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Top 5 on Fin24: Goldman Sachs MD on SA's 'good guys', more Gordhan warnings, and calculating the cost of obesity

Cape Town - In case you missed it, here is a roundup of Thursday's top 5 reads on Fin24:

The good guys will win out in SA

The head of Goldman Sachs in South Africa, Colin Coleman, is remaining hopeful of the country's potential. Speaking at the Thomson Reuters Africa Summit 2017 in Cape Town, Coleman said SA had two choices.

"It can go into the direction of patronage politics, with a set of leaders who capture resources and distribute them among themselves and their constituencies to ensure victory in the future, or restore the constitutional path as was seen during the presidency of the late former president Nelson Mandela.”

“I believe the good guys will overcome the bad guys," he said. 

SARB probes Bank of Baroda over Guptas - source

Ajay and Atul Gupta. (Pic: Gallo Images)

The Bank of Baroda is being investigated by the SA Reserve Bank over money held for companies controlled by the politically connected Gupta family, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg reports that the bank’s probe, which comes after it fined the bank in June for not doing enough to combat financial crime, was sparked after OUTA alleged in court papers that mine-rehabilitation funds held for two of the Gupta family’s companies had been mismanaged and used to repay loans, the person said.

While there’s no clear evidence that the trust funds were used as collateral or mismanaged, Bank of Baroda may have breached its own rules about having significant exposure to certain clients, said the person.

Even Stats SA could fall to state capture – Gordhan, Jonas


Statistics South Africa is not immune to the state capture project, say former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his former deputy Mcebisi Jonas. 

Their warning comes as respected Statistician-General Pali Lehohla is set to step down in October, after 17 years in charge of Stats SA.

If his replacement is part of the state capture project, then the country could see false statistics regarding the country’s inflation rate in a bid to reinforce specific viewpoints held by those in power, say Gordhan and Jonas.

New Eskom boss pleads for space amid questions over his conduct

Eskom’s interim group chief executive Sean Maritz on Thursday asked for "space and time" to do his job properly, including stabilising the embattled state utility.

Maritz's conduct at Eskom came under the spotlight in weekend media reports.

On Thursday he refuted claims that he deleted evidence implicating Gupta companies in controversial deals with Eskom, after the Sunday Times reported that two Eskom executives had accused him of this.

Obesity costs SA economy more than R700bn per year - study

The economic impact of obesity in South Africa is dire, at more than R700bn per year, according to a new study.

The Discovery Vitality OBEcity index for 2017, which includes data from Vitality members across six South African cities, states that the impact of obesity is not only limited to the health, but includes the economy too.

The study covers the cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth.

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