up within you know a matter of hours by serious um foreign policy
people around the world and the message that was sent by S rapos and his co-authors the prime minister of Malaysia and the president of Colombia and some activists from India um was sending uh well I suppose uh sticking a bit of a stick in the eye of the Trump Administration and particularly Israel just what did you how did you interpret what they wrote uh I thought it was a very aggressive attack that essentially said to hell with the United States and with the Trump Administration and with Israel and with the Israeli leadership I don't think
they could have put it any firmer than that in the way in which they conveyed the message sanctions took a Great Leap Forward yesterday after this Foreign Affairs peace and um not sure what that's going to be but but if this continues the sanctions may look like this there may be actions against specific uh South African individuals or institutions that are seen to threaten the interests of the United States or act in a corrupt fashion or threaten human rights around the world um those may be preceded by some actions on a Goa but remember Goa
is a very small proportion of South African exports if you under AO of course that's that's of little Comfort to you um and the country's Auto industry may be brought down by by by this but um that that's a step then you get to more targeted sanctions and beyond that the one that I think South African institutions uh Banks and the like need to uh watch most carefully the greatest risk for them is sanctions on the holding of South African government debt if if if that step is later Taken uh than the uh consequences inside
the South African economy and for South for for really anyone that does business here but financial institutions in particular will be um very very serious France we know that everybody gets emotional about certain things and particularly in this case we know thec and Sir Rapa are very unhappy about in their perception the way that the Palestinian or particularly in Gaza are being treated but surely there's a risk reward situation here there many things that that we as private citizens feel upset about but we don't go and scream and shout uh in the streets about them
because there is a consequence to it surely there's some kind of a brains trust within the union buildings who would say but hang on the consequences of these current actions are going to really hurt the country well look the brain's trust in the union buildings has taken thec to 40% in the last election which was a completely unnecessary result for them um I I I discussed the dinner this evening last yesterday evening um with some people who were historically very close to thec about just why that was even allowed to happen it was completely unnecessary
had some inv M and some growth flowed into the South African economy sufficient to to to to create 100 200,000 net new jobs per year your question on the brains trust the answer is it's the same brins trust that crashed thec into the ground and a vast detonation of and completely unnecessarily and and now has taken it to uh 200 days into the gnu to just over 30% of the vote and it's I don't know I don't understand that it makes no sense well on the same theme earlier this morning our time and uh late
evening around hoers 9 American or Californian time I did manage to get hold of the man who has been tipped to become the next US ambassador to South Africa his name is Joel Pollock he knows the country really well he's married to the daughter of the uh iconic activist Ric kadali and uh Joel had some pretty uh strong points to make after reading that foreign policy article in fact he wrote a piece himself he's a senior editor at bitbot uh strongly criticizing South Africa's latest attack on the United States it just feels a little bit
like you mustn't poke the bear too many times because it might just turn around and give you a SWAT well here's Joel Pollock's response you know this is a losing strategy and it then raises questions about who's actually driving this policy is this being driven by Iran Iranian money is it being driven by China China's attempt to regain influence in the Middle East China has largely been cut out of the Middle East at the recent Riad Summit the Chinese were basically absent now under Joe Biden the Chinese did play a larger role they did Ne
negotiate a kind of restoration of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia and that agreement happened in Beijing so China definitely wants a larger role but they have been elbowed out again and one wonders if the South African government is playing into China's influence by doing this but again if so they're playing a dangerous game and they're allowing South Africa to be a pawn in China's effort to exert hegemony over the world rather than acting as a truly non-aligned nation and again the signal is that there's no mention of Hamas or terrorism I don't know how
any democratic government any free government can take the position that hamas's terrorism doesn't matter or more explicitly in South Africa's arguments at the icj that certain forms of terrorism are entirely Justified that it's acceptable to kill innocent people as long as you're doing it for the right reason so I think South Africa is taking some very dangerous steps here and I don't know if the South African public has been told why again there's an instructive lesson here I think for South Africa which is that zalinsky and the Ukrainian government opposed Trump first as a candidate
now in some sense have criticized him as president it doesn't go well when you do that you have to work with the guy and you can't hope to use the mainstream Media or China as leverage against trump it doesn't work what Trump wants is for people to negotiate in good faith and that I think is what zalinski is starting to do and I think it's what South Africa needs to learn to do or at least the South African government but it's not doing it yet so negotiating in good faith will require a change in the
