Climate Change and Insurance: Driving Sustainability, Resilience, and Industry Action
Zimbabwe’s 2023/24 drought destroyed more than half the harvest. USD 32 million of insurance money arrived, almost none of it from Zimbabwe’s own insurance industry. A keynote to the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe on why climate risk is already sitting in insurers’ numbers.
The Space Between a Full CFO and No CFO
The Space Between a Full CFO and No CFO The market for senior finance support has become more nuanced than it used to be. There was a time when the choice was simple. Either you hired a full-time Chief Financial Officer, or you didn’t. If you didn’t, you managed with a financial manager, and either […]
Why I Wrote a Book (and What I Learned by Writing It)
Why I Wrote a Book (and What I Learned by Writing It) The strategic value of writing is what you discover after you’ve written. In January 2025, I made a small, deliberate decision: I would post something on LinkedIn every day. That was the whole plan. No thesis about building a platform, no content strategy, […]
The Quiet Habits Behind World-Class
The Quiet Habits Behind World-Class This past weekend, Max Verstappen made his debut at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, the world’s toughest endurance race. He drove a Mercedes-AMG GT3 alongside three professional endurance racers, in a discipline he had only started competing in eight months earlier. Verstappen Racing led the race for much of the night […]
When National Pride Becomes Premium: The Cost of Supporting the Springboks
When National Pride Becomes Premium: The Cost of Supporting the Springboks For the first time in years, the All Blacks are touring South Africa in a full, multi-match series. It is being positioned as rugby’s greatest rivalry: a moment that should, in theory, bring the country together. It is precisely the kind of occasion that […]
Interest Rates Didn’t Change. Your Cost of Living Will.
Interest Rates Didn’t Change. Your Cost of Living Will. The Reserve Bank kept interest rates unchanged this week, which wasn’t a surprise. Most economists expected it, the market had priced it in, and if you follow the logic of inflation targeting, the decision makes sense. We’re dealing with a supply shock driven by higher oil […]
Why the Work-From-Home Debate Misses the Point
Why the Work-From-Home Debate Misses the Point Over the past few years, the debate around work-from-home has swung like a pendulum. One moment, remote work is hailed as the future. The next moment, companies are demanding that employees return to the office. Strong opinions exist on both sides, often presented as if there is a […]
Budget 2026: Stability Achieved, Growth Still Pending
Budget 2026: Stability Achieved, Growth Still Pending Budget speeches are technical by design. They are written for Parliament, investors and markets, and they carry significant weight for the country’s financial credibility. But most South Africans experience the Budget very differently. They experience it through their salary, at the fuel station, in their medical aid contributions, […]
What the Rand Really Tells Us About South Africa
What the Rand Really Tells Us About South Africa On 14 February 2026, the South African rand marked its 65th anniversary. Introduced in 1961, it has endured oil shocks, sanctions, democracy, global inflation, financial crises, commodity booms, state capture and shifting global power dynamics. Few symbols capture South Africa’s economic journey as clearly, or as […]
When Rewards Stop Feeling Rewarding
When Rewards Stop Rewarding Loyalty programs used to feel like a quiet “thank you.” A small gesture of appreciation for choosing a brand again and again. You swiped your card, booked your flight, or bought your groceries, and every so often, something came back to you. A discount that mattered. A flight upgrade you could […]
The First Step Out of Poverty Isn’t Wealth. It’s Work.
