THE AFRICAN CENTURY - BRICS+ - SA at G20 - The Sahel - China's AI - SA Land Courts - SA v USA - Suicide? - Ukraine - SA Budget 2025 - SA Economy - Cheaper Food - Letter from South Africa [05-03-25]

He seeks wisdom makes his father rejoice, but he who keeps company with prostitutes squanders his wealth. By justice a king brings stability, he seeking bribes brings it to ruin. [Proverbs 29:3,4]

The Mercator Projection is a blatant distortion, probably designed by the British Empire, to make some countries appear larger than they really are. "The Mercator projection is a conformal cylindrical map projection first presented by Flemish geographer and mapmaker Gerardus Mercator in 1569. In the 18th century, it became the standard map projection for navigation due to its property of representing rhumb lines as straight lines. When applied to world maps, the Mercator projection inflates the size of lands the further they are from the equator. Therefore, landmasses such as UK, Greenland, Iceland, and Antarctica appear far larger than they actually are relative to landmasses nearer the equator. Wikipedia

It's all part of the grand illusion of which many have been captured in a web of disinformation over the centuries. Africa is the 2^nd largest continent in the world, but the Globalists would rather you not know this! The task of engineering growth and development on the African continent is extensive, complex, and multifaceted.

By focusing on the role of the informal economy, access to credit, industrialisation, business environment, and agricultural productivity on the continent, among other topics, it is clear that there is no replacement for long-term, evidence-based strategies to ensure that growth occurs at a sustainable level. Africa’s future is bright allowing for collaboration with global institutions such as Brookings.

For Africa to achieve transformative progress, solutions and policies must come from local sources. Since its launch 15 years ago, the Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) has established itself as the pre-eminent centre on African development policy from an African perspective.

BRICS+, THE GLOBAL SOUTH-LED FORUM FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION,

China continues to grow in influence, as its seeks to de-dollarise and transform the international monetary and financial system. After admitting four new members in 2024, BRICS+ officially welcomed nine new nations as partner countries on January 1, 2025. They are:

• Belarus

• Bolivia

• Cuba

• Indonesia

• Kazakhstan

• Malaysia

• Thailand

• Uganda

• Uzbekistan

With its nine members and nine partners, BRICS+ now accounts for roughly half of the global population and more than 41% of world GDP (PPP). The group is an economic powerhouse, including top producers of key commodities like oil, gas, grains, meat, and minerals.

At the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, 13 countries were invited to become BRICS partners, meaning they are on the path to full membership in the near future.

Nine of these 13 nations accepted the invitation. The remaining four did not give a formal response as of the end of 2024. These were Algeria, Nigeria, Turkey/Türkiye, Vietnam.

The Russian government, which in December announced the admission of the nine new partners, emphasised that “we expect that in the near future responses will come from the other four." Source

• BRICS expands with new partner countries. Now it’s almost half of the world population, 41% of global economy https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/12/25/brics-expands-9-partner-countries-population-economy/

G20: A WIN FOR SOUTH AFRICA; A WIN FOR AFRICA. South Africa’s Presidency of the G20 is a first for the African continent and provides a platform for the African continent’s voice to be better heard: https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/g20-win-south-africa-win-africa

South Africa’s time has arrived! That’s the sentiment that reverberated in Davos 2025, during the World Economic Forum (WEF), as the nation shared with global leaders the many advances over the last year. SONA 2025: Working together to accelerate development. THIS IS THE AFRICAN CENTURY. "As South Africans we cannot but gleam with pride as SA continues to punch above its weight in the league of nations and stun the world as happened in 1994, through a reconciliation process, and peaceful transition when many naysayers had counted the country out." Sources

• South Africa used the occasion to propel its G20 Presidency priorities into the international spotlight https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sona-2025-working-together-accelerate-development

• Could 'BricsPay' be the ANC’s US sanctions lifeline? The System enables ‘financial sovereignty’ as well as insulating bloc members from western sanctions

• According to the Deputy President, South Africa’s representative underscored the significance of the African Union’s new permanent membership in the G20, calling it a “transformational moment in global governance” https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/africa-aims-greater-influence-global-economic-policies-g20

THE SAHEL: EMERGING CENTRE OF GLOBAL ISLAM

The centre of world terrorist activity and violent death is no longer the Middle East. The "Sahel region of Africa is now the 'epicentre of global terrorism, "responsible for over half of all terrorism-related deaths" worldwide, according to the respected Global Terrorism Index. The sub-Saharan Sahel is largely unknown to much of the world. It can be described as a large, mostly flat, strip, nearly 600 miles wide, located between the savannahs of Sudan to the south and the Sahara desert to the north, and extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east.

