Peter Bruce

Johannesburg

Columnist/Fumbling podcaster https://t.co/m0mK76wwsX Fmr Editor, Business Day & Financial Mail, Joburg. Ex Madrid, Bonn Corr & UK News Editor, Financial Times.

Articles

Nice words ‘inclusive growth’, but where’s the growth?

6 days ago | theherald.co.za | Peter Bruce

Premium No-one does race wars quite like South Africans. If you follow almost any media you’ll know that the introduction into law of the Employment Equity Amendment Act has us at each other’s throats again. The DA is taking the employment & labour minister to court to challenge new powers to impose racial quotas in the staff structures at all companies employing more than 50 people.
Some progress on the Trump front

1 week ago | timeslive.co.za | Peter Bruce

Some progress on the Trump front But what to offer Potus when we see him? 04 May 2025 - 00:00 Hardly had I finished reading a column the other day about how cellphone group MTN’s big business in Iran might make it impossible for its chair, Mcebisi Jonas, to act as a special emissary to the US to fix the ragged relations between Pretoria and Washington, than news dropped that Jonas had, in fact, already been on the phone to Donald Trump, the capricious US president...
When Cyril fell in love with Songezo

2 weeks ago | timeslive.co.za | Peter Bruce

When Cyril fell in love with Songezo The DA, Zibi charged, had tried to ‘extort’ the finance minister with demands about services in the Western Cape as the price of its support for a VAT increase 27 April 2025 - 00:00 ..
Better to build with steel than make it

3 weeks ago | theherald.co.za | Peter Bruce

Premium The left-wingers who control SA industrial policy are, I hear, celebrating that the British government has stepped in to prevent the UK’s last blast furnaces from closure and may even nationalise the last British Steel integrated steel plant at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire. British Steel was privatised long ago, its final owners a Chinese group that “saved” Scunthorpe in 2020.
What about a G20 trade war summit, Cyril?

1 month ago | timeslive.co.za | Peter Bruce

What about a G20 trade war summit, Cyril? Ramaphosa has the clout to convene a special G20 summit in South Africa to talk about what is happening to the world and what might be done about it 13 April 2025 - 00:00 It is fortunate for South Africa that US President Donald Trump has the attention span of a goldfish.
PODCAST | What Business Wants from GNU

1 month ago | timeslive.co.za | Peter Bruce

Business for South Africa chair Martin Kingston tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge that business would prefer the current Government of National Unity to stick together despite the current crisis over the DA’s decision not to support the budget. Business is deeply involved in Operation Vulindlela, the reform process inside the presidency but, says Kingston, they’re not going to interfere in the politics. “It’s much better in our view to stay the course,” he says.
Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen are both VAT war casualties

1 month ago | timeslive.co.za | Peter Bruce

US President Donald Trump’s monstrous, thumb-sucked ChatGPT import tariffs against the rest of the world (excluding Russia), including a wild 30% imposed on South Africa, coincide chillingly with President Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly arranging the departure of the DA from the government of national unity (GNU). If he goes ahead and reshuffles his vast cabinet, he’ll end up with a 10-party coalition with a majority of just two. ..
Justifying exclusivity in the name of inclusivity – our modern Greek tragedy (Part 2)

1 month ago | dailymaverick.co.za | Jeff Rudin |Peter Bruce

Jeff Rudin works at the Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC) Being part of a political economy notorious for its world-beating inequality and in a country where Africans are 80% of the population, guarantees that most Africans will be poor. This is Part 2 in a two-part series. Read Part 1 here.
ANC industrial policy a case study in wilful obstinacy

1 month ago | theherald.co.za | Peter Bruce

Premium With its eyes wide shut, the ANC government has launched SA down a path of industrial peril from which it could take decades to escape, if it ever can.
Time for Steenhuisen to squeeze seriously hard

2 months ago | theherald.co.za | Peter Bruce

Premium It takes a rare degree of chutzpah, just a week away from a budget made more critical by delays over tax proposals, to greet the announcement of truly anaemic 0.6% fourth quarter 2024 GDP growth as “indicative of economic expansion... aligned to our priorities by pursuing a developmental economic framework, tackling the high cost of living in line with our economic transformation agenda.” You’ll want to read that again, but trust me, don’t bother.