Platinum Wealth

Anyone using it? How does it compare to 22seven?

Axe murderer Henri van Breda has been sentenced to three life sentences for the murder of three of his family members, 15 years for the attempted murder of his sister, and one year for obstructing the course of justice. The sentences will run concurrently. Shortly after sentencing, Van Breda indicated he would appeal his conviction and sentences. A date was set down for June 27. Judge Siraj Desai said: "These attacks display a high level of innate cruelty and an almost unprecedented disregard for the welfare of one's own family, one's parents and siblings. Each murderous attack upon a family member constitutes a very serious crime, warranting the severest penalty possible. "Viewing all these acts cumulatively, it must rank extremely high on the ladder of serious crime." He also said no argument had been advanced to mitigate the impact of the crime. "The violence was excessive and gratuitous. "We have no explanation from you. No substantial and compelling circumstances have been placed before us. There appeared to be none," Desai said. Crimes premeditated Van Breda was last month found guilty of murdering his parents and brother, attempting to kill his sister and obstructing the course of justice. Desai had listened to arguments from the State and the defense in mitigation and aggravation on Tuesday during sentencing proceedings. He said he considered the crimes to have been premeditated, as Van Breda would have had to arm himself before bludgeoning Rudi, Martin, and Teresa to death and trying to murder Marli. Premeditated murder carries a prescribed sentence of life imprisonment. Prosecutor Susan Galloway had argued that there were no substantial and compelling circumstances which would warrant deviating from the prescribed minimum sentence. Van Breda showed no remorse, Galloway had insisted, and Marli had survived because of a miracle, not because of mercy was shown by her brother. There was no prescribed sentence for attempted murder and the State argued that a sentence similar to the one for his parents' and brother's murders be handed down for the attack on Marli as it was committed during the same incident with the same weapon and intent. Defense lawyer advocate Pieter Botha said his client had no previous convictions and had been young at the time of the brutal killings. Van Breda maintains his innocence. Source: News24

He is nice yea, should have listened to him when he warned me against Taste Holdings.

I can do with a ledger nano!

Online advertising is necessary for small and large businesses alike, but small business advertising is decidedly more difficult. Your staff is smaller, and your marketing budgets are smaller too. How do you compete with bigger businesses under the circumstances? The good news is that Platinum Wealth encourages and supports the creation, growth, and development of small businesses in South Africa. Therefore, we decided to open the Marketplace up for small business owners to advertise their business free of charge. We also want to offer job seekers a way to get noticed, so our Marketplace will now also be open to job seekers to showcase their skills and increase their chances of being employed. This is aimed at helping to solve the unemployment crisis in South Africa by enabling job seekers to get their skills and talents in front of potential employers. RULES Business owners: You must have been registered for longer than 3 days and have a minimum of five posts. You may bump your thread every two weeks. You must use the business template. Put your business name e.g., “Burger Fair Bellville” or business initials e.g., “BF” in the Title of your thread. All posts without the business name or business initials will be deleted. Job Seekers: You must have been registered for 3 days and have a minimum of four posts. Do not post your CV. Do not post your personal details. Do not post salary and rates. Use the job seeker template. Prospective Clients, Employers and Forum Members: Do not post in the thread, discuss it via a private message. Notify either myself, @padjakkels or @Bandit if you feel a thread is inappropriate. Template: Please copy and paste the following Template and then fill it in. If you want to advertise your business Service/Product Description: Location: About us: Links (optional): Use this sub forum. If you are seeking employment Job description: Location or telecommuting: Permanent or part-time: Junior, intermediary or senior: Availability: Experience: Technologies: About me: What I am looking for: Links (optional): Use this sub forum. Please take note that posts not following the guidelines and/or template will be deleted. South Africa needs entrepreneurs and Platinum Wealth is determined to promote entrepreneurship and develop small enterprises by providing business support services like these - which results in business growth and sustainability.

http://variety.com/2018/music/news/avicii-dead-at-28-1202772767/

Will send it to the discord channel.

We were fortunate enough to be at the InvestSure launch were EasyEquities introduced an insurance option for individual stocks on their system. We walked through the process and found it incredibly innovative. The purpose is to protect you from losses arising from deceptive or misleading acts of directors & management. You will be covered for a 12 month period when you'll have the choice to renew the insurance for another 12 months period etc. They'll pay out the difference between what price you sold at and at what price you bought it at. So you have no capital loss. Screenshot of how it works on EasyEquities What is Investsure? Based in Johannesburg, InvestSure is a new insurance product that insures listed shares bought on participating trading platforms, against losses arising out of the deceptive or misleading acts of management of the company.

