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This economic and trade-focused column is prepared by Riaan de Lange – riaan@tariffandtrade.co.za. The views expressed in this column are the author's personal views
The poor and miserable simply cannot be let be
South Africa, and more especially its economy, is in deep trouble. When I find myself in similar circumstance, I recall the lyrics of the Beatles song, Let It Be: “When I find myself in times of...
Hippopotomonstroses-quippedaliophobia
If “the biggest word you ever heard”, as the song goes, is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, then you are in for a shock, as this piece’s title is longer. It is, in fact, one of the longest words...
Existing together in a delicate balance
Long before motivational quotes found fame on electronic media, at a time when ‘www’ meant little more than the Wild Wild West – in a World Without Windows, you could say – I was given an A3 page....
Promises make debt, and debt makes promises
Let us start this week’s column with a truth, for at the moment, the truth is as scarce as a hen’s teeth. Truth be told, the title of this piece is borrowed from a Dutch proverb. If there is a...
Trade facilitation versus protectionism
In the instalment of this column published on July 3, which was titled ‘Protectionism on the increase’, I expressed my concern at the intensification of the protectionist mentality. Those old...
We need to fix our education system
Education is the single definitive Why is there a tendency to believe that the solutions for all our present economic ills lie in the present? Could this tendency be attributable to Albert...
Déjà vu as another SOE Council is announced
To genuinely appreciate South Africa’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs) – the infamous 131 – while retaining a positive demeanour, it would be best if you were prone to regular bouts of amnesia. If...
Look mommy, there’s no plane up in the sky
What do the kakapo, the takahe, the weka, Comair, SA Express and South African Airways (SAA) have in common? The first three are flightless birds, and the latter three are on the verge of becoming...
The economy in the time of Covid-19
The title is that of the World Bank’s semi-annual report for the Latin America and Caribbean region, which was released on April 12. There is much for South Africa’s policymakers to learn from this...
Will the one C survive the other?
By March 21, most countries had introduced some form of enforced lockdown and/or self-isolation. The Gambler has just played his last hand. Of Kenny Rogers’s music, it is not Islands in the Stream...
Focus on tariff determinations
The National Budget has always tended to be an uninspiring affair as far as customs, excise and international trade are concerned. Its focus tends to be limited to increases in the so-called sin...
Stumbling from failure to failure
To avoid embarrassing him, I will not mention the name of my economics professor from Eastern Europe who had a small bust of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, on his desk. Although,...
Geographic indication in Brexit aftermath
For as long as I can remember, my favourite meal, if it qualifies to be called that, has been a toasted cheese-and-tomato sandwich. I fondly recall many an afternoon at what was then Café 101,...
It’s time govt went back to basics
During the week of January 20, the UK-Africa Investment Summit took place in London and the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. As I contemplated the two events from a...
2020: the year of the IMF bail-out?
The year 2020 is the Year of the Rat. This is according to the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese believe that the rate signifies wealth and surplus. In South Africa, 2020 is anticipated to be the polar...
It’s time to put South Africa Inc into business rescue
To complicate something simply means to make something more difficult to deal with or understand. Why not simplify it? Take the South African economy and its performance – it is no more difficult...
Variable outlook with persistent challenges
We live in a world where words have been deprived of their original meaning. So accustomed have we become to seeing and hearing some words that they have lost their impact. We have become numb to...
SOEs the worst they have ever been
The above headline is part of a sentence in a report released by the Auditor General on November 20, which reads: “The overall audit outcomes of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are the worst they...
It’s time to set South African Airways free
You might have one schoolteacher or more who made an enduring impression on you. It might be something that they said or that they attuned you too. Although their name might have faded in memory,...
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