Ramaphosa, Thatcher and the Eskom Challenge, African cities running out of water, World's Most Expensive Cities

[Click here for the web version of this email]( [FIRST THING With John Stupart]( Tuesday, 19 March 2019 "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." John Maynard Keynes Welcome to Business Maverick Welcome to the beta version of the daily newsletter of Business Maverick! We promise to provide you with a snapshot of the most interesting local and global business events, setting you off on your business day with a jolt of information and the soothing knowledge that the bases are covered. Like a freshly baked croissant to a cappuccino, Business Maverick and First Thing newsletters make the perfect start to the morning. If you have a minute or two, please do [give us feedback]( on what you would like to see more of - or less of, and what you enjoyed. Tim Cohen, Editor: Business Maverick Story of the Day [Can Ramaphosa channel his inner Thatcher]( By Antony Sguazzin According to the World Bank, Eskom has 66% too many employees. The 1.2 million-strong public service absorbs 35% of the budget. Labor reform is key to the success of Ramaphosa’s plan to lure $100 billion in investment over five years. But can Ramaphosa untangle the ANC and its needs from the intertwined history of the party and the union movement? ON THE MONEY What Happened On The Markets Oil=$59.05 -0.07%▼ Gold=$1305.66 0.29%▲ R/$=14.44 0.00%▲ R/€e=16.37 0.2%▲ R/£=19.17 0.14%▲ JSE All Share=56769.86 0.00%▲ DJIA=25914.10 0.25%▲ BTC$=3979.25 0.15%▲ (As at 5am SAST or most recent close) WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING [Africa Is Running Out of Water as Cities Boom]( Cities and towns in several other African nations including Ghana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast have been plagued by water shortages in recent months - manifestations of a global supply squeeze brought on by drought, population growth, urbanization and insufficient investment in dams and other infrastructure. [D]([ump the FAANGS .. buy the WAAAX. The what?]( There is an acronym for everything now. Turns out, a group of Australian tech stocks called WAAAX shares have outperformed their Chinese and US peers by thumping amounts. They are up 220% since 2017, as Australian investors seek out investments that will match the US tech boomers. [Hong Kong, Paris,Singapore now worlds most expensive cities]( Where to go on holiday - and where not to go, if you are loaded? After topping the Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey for five years, Asia's Lion City (Singapore) has been joined by Paris and Hong Kong in a tie at the top of the table. Graph of the Day [Fight for the Facts]( In an age where it’s difficult to tell the difference between real politics and fake news, quality independent journalism is more important than ever. Daily Maverick has become renowned as a news source that you can trust because our journalists tirelessly research and investigate the stories we publish. [Click here to sign up]( to become a Maverick Insider and help us Defend Truth. [SPONSORED CONTENT: Teamwork needed to combat corruption]( The late business genius and highly successful entrepreneur, Steve Jobs remarked that “Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people”. By BLSA CEO Bonang Mohale In Numbers 275,200 The number of people employed in the Welkom gold fields at its peak in 1987. Thirteen years later, that declined to 84,700. Fact of the Day South Africa’s national debt breached the R3-trillion level for the first time this month. It currently stands at R3,046,415m and some change, according to website commodity.com. The debt is increasing at the rate of about R100,000 every 20 seconds. SA's proportion of debt as a percentage of GDP currently stands at 56.10%, and SA will pay R172bn this year just to service its debt. But at least we're not top of the global charts, yet. Venezuela’s debt to GDP ratio is 163% and the US’s debt to GDP is 108%, so there’s is room for manoeuvre, right? Featured Articles [Mark Bristow and his Randgold team tick the right boxes to run the biggest gold merger ever]( By Peter Flack [Debt is not necessarily a dirty word – but it may be]( By Ruan Jooste Op-ED: [Understanding the Fed’s dovish turn]( By Nouriel Roubini [ANC 61%, DA 18%, EFF 10% – Ipsos poll]( [ANC 61%, DA 18%, EFF 10% – Ipsos poll]( By Ferial Haffajee [Eskom enters new stages of disaster]( A column by Natasha Mazzone [Plain packaging for cigarettes is a bad idea]( A column by Ivo Vegter [The only way to force politicians to care about South Africans is to abstain from voting]( A column by Nkateko Mabasa Weather BFN: min: 14° max: 31°, cloudy CPT: min: 18° max: 23°, cloudy DBN: min: 22° max: 28°, cloudy EL: min: 21° max: 28°, cloudy JHB: min: 16° max: 27°, cloudy MHK: min: 17° max: 33°, cloudy NLP: min: 19° max: 32°, cloudy PE: min: 18° max: 25°, cloudy PMB:min: 19° max: 31°, cloudy [Advertisement] [FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND]( [Fb] [Tweet] [Link] [Yt] Copyright © 2019 Daily Maverick, All rights reserved. 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