Spreadsheet Ranger

Simon Brown is always a good speaker to listen to. Don't always agree with him, but of the financial lot his reasoning and insights are unmatched. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Was it just me or did Cyril look absolutely beaten and drained. I often wonder what goes on behind closed doors and if there are consequences for him sacking certain individuals. As for that disgrace of a Bathabile Dlamini I hope they dissolve that entire portfolio. I still feel we have about 12 ministers too many so I hope this is round one and that Cyril will be reducing the size of the cabinet going forward. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Hello @bredd We use Sendy + Amazon SES to deliver our emails. To clean our email lists we use https://neverbounce.com/ Basically, you upload your list and neverbounce will clean it for you, it works out to about $0.005 (R0.06) per email. It is the best service we could find online.

The National Budget speech for the 2018/19 financial year will be delivered on Wednesday, 21 February 2018. As things stand, it is Malusi Gigaba who will deliver the speech, although, rumors of a cabinet reshuffle are afoot. One of the biggest things to look out for in this year’s budget is how free higher education for poor and working-class students will be funded. Three other big changes to look out for in the 2018 National Budget speech: VAT increase (widely touted to be announced, the first time since 1993). An increase in Capital Gains Tax and personal income tax rates for upper-income earners are expected. Fuel levy hike and carbon tax Other experts have suggested things like a luxury tax on “unusually expensive cars” In terms of income tax increases, an increase from 41% to 43% for everybody earning more than R700,000 a year, and an increase from 45% to 48% for those earning more than R1.5m has been touted by some analysts. We will post a link to the live stream of the Budget speed when it happens.

Johannesburg - The National Director of Public Prosecutions has declared Ajay Gupta, one of the three Gupta brothers accused of corrupt links to ousted president Jacob Zuma, a "fugitive from justice" on Thursday after he failed to hand himself in to police. "I've been advised by my prosecuting team that Mr. Ajay Gupta is a fugitive from justice," NPA boss Shaun Abrahams told Reuters. He did not provide further details. Ajay had been expected to hand himself over to the Hawks after a raid on the Gupta compound on Wednesday in which three people, including a Gupta family member, were arrested. On the same day the Hawks made five other arrests related to the Estina dairy farm project through which the Gupta family allegedly syphoned around R30 million which was meant to aid emerging black farmers into their own coffers. A number of Free State agriculture officials have also ben implicated in the scandal. Source: iol

SABC live stream of Zuma addressing the nation is here #Zuma #ZumaResigns [video=youtube]

The ANC leadership has not been able to provide reasons for recalling Jacob Zuma as head of state, the president said on Wednesday. Full Interview with Zuma [video=youtube] Zuma said that the ANC top six could not provide him with reasons for asking him to resign when they visited him at his Pretoria house on Sunday. "I asked ... what was the problem? Why must I be persuaded to resign? Have I done anything wrong? And of course the officials couldn't provide what I have done," said Zuma. "I need to be furnished on what I have done. Unfortunately no one has been able to provide me with what I have done wrong." "Have I done something wrong? And if so, what is it that I've done? Nobody can give me an answer..." Zuma said he did not think ANC leaders who kept speaking of two centres of power knew what they were talking about. He said that they had told him there was a new mood in the country and that it had to be maintained in order for the country to move forward – to which Zuma asked if that would not be possible with him as the president. "Once that motivation is made, that becomes even more important to hear. Have I done something wrong? Because that suggests if I'm not there, the situation would be perhaps different. What is it that I have done?" said Zuma. He then told the top six that the matter they were raising had been raised before, including in meetings of the ANC's national executive committee. "The only difference is that now some of the people who were part of those who raising the issue, they are now in the leadership. They are now therefore having authority perhaps to say this matter must still continue." Source: Sowetan Live

