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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

By Riaan de Lange

No future, no future, for . . . you!

10th November 2017

No future, no future, for … you! It’s strange how these words, granted with the added impetus provided by an old Pioneer, cutting through the silence of a cold dark winter’s night, are not greatly... 


Bleeding Heart Yard

3rd November 2017

It’s a cold, windy and generally a miserable day as I step off Greville street, in Farringdon, in the City of London, seeking shelter from the icy-cold wind. I unwittingly enter a cobbled... 


No matter what the experts say, customs is only about three things

27th October 2017

Do you consider yourself an ‘expert’ or a ‘specialist’ in your chosen profession? If you answered ‘expert’, I would raise a weary smile, for a wise person once told me of an unwittingly (maybe not)... 


Neopatrimonialism is merely ‘a huge embarrassment’

20th October 2017

The dramatic decline to which a select few ‘South Africans’ are subjecting so many of us no longer considered a ‘crisis’. In essence, neopatrimonialism is not considered a crisis’ – it is merely a... 


South Africa falling down a rabbit hole

13th October 2017

The use of graphs to illustrate the South African economy’s trajectory is a superfluous endeavour in the nth degree. The appeal of graphs, your general line graph, is to emphasise the tendency of... 


I can’t explain – you would not understand

6th October 2017

If anything, I have, in the words of Pink Floyd, “become comfortably numb”. My thoughts are miles away as I wonder through the Victoria & Albert, or the V&A. No, not the V&A Waterfront, in Cape... 


Customs inaction – 4 661 days, and still counting

29th September 2017

It is a fateful Saturday. It is September 16. If you cannot recall the day, I have three digits to remind 57-0. Enough said – numbers are clinical when conveying a message. A total of 4 661 days... 


I am unable to replicate your thinking

22nd September 2017

In a country famed for its politeness, you have to take care not of offend, or to be perceived to offend, when expressing an opinion that may differ from those held by people about whom you are... 


Those were the days . . .

15th September 2017

It's Sunday afternoon. It’s hot and humid. You can smell the sea in a faint breeze that barely manages to rattle the leaves of the trees, which have been scorched and hardened by the sun. It is one... 


Don’t make an impact – consciously limit it

8th September 2017

Sometimes I wonder about the costs that I personally impose on the planet. This usually happens when I hear of people being held up, by others, as having made a positive contribution. Is it not... 


South Africa is at war with itself – but why?

1st September 2017

Why, indeed? Why worry? My grandfather used to offer an answer that you might be quite familiar with: “If you worry, you die; if you don’t worry. you also die. So, why worry?” If I were asked this... 


Count them one by one

25th August 2017

It’s summer. It’s raining. It’s cold. In a word, it’s miserable. The Underground is wet, damp and humid. Forget about minding the gap – it is fellow travellers that you have to mind, for they do... 


The real conflict is between truth and lies

18th August 2017

The Real Conflict is between Truth and Lies It is 21 hours since the unthinkable has happened, an event which has divided, and is expected to continue to divide, the athletics world for the... 


Preparing to sell off the family silver?

11th August 2017

The expression to sell or sell off the family silver might not be as well known in South Africa as it is elsewhere in the world. Consequently, the cautionary wisdom to which it alludes to is... 


It’s not about improving

4th August 2017

'Out of the mouths of babes' is a well-known phrase in the Bible that implies that there is truth and wisdom in the comments and observations of children, who are honest and innocent. I am on the... 


Here we are . . .

28th July 2017

Born to be kings. We're the princes of the universe. These are the opening lyrics of British rock band Queen’s 1986 song, Princes of the Universe, and they resonate with me as my car grinds to a... 


By failing to plan, we are planning to fail

21st July 2017

South Africa is stuck in economic and political rut, and “there is no two ways about it" and "there can be no doubt about that”, as one of my bosses of many years past was famed for saying. South... 


A genie granting grants is wishful thinking

7th July 2017

It is said that there are three wishes that a genie cannot grant. It’s still on my bucket list to find one, which I fear would only be possible through divine intervention, But, I cannot wish for... 


Brexit – it has started

30th June 2017

It is a balmy Monday evening in London. Oh, how I wish it was. It is, in fact, a blistering hot evening. For London, that is. It is 22:30. The sun has set an hour earlier and the temperature is 24... 


You must be choking all over again

23rd June 2017

It is a balmy London Sunday afternoon. It is June 11. It is Groundhog Day. Well, for me it is. Just a few hours ago, an unwelcome event recurred. You might even say that it was “It's deja vu all... 