During the last ten years, according to the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest defence and security think-tank headquartered in London, the Sahel has undergone a "significant surge in jihadist violence. Armed actors take advantage of porous borders, fragile states, and local grievances to extend their operational reach," Global Terrorism Index 2025, published by the Institute for Economics & Peace, reveals that the primary instigator of global terrorism during 2024 was the Islamic State (ISIS) and associated groups, such as al Qaeda, Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and al- Shabaab, together they are responsible for more than 7,500 deaths.

Although the West is experiencing escalating terrorism in countries such as Sweden, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland the Sahel region evidently remains the "global epicentre of terrorism, accounting for over half of all terrorism-related deaths in 2024." Conflict deaths exceeded 25,000 for the first time, of which nearly 4,000 were directly connected to terrorism.

Covertly obtained Russian documents reveal how the group strives to "change mining laws in West Africa, with the ambition of dislodging Western companies from an area of strategic importance." The upshot is accelerating anti-Western sentiment, resulting in the local states seeking to expel hitherto entrenched foreign interests. China and Russia are increasingly represented, while Western nations withdraw from Africa due to growing anti-Western attitudes. Specifically, the US base in Niger in August 2024, and France's base in Chad which closed in December 2024.

A February 20, 2024, report by Jack Watling, Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, explains that there "was a meeting in the Kremlin in which it was decided that Wagner's Africa operations would fall directly under the control of Russian military intelligence, the GRU." Russia's Wagner mercenary militia, although rebranded as an "Expeditionary Corps," continues its predatory activities in the area, offering "governments in Africa a 'regime survival package' in exchange for access to strategically important natural resources." Source

• Unlike the West, Russia is not particularly interested in countering terror groups such as ISIS but, instead, focuses on its core objectives concerning "critical resources" and replacing the "Western partnership" in the Sahel. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/sahel-emerging-center-global-islamism

CHINA CHALLENGED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) LAST MONTH AND MARKET DISRUPTION FOLLOWED! [Ed:The Chips have fallen - pun intended]

China's approach to business disparages America's business methods which focus on monopolies, leverage, and bullying; therefore South Africa's future should be by looking East. [Lightly edited extracts from my colleague, Ramin, at Pension Craft.] "A new Chinese AI model set the cat among the pigeons recently. DeepSeek's R1 matches the best OpenAI can offer, while dramatically cutting costs. Nvidia led a market sell-off as investors wondered who would buy all their chips.

DeepSeek: The AI Drama Is Just Beginning. Unless you've lived under a rock, you will have heard about the black swan shaking up markets. DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, released its open-source R1 model, which holds its own against the latest models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. What's more, R1 was developed using outdated chips at a fraction of the cost of other cutting-edge Large Language Models (LLM) It sounds like a seismic event but, unusually, Mr Market took its time to notice.

Coincidentally (or not!) DeepSeek released its R1 model during President Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2025. Everyone was distracted by the events in Washington because four trading days passed without a hint of panic. But once the market started to pay attention, the reaction was brutal. Suddenly, everybody was asking the same question: 'If we don't need a gazillion state-of-the-art chips to build competitive AI models, why are we giving all this money to Nvidia?'

I doubt the challenge from China, or the questions about the defensibility of the American AI industry, will go away yet. China built the world's second-biggest economy on its ability to make goods cheaper than its competitors. But it has long since moved beyond exploiting economies of scale and cheap labour to compete in high-end industries. Chinese electric cars are more affordable than American or European models, and in many respects, they are also better quality. Is the same about to happen to AI?

Generally, American tech companies aim to design differentiated products and services that can claim monopolies and sustain high margins. In contrast, China is happy to battle over marginal efficiency gains and cost savings. On the software side of the equation, the US fears that LLMs will become commodified, squeezing margins. This could be bad news for companies like OpenAI, which promote proprietary models and industry-leading leaps in intelligence. DeepSeek has already demonstrated how China can match performance while competing on cost, before putting their research into the public domain for others to build upon.

