The heart of SA's economy is in ICU...And the spine is broken

Loading player...
The dysfunction of ESKOM and Transnet has sent South Africa’s economy into the emergency ward. That has emerged from an interview with Ghaleb Cachalia, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises. “ESKOM, if you like, is the heart of our economy. Transnet is the spine of our economy. We have destroyed the heart of the economy. It's in ICU. Our spine needs to be looked at by every possible surgeon, to continue that metaphor, in sight, because of course it's broken.” Cachalia also shares his views on the state of other SOEs including SAA which he says is flying on a “shoestring”, and DENEL which was once the “darling of the investor community and now is the skunk of the investor community”. He singles out SAFCOL as the “only” SOE that's “holding its head vaguely above water”. However, he warns that there are “huge land claims about to derail SAFCOL over time”. - Chris SteynYour early morning brew of the BizNews Insider keeps you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here - https://bit.ly/3lfVRYP.Timestamps00:33 - Ghaleb Gachalia on what's fixable and unfixable regarding Eskom05:50 - On the lack of skills11:45 - The ticking time bomb that is Eskom is far from being diffused13:30 - On if the gaps between what should be done, what can be done and will be done are reachable at this point14:44 - On How much time we have for these issues to be fixed15:58 - On the Transnet disaster16:37 - The broken spine that is Transnet24:08 - Ending with words of hope 25:23 - Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 Jul 2023 12PM English South Africa Investing · Business News

Other recent episodes

Rubio’s visa move a blunder: FW de Klerk Foundation appeals to Washington to reconsider

The Trump administration has escalated its pressure on South Africa, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing new visa restrictions over land expropriation laws and racial discrimination against the Afrikaner minority. Christo van der Rheede, executive director of the FW de Klerk Foundation, calls it a profound strategic blunder, one…
18 Sep 9AM 17 min

How Alec Hogg's 45 years in journalism culminated in BizNews and its loyal "tribe"

This interview was livestreamed on Conscious Caracal on 11 September 2026. Find Ernst van Zyl's Conscious Caracal Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@UCeNFLCUJ2lM1S_H32ICVs4w Before BizNews, there was a bank job Alec Hogg quit within three years, a company called Moneyweb he built from a room above his garage and then lost control of,…
18 Sep 9AM 49 min

Corné Mulder says SA could have a new government before 2029

South Africa just joined a short and unflattering list of countries facing individual US visa restrictions, and Freedom Front Plus leader Corné Mulder says he saw it coming from a manifesto launch stage days before it happened. He tells Alec Hogg why he thinks Cyril Ramaphosa's habit of avoiding decisions…
17 Sep 10AM 28 min