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Cape Town - Thirty-one residential properties have been completely destroyed and 28 properties sustained partial to major damage in the raging fires in the Betty's Bay area, east of Cape Town, the city's fire chief Theo Lane said on Saturday. A final inspection of all residential properties to ensure that every person was evacuated was done overnight, while "complete extinguishment of affected properties were being done", he said. "Thirty-one residential properties completely destroyed. Twenty-eight properties sustained partial to major damage. It is estimated that more than 12 800 hectares of vegetation was destroyed. "A full impact study will carried out to determine how much of the rare and endangered species of flora has been affected. Crews will remain on [the] scene for some considerable time to ensure that the fire is completely extinguished. The overnight rain has allowed for rapid cooling of the burn area," Lane said. Clarence Drive (R44 ) was reopened during the early hours of Saturday morning and no further road closures were in place, he said. On Friday night, residents of Franskraal near Gansbaai on the Southern Cape coastline were ordered to evacuate after the wildfire roared out of control, fanned by gusting wind. The Overstrand Municipality issued an emergency evacuation order as the fire raged, with authorities designating the Gansbaai Tourism Office Hall the emergency evacuation point. The order by the municipality's fire and disaster management department declared, "This message is for your safety, you are to immediately evacuate your home." A wildfire in the Karwyderskraal area also saw evacuation ordered for farms in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley area. The areas evacuated by the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) at Hermanus Municipality Disaster Management are sections of Betty’s Bay; Gansbaai - Franskraal has been evacuated; and Karwyderskraal - Camphill, Bona Dea, Farms at the bottom end of Hemel-en-Aarde, and sections of Northcliff, Eastcliff, Fernkloof, Hermanus Heights, have been evacuated. Source: IOL

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Great article from Bruce Whitefield, I bet your banker did not explain it to you in such clear terms: Banks love it when you don’t settle your credit card balance in full. If you owe your bank R10,000 and pay R9,999, then they are entitled – as per the small print – to charge you interest on the full R10,000 rather than the R1 that you failed to pay. It may seem iniquitous, but those are the rules. They even have a special name for people who pay the minimum amount every month on their credit card statements. They are called “revolvers”, and they are charged significant amounts of interest for extending the agreed borrowing period. That is as opposed to “transactors”, who pay the full outstanding balance monthly, having taken advantage of the reward scheme and the interest-free period made available to them. Banks are not great fans of transactors as they make lower fees and earn less interest from them. Still, the financial institution does make a percentage every time their customer uses the card, so don’t feel too bad for the bank. Source: https://www.businessinsider.co.za/beware-these-fiendish-credit-card-tricks-2018-12

Six months after publicly disclosing the onset of his early dementia, Jannie Mouton (72) has stepped away from the R54bn business he created 23 years ago. Yesterday Mouton tendered his resignation, with immediate effect, as chairman and director of the PSG Group. His typically honest resignation letter says having smoothly handed over the PSG baton, he now intends making the most of the time he has left by focusing on his health. The rest of the missive is classic Mouton highlighted by his message that South Africa remains a land of great opportunity because of “intelligent, resilient, considerate and responsible” people. He urges his now former colleagues to remember that success requires innovation, hard work, dedication and a bit of luck. And urges them to approach every challenge as an opportunity because “a negative person has never really created anything.” One of a kind, this inspirational Afrikaner who started again from scratch after being fired at 48 by the stock brokerage he started. Little did those who betrayed him realise he would go on to establish something far bigger and better. Source: Biznews