Although, perhaps it had a leg up? OpenAI believes that DeepSeek trained its model using "distillation," a nefarious process whereby knowledge is extracted from an existing AI model. Sucking all the info out of OpenAI's o1 model could be the most dastardly of all crimes: a violation of a website's terms of service (really?). OpenAI is complaining about intellectual property theft. Irony is dead, and Sam Altman sits in his glass house wondering whether he should lob a legal rock.

Where's the honour among thieves? Liang Wenfeng says: "In the face of disruptive technologies, moats created by closed source are temporary. Even OpenAI's closed source approach can't prevent others from catching up. So we anchor our value in our team, our colleagues grow through this process, accumulate know-how, and form an organisation and culture capable of innovation. That's our moat." — Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek CEO

STOP PRESS – [H/t B_MC at TBP:] CONVERSATIONS ON THE EXPROPRIATION ACT, PLUS THE LAND COURTS ACT - [H/t Robert Duigan]

A lot of people are quibbling over the Expropriation Act and what it may mean. But the situation is worse because it's not a standalone piece of legislation. The worst of these is the Land Courts Act, which has been passed and signed but not yet promulgated. At present, the Expropriation Act allows a large number of state entities (including the Land Affairs Ministry, run by the PAC) to seize land before a trial, and to calculate the value of the land against the value of any development the state intends to perform on that land.

Other criteria for expropriation include if the property "is being used for speculation purposes" but this is hard to define, and leaves a lot of leeway for the state to confiscate any property not directly owned by its residents. Most concerning is if the land is "unused" or "abandoned". This can include land which has been seized by squatters. The Ramaphosa administration has also passed an Act which prevents anyone from removing squatters or preventing entrance into their property by any means except a verbal warning, and forces them to resort exclusively to the police (who seldom respond in any reasonable time) to defend their property.

If the squatter sets up any form of structure (this can be as little as an outhouse-sized tin shack and a folding chair), they cannot be removed except by court order. The court can, and has in many instances, ruled that the occupiers have a right to remain until alternative housing has been provided by the state or the property owners, and in some cases, has expropriated property in order to transfer the land to the state or the residents for the purpose of township upgrades, rent-free housing, water and electricity reticulation. These strict squatters rights laws are defended by the PIE and ESTA Acts. [Ed: SA is not alone, UK has similar squatters rights and it's equally difficult to evict].

In the past, these expropriations had to be compensated. Now they don't. This is very similar to the methods used by Robert Mugabe to seize farms; they were simply seized and transferred after the fact. In many cases in South Africa, these land grabs include building hijackings, and on open land with ANC and EFF branch members and organised crime plotting out swathes of land from which they then extract rent. This is widespread, and lucrative.

However, thus far, the courts were available for removals, even if it is expensive, sluggish and often unsuccessful, but the court system still allows landowners to appeal expropriation under the new Act (after the land is already taken they will have 40 days to remove once they have received notice). This is why the Land Courts Act is so much more pernicious.

This Act of Parliament establishes a new court system explicitly for the streamlining of accelerated expropriation. It will be selected directly by the Presidency, and the JSC will act only in an advisory capacity. It will have equal jurisdiction to the High Courts, leaving only the Supreme Court of Appeal, and the Constitutional Court itself, as a means of appeal. The judges of this court will also be immune from all forms of prosecution or legal summons except for acts of domestic violence. Under Sec.13 (1) Proceedings under this Act may be instituted by:

• the Commission

• any person acting in their own interest

• any person acting on behalf of another person who cannot act in their own name

• any person acting as a member of, or in the interests of, a group or class of persons

• any person acting in the public interest

• any association acting in the interests of its members.

This opens the way for anyone to launch proceedings to expropriate any piece of land for any purpose, from an expropriating authority, to a historic land claimant, to just someone who wants something they covet. Witnesses and anyone who accompanies them to court are to be monetarily compensated. However, hearsay and documents without provenance, have the same weight as any official document: Under Sec.21:

• The Court may, in the case of claims under the Restitution of Land Rights Act admit evidence, including oral evidence, which it considers relevant and cogent to the matter being heard by it, whether or not such evidence would be admissible in any other court of law

• Without derogating from the generality of subsection (1), it is competent for any party before the Court to adduce: (a) hearsay evidence regarding the circumstances surrounding the dispossession of a land right or rights and the rules governing the allocation and occupation of land within a claimant community at the time of such dispossession; and (b) expert evidence regarding the historical and anthropological facts relevant to any particular land claim.