SA’s 14th-largest company by market value will get its secondary listing on A2X Markets on Monday, which will be this bourse’s first large-cap listing. The move will deliver a fivefold increase to A2X’s market capitalisation and make the challenger exchange a far bigger threat to the JSE. Insurance group Sanlam would take a secondary listing on the exchange on Monday, A2X Markets said. With a market value of R181.9bn, Sanlam was the country’s 14th-largest listed company on Thursday, behind Old Mutual and MTN, but ahead of Barclays Africa Group and Shoprite. Sanlam’s secondary listing, which follows the likes of Coronation, Afrimat, African Rainbow Capital Investments and Huge Group, will take A2X’s total market value from R47.1bn to about R229bn. This is still a fraction of the JSE all share index, with a market value of R11.6-trillion, but many times the size of rivals, ZAR X and 4 Africa Exchange. What it means Moreover, Sanlam’s secondary listing on A2X means shareholders can now choose to trade their shares on that bourse rather than on the JSE. This is significant, considering that Sanlam is one of the JSE’s most liquid stocks and that A2X claims its trading costs are "upwards of 40% cheaper" than its larger rival. Four of the country’s largest stockbrokers, SBG Securities, Peregrine Securities, RMB Morgan Stanley and Investec Securities, are already trading on A2X. A2X had observed narrower bid-offer spreads (the difference between the price to buy and the price to sell a stock) on its stocks compared with those of their JSE-listed equivalents, said CEO Kevin Brady. This was entirely a function of its lower cost to trade, which benefited stockbrokers and investors. Stockbrokers and shareholders can now verify these claims, as real-time data coverage of securities listed on A2X went live on the Bloomberg terminal on Thursday. This was important in providing "full visibility of price and volume activity on A2X", as the majority of industry participants in SA used the Bloomberg terminal, Brady said. "This will empower the industry to achieve best execution when transacting in listed securities across multiple exchanges," he said. In markets such as the US, where multiple large exchanges have existed for some time, brokers are legally required to seek the best execution reasonably available for their customers’ orders. Factors to be considered include price, speed of execution and the likelihood that the trade will be executed. However, this is not yet law in SA. Sanlam CEO Ian Kirk said the group’s A2X listing was in the interests of its shareholders and "provides an opportunity to participate in the ongoing development and overall growth of South Africa’s capital markets". Sanlam’s longstanding black economic empowerment partner, Ubuntu-Botho Investments, is an indirect shareholder in A2X through its stake in the Patrice Motsepe-backed African Rainbow Capital Investments, which holds a 20% stake in A2X. It is 51.6% owned by African Rainbow Capital, which is in turn wholly owned by Ubuntu-Botho. Brady said he was confident the listing of a company of Sanlam’s calibre would attract other issuers. A2X expected to list a mid-cap industrial company at the end of April. Source: Businesslive

From @JuniorBuffett Busy checking out insurance on shares, being launched on the @EasyEquities platform. Costs at 0.56% of the investment amount. Not confirmed. @InvestsureZA Covering events like Steinhoff etc.

Sagarmatha Technologies, the umbrella company that was hoping to unite the various groups in Iqbal Survé's media empire under a new roof, will not be listing on the JSE Friday as scheduled. "On 10 April 2018 at 14:00, the Company received a letter from the JSE giving notice to the company that the listing could no longer proceed," said Sagarmatha in a shareholder statement on Wednesday afternoon. The company said it had been informed by the JSE that it could not list on the local bourse because it had not submitted the correct financial statements in time. The stock exchange said it had not its submitted its annual financial statements to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission in time for the listing to go ahead, although Sagarmatha claimed it had. In addition, the JSE said it failed to release the interim results of the company for the 12 months ending 31 December 2017 by the due date of April 9. "The company is disappointed that the JSE has made a decision that the listing cannot proceed," it said. "Regrettably therefore due to the JSE’s decision, the company cannot continue with the listing on the 13th of April 2018.""The company will consult with its advisors and consider its next steps." 'Commitments exceeding R4bn' In a separate statement, also released on Wednesday, Sagarmatha said that it received "indicative commitments for this listing exceeding R4bn, therefore comfortably meeting the minimum listing requirements of the JSE". The technology and media group was hoping to announce Wednesday that it had raised up to R7.5bn in the placement of 189 million of its 1.2 billion shares. It previously said that about R1bn would be used to pay off debt. It was also aiming to use the private placement proceeds to roll out three additional regional offices in Africa, finance growth strategies, improve its current platforms and buy new technology businesses. "However, due to the JSE withdrawal of the listing notice, Sagarmatha Technologies is legally bound not to accept these applications from its committed investors. Sagarmatha Technologies was hopeful it could resolve this issue with the regulator and requested the extension of a new listing date. However, the JSE has requested the company make provision for a fresh listing application." Sagarmatha’s current assets include majority stakes in news wire agency ANA, e-commerce retailer Loot, IOL Property and online news site IOL. It was also aiming to buy all the shares in Sekunjalo Independent Media, the holding company that owns a 55% stake in newspaper publisher Independent Media, owner of the Cape Times, the Star and other newspapers. Sagarmatha previously said that it would have bought these shares by the time it lists on the JSE. The way forward Sagarmatha said that its board would consider a number of options after its listing was shelved. These include offers to purchase "its four largest businesses" by unnamed international investors, and possible listings on the New York Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange or again on the JSE. It also again hit out at how rival media groups covered the runup to the listing, saying it had been the subject of a "disinformation campaign". "As with all pioneering moves, boldness is subject to a lot of analysis, and in this case, also vast misunderstanding. This unfamiliarity sadly lent itself to a focus on Independent Media, rather than on the greater picture Sagarmatha Technologies as a whole, represents," it said. Source: Fin24