The industry will not thank Momentum for its climbdown The firm has created a new policy to compensate murder victims' beneficiaries But it’s opened up a hornet's nest for itself and the sector Momentum’s about-turn on its tough life insurance policy rules shows just how wrong you can be, even when you are right. Its refusal to pay out a claim on the basis that its client had lied about an existing medical condition was absolutely correct in terms of the law, but was a deeply flawed business decision. It has had its reputation trashed in the court of public opinion and now, even though it has scrambled to clean up the mess, the damage has been done. Also, its “solution” may very well have a bevy of unforeseen circumstances not only for itself, but the industry as a whole. What’s worse is Tuesday’s apparent victory for consumerism will have the opposite effect. You can bet that insurance industry actuaries are already calculating the consequences of Momentum’s decision to compromise on payouts and will factor that into their pricing models. The already high cost of life insurance in South Africa is likely to rise even further to compensate for its decision. Momentum thought it had a cut and dried case. After all it had been rejecting claims like the one made by Denise Ganas for years. Momentum, part of JSE-listed MMI Holdings, refused to pay out Ganas after her husband Nathan was killed in a hijacking in KZN two years ago, because he lied on his application forms. Momentum has evidence of a medical diagnosis two weeks before he applied for the insurance cover. Even though his death had nothing to do with his undisclosed high blood sugar levels, the company cited this as enough reason to not pay his beneficiaries’ R2.4m claim. The matter went to the insurance ombud, who agreed with the company. What it failed to consider was that social media world is a very unforgiving place when its citizens perceive an injustice. Momentum found itself pilloried, yet stood firm. It would not make a payout. Its group CEO Hillie Meyer even went as far as saying that the easy decision would be to pay out the claim to make the problem go away, but it was taking the harder decision to not stump up the cash. The company was branded as heartless and money grabbing. It lost the PR war even before it started. It took the firm more than two days to find a way out of the mess it had created for itself, but the damage was already done. Now Momentum says because of South Africa’s considerably higher than average murder rate, it will pay out claims up to a maximum of R3m if one of its clients is killed unlawfully, even if they lied on their application forms. It seems like a decent compromise. It will apply this retrospectively meaning Denise Ganas will get her R2.4m payout, less the R50,000 the firm paid out on her husband's death (and had demanded back initially). But it may have created a rod not only for its own back, but for the industry as a whole. The firm is still trying to figure out what this means in terms of the total liability it will assume into the future. Official police statistics show 20,388 South Africans were murdered last year. Global stats reveal you have a far higher chance of being murdered in South Africa than most other places on the planet. At 35.8 murders per 100,000 of the population, South Africa’s murder rate puts it in one of the top ten places in the world where you are likely to be killed unlawfully. According to worldfigures.com you would be safer in places like Columbia, Mexico and Cote D’Ivoire than in South Africa. Of those 20,388 murders, how many would have had any form of life cover? We don’t know the answer to that. Life cover is the preserve of the employed and really only those who can afford the premiums. Let’s be generous and assume that a quarter of those murdered had some form of life insurance – say 5,000 people. It’s probably a bit high, but let’s use it anyway. Momentum claims to have up to 15% market share of the lives assured in South Africa, so it might cover the lives of 750 people murdered annually. Last year it rejected 0.4% of life assurance claims. Not all of them for the same reason as Nathan Ganas, but if we assume that to be the case, then it refused to pay the beneficiaries of 22 murder victims last year. Not all of those would qualify for the new maximum payment of R3m, but even if they did, it would mean a liability for Momentum whose holding company delivered R2.8bn in headline earnings last year, of R66m. The number will be nowhere near that figure, but it makes the point that Momentum’s decision to dig in its heels on a point of principle may have been a considerably costlier mistake from the perspective of its reputation, than paying out a few life claims as a result of death due to causes unrelated to undisclosed medical conditions. What is unclear at this stage is what effect Momentum’s stance will have on disability claims. If it’s willing to pay out for murder victims what about the many thousands more injured as a result of violent crime. If you fail to disclose a medical condition and survive a violent crime, but are disabled by it, will firms like Momentum pay you out? And if not, why not? Momentum is not yet ready to answer that question. A failure to do so would be a double standard. Surely? Insurance, at the best of times is a grudge purchase. Few people happily pay insurance premiums as industry statistics will show that 70% of the vehicles on our roads are uninsured, despite high road accident statistics. If your clients believe they are paying their premiums into a bottomless pit, they will stop. So while the insurance industry and its army of very clever actuaries can hide behind standard industry practice and demand compulsory disclosure to form the basis of the risk the insurance company takes on when it insures your life and determines the premium you will pay, it’s going to have to think very hard about how it communicates this to its clients. Insurance brokers are incentivised through sales. They are motivated by sealing the deal. They are paid the same level of commission whether a sale takes them two hours or two weeks. This may be part of the problem. Also, a life insurance salesman with fewer scruples might be tempted to gloss over the small print as much of it would put prospective clients off signing up if they thought about it too hard. The industry accepts many of their clients will seek to fudge their medical records in order to secure lower premiums, in the hope that the company concerned will not find out at the time of the claim which is why the industry does carry out investigations before making payouts. There has to be a smarter way of selling insurance and educating clients about why the industry is such a stickler for rules. If it doesn’t, it will cost the industry new business and drive up the cost of your premium. Bruce Whitfield is a multi-platform award winning financial journalist and broadcaster.