• The Court must give such weight to any evidence adduced in terms of subsections (1) and (2) as it deems appropriate.

• Whenever a judgment, order or other record of the Court is required to be proved or inspected or referred to in any manner, a copy of such judgment, order or other record duly certified as such by the registrar of the Court under its seal is prima facie evidence thereof without proof of the authenticity of such registrar's signature.

• Additionally, the Court will have the right to deny the submission of any evidence it wishes if it will speed up the process and reduce cost; this means it abolishes the right to a fair trial. The defences of this particular kind of court lie, however, in traditional "African ways of knowing", where oral history is regarded as equally valid to written state records. Whether the Constitutional Court system will adopt it is unknown but it strikes an enormous gamble to pretend that common sense and justice will prevail.

SA GOVERNMENT COULD TAKE LAND, BUILDINGS, AND OTHER ASSETS THROUGH THE EXPROPRIATION ACT

South Africa’s government confirmed that it could expropriate land, buildings, and other assets under the Expropriation Act. Even houses and businesses are not entirely safe. In January 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the controversial Expropriation Bill into law, which sets out how state organs can expropriate land in the public interest.

• The government claimed that the new bill aligns legislation on expropriation with Section 25 of the Constitution. This section recognises expropriation as an essential mechanism for the state to acquire someone’s property for a public purpose or in the public interest. The nil compensation clause received special attention. It mentions “It may be just and equitable for nil compensation to be paid where land is expropriated in the public interest,” the bill states. Source: Full details here at Businesstech.co.za

DOES SA NEED TO RE-THINK THE EXPROPRIATION ACT AND BEE? [Daily Investor • 1 April 2025]

South Africa’s relationship with the United States has reached a breaking point, driven by policy decisions that have sparked tensions on both domestic and international fronts.

Issues such as land expropriation, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), and the ICJ case against Israel have put South Africa at odds with Washington. These policies have caused South Africa to lose billions in aid and raised the risk of losing trade benefits and facing potential sanctions. Source

• These are the views of Joel Pollak, an influential South African-born American commentator and senior editor-at-large at Breitbart News, who in an interview with BusinessTech argued that the key to repairing relations is not diplomatic changes, but a fundamental policy shift https://dailyinvestor.com/south-africa/83572/south-africa-needs-to-seriously-rethink-expropriation-act-and-bee/?utm_source=everlytic&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=businesstech

SA’S SENIOR DELEGATION MEET US OFFICIALS TO ADDRESS EXPROPRIATION, EQUITY LAWS - April 2025 - The SA delegation met US government officials: Sophie Mokoena updates:

A delegation of senior officials, led by South Africa’s Group of 20 (G20) Sherpa and the Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Zane Dangor met with United States officials to clarify the country’s expropriation and equity laws.

During their visit, the department announced that the delegation had made progress in discussions that were initially started by former United States Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool. They engaged with their counterparts in Washington, including senior officials at the White House and the State Department, to address key bilateral priorities.

The department stated that the post-apartheid administration is constitutionally mandated to correct the injustices of the past. “These initiatives are consistent with the efforts to ensure that post-apartheid South Africa entrenches human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms, non-racialism, non-sexism and the supremacy of our constitution and the rule of law.” The officials also addressed the United Nations General Assembly to provide an update on South Africa’s G20 Presidency. The department said the General Assembly “overwhelmingly” endorsed the priorities and theme of the South African G20 Presidency. (SAnews.gov.za)

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – DID SHE REALLY COMMIT SUICIDE?

• Virginia Giuffre's dad claims 'no way' she took her own life in bombshell interview https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/2049374/Virginia-Giuffre-dad-suicide-piers-morgan-uncensored?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

BREAKING SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS: The DA faces a GNU conundrum: to Stay or Go? The Party’s departure from coalition opens the door to a ‘doomsday coalition’ (sic).

AS GLOBAL TENSIONS ESCALATE, UKRAINE IS CENTRAL TO WHERE THIS MIGHT GO

Following a brief meeting with Zelenskyy at the Vatican on April 26, 2025, US President Donald Trump suggested that Zelenskyy might be willing to cede Crimea to Russia to secure peace. “Oh, I think so,” Trump said when asked "He's calmer now and wants to make a deal," he told reporters in New Jersey: The Guardian. However, Zelenskyy has consistently rejected territorial concessions, warning that recognising Russian control over Crimea and other regions would face fierce opposition from Ukrainian nationalists and military factions like the Azov Battalion Newsweek.