What is the consensus about Sagarmatha Technologies? Scam or are you guys taking the gamble?

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned against a "Cold War mentality" as he vowed to open up parts of the country's economy. His speech at the Boao Forum for Asia - often referred to as Asia's Davos - appears to be an attempt to calm a trade row with the US. He pledged to cut import tariffs on cars and relax requirements for foreign firms investing in China. But there were few specifics on when the changes would happen. 'Zero-sum game' Mr Xi made no specific references to the ongoing spat with the Washington which has seen both sides announce tit-for-tat plans to slap tariffs on imports. But in a veiled swipe at US President Donald Trump's America First stance, Mr Xi called for openness. "Human society is facing a major choice to open or close, to go forward or backward," Mr Xi said to the audience made up mainly of Chinese and international investors. "In today's world, the trend of peace and cooperation is moving forward and a Cold War mentality and zero-sum game thinking are outdated. "Paying attention only to one's own community without thinking of others can only lead into a wall. And we can only achieve win-win results by insisting on peaceful development and working together." President Trump, whose plan to hit hundreds of Chinese products with duties have stoked fears of a trade war, has yet to react. Washington claims China has failed to fulfil earlier promises to open up the economy - including putting up barriers to international companies accessing markets and forcing investors to form joint ventures and hand over intellectual property. Xi seeing himself as 'the adult in the room' Analysis by Karishma Vaswani, Asia Business Correspondent China's President Xi Jinping likes to position himself as the champion of globalisation. He consistently does that when he's making speeches at international forums. And what better time to do that than now, against the backdrop of the ongoing US-China trade row. President Xi says a cold war and zero sum mentality are out of place and that dialogue is the way to resolve disputes. What he most likely means by that of course - although he never specifically says it - is that US President Trump's recent rhetoric on trade and unfair practices by China aren't in keeping with the way reasonable adults should behave. In contrast to the bluster and fiery barbs evident in President Trump's tweets, President Xi put forward the face of a new China, and announced steps to make China's economy more open. Amongst the things he talked about included lowering import tariffs for vehicles, and improving transparency, and intellectual property rights protection. He also said China genuinely doesn't want a trade surplus. But while on the surface the promises sound grand, some of this is stuff we've heard before. So it's hard to see just how much more access China will give foreign firms in reality. But will President Trump see President Xi's conciliatory speech as a sign that he's won some concessions for the US side? Wait for his next tweet! Beijing Deals There was $462.6bn worth of goods bought by the US from China in 2016. 18.2% of all China's exports go to the United States $129bn worth of China-made electrical machinery bought by US 59.2% growth in Chinese services imported by US between 2006 & 2016 $347bn US goods trade deficit with China Source: BBC UK

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority replaces the FSB, and the banking supervision department at the Reserve Bank becomes the Prudential Authority. Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has set in motion processes to disband the Financial Services Board (FSB) as well as unbundle the banking supervision department from the Reserve Bank. The FSB will be replaced by a new body called the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), while the banking supervision department will be located within a new regulator called the Prudential Authority (PA). Dubbed the ‘Twin Peaks regulatory system’, the model was approved by Cabinet in 2011, and it aims “to create a safer financial sector that works effectively in the interests of all South Africans, by reducing potential threats to the financial system and providing better protection to financial customers”. In a statement released by Treasury, it was announced that the FSCA, the FSB’s replacement, will “supervise how financial institutions conduct their business and treat customers”. The new body is also tasked with “improving customer protection in the financial sector, and driving better customer outcomes, ensuring that the sector serves South Africans best”. The Prudential Authority (PA), a new entity linked to the Reserve Bank, “will be responsible for the safety and soundness of banks, insurers and other financial institutions”. The transition period will affect entities currently reporting to the FSB, such the office of the Financial Services (Fais) ombudsman. Over the weekend, National Treasury released job adverts for the commissioner and deputy commissioner of the FSCA, while the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank will be in charge of the PA. Addressing FSCA staff members last week, Nene assured them the transition would be painless and that the FSB board chairperson was currently the chairperson of a transitional management committee to oversee FSB to FSCA. In terms of the transition period, the FSCA will inherit existing investigations and inspections carried over from the FSB period and matters being heard by the FSB enforcement committee and appeals board will be seen to conclusion. The current members of the FSB appeal board, the board of review and the FIC appeal board will be appointed to constitute the Financial Services Tribunal for a period of three years to be chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Yvonne Mokgoro. An ombudsman council is to be created in terms of the FSR Act, effective from October 1, to allow for sufficient time for appointments to be made. The council will oversee all the ombudsman offices reporting to the FSB. “The FSR Act does not affect the composition and establishment of the statutory ombuds. One change is that the ombuds had previously reported to the FSB Board as their oversight body. As this board no longer exists the independent governance committees established to perform over of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority will similarly perform oversight over the statutory ombuds,” Treasury said in an emailed statement. Source: The Citizen