The raids that have targeted properties owned by the Gupta family on Wednesday are related to an investigation by the Hawks into the controversial Vrede dairy farm project. What was this project? Here is the back story. The project established a dairy farm in Vrede‚ in the Free State‚ in partnership with Gupta-linked company Estina. It was adopted by the provincial government without a tender. TimesLIVE revealed last month that Estina had only R9‚000 in its bank account before the first payment of R34-million was deposited by the Free State department of agriculture. Court papers filed by the National Prosecuting Authority's Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) indicated that the project was allegedly a looting ground for the Gupta family and their associates. Altogether‚ R220-million was poured into the project‚ with only about R2 million being spent on the farm. There was little benefit derived by members of the local community. The AFU court papers alleged that R220-million had been paid into three bank accounts controlled by Estina over a 29-month period between April 2013 and May 2016. Estina then allegedly transferred the money to various individuals‚ including R10 million to Atul Gupta. Some of the companies were linked to the Gupta family and money was also paid to the Bank of Baroda. Leaked Gupta family emails revealed that President Jacob Zuma's son‚ Duduzane‚ has or had interests in some of the businesses that allegedly benefitted. The back story was further fleshed out in an article by the Sunday Times in January‚ which suggested the Gupta brothers and Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane would soon be charged in what would become the country’s first state capture case to be prosecuted. Zwane was the MEC for agriculture and rural development in the Free State at the time of the Estina scheme. Some of the dairy project money was allegedly used to pay for an extravagant Gupta family wedding at Sun City in 2013‚ to acquire a private jet and purchase a fleet of luxury cars. Tens of millions allegedly flowed to a shelf company in Dubai. Other cash was diverted through a bank account in Dubai and rerouted back to South Africa. The Sunday Times reported that South African law enforcement authorities had obtained co-operation agreements from the Indian‚ British and United Arab Emirates governments to assist with the investigation when required by Pretoria. People named in the report about the dairy project investigation were: Zwane‚ Atul Gupta‚ Rajesh Gupta‚ Ajay Gupta‚ the former CEO of Gupta-owned Oakbay Nazeem Howa‚ Sahara Computers CEO Ashu Chawla‚ Oakbay CEO Ronica Ragavan‚ relative Varun Gupta and Kamal Vasram‚ the sole director of Estina. “We have surrounded the Guptas and they have nowhere to go. They have been kept under watch by our counterparts everywhere and we have made good progress on tracing the monies that went out of South Africa‚” a senior police official with intimate knowledge of the investigations told the Sunday Times. Source: Times Lives

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has a responsibility to promote a sound and effectively regulated financial system. The SARB therefore takes a balanced approach to technological innovations, considering the potential benefits and risks of each innovation. It is against this background that the SARB recently established the Financial Technology (FinTech) Programme to strategically assess the emergence of FinTech in a structured and organised manner, and to consider its regulatory implications. The main goal of the programme is to track and analyse FinTech developments and to assist policymakers in formulating frameworks in response to these emerging innovations. The FinTech Programme will focus on three primary objectives: The first objective is to review the SARB’s position on private cryptocurrencies to inform an appropriate policy framework and regulatory regime. This review will address regulatory issues such as clearing and settlement risks, exchange control impacts, monetary policy and financial stability, and other matters such as cybersecurity considerations. Through collaboration with the other regulatory bodies, matters such as tax implications, consumer and investor protection, and money laundering activities will also be addressed. The SARB expects to complete the review in the second half of 2018. The second objective is to investigate and decide on the applicability of innovation facilitators for the SARB. ‘Innovation facilitators’ is a collective term for innovation hubs, regulatory sandboxes and accelerators. The SARB hopes to have concluded its assessment of the appropriateness of innovation facilitators by the third quarter of 2018. Clear and transparent eligibility and participation criteria will be developed to assist in the consideration of applicants into a regulatory sandbox. The third objective is to launch Project Khokha which will experiment with distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). The aim of this project is to gain a practical understanding of DLTs through the development of a proof of concept (POC) in collaboration with the banking industry. The objective of the POC is to replicate interbank clearing and settlement on a DLT which will allow the SARB and industry to jointly assess the potential benefits and risks of DLTs. The POC involves the processing of wholesale payments using Quorum, an Ethereum enterprise DLT. The SARB is aware of multiple DLTs being experimented with globally. ConsenSys (a world-leading expert on Quorum) is the technology partner that will assist the SARB in the design, setup of infrastructure and running of the POC. This does not imply a radical move to DLT for the country’s national payments infrastructure, but rather a structured approach to understand the implication of using a tokenized asset on DLT technology to transfer value. A public report will be released to explain all the findings, risks and benefits of the associated project during the second quarter of 2018. These initiatives aim to assist in the formulation of appropriate policy frameworks for the possible regulation of FinTech. Editors’ notes The SARB describes FinTech as technologies applied to financial services with the potential to disrupt current business models, applications, processes or products. In order to evaluate the regulatory implications of these innovations, a framework is used to assess the impact of these developments in terms of the underlying economic function or activity performed (e.g. deposit-taking, payments, lending, and investments) as opposed to the specific entity or technology being used. Source: PDF

ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe says if President Jacob Zuma does not resign the party will let him face a no-confidence vote in Parliament on his own. Mantashe was speaking at a mini-rally of the ANC’s 106th birthday celebrations at the Msobomvu Community Hall in Butterworth on Tuesday. “We said he must resign on his own because he is a member of the ANC and we respect him and he is not an enemy of the organisation. But when he refused to resign we decided to apply a rule in the ANC constitution that says the organisation has the authority to deploy you and to recall you,” he said. Mantashe said recalling Zuma was a political decision. “We are not fighting with Zuma. All we are saying is that, as an organisation, we deployed him and we are simply recalling him. That is what we are doing,” he said. The national chairperson intimated that Zuma was ill-disciplined in that he failed to do the simple task of resigning as instructed by his party. “If you are not disciplined you will defy the decision to recall you and not accept it. Once you resist the decision to recall you by refusing to do [resign], we are going to let you face a vote of no confidence because you don’t respect the organisation and abide by its decisions. “If you refuse to resign we will let you be eaten by the vultures in the vote of no confidence. So I hope that the man I respect called Mr Zuma will do the right thing and resign with dignity. If he does not he will have to face the vultures on his own in Parliament. We don’t want him to be embarrassed in Parliament,” Mantashe said. He said secretary-general Ace Magashule and his deputy Jessie Duarte had today given Zuma a letter communicating the ANC national executive committee’s decision to recall him. Mantashe went on to compare Zuma’s response to that of former President Thabo Mbeki’s when he was recalled by the ruling party. He said Mbeki never resisted the decision, showing that he was a disciplined member of the ANC. “Mbeki never gave us any problem when we recalled him. He wrote a letter on the same day accepting the decision of the ANC. That resulted in Mbeki earning the respect of ANC structures. Today everybody listens when Thabo speaks, because he was recalled by his organisation and wrote an acceptance letter that day and cleaned up his desk and went home. He never refused to resign. Those are the lessons we must learn” Mantashe said. Source: City Press

Taste holdings, the worst stock I have ever owned. SENS Announcement: Carlo Gonzaga, the CEO of Taste Holdings, has resigned from the fast food specialist and will be succeeded by non-executive director Tyrone Moodley from February 12. Link to sens

Point taken. This will definitely require a more active approach.

I read/was told about the dollar weakening and will probably continue under Trump and the person suggested that normally when the dollar weakens commodities and commodity-linked currencies tend to pick up.

