Jabulani Sikhakhane

1 month ago | businesslive.co.za | Jabulani Sikhakhane

It’s a fair belief that children have since time immemorial behaved like hot mics — microphones that are left turned on and therefore broadcast what are meant to be private conversations. Kids have always picked up talk by their elders and broadcast it, especially to the very person the gossip was about. This is best documented in Dennis the Menace, the boy in the American (not British) cartoon, whose “hot mic” antics have kept people around the world amused since the early 1950s. ..

1 month ago | businesslive.co.za | Jabulani Sikhakhane

On the surface, the proposal that the government should take a partial or full holiday from making payments to the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) looks brilliant. But like all things that look good on the surface, it comes with risks. At the time of writing it wasn’t clear whether finance minister Enoch Godongwana will go along with the pension fund contribution holiday, a proposal that may suit him but could imperil the GEPF.

1 month ago | businesslive.co.za | Jabulani Sikhakhane

A slice of my life’s story serves as a useful caution for those punting the introduction of a wealth tax as the immediate solution to SA’s budget and inequality problems. The caution comes in two packages — the risk to the country’s already thin tax base, and the care that needs to go into designing such a tax, whose implementation is so complex and may yet deliver little in additional revenue.

2 months ago | businesslive.co.za | Jabulani Sikhakhane

Two recent reports — one by the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and the other by the IMF — lay bare how dire the state of SA’s socioeconomic environment will be over the next five to 10 years. The Southern Centre points to two worrying trajectories of government finances. First is the continued shrinking size of the state as a percentage of GDP over the next decade.

2 months ago | businesslive.co.za | Jabulani Sikhakhane

If you are in the habit of poking bears you should at the very least think things through, especially when the kind of bears you go for are prone to serious toothache. SA’s decision to go for Israel over its bombing of Gaza is one such act of poking bears. This column is not about the correctness or otherwise of the decision, but whether the SA government thought through its decision.