Former president Jacob Zuma's adviser fraudster Schabir Shaik and French arms manufacturer Thales formed a common purpose to bribe the former president through a series of payments. This was revealed in the 89-page indictment released by the National Prosecuting Authority this week. The State said Zuma had benefited in the period of October 25, 1995, to July 2005 through 783 payments totaling R4 072 499.85. "This was by way of payments from Shaik and/or relevant corporate entities within the Nkobi group (controlled by Shaik) and/or the other relevant corporate entities to accused one (Zuma) and various parties for the benefit of accused one," read the indictment. Zuma appeared in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban on Friday, April 6, along with his co-accused, Thales, which was represented by Christine Guerrier. Guerrier had traveled from Paris to attend the case. No business sense Zuma as accused number one faces charges of fraud, money laundering, corruption and racketeering. The former president had the support of senior ANC KwaZulu-Natal and former Cabinet ministers when he appeared last Friday. The case was postponed to June 8. The indictment says the common purpose between Zuma, Shaik and Nkobi group was formed on or before October 25, 1995. However, the State says the scheduled payments to Zuma do not make any legitimate business sense. It alleges that neither Shaik nor the Nkobi group could afford the payments, as they were at all times in a "cash-starved position" and at times relied on bank overdrafts and borrowing money from banks at prevailing interest rates – to make the payments interest free. The State also said the group's survival depended on obtaining profitable new business. It also said whether the loans were affordable or not, it was not the Nkobi group's legitimate business to make payments to Zuma or other politicians. "Even if the payments could properly be regarded as loans, they amounted to 'benefits'," it said. No effort to recover payments The State said some of the payments, described and treated in certain Nkobi groups as loans, was inconsistent. "The final accounting treatment of R1 137 722.48 of the total payments of R4 072 499.85 does not reflect the payments as loans," it said. The State added that the scheduled payments were intended by Shaik, the Nkobi group and Thales as bribes. "The funds were paid without security. This is not a usual commercial practice with banks, more especially in respect of a customer with accused one's risk profile. "Despite Nkobi's precarious position with the banks, Shaik and Nkobi made no effort to recover any of the payments from accused one. "This failure to demand repayments is itself a benefit to accused one." 'Service provider agreement' The State also alleges that during 1998, Zuma intervened and assisted Shaik, the Nkobi group and Thales to resolve a dispute that had arisen regarding Nkobi's participation with Shaik in the acquisition of African Defence System (ADS). The former president's assistance relating to the arms deal was informal and it did not form part of the official bidding/selection process, said the State. The indictment further alleges that in 1999 and 2000, Thales and Shaik conspired with Zuma to pay him an amount of R500 000 per annum as a bribe in exchange for his protection in investigations into the arms deal. "These annual payments were to continue until the first payment of dividends by ADS." The State further alleges that it was agreed between the parties that the "bribes" would not be paid directly to Zuma, "but that some method of payment would be employed that was calculated to disguise the true nature of the payments so as to avoid detection". The indictment says during late 2000 to early 2001, Kobifin (Pty) Ltd entered into a so-called "service provider agreement" with Thales in Mauritius as a device to "conceal or disguise the true nature and source of the payments of the bribe". Source: News24