Last Saturday, Trump questioned whether Putin wanted a peace deal after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican before Pope Francis' funeral and questioned whether to impose new sanctions on the country. On Trump's social media platform Truth Social, he said Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities "makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?' Too many people are dying!" Twelve people died in Kyiv last week after the largest wave of Russian missile strikes since July 2024.

• Putin Declares Temporary Ukraine Ceasefire

• Russia Launches Massive Ukraine Attacks After Trump Tells Putin To Stop

• Putin Says Kursk Taken Back, General Admits Deploying North Korean Troops

• Donald Trump Issues New Warning to Putin

"The minute you start doing that kind of stuff, you're walking away from it, you've now doomed yourself to another two years of war and we don't want to see it happen." Trump added: "There is no other country, there is no other institution or organisation on the Earth that can bring these two sides together, no one else is talking to both sides but us and no one else in the world can make something like this happen but the US president."

BUT - AFRICA IS NOT ALONE - USA HAS PROBLEMS TOO - which might be lessons for SA: In a compelling and highly charged interview, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Raiklin, widely known as the “Secretary of Retribution,” outlined his strategy for realigning the United States government with its constitutional foundations. With a bold, systematic approach to restructuring critical federal institutions.

Raiklin asserts that implementing strict adherence to constitutional processes is paramount for restoring faith in the American government. Through his unique and uncompromising vision, he advocates a radical reshaping of federal leadership and practices. He calls for a new, unprecedented coalition of conservative leadership and accountability across state and local levels to enact sweeping change. Where does the SA GNU go now?

Source:

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Ivan Raiklin’s Vision for America: A Blueprint for Retribution and Constitutional Restoration

STOP PRESS - BUDGET TO BE RE-TABLED ON 21 MAY 2025:

The Minister described the ensuing debate following the announcement of the budget tabled on 12 March 2025 as “rigorous, as is right in a healthy democracy”. “Today, there’s a clarity [that] VAT will remain at 15%. This decision was shaped not only by political debates but importantly, by the voices of South Africans.

“When people speak, we must also listen, and I’m encouraged by the passion shown. It reflects the seriousness with which we approach the hard choices needed to place our finances on a sustainable path, protect the vulnerable and accelerate growth,” he said. Source: https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/budget-be-re-tabled-21-may-2025

THE QUESTION OF AFRICAN ‘SELF-SUFFCIENCY SURVIVAL’ BECOMES PARAMOUNT IN THE GLOBAL TURMOIL

A former South African state security boss has warned that the mix of the country’s high unemployment rate and poor governance could lead to social unrest similar to that experienced during the July riots in 2021. The former head of the State Security Agency (SSA), Thulani Dlomo, issued this warning at a seminar on the country’s political and economic climate in Durban on Thursday, April 24. The State Security Agency (SSA) in South Africa is the primary civilian intelligence agency, responsible for collecting, analysing, and disseminating intelligence related to national security.

US foreign assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa totalled $6.5bn in the past financial year covering, among other things, some of the most successful public health initiatives in history. The Trump administration’s decision to suspend foreign assistance programmes and gut the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will have ramifications for millions of lives, erode the US’s soft power on the continent, and decades of trust and goodwill having been built.

One of the programmes the US has suspended is the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), which is credited with saving more than 25 million lives in the region over two decades. In SA, Pepfar funding represents nearly 20% of the country’s annual HIV/Aids programme budget. This should raise concerns across the continent about the potential for reversing progress in tackling the Aids epidemic. Funding from Pepfar targets areas in SA that are heavily burdened by the HIV/Aids epidemic. (Source)

BUT NOW - GEOPOLITICS HAVE INTERVENED - INDIA v PAKISTAN - A Nuclear Powderkeg?

New Delhi's regional rivalry with Beijing and the proximity of all three nations make the shared border the "world's only three-way nuclear junction," reported The Week. With China's support of Pakistan and the US's backing of India, any Indian-Pakistani conflict that starts as a bilateral engagement is "unlikely to stay strictly between them, as their strategic partners are likely to get involved."