Are South African companies dying or perishing?

16th June 2017

This is a simple enough question, but is the answer as simple? Well, that depends on the distinction you make between dying and perishing. According to the Oxford Dictionary perishing is defined as... 


Uber, chumocracy and a corrupt culture of entitlement

9th June 2017

Is this an apt summation of present-day South Africa? Quite possibly so. But the headline of this column was appropriated from a British newspaper published in the days prior to David Cameron’s... 


Braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies, but no Chevrolet

2nd June 2017

“South Africa, what is your favourite meal? Braaivleis! Sport? Rugby! Weather? Sunshine! And what’s your greatest car, South Africa? Chevrolet. Let’s see: it’s braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and... 


Preferred-trader numbers all very confusing

26th May 2017

On May 8, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced that, on that day, it would officially launch its Customs Preferred Trader Programme, which, it said, marked the culmination of an... 


The haves, the have-nots and the wants

19th May 2017

The first words of wisdom – which I clearly recall – that my father imparted to me as a youngster were these: "There are three sides to every story – your side, my side and the truth. And no one is... 


Wealth taxation in the spotlight

12th May 2017

Have you read it yet? All 700-page, that is. Well, if you have not, acquired a copy, for the book is multipurpose. It has, for instance, been described as “a doorstop in punishing, heavy... 


SA world’s 53rd most competitive travel and tourism destination

5th May 2017

South Africa is the fifty-third most competitive travel and tourism destination in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) 'Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017',... 


Statistically, nothing is ever quite what it seems

28th April 2017

‘It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It is what you know for sure that just ain’t so.’, this according to Mark Twain. Love it or hate it, you simply cannot deny that... 


The South African Revolution

21st April 2017

Just over 100 years ago, a definitive event took place in a country with which South Africa has had an indifferent history. Since March 30, you can visit this country without a visa for a duration... 


Will the South African economy catch a crab?

14th April 2017

It is mid-afternoon on Sunday, April 2. I am enjoying glorious weather, reminiscent of South Africa, with soaring temperatures, which is not the usual rainy, gloomy and cold London. I find myself... 


When the going gets tough, the tough go skiing

7th April 2017

In a mere ten days, the men of the next generation of two internationally renowned (you can also read infamous) families on both sides of the pond made the same decision when their presence was... 


Freely dropping the antiprotectionist pledge

31st March 2017

A favourite adage of mine is: with free advice, you get what you pay for. I heard it early in my working career, when Ken Warren, an elderly but world- and street-wise legal director of the South... 


Opportunities from the Indian Ocean Rim

24th March 2017

Indian Ocean Rim Association Well, this certainly is a blast from the past. It was a long time ago. I had just joined the then South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) – on March 1, 1995 – and,... 


Brexit – let it be

17th March 2017

Having taken evasive action, leaving the tourists on the streets of London by escaping down a small passage way - an alley if you will - our group of seven-odd walkers ended up in front of a... 


The Oscars gaffe

10th March 2017

To Cue Humor Bedlam from the ‘Near Impossible’ If there is one thing that I remember vividly about my grandmother, taken from us far too soon, was her preference to caveat anything that she, in her... 


It’s time up for the WTO and globalisation

3rd March 2017

"Who would've thought, it figures … Well, isn't this nice. And isn't it ironic, don't you think” – to borrow (okay, this may be misappropriate) a few verses from Alanis Morissette’s third song,... 


Gibraltar – a major Brexit casualty?

24th February 2017

On the south-western tip of Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula, at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, lies a British overseas territory (formerly known as a colony) that is all of 6.7km2 in area.... 


Life is just a game of inches

17th February 2017

It is Super Bowl Sunday, the day on which the National Football League (NFL) yearly championship is played in the US. Well, where I am, it is close to midnight, with Monday only minutes away as I... 


Those who cannot do . . . talk

10th February 2017

You may well be acquainted with the adage 'He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches' from George Bernard Shaw’s 1903 play, Man and Superman, Maxims for Revolutionists: Education. But it no longer... 


South Africans or self-interest first?

3rd February 2017

I woke to bad news recently, being immediately reminded of a television series that has undisputed longevity and is a personification of both innovation and trailblazing. It is the BBC’s 1980s... 


Blue Monday or Brew Monday?

27th January 2017

It is Monday, January 16, the third Monday of the month and of 2017. Does this day have any significance, you might ask? Well, it is said to be the most depressing day of this year. So, with this... 


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