Owned by Iqbal Survé, the company hopes to attract a minimum of R3bn in its initial public offering on Friday, despite its accumulated losses Sagarmatha Technologies — the company which has a deadline of Wednesday to attract a minimum R3bn support to proceed with its initial public offering (IPO) on Friday — made a R40m loss on R281.6m revenue for the year to end-December. Sagarmatha issued results reviewed by auditors BDO Cape Town via Sens on Tuesday, showing the company had a net asset value of 33.92c at December 31 — less than a 100th of the R39.62 a share IPO price its proprietor Iqbal Survé is pitching the new listing at. Survé hopes to sell 15.6% of Sagarmatha at R39.62 a share to raise R7.5bn, which would give the company an overall market capitalisation of R48bn. Prior to the listing, Survé owned 90% of the company via his family trust and subsidiaries of Sekunjalo Investment. If the IPO manages to sell 15.6% of the shares at the asking price, Survé would own about 76% of the remaining shares valued at R36.5bn. The results released on Tuesday showed Sagarmatha has an accumulated loss of R250m. Its cash flow statement showed its cash reduced by R42.5m to R254m at the end of 2017. Source: BusinessLive

South Africa, we have a problem. There is a move afoot in the country that is potentially far more dangerous than the Gupta’s attempted takeover of the country, and that is media manipulation and unethical reporting designed to prevent broader economic participation. The most important point we would like to make here is that we, as Independent Media and Sagarmatha Technologies Limited, have nothing to hide. We have been consistently transparent. What worries most of our media competitors – our main detractors - is that we have identified the future of media and have constructed a Multi-Sided-Platform (MSP) that will make traditional media houses, obsolete. They are fighting for their existence. Before we address the blatant untruths in the recent amaBhungane so-called ‘exposé’ that attempted to question the pre-listing statement of the company due to list on the JSE, let us discuss journalist ethics in this country. How is it that journalists now feel they have the right to undermine a listing of a competitor, by approaching international investors and interrogating the intelligence of their investing in Sagarmatha, a process that can only be described as an attempt to determine the outcome for their own favour? Or, journalists contacting assets managers in South Africa and international valuation houses, to sway them with their uninformed rhetoric – again for their own advantage? This is a dangerous move – not only for these journalists and the publications they represent but for the country as a whole. This is in effect, tantamount to dissuading international investment from entering South Africa, at a time when the country is actively pursuing capital injections to counter the years of negative growth. Media has the inalienable right to contact whomever they wish, of course, to understand the business/story they are working on and to get comment. But, to actively seek to sabotage the deal because of a personal grudge or because their own businesses stand on the edge of extinction, is in our mind, highly unethical. An untransformed media landscape still exists in this country, so there is a lot riding on Sagarmatha’s listing. It will change the face of media in South Africa and the continent, forever. So, let us put the facts out there: Sam Sole is not a financial journalist. That is evident in the factual inaccuracies contained in the so-called ‘analysis’ piece published this past weekend. He has condensed a 212-page document into essentially five steps. This leaves a lot open to interpretation and misrepresentation. Secondly, it is hardly an investigation, given that the information is in the public domain and that we were never once contacted for our comment or insight or to check the facts of this article. Why not we wonder? The article focuses on Independent Media – it does not set the landscape for the reader to understand the bigger picture. Independent Media makes up less than 5% of the Sagarmatha Technologies value proposition. The investment into Independent Media is a private equity transaction, this is what Sam Sole has missed completely. Like all deals of this nature, anywhere in the world, value is built over time. Eventually, the value creation is greater than the cost of capital. The debt – Independent Media is actually ahead of its scheduled repayments to the PIC/GEPF, having already made a sizeable capital repayment early in the investment phase. It has also serviced interest payments to its other minority shareholder, Interacom, amounting to over R380 million. But, as a private company, it is not bound to publically disclose its financials. The Listing and Sagarmatha Technologies’ subsequent acquisition of Independent Media, changes this. Although there was no requirement to pay the 50% of the loan until September 2018, Sekunjalo and Independent Media have accelerated repayments. Another myth the Daily Maverick and others have been peddling over the past few years, is that the PIC loaned more than R2 billion to Independent Media. This is a gross misrepresentation of the facts, which are: the PIC originally had a combined investment and loan of R1 Billion, of which R150m was repaid early on, which is far less than its transactions with the likes of Tiso Blackstar (formally Times Media Group), Caxton, CTP and even Naspers. If an investment into a company whose share price had plummeted to the extent that Tiso Blackstar now finds itself facing, surely that would result in the dismissal or at the very least, critical examination of the leadership? Independent Media carries no bank loans. All of its debt is to shareholders who have a vested interest in the long-term success of the business. Mr Sole conveniently ignores the fact that many media houses in South Africa share the same investor grouping too – in that vein then, these other media houses should also be tarred with the same brush of misusing pensioners funds, surely? Sekunjalo has put up all the money to modernise what was essentially a legacy media house when it took over Independent Media. Through the money that Sekunjalo has injected into Independent Media, the company has paid for its own printing presses in KZN and Gauteng for example. This gives Independent Media control over its own production processes – not reliant on third parties. This is the value that has been added by Sekunjalo after the previous owners disbanded the printing operations in Johannesburg. Independent Media has in fact now grown in value due to what Sekunjalo has put into growing the technology platforms that underpin Sagarmatha Technologies. Sekunjalo has funded these improvements for the benefit of all the investors and shareholders and, for the employees who work within these structures. The reality is that Independent Media has benefitted at no cost to anyone else other than Sekunjalo who has solely invested in the modernisation of the business. It has moved from a legacy print business to an advanced content technology business that consistently wins global awards for its innovation. The other reality is that all media houses are battling with declining revenues. That’s not a secret either. The difference here is that Independent Media has jumped on the super-galactic highway and has managed to re-engineer itself to take advantage of technology and the fourth industrial revolution. Should that not be lauded? Flow to the family – Once again, everything is fully disclosed in the PLS – a public document written with investors in mind, and something that therefore talks in a language that the financial community inherently understands. But, let’s take one point as an example. The interpretation by amaBhungane seeks to paint the Survé family as self-serving when it allegedly sells itself shares at a discounted rate and makes poor old Independent Media pay a lot more. The truth of the matter is that this issue of shares to Independent Media was due to an internal restructure in preparation for a future listing as fully disclosed in the pre-listing statement. Far from the Survé family benefitting, the outcome is that Independent Media, without any payment, now owns 40,000,000 shares in Sagarmatha Technologies which, are worth R1.575 billion post listing, as per the Redwood valuation, which by any account, is a very good return for an “insolvent” Independent Media. If the journalist in question or his contacts, understood financial reporting they would have identified that the “treasury shares” referenced in the PLS, are in fact owned by Independent Media and on a standalone basis “not consolidated basis” - Independent Media is very much solvent. That is the value created by Sekunjalo. Valuation – South Africa’s economy has been built on mining – it’s physical and tangible. This is a legacy of it being a closed economy through the apartheid years. Old habits die hard it would appear, as this narrow-minded approach and recalcitrance to understanding platform businesses and new paradigms, is hampering our ability as a country to go where other developed and emerging markets are already playing. Much of our financial and media sectors are operating in a comfort zone that will ultimately punish us as Africans if we do not adjust our thinking in line with what is currently happening across the continent and in the rest of the world. The world has moved on from brick and mortar businesses, do we wait for Western or Asian companies to lead the way in Africa, or do we as Africans make the first step? Let’s transform our minds, we must control our own destiny. The media’s questioning the integrity of one of the world’s most respected valuation firms that has performed countless valuations conforming with US Securities and Exchange (SEC) filings, and, which was put through stringent JSE review, along with the requirements set down by the JSE, doesn’t do much to build trust in South Africa. All of this could have been so easily explained, had anyone bothered to have picked up the phone or sent an email. Independent Media and Sagarmatha Technologies are more than willing to address questions pertinent to the listing from the information that is contained in the PLS. It may not, however, discuss anything not contained in this document, because of a closed period – the same rules that apply to any other company in this position. To reiterate, Mr Sole did not have the decency to offer Independent Media or Sagarmatha Technologies the opportunity to respond. In the world of fake news, the most basic requirement for journalism to survive is to fact check. Not having done so, and only selecting certain components that have been left open to misinterpretation, is a travesty of reporting. So, what is Mr Sole and the Daily Maverick’s agenda?