position would that uh position be changed by targeted sanctions and here I guess one needs to also realize that the group the family as it were that that run South Africa and here you're talking about Raposa his brother-in-law Patrice moepi Etc are amongst the richest people in the country um they are billionaires and many times over would those sanctions extend to their personal wealth or their personal financial positions and I guess I'm trying to just get a sense of what the stick could be yeah I would think so and I think also the reason to
do something like that if I were advising the president would be to win the South African public over to your side you know you've seen the effect of Doge Elon musk's effort in exposing some of the government waste and that's got broad support in the American public even if journalists have been critical of the way it's been done and there's a debate in the media about it people generally are fascinated by what he's discovering and I think that if you impose sanctions in a way that also exposes the overseas assets of people who have been
misgoverned it because South Africa is being robbed essentially by some of the people running it not all and I think people would like to know where that money is going and how it's being spent and I think Donald Trump would actually make an alliance with the South African people in a sense to force change in the government exposes the assets how does that work well the way the United States Treasury works when it imposes sanctions it's not just on assets that are physically or electronically in the control of the United States government or within us
borders the US Treasury has significant influence over International transactions and that's how they imposed Financial sanctions on Iran before those were Unwound under the Obama Administration and the runup to the nuclear deal which was not a really good deal but anyway that's how the sanctions worked and that's how the sanctions have worked against Russia Russian oligarchs and so forth Russia's exclusion from the Swift system and you know Russia had Alternatives it went to China but the assets of people close to the Russian government were then identified and in some cases seized so I think those
mechanisms still exist and can be deployed if put into motion and you'd be in favor of that I do think so actually I I would personally but I'm not advising the president in that regard I would be in favor of it I think ramapa is putting South Africa in a dangerous position he's taking positions that are contrary to the interests of the United States I believe they're also contrary to the interest of South Africa they're certainly contrary the interest of the Middle East he is insisting on isolating Israel and sanctioning Israel and punishing and arresting
Israeli leaders after Israel has defended its people from a horrific terror attack you know Roman posa's article came out just hours before Israel buried the bibus family the mother and two children who were taken hostage in front of the whole world and then murdered and when their remains were handed over Hamas didn't even hand over the right corpse of the mother they had a grotesque ceremony where they desecrated the bodies essentially they hung a sign on the mother's coffin that said she was arrested on the 7th of October as if she were some kind of
criminal instead of an innocent civilian woman dragged from her home with her babies clinging to her and that's the day on which Raposa decided to launch this attack in the foreign policy Journal stating that South Africa intended to pursue Israel so I think that as long as Afric is on the wrong side of that issue which to me is a moral issue I'm in favor of punitive actions that push South Africa away from that position and I'm not the only person who feels that way still with Trump in a way and uh his side kick
South African born and bred and raised Elon Musk uh the attack on government spending in the United States has actually got a lot of relevance here in South Africa those who haven't been following it closely enough we had our national budget cancelled because ramapa and Finance Minister Ino andana were proposing a 2 percentage Point increase in vat so we would be paying 177% in future not 15 and primarily this was to fund another increase in public sector pay in other words wages that are paid to those who work for the state there's been a lot
of Kickback on this from other members of the government of national Unity and in the United States they're doing something to address their issue yesterday Trump had his first cabinet meeting and he gave the floor to Elon Musk this is a video that was posted by musk on his X account and uh it shows the important part of his opening talk to the cabinet of the United States we're cutting and it's an honor to have you been a tremendously success ful guy he's he's really working so hard and he's got businesses to run and in
many ways they say how do you do this and you know it's uh he's sacrificing a lot and uh take getting a lot of Praise I'll tell you but he's also getting hit and uh we would expect that and uh that's the way it works so I'd like to have Elon Musk please say a few words okay thank you thank you Mr President uh well I I actually just call myself humble tech support here because uh this is actually as crazy as it sounds that that that is almost a literal description of the work that
the Doge team is doing is helping fix the government computer systems many of these systems are uh extremely old they don't communicate uh there are a lot of mistakes in the systems the software doesn't work um the uh so we are actually Tex it's it's a it's ironic but it's true um the the overall goal here with the Doge team is to help address the enormous deficit we simply cannot sustain as a country a$2 trillion deficits the interest rates just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the defense department spending we spent a lot