The First Step Out of Poverty Isn’t Wealth. It’s Work. I often catch myself doing a small mental calculation. When someone helps me with everyday tasks, simple but honest work, I take what I pay them for the day and multiply it by 30. And then the discomfort hits: even if they worked every single […]
The Quiet Side of Travel
The Quiet Side of Travel From the outside, work travel looks glamorous. The airport lounges, priority boarding, the photos from new cities, the hotel breakfasts: all of it seems like a badge of success. People often say, “You’re so lucky, you get to travel so much.” And in a way, they’re right. Travel is a […]
One Year of the Two-Pot Retirement System: What Really Matters
One Year of the Two-Pot Retirement System: What Really Matters On 1 September 2024, South Africa entered new territory with the launch of the Two-Pot Retirement System. For the first time, members of retirement funds had partial access to their savings while still preserving the bulk for the long-term. The intention was simple: Give people […]
The Hidden Cost of Learning the Wrong Second Language in South Africa
The Hidden Cost of Learning the Wrong Second Language in South Africa Why our school language policy still doesn’t match our reality, more than 30 years into democracy From Grade 1 to Grade 12, I learnt Afrikaans as my compulsory second language. When I matriculated in 2004, I had completed over a decade of formal […]
The True Cost of Broken Service Delivery: Paying Twice, Expecting Less
The True Cost of Broken Service Delivery: Paying Twice, Expecting Less We’re accustomed to potholes now, so accustomed that we’ve stopped being shocked, and even apps like Waze no longer bother reporting them. We budget for tyre damage and wheel alignment, share tips on which roads to avoid, and subconsciously brace for impact on the […]
From CrossFit to Cardio: My Fitness Routine Now Lives in Two Places
From CrossFit to Cardio: My Fitness Routine Now Lives in Two Places Three or four times a week, I’m at CrossFit — chalk on my hands, timer ticking, getting the heart rate up and working up a sweat. But the rest of the time? I’m on the treadmill. Or the cycle trainer. At home. Sometimes […]
Finance Can’t Stop Climate Change — But It Can Stop Collapse
Finance Can’t Stop Climate Change — But It Can Stop Collapse Earlier this year, I was invited to speak at the UNEP FI Regional Roundtable on Sustainable Finance for Africa and the Middle East. It brought together financial institutions, policy leaders, and sustainability experts to explore how capital can drive resilience in a world of […]
South Africa Needs a CFO More Than a Finance Minister
South Africa Needs a CFO More Than a Finance Minister The Finance Minister’s job is one of the toughest in the country right now. South Africa is grappling with rising debt, growing inequality, coalition politics, and a shrinking pool of taxpayers — all under public scrutiny. The current path is unsustainable. What South Africa needs […]
Turbulent Skies: Navigating the Crisis in South African Aviation
Turbulent Skies: Navigating the Crisis in South African Aviation South Africa’s aviation sector is navigating through a perfect storm of challenges, from labour disputes and infrastructure failures to regulatory lapses and financial instability. South African Airways (SAA), once a symbol of national pride, is at the epicentre of this crisis. However, the issues extend far […]
VAT Rate Increase: Balancing Fiscal Needs and Consumer Impact
VAT Rate Increase: Balancing Fiscal Needs and Consumer Impact In an unprecedented move, the national Budget Speech scheduled for 19 February 2025 has been delayed. This was a direct result of disagreements within the Government of National Unity, which did not agree on the proposed VAT rate increase from 15% to 17%. Although VAT is […]
What drives (un)ethical behaviour?
What drives (un)ethical behaviour? There is a famous quote that says, “it’s never wrong to do the right thing”. Why then, is it so common, for leaders to act unethically? We live in a world where the news of corporate failures which arose from unethical leadership is not a surprise; where bribing a traffic official […]
Thoughts on work-life integration
Thoughts on work-life integration Everyone is striving to have a work-life-balance to be happier and more productive. The problem with the concept of a balance between work and life is that it is assumed that, to have a work-life-balance, all areas of life need to be in a constant equilibrium. The concept or term of […]
THE CA(SA) DESIGNATION
THE CA(SA) DESIGNATION The CA(SA) designation is an internationally respected title, which has come under serious scrutiny in recent years for many reasons. I recently spent a lot of time reflecting on what I believe it means to be a CA(SA) and the ways in which we can rebuild trust and honor in the profession. […]
Insurance of the Future
Insurance of the Future We are living in an extremely fast paced world, where a large component of success is driven by technology. New apps are launched every minute and software is outdated very soon after being released. Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are now entering their prime spending years, and since they are […]
VAT rate increase – Impact to the short-term insurance industry
VAT rate increase – Impact to the short-term insurance industry Value-added tax (“VAT”) was introduced in South Africa in September 1991 to replace GST (General Sales Tax) as an indirect tax. VAT was imposed in 1991 at a statutory rate of 10%, and then increased to 14% in 1993. Since then, the rate of the […]