Washington - President Donald Trump vowed that China will relax its trade restrictions in response to US pressure “because it’s the right thing to do,” as the world’s two largest economies teeter on the brink of a trade war that’s unsettled global financial markets and sent the US stock market reeling. “China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,” Trump said on Twitter early Sunday. “Taxes will become reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property.” The president commented ahead of several appearances by top members of his economic team, who are expected to defend the US threats to impose tariffs on Chinese imports and frame the moves as part of a longer-term strategy for growth. “I think it’s going to generate very positive results which will grow” the economies of the US, China, and the world, Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, said on CNN’s “State of the Union". Kudlow said while he would support imposing tariffs if negotiations with China fail, nothing has happened yet. In a separate interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Kudlow acknowledged “jitters” but insisted “we’re not gonna to end up in a trade war.” Last week brought an escalation of the dispute, when Trump on April 5 instructed the U.S. Trade Representative’s office to consider tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese imports. That raised the total to $150 billion of Chinese goods under consideration. A Little pain China, which already proposed duties on $50bn in US products including aircraft to soybeans, has threatened to respond proportionately and “counterattack with great strength” if Trump makes good on the latest tariff proposal. The escalation in tensions pushed the S&P 500 Index down sharply; it lost 1.4% on the week after several days of wild swings. The gains in U.S. equities since Trump became president - which Trump and his team have hailed for months - have eroded. Trump on Friday acknowledged there could be “ a little pain” ahead for the U.S., while emphasising his goal is to ensure the US emerges a much stronger country in the end. On Friday Kudlow said that the US and China are holding “back-channel discussions” to resolve the escalating trade dispute. Still, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said the threat of tariffs is not merely a negotiating tactic with China. “We’re moving forward in a measured way,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Navarro said Friday that high-level talks will take place before any tariffs will take effect, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Source: Ros Krasny, Bloomberg News