on the defense department but we're spending like over a trillion dollars on interest if this continues the country will go become de facto bankrupt it's it's not an optional thing it is an essential thing that that's that's the reason I'm here um and taking a lot of plaque and getting a lot of death threats by the way I mean I'm like stack them up you know um but if we don't do this America will go bankrupt that's why it has to be done um and I'm confident at this point I knock on wood you know
knock on my wooden head um the got a lot of wood up there um that we can actually find a trillion dollars in savings that would be roughly 15% of the 7 trillion budget um and obviously that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room and I'd like to thank everyone for your support thank you very much this this can only be done with with with your support um so this is It's really Doge it's a support function uh for the president and for the the agencies and departments uh to help
achieve those savings and to effectively find 15% uh in reduction in fraud and and waste um and and we bring the receipts so people say like well is this real just go to Doge duck up we we line item by line item we specify each item so and we and I I should say we also we will make mistakes we won't be perfect but when we uh make mistake we'll fix it very quickly uh so for example with uh usaid uh one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola Ebola prevention I think
we all want Eola prevention so we restored the Eola prevention immediately and there was no Interruption um but uh we do need to move quickly uh if we're if we are to achieve a a trillion dollar deficit reduction uh in in financial year 2026 it requires saving uh $4 billion per day every day from now through the end of September but we can do it and we will do it thank you in the world of business banking the bottom line can often triumph over relationships at invest DEC we value both make the move from business
as usual to investe business banking out of the ordinary at Sun exchange we make going solar simple profitable and completely risk-free join over 100 satisfied South African customers already enjoying the benefits of risk-free solar start saving today visit sun exchange.com and join the solar Revolution we've got a fabulous lineup for the seventh buiz news conference that will be held in hus uh from the 11th to the 13th of March just around the corner amongst them is Andre Pinar he's the co-founder of the Scorpions and um after they were disbanded off he went to the international
uh scene and is the chief executive of a very successful Global investment firm called C5 Capital he spoke to Linda f tilberg today and gave some well-considered advice to a South African government which many believe needs some in South Africa over the last 24 months we've had more civilian casualties than the total civilian casualties in Gaza at the hands of organized crime and and and Drug syndicates in in 2023 30,000 South Africans were murdered by by criminals and in 2024 U 35,000 so more than 60 5,000 ordinary South Africans have been brutally and violently murdered
by criminal syndicates and gangs over the course of the last 24 months far exceeding the civilian casualties that have been suffered um uh during the war in in in Gaza um this means that on an average Day in South Africa about 100 ordinary innocent South Africans get murdered by criminals and at least a third of these victims are women and children um president Raposa has now been in power for four terms two terms as a deputy president one term as a president in total during the course of his four terms in office um he has
has led a government that has seen more than half a million ordinary South Africans being murdered by criminal groups and by syndicates and and the question is why does President Raposa not focus on this near and present danger to his own people instead of going to file charges against Israel in his hour of Crisis and need in the international court of justice last year more than 177,000 to be to be precise 17,6 se6 South Africans were kidnapped and taken as hostages So a multiple of the 250 ready citizens that were kidnapped by Hamas the prosecution
rate for that for those kidnappings is zero today most of those South Africans are still being held hostage by criminal groups across our country there's no public debate about this the government has made no statement about this President Raposa has allowed drug cartels to may kidnap for ransom in South Africa a multi-billion Dollar business on his watch he's done nothing about it the question is why would we go and spend South African taxpayer money to pursue a longstanding uh trade and investment part and allly like Israel in the international court of justice if allly South
Africans have to suffer this tragedy this terrible terrible tragedy daily at home the prosecution rate for for murder cases in South Africa is less than one out of 10 why doesn't president opposer spend the government's money to address this near and present danger is it is is it negligence is it cowardice or is it complicity with these criminal groups all these South Africans need to know all South Africans demand to know if we were to take the souls of all the murdered South Africans and convene them in the FNB Stadium there would not be enough
space for all of them if we were to convene the loved ones of those who've been murdered during President Trump opposes watching government there would be more than 10 million people gathered outside the FNB stadium for this for this terrible week it is The Souls of the murder and their loved ones who are crying out for justice and demanding Justice and Justice should first start at home well a 10-year project by the United States to increase electricity Supply on the African continent they were talking about something like 30 gigabytes gws rather which is about well
