Rob Rose

Johannesburg

Contributor at Freelance

Journalist, author of Steinheist and The Grand Scam, Currency News, FT and former FM editor

Articles

FT: SA's new US envoy Mcebisi Jonas seeks to reset strained US-SA ties

1 week ago | biznews.com | Rob Rose |Monica Mark

Mcebisi Jonas named special envoy to mend US–South Africa relationsPast Trump criticisms resurface but Jonas says context has changedTrade tensions, aid cuts, and diplomacy key to Jonas’s US missionSign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.
Is ANC support below the DA? Well sort of, but not really …

1 week ago | currencynews.co.za | Rob Rose

Don’t tell the ANC, but it turns out there is a limit to South Africans’ patience. A number of new polls in recent weeks have presented some startling new figures which demand deeper interrogation. Most sensationally, a poll by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) put the DA’s support at 30.3% – above the 29.7% support for the ANC for the first time.
ANC, claiming it is not ‘anti-business’, mulls ditching VAT hike

1 week ago | currencynews.co.za | Rob Rose

Irritation was visible on the face of Fikile Mbalula, the secretary-general of the ANC, when asked about a desperate plea from the business sector not to implode the grand coalition government. In recent days, CEOs of the largest companies, including Investec’s Fani Titi, Discovery’s Adrian Gore, Anglo American’s Duncan Wanblad and Business Unity South Africa’s Busi Mavuso, had implored President Cyril Ramaphosa to “stay in the room; hold the line; keep building; compromise”.
Snooker star Graeme Dott is kicked out of World Championship qualifier after being charged with child sex abuse

2 weeks ago | thescottishsun.co.uk | Rob Rose |Rob Maul |Jonathan Rose

GRAEME DOTT has been officially booted out of qualifying for the World Snooker Championship. Scotland's 2006 world champion was suspended on Wednesday as he faced accusations of sexually abusing two children aged around ten. Dott, 47, is alleged to have attacked a girl between 1993 and 1996 in the Glasgow area. And prosecutors also claim snooker's world No.56 Dott abused a boy between 2006 and 2010.
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2 weeks ago | ft.com | Ciara Nugent |Christian Davies |Rob Rose |Peter Foster |Andy Bounds |Michael Pooler | +2 more

Nations prepare offers to Washington including weapons deals, dropping their own tariffs and moves against China
Mashaba’s budget coup rescues ANC, as the DA fumes

3 weeks ago | currencynews.co.za | Rob Rose |Vernon Wessels

Not many saw this coming. With just hours to go until parliament was due to meet and vote on finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s unpopular budget, which had proposed a VAT hike from 15% to 16% over the next two years, it seemed this was a mission impossible. The process over the past few weeks had, after all, been an “absolute clown show”, in the words of DA strategist Ryan Coetzee, ever since Godongwana first cancelled his budget presentation in parliament an aeon back on February 19.
Budget crisis: Two days to bust

3 weeks ago | currencynews.co.za | Rob Rose |Vernon Wessels

With just two days to go before the budget is debated in parliament, the deepening standoff between the ANC and DA means there is no agreement yet between the two largest parties in the grand coalition government. On Tuesday, parliament’s finance committee meets to debate the fiscal framework and on Wednesday, the full plenary session of parliament convenes – but the ANC has only 159 of the 200 votes needed to pass the budget.
New King code bets big on sustainability, despite Trump U-turn - Currency News

1 month ago | currencynews.co.za | Rob Rose

The draft of South Africa’s new governance code, King V, is now out of the oven with far reaching implications for governance and the climate – and not everyone is pleased. Ansie Ramalho, chair of the King committee, which drew up this draft, says there has already been criticism that the draft may be “out of step with international developments” when it comes to sustainability principles.
Expropriation at the heart of budget deadlock

1 month ago | currencynews.co.za | Rob Rose |Vernon Wessels

With just a week left to reach an agreement on South Africa’s most contested national budget yet, the ANC and the DA are deadlocked, with the Expropriation Act at the centre of the bust-up. This land reform legislation, signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January, was lauded by the ANC as a landmark victory.
Why Old Mutual is betting its South African future on banking - Currency News

1 month ago | currencynews.co.za | Rob Rose

Iain Williamson admits to some emotion delivering his final set of results at Old Mutual, a company he joined as an actuary 32 years ago. “It’s quite surreal to think at the next set of results, I won’t be here,” the company CEO says. “I’ve been trying to push my emotions to the backburner, because I’ve still got six months to go, but it’s quite a sentimental thing.”Handily for Williamson’s swansong, Old Mutual’s results weren’t half bad.