Full Statement: SOUTH AFRICANS, JOIN ME IN A NEW POLITICAL MOVEMENT FOR GOOD. Today I am announcing my response to the many thousands of South Africans who have reached out to me with one resounding request: that I do not give up on the good fight for a better South Africa. I take this opportunity to speak directly to the hearts of all South Africans. I remind all South Africans that our democracy is grounded on a constitution for good and that it requires of us all to build a country that confronts and heals the past and moves peacefully into the future. I remain guided by it and by the most beautiful preamble: We, the people of South Africa, Recognise the injustices of our past; Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. We, therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to - Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law; Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations. May God protect our people. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso. God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa. Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of spending more time with my family and my dogs and do the little things at home that I have not done for years. The past two years have been a tough time for me personally, but I have taken a lot of comfort from thousands of South Africans who have sent me message of support and encouragement. I am sincerely grateful for every single one of them. I have also had the benefit of time to reflect on the events of the last two years. On the 31st of October I resigned as a member of the Democratic Alliance and as Executive Mayor of the great city of Cape Town. By that time I was the longest serving Executive Mayor of the City and the only Mayor, post-apartheid, to complete a term of office and be re-elected. I am extremely proud of what we achieved in my 7 years at the helm of the city and it was a great honour to be able to serve the people of Cape Town. In 2016 I was the face of the DA’s campaign to be re-elected to govern the City and the DA campaigned in Cape Town, and across the country, on the back of those achievements. In Cape Town we were rewarded for our record of delivery, in the 2011 – 2016 term of office, with a resounding win and two-thirds of the vote. Even though we had achieved a lot, I was the first to admit that there was still so much to be done to redress the centuries of oppression and exclusion. I vowed to focus on addressing the apartheid spatial plan of our city which persists and which relegates poor, mostly black and coloured families, to continued exclusion. It was at this point that a cabal within the DA turned against me. Over the past 18 months I have endured the most vile and relentless dirty-tricks campaign to get rid of me as Mayor of Cape Town and to damage my reputation. I have spent my entire life fighting for a society that is just, fair and caring and I will never rest until this is achieved. I fought against the might of the apartheid regime. I fought against the powerful ANC elite when I exposed the corrupt arms-deal. The attack on my character, reputation and values by the DA cabal is nothing like I have ever experienced. The DA borrowed deeply from apartheid era tactics – sham investigations with pre-determined outcomes, false criminal charges and forged documents. Their conduct shocked me. It was so obviously motivated by malice and hate. I had to ask myself what I had done to earn this level of hatred. It was hatred so deep and irrational that it was de-human. It became clear that the project Helen Zille and I agreed on in 2010, to create a viable alternative to the ANC, was no longer underpinned by the values I believed in and on which the DA campaigned. The DA had used and abused me. I was in an abusive relationship and the abuser could not be rehabilitated. I was there when the democratic South Africa was negotiated and I was there when the Constitution was written. I know my rights. I fought for those rights. I turned to the judiciary to enforce and protect my rights against a DA that was hell-bent on removing me as Mayor – flouting natural rules of justice, its own constitution as well as the constitution of South Africa. My faith in the courts was not misplaced. The Western Cape High Court ruled in my favour 3 out of 3 times. Through its conduct the DA exposed to me that they are not a party that truly believes in constitutionalism and the rule of law, they do not believe in truth, they do not believe in redress and they do not believe their own four core values of