2022 has offered more than its fair share of challenges for small and medium businesses (SMBs), including frequent load-shedding, a volatile exchange rate, rising inflation and interest rates, and ongoing supply chain disruption. These difficult trading conditions highlight the harsh economic environment, a beyond-resilient South African SMB market, and the importance of a disciplined approach…
Tax systems are complex and have historically tended to change slowly. However, in the wake of rapid digitisation, global geopolitical instability, financial crashes, and then the COVID-19 pandemic, the pace of change in business, and thus in entire financial systems, including taxation, has increased too. In the five years since my company was founded, we’ve…
While most central banks across the globe are exploring the issuance of a CBDC, the key motivations for its issuance are specific to each country’s unique requirements. Currently 105 countries, representing over 95% of global GDP, are exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC). A CBDC is a digital form of central bank money that…
Considering what the global economy has been through the previous few years, expert advice is necessary for individual financial growth and also within the venture capital market space. Accountancy SA spoke to some of our members within the investment space about their advice and tips for 2023. Venture capital ecosystem predictions for 2023 By Kabelo…
South Africa is suffering from a silent pandemic, a mental health crisis that seems to get worse every year. A 2017 study found that South Africa’s mental health crisis is costing the country around R232 billion a year due to lost productivity from employee absenteeism caused by stress, anxiety and depression. The equation is simple:…
We are all only too aware of the dire state of South Africa’s state-owned power provider – Eskom. We now live in a state of permanent load-shedding, only the stages of load-shedding alternate depending on the time of day, energy consumption and how much or how little power is available on the grid at any…
Bhavna Gounder has excelled in her career in the banking sector. She speaks about her career, which has flourished since she qualified as a CA(SA) in the mid-2000s, her passion for female empowerment, motherhood − and that she’s just recently published a book she co-authored with her daughter about nut allergies. Bhavna Gounder started her…
Once named the youngest person to complete a PhD in IT, Dr Denisha Jairam-Owthar is on a mission to digitally transform Stellenbosch University It is widely known that CAs(SA) can enter almost any industry or area of business. Dr Denisha Jairam-Owthar, chief director of information technology at Stellenbosch University, is a prime example of how…
Jeff van Rooyen is a natural born storyteller. His memoir Unshackled begins with his roots in the Johannesburg townships of Alexandra, Newclare and then Riverlea Extension, between the 1950s and 1960s. The opening is candid and hard-hitting: ‘Life in a South African township is often synonymous with violence, crime and poverty,’ he writes. ‘Many children…
Since 1929, the S&P 500 has been through 26 bear markets. Stocks lose on average 36%. The worst bear market resulted in a loss of 86% over three years in 1929. In contrast, bull markets increased on average by 114%. Bears and bulls Bear markets are generally defined as a drop in the markets by…