almost the same amount that esim puts out every year has now been terminated by US president Donald Trump reason the US Energy Department said quote programs that serve our nation's interests will continue however programs that aren't aligned with our national interest I.E Americas will not most of the programs from the feedback that has come through so far will be terminated is big now the Trump Administration has dismantled power Africa a US initiative to increase electricity Supply in Africa after more than a decade of work almost all of power Africa's programs have been listed for termination
and the majority of its staff fired for more on this let's bring in Bloomberg's Matthew Hill who is in Cape Town with us so Matthew talk to us a bit about power Africa and and what is behind this move and the timing of it thanks very much Jen power Africa was initiated more than a decade ago under the obam administration and basically targeted to help cre create an additional 30 gaw of electrical energy in Africa which is the place in the world with which has the greatest lack of electricity we're talking about 600 million people
who don't have access so it was really set up to tackle one one of the biggest problems in the world um and now we are we now we seeing it being dismantled well and Matt it's still a problem right of course as you and and the team uh constantly report out what is the impact that we're looking at especially if you think about a lot of the resending of Aid that we're seeing from not just the us but a number of other countries exactly so already the the majority of the big projects we're told under
power Africa have been listed for termination um staff have already been laid off and received their notices um but yeah that's a very important Point we' we've also seen for example the UK announcing this week that they cutting back Aid in favor of boosting defense spending um so there are some serious worries on the ground here in Africa about um how the continent is going to get these 600 million people access to electricity which is critical for development it's critical for creating jobs um and um developing economies AI flag bearer and top performing stock in
the bis News global portfolio Nvidia released its quarterly results last night here's the assessment from a expert spoken to by our partners at Bloomberg what does nvidia's results really tell us about the AI trade at the moment Scarlet I think it tells us that the trade is still intact and there is certainly some doubt I think over the past week I mean it's been a rough week to be a growth investor to say the least but I think these results even though Nvidia is sort of vacillating between up and down a little bit here in
the aftermarkets I think it tells us that the spending is intact there were no Bombshells at least in the release that indicated that there was any sort of slowing or indication even of slowing from the hyperscalers and I think that was probably the biggest thing investors wanted to know now we'll get to the call and obviously we'll get some questions directly to Jensen and his team about that very issue but I think they'll probably say the same thing which is that the spending and the demand is still happening as we expect and how are you
interpreting the Outlook that Nvidia is offering first quarter Revenue $3 billion plus or minus 2% analysts were looking for about 42.3 billion um what's the calculus here that Jensen hang is you know going through as he kind of frames what his Outlook is to a very uh nervous investor base yeah nervous is the right word I think that the 42 billion that guidance it was actually slightly better than I would have thought would have been kind of the hurdle for investors I think something even in linish would have been okay here here and we got
about a 2% guide up it was actually a bigger guide up than we had last quarter and so I think the bottom line is we have Blackwell demand which they mentioned kind of surging that's becoming a bigger and bigger part of the products they're delivering they mentioned specifically Microsoft Google Amazon other customers but I think Microsoft is key as customers of Blackwell they're shipping to them and so I think the story around that guidance is look this is what we've tended to do we've been able to guide up a little bit relative to expectations this
was a little bit of a better guy than last quarter and so back to what we said before I think the trade is still intact and to close off with the legendary football manager arson wer hasn't given up hope that his beloved Arsenal will win the biggest prize in soccer the English Premier League talking of talent does Arsenal need to buy some well particularly up front you know I believe that ARS has plenty of talent has worked very well well and uh has a potential to to win the Premier League what is the ultimate Target
this year this year uh there's still a small chance but not uh a big one now because uh less than 20% the last weekend was detrimental to this chances yes but you never know you never know when you're in this situation I said over the weekend 20% chance is still to win the title but when you're in this situation you don't count you go for it and uh you now what the only thing you can say it doesn't depend only on us it depends as well on us performing at the top level and on Liverpool
having a blip of two or three games do you think there's any names they should be looking at in terms of players they should put in up front man I I I don't want to interfere with the yeah uh I I believe I was there long enough I did my job as well as I could and now I want all the people to do their job freely without having me uh every time saying no that is right or not right it's it's let people work thanks for being with us tonight and through this week we'll
be back again on Monday until then Cheerio this business news briefing is brought to you by invest DEC business banking make the move to private banking service now for your business