freedom, fairness, opportunity and diversity. This said, one of the lessons Tata Madiba taught me after his 27 years of incarceration is that if he can forgive his oppressors, I can also forgive them. Over the past two weeks I have done as I said I would do. I have taken time to consult with my family, friends and mentors. I have listened to the thousands of people who have reached out to me directly. I have considered close to thousands of thousands requests, from people across our city to continue to serve our country and to start a new political movement. I have done an IPSOS survey that confirms support. I also received a signal from Mamma. The things I believe in, and have fought for my entire life, remain my guide. My values remain steadfast. Politics as usual has failed too many South Africans and our people have lost faith in politics and politicians. God-forbid they should lose faith in our democracy because the people in politics have not lived up to the privilege and responsibility to serve. It is time for a new political order. Duty and service runs through my blood so I am here to announce that I will continue to avail myself to serve my country which I love. I am motivated by the same level of outrage at the state of our country as I was 50 years ago when I was outraged by the cruelty and illegality of apartheid. And I am responding to the call to act. I will be launching a new political party that will contest the 2019 elections nationally and in all 9 provinces. Our party will put people before politics. We will be on the ground – not just sitting in parliament. Our party will build a better country for the next generations. We will look after families and educate to liberate. We will be a party of action. Less talk and more action. We will clean up our country and politics. We will make change happen for the greater good. My exposure to, and my being the target of, pure hatred tested my beliefs. I am happy to say that I still believe in good. I believe in a good South Africa. Where every child will be born in a good hospital where good doctors provide good healthcare. Their home will be a good house in a good community where there’s a good school. They’ll get a good education, a good foundation, with good values, to live and learn and play and grow and know what it means to be good. In a good South Africa there will be good opportunities to get a good job that offers good reward for good work. To live a good life, and share, live and care and know what it means to be good. In a good South Africa we will fight corruption and stand up against racism by doing what is good because we will know what it means to be good. Racial division, prejudice and inequality continues to exist in our society. My great fear is that our next generation of young South Africans will carry forward with them, the tensions that exists between difference races in our country. We will not allow racists to speak for us. Today, I am inviting all South Africans who are in search of something new that will disrupt our current political system to join me. I am making a call for you to do something good. To join me in doing something good for our country. When good people do nothing, evil prospers. I anticipate that my announcement today will unleash a new level of dirty-tricks and a fierce campaign to discredit me and all those who join me in standing up for good. In my 24 years of serving in elected office I have witnessed the goodness of all South Africans. Politicians, and politics, so very often suffocates that inherent goodness. I want to end that with a new style of politics where youth and experience, men and women, are united at the forefront of making change happen for the good. It was Tata Madiba who said: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”. Since Tata Madiba left us, no single leader in our country has shown any real leadership and embarked on any meaningful reforms to bring about reconciliation and unity in our country. Today is an invitation for South Africans who believe in the good to join me. My plan is to continue engaging with all South Africans over the coming weeks. Later this year I will unveil a party name and brand along with a suite of more detailed policy positions. In January 2019 we will launch our campaign for a good South Africa. Cities and towns are the heart of our nation. Our country will progress when our cities and towns work. I intend to use my experience in leading one of the greatest cities in the world for the good of our nation and our provinces. https://ewn.co.za/2018/11/18/de-lille