HOWEVER - IN SA THE ECONOMY IS CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE

South Africa’s crucial employment sectors of mining, construction, and manufacturing continue to languish. These sectors are vital for employment in South Africa, as they are labour-intensive and can relatively easily absorb low-skilled workers, who make up the majority of the country’s unemployed population. Lings said the performance of these sectors, particularly construction, was dismal considering the need for economic growth and employment.

The South African construction sector has declined in each of the past eight years, contracting by a total of 34% in that period. This is likely to have translated into thousands of South Africans losing out on employment opportunities in this sector. Sources

• Collapse of one of South Africa’s biggest employers https://dailyinvestor.com/south-africa/85977/collapse-of-one-of-south-africas-biggest-employers/?utm_source=everlytic&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=businesstech

• Government has sent its appreciation and well wishes to all workers as South Africa marks International Workers’ Day on 1 May 2025 https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sa-marks-workers-day

SURVIVAL MONITOR – SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD STORE PROMISES 43% CHEAPER PRICES THAN PICK 'N PAY AND CHECKERS!

Best-before.co.za, a retailer specialising in discounted short-dated and past-best-before goods, promises savings of between 28% and 43% compared to traditional retailers. 'Best Before' was founded by Mark Gordon and Alain Soriano in 2017. It sells short-dated and past-dated food and personal care products. Although these products are past their best-before date, they are safe to use as they remain within their use-by date. The company buys large quantities of products around their best-before date, which it gets at great discounts. These discounts are then passed on to consumer

The products on Best Before’s shelves come from trusted and reputable suppliers, including Cadbury, Toblerone, Cook n Bake, and All Gold. It also stocks products from popular brands like Clover, Bakers, Halls, Game, Black Cat, Craft, Nescafe, Pepsi, and Anat. Best Before recently introduced a selection of unique imports. These new offerings include brands such as Mountain Dew, Côte d’Or, Hershey’s, Bokomo, Willards, Koo, and Labello.

[Ed: we have Chinese-owned stores in Fish Hoek who source their products directly from China offering amazing price discounts - worth a visit]

The retailer said it has stringent quality control measures to ensure the products are safe and offers a refund for products that do not meet customer satisfaction. Gordon and Soriano’s first Best Before store in Wendywood, Sandton, was so successful that they opened numerous new outlets. The retailer now has stores in Joburg: Boksburg, Edenvale, Fourways, Northcliff, Krugersdorp, and the Atterbury Lifestyle Centre in Pretoria.

It's online and stores are not available in Cape Town - yet, but their plans to expand across SA are in place. I believe this successful business model could be exported to UK, where consumers are suffering their budget restrictions as much, if not more than South Africans, because they have massive energy costs associated with keeping warm for nine months of the year! [Ed: I have always said UK is a crazy place to live on the edge of the Arctic Circle]

Read in full HERE.

INFLATION - The average SA worker is spending more than 57% of their monthly earnings on transport and electricity while underspending on food

The latest Household Affordability Index report compiled by Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD) paints a grim picture of how low-income earners are unable to feed their families with nutritious food. The index, which tracks the prices of 44 basic foods from 47 supermarkets and 32 butcheries in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Mtubatuba in northern KwaZulu-Natal, and Springbok in the Northern Cape, shows in January the average cost of the Household food basket stood at R5,433, a 2% increase from R5,324 a year ago. Food is bought after transport and power costs have been paid, leaving R2,051,11 a month for food and everything else.

NARRATIVE BATTLE – THE PEOPLE VERSUS THE STATE (ANY STATE)

FINALLY - MARK CARNEY?

COMING NEXT:

• BOOM's Weekly Global Review Sunday, May 4, 2025 - (Now on Substack see below)

• The Financial Jigsaw Part 2 (45) - CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY - Saturday, May 10, 2025 (Paywall lifted)

REFERENCES

• My Book: “The Financial Jigsaw” Parts 1 & 2 Scroll: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358117070_THE_FINANCIAL_JIGSAW_-_PART_1_-_4th_Edition_2020 including regular updates.

• BOOM Finance and Economics Substack (Subscribe for Free) - also on LinkedIn and WordPress. Plus Covid Medical News Network CMN News and BOOM Blog -- All Editorials (over 5 years) -- BOOM Finance and Economics | Designed for Critical Thinkers — UPDATED WEEKLY (wordpress.com)