Sagarmatha Technologies, a holding company that owns online shopping company Loot and the Independent Media business, lists on the JSE next week. It wants to be like YouTube, and Amazon, and create cryptocurrencies, and sell the genetic information of its customers. It also plans to dabble in artificial intelligence, augmented reality – and the discredited psychological technique neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Sagarmatha Technologies is expected to list on the JSE next week Wednesday. It has been called an "African unicorn" – because of an listing valuation of more then $1 billion – by the media platforms it will own once the listing formalities are completed. It is named for the Nepalese title of Mount Everest. It controls the online shopping site Loot and Independent Media, which owns newspapers such as The Star as well as the third-largest news website in South Africa, IOL. Its plans, however, stretch well beyond online shopping and media. Here are three weird things Sagarmatha wants to do. It wants to sell its customers' genetic information. Sagarmatha tolds investors it plans to expand into a long list of fields. One of those is personal genetics, analysing the DNA of its customers to give them personalised information on fitness and nutrition. Then it wants to sell that information. "Data sets can be analysed with customers’ consent and further packaged to provide information to pharmaceutical companies focusing on personalised medicine.," Sagarmatha says. That is on top of its plans to "develop consumer intelligence that can be sold on." It wants to combine voice recognition with neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Sagarmatha provided investors with a list of 15 companies it hopes to buy. It did not name any, instead listing them as "Company A" through "Company O". "Company B" is an online food delivery player; "Company O" is "a state-run national news agency in East Africa". But "Company F" really stands out. That potential acquisition is "a leader in voice biometrics", which allows people to be identified through only their voice. The company also has an artificial intelligence solution that "combine best-in-class speech, neuro-linguistic programming and voice biometric technologies into a unified multi-engine platform," Sagarmatha says. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a psychological technique dating from the 1970s used to treat a variety of disorders. It has been largely dismissed by the scientific community for the lack of evidence that it works. It wants to be like both Amazon and YouTube – plus make cryptocurrencies. One of its subsidiaries owns "a video sharing site and app similar in many respects to YouTube", Sagarmatha told its investors – Video360. The day of its parent company's listing, Video360 had not had a new video uploaded in 24 days. Sagarmatha also plans to emulate Amazon, although it never mentioned the e-commerce giant by name. It plans to launch an offering called Sagarmatha Peak, the company said, that would give customers free or expedited delivery on online shopping, member-only discounts, access to streaming TV shows and movies ("including original content"), and subscriptions to its newspapers and magazines. That is a near perfect description of Amazon Prime. It also has plans for augemented reality, virtual reality, and wants to develop "cryptocurrencies and other products and services such as insurance and lending arrangements". Source: Business Insider

Claims made by Herbex for its slimming products are unsubstantiated, and the company's television commercials have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of South Africa. Herbex, which sells its products through retailers like Game, Takealot and Clicks, recently launched a TV advertisement for its slimming products, ASA said in a statement. The ad features a spokesperson who claimed she lost 43 kilograms with Herbex since 2006. “I have kept the weight off for 10 years. Herbex has completely changed my life. My health dramatically improved in the last 10 years. So, if you want to lose weight and keep it off, get Herbex,” she says in the ad. The ad claims that Herbex is “South Africa’s No.1 slimmers’ Brand”. Dr Harris Steinman, medical doctor and consumer activist, filed a complaint with ASA, saying there is no objective evidence that the product has any significant effect on weight-loss. He contended that the ad needed to indicate that the product has only been shown to be effective in a certain percentage of users; that significant weight-loss is unlikely; and that the product must be used in conjunction with calorie-restricted diet and exercise, or else it is most likely to have no effect at all. “No product has been shown to have any impact on long term weight-control, and in calorie-controlled diets, the majority of users not being able to sustain these diets,” according to Steinman. In its response, Herbex said it is not a member of the ASA. It didn’t respond to the merits in the complaint. ASA said it had no choice but to find that the efficacy claims in the commercial are unsubstantiated. SA's Code of Advertising states that ads can’t contain any claims to efficacy which cannot justifiably be attributed to the use of the product. The commercial was therefore found to be in contravention of the code, and ASA's members were instructed not to broadcast it. Herbex is a division of Newgroup, owned by Capetonian Eddie Bisset. Bisset also owns the hemp oil company Cannabex. Source: BusinessInsider

Sure thing, have at it! Keep it spam free and you'll be safe, I need to spend some time to actually moderate that wild west a little bit, some bots might have crept through.