They just don't make them like they used too.

Bank Zero announced it has been integrated with the national payments system of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and is set to begin trial runs in preparation for the launch of its banking platform. The bank’s CFO, Liné Wiid, said that settling directly with the SARB rather than through a sponsoring bank allows Bank Zero to control its own payments value chain and nurture a “savings culture”. “Creating a savings culture means shifting mindsets from ‘I want a car; I want expensive credit now’ to ‘I have a savings goal; I’ll buy a car later’,” Wiid said. Bank Zero CEO Yatin Narsai said that this alpha testing milestone is a major achievement, with most institutions investing billions simply to reach this stage. The bank’s Alpha testing phase will see a small team validating the bank’s end-to-end live systems and processes. Bank Zero said its approach to building a bank uses precise, “laboratory-style testing” and focuses on a number of key areas. These focus areas include building an integrated banking app, testing customer experience and on-boarding, completing disaster recovery tests, and complying with all regulatory reporting as required by the SARB. A new generation of bank card Bank Zero also announced it has collaborated with Mastercard to develop a “new generation of card” aimed at providing cutting-edge security and powerful, unique features. “We are excited to be partnering with Bank Zero in driving payment innovation while catering to the evolving needs of today’s connected, increasingly mobile and digital customers,” said Mastercard South Africa division president Mark Elliott. Mastercard added that it will provide the latest security protocols to protect Bank Zero customers from fraud and identity theft. The bank also announced it has partnered with IBM to implement enterprise-grade security on its servers, although it noted that it leverages a hybrid cloud model to deliver flexibility. “Building a bank is hard work; building an innovative bank is exponentially harder,” said Bank Zero co-founder and chairman Michael Jordaan. Bank Zero will begin beta testing during the first quarter of 2019 and expects public operations to begin around mid-2019. Source: Mybroadband

That is pretty neat, I have mine synced to my personal website to show my heart rate and steps etc. What I want to do next is get an electromagnetic magnet and a relay. The idea is to build a chest which is closed by this magnet which is controlled by the relay, which is controlled by my raspberry pi. So when I reach my step goal for the day, the chest unlocks and presents me with a sweet.

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Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd gained the most in more than seven months in Johannesburg as the lender impressed analysts with its earnings and plans for growth despite a sluggish South African economy and the strains on consumers. The bank, which said Wednesday its client base increased to 10.5 million in six months from 9.9 million, advanced as much as 6.2%, the most since Feb. 21. Capitec said it will build a business-banking division as it diversifies away from riskier unsecured lending. First-half profit increased 20% from a year earlier. “It looks like a good set of results and it’s driven by strong fee growth as the transactional franchise gains traction in the market,” said Neelash Hansjee, a banking analyst at Old Mutual Investment Group. “The credit quality seemed to be under control, which is quite a good result in a tough economic environment.” The lender is among four bidders for Mercantile Bank, the South African unit of Portugal’s state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos SA. Capitec expects to know the outcome by the end of next month, after completing due diligence in August, chief executive officer Gerrie Fourie said Wednesday. “They continue to look for more opportunities,” Hansjee said. “Over the last three years they have launched a credit card, they have launched an insurance product and now they are saying they want to get into business banking. That shows that the group is comfortable to diversify its growth and continue to disrupt the financial services market.” Capitec was 5.2% higher as of 1:29 p.m., outperforming its local peers and heading for its highest close since Jan. 25, a few days before short-seller Viceroy Research published a report that said the lender may be concealing losses. The bank denied the allegations. Avior Capital Markets analyst Harry Botha said Capitec’s latest earnings showed the divergent trends that the market had become used to — muted gains in lending revenue, and exceptional results from transactional banking. A focus on lower-risk customers helped to improved its credit figures. “In terms of the future, meaningful growth in Capitec’s credit business is still dependent on South African economic conditions,” Botha said. “The credit card business will provide a bit of support for lending revenues, but the trends, with transactional banking growth outperforming, will probably be the same as recent periods.” Source: Bloomberg

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