Cape Town - It is unclear for how much longer the drought in Cape Town and surrounding areas is going to last, but history shows that dry spells in the city have persisted for as long as 15 years, says Hannes Rautenbach, the chief scientist for climate change and variability at the SA Weather Service. The weather records, which stretch back to 1921, show that Cape Town and surrounds experienced a dry spell of below normal rainfall from 1924 to 1939, he added. The last time Cape Town experienced three consecutive years of below-normal rainfall was from 1971 to 1973. In 2015, 549 millimeters of rain was recorded, making it the second-driest year since 1921; in 2016, the region received 634mm of rain, making it the 14th-driest year since 1921; and there were 499mm last year – the driest year since 1921. This compares with average annual rainfall of 820mm since 1921. “Two of the driest years recorded since 1921 have occurred in the past three years, which makes the Cape Town drought exceptional,” Rautenbach said. He said there wasn’t a clear explanation for why Cape Town had seen below normal rainfall for three years in a row. “In winter, Cape Town gets rains because cold air from the Arctic comes up from the south. This rainfall is not easy to predict.”

What stocks should one be buying to take advantage if there is a commodity boom in 2018. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

He has dirt on all of them, Zuma is street smart.

The Foreigner 7/10 I've always been a major fan of Jackie Chan, especially his more serious work like the Police Story. I had the idea that this movie should be of that caliber, it was to a certain degree but lacked a bit. At times it felt that he was more playing a supporting role despite being the center of the plot, I would have liked if they involved him a little more. Pierce Brosnan knock this out of the park, very dynamic actor and being a big 007 fan especially the Pierce Brosnan era. This was incredible to watch, you could see some fear and tough emotions. He nailed the Irish accent and mannerism a very dynamic actor indeed. Most people only know Jackie Chan in the comedy roles, the foreigner highlights the ability of Jackie Chan being a true actor, expanding into different roles being polar opposites of each other.

Looking forward! The previous reports were quite good.

What are the demands?

Sources have told EWN that if Jacob Zuma refuses to go even after a decision is made, MPs will be instructed to vote in support of a motion of no confidence. Sources have told Eyewitness News that President Jacob Zuma will be recalled on Wednesday night if he doesn't resign before then and that his removal will be put to a vote at the national executive committee (NEC) meeting. They say if he refuses to go even after a decision is made, Members of Parliament will be instructed to vote in support of a motion of no confidence. Despite this, the African National Congress (ANC) has already indicated that it does not want things to get to that level, as the party wouldn't want to embarrass the president. The party says its chief whip also motivated for the postponement of the State of the Nation Address (Sona). It says it will continue with its scheduled special NEC meeting on Wednesday, where the highest decision-making body will reflect on the postponement and provide direction to how it will assist efforts to create a conducive political environment. The party's spokesperson Pule Mabe said: “It sorts of appreciates some of the things that are happening and then seeking to make sure that you deal with things in a much more favourable environment.” The ANC said earlier that while it doesn't know what will be decided regarding President Zuma's future at the NEC meeting, it's already discussed the logistics of what should happen if he is removed. ANC Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte said: “Yes the logistics were discussed. In my own experience, I have not met a deployee who has said ‘I refuse’.” Duarte says a motion of no confidence is not desirable as the party would embarrass the president. “Under any circumstances. Our most important consideration is that we do not believe that South Africa should wish for us to embarrass the president of the republic.” She says the party has considered implications of whatever decision the NEC may take regarding the president. “Have we considered impactions? Yes, we have, clearly so. We’ve considered all the implications. Whether these implications are based on the support base of any individual in the ANC or the support base of the ANC itself. They impact on our ability to guide and steer the country further in terms of our own desires to have a country where inequality is undermined.” Source: EWN

Is it worth buying? What sets this one aside from property (dividend) ETFs and the Satrix Divi?

I would also suggest you look at GT247 and Sanlam Itrader

Same here, I am keeping it, was lucky to buy at sub 50 cents. Avg. Purchase Price R 0.46

It's up so I am happy! I really hope we can see R8 this year, it would be fantastic.

African Phoenix Investments Integrated Annual Report for the year ended 30 September 2017. Download PDF