Stunning website!

How to run the Logitech Wireless Keyboard Mouse on Ubuntu I’m running Ubuntu, I bought a new Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse and to my horror realized that Logitech does not create Linux compatible apps to configure their mouse and keyboards. First you need to install Solaar, it's a Linux device manager for Logitech’s Unifying Receiver peripherals. This will enable you to pair the keyboard and mouse with the Logitech Unifying receiver on Ubuntu, but you will not be able to configure the mouse with Solaar. You are going to need a couple of applications in order to configure all the buttons on a Logitech MK705 wireless mouse, to install them run the following command: sudo apt-get install xbindkeys xautomation x11-utils You need to find the button numbers for the buttons on your mouse. Run xev. You will see a litle white windows appear, put your mouse in it and press your mouse buttons (it's best to do this one button at a time). On the MK705 it’s button 9 (front) and button 8 (rear), you should get output like this for each button: ButtonRelease event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001, root 0x2a0, subw 0x3c00002, time 1275186, (43,43), root:(268,595), state 0x410, button 3, same_screen YES LeaveNotify event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001, root 0x2a0, subw 0x0, time 1275186, (43,43), root:(268,595), mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyInferior, same_screen YES, focus YES, state 16 Create the xbindkeys config file using: xbindkeys --defaults > $HOME/.xbindkeysrc Next you need to add the key/button bindings to the config file. You can open this file with nano $HOME/.xbindkeysrc This is for copying: "xte 'keydown Control_L' 'key c' 'keyup Control_L'" b:9 This is for pasting: "xte 'keydown Control_L' 'key v' 'keyup Control_L'" b:8 *b:9 means button 9 on the mouse (check button numbers with xev) Reboot I hope this helps others who want to use Logtech's devices on a Linux operating system.

LONDON (Reuters) - Cambridge Analytica, the UK political consultancy at the centre of Facebook’s election manipulation scandal, ran the campaigns of President Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2013 and 2017 Kenyan elections, according to video secretly recorded and broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 News on Monday. The company denied all allegations made by Channel 4 News regarding its business practices. The news channel said it mounted a “sting operation” in which it said had secretly recorded top Cambridge Analytica executives saying they could use bribes, former spies and Ukrainian sex workers to entrap politicians around the world. The New York Times and the British Observer newspaper reported on Saturday that Cambridge Analytica had acquired private data harvested from more than 50 million Facebook users to support Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign. Mark Turnbull, a managing director for Cambridge Analytica and sister company SCL Elections, told Channel 4’s undercover investigative reporting team that his firm secretly stage-managed Kenyatta’s hotly contested campaigns to run the East African nation. “We have rebranded the entire party twice, written the manifesto, done research, analysis, messaging. I think we wrote all the speeches and we staged the whole thing - so just about every element of this candidate,” Turnbull said of his firm’s work for Kenyatta’s political party, known as the National Alliance until 2016, and subsequently as the Jubilee Party. Kenyatta came to power in 2013 and won a second and final term last August, defeating opposition leader Raila Odinga by 1.4 million votes. The Supreme Court nullified the vote citing procedural irregularities and ordered a second election. Last September, former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the second election a “project” of Cambridge Analytica. The Jubilee Party has not commented. Odinga did not contest the repeat vote on Oct. 26, saying it would be unfair because the election commission had failed to implement reforms and Kenyatta won with 98 percent of the vote. At a prior meeting, Turnbull told the reporters: “Our job is to really drop the bucket further down the well than anybody else to understand what are these really deep-seated fears, concerns. “It is no good fighting an election campaign on the facts, because actually it is all about emotion.” Cambridge Analytica officials were recorded saying they have used a web of shell companies to disguise their activities in elections in Mexico, Malaysia and Brazil, among various countries where they have worked to sway election outcomes. Chief Executive Alexander Nix is recorded boasting: “We are not only the largest and most significant political consultancy in the world but we have the most established track record. We need to operate through different vehicles, in the shadows.” “I look forward to building a very long-term and secretive relationship with you,” he tells the reporters. Cambridge Analytica denied all allegations made by Channel 4 News regarding its business practices. The company said in statement it was humouring the undercover reporters and trying to gauge their motives by actively encouraging them, “to tease out any unethical or illegal intentions”. Channel 4 noted that their last meeting with Cambridge Analytica had taken place in January at a London hotel and that company employees had continued to email them seeking to strike a deal to work on a Sri Lankan campaign up until recently. Cambridge Analytica acknowledged in a statement that, its CEO had “misjudged the situation”. Nix said: “I must emphatically state that Cambridge Analytica does not condone or engage in entrapment, bribes or so-called ‘honeytraps’, and nor does it use untrue material for any purpose.” Reporting by Eric Auchard in London Source: Reuters