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Biggest irritation: The sheer absurdity of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s order for the Reserve Bank’s Constitutional mandate to be changed.
Her call for a radical departure from the Reserve Bank’s primary objective of protecting the value of the rand in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth to that of ensuring the socioeconomic wellbeing of “citizens” and achieving socioeconomic transformation “expose[d] her own lack of competency”, as the bank’s governor, Lesetja Kganyago, put it.
The bank in court documents hailed this a “gross overreach that must be stopped in its tracks” and said the order “reveals the Public Protector’s lack of understanding of the Constitution and ambit of the Reserve Bank’s powers”
Our favourite troublemakers: The Washington Post referred to Jacques Pauw’s The President’s Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison as being able to possibly “change South Africa”.
Although its revelations are yet to bring about significant change, it did ruffle a lot of feathers and knocked out Hyde Park Corner’s power and generators. The force is strong with this one.
A close second is a bold businesswoman who took on corrupt corporates, CEO of Sygnia Magda Wierzycka. She practically kindled a firing crusade with the dismissal of KPMG as her group’s auditors upon unearthing the auditing firm’s deep involvement in aiding and abetting state capture and corruption.
Her move came after South Africa’s big four banks – Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank and FNB – closed the Gupta-linked Oakbay’s bank accounts, sparking outrage from enablers and veneration from the general public.
Worst blow to SA’s economy: On 31 March, the country woke up to President Jacob Zuma’s 20th and most clandestine Cabinet reshuffle that saw the axing of former minister of finance Pravin Gordhan.
The move sent the rand on what’s become the usual tailspin and pushed the credit rating agencies too far, resulting in downgrades that culminated in the recent junk status rating of SA’s local currency debt by S&P Global in November.
Zuma closely beat Markus Jooste and his shenanigans at Steinhoff, which left numerous investors out of pocket, a hole of at least €6bn in the multinational group’s balance sheet and a question mark over the governance of SA Inc.
CEO to watch: Discovery CEO Adrian Gore has built a $6.5bn company on rewarding people for living healthily.
Discovery’s Vitality rewards model garnered global recognition for successfully creating shared value in insurance. Locally, the group’s new headquarters in Sandton are turning heads and have become the talk of the town.
Discovery has made a strong comeback after a tepid financial performance in 2016. Their share price has been taking off and gained nearly 60% in value in the year-to-date (to 19 December).
They posted increased earnings at the beginning of the year and are laughing all the way to their own bank, set to open in 2018.
Best turnaround: Edcon has been embroiled in financial turmoil for quite some time, following its R25bn leveraged buyout by Bain Capital which critics blasted as a strategic blunder marred by losses and swelling interest payments.
The retailer finally announced that it was in a better space with net profit improving by 3.8% to R2bn after implementing a turnaround plan last year, including a merchandising strategy that entailed rationalising suppliers.
Most business-friendly politician: We’d like to nominate Lesetja Kganyago – while he’s not a politician in the true sense of the word, he’s arguably been the best diplomat for the SA economy this year.
Kganyago is running a world-class institution that remains largely intact, despite the dominoes – notably Treasury – falling around them. The way the Reserve Bank has dealt with the Public Protector’s attack on its mandate is worth noting here.
Disappointments of the year: Some once-revered companies demonstrated that everything the Guptas touch turn into meadow muffins.
The reputations of McKinsey, SAP and KPMG were left in tatters and joined that of the late Bell Pottinger in the pit of revulsion from grossly corrupt activities. As there is no smoke without fire, MultiChoice also deserves a mention here.
Biggest threat for 2018: The campaign trail for the 2019 elections is likely to go down as democratic South Africa’s most brutal one to date, given the increasingly strong opposition and party reputations on the line.
It also remains to be seen whether Cyril Ramaphosa, the newly elected ANC president, will even set foot inside the Union Buildings come 2019. Should that fail to happen, all fingers will be pointing at one man – President Jacob Zuma, who also deserves special mention as a colossal threat to both the country’s and the ANC’s stability.
The campaign trail could also result in mud being slung, some of which might taint our fragile economy with further political uncertainty. Three simple yet powerful words that sent the rand on the customary tailspin loosely hurled around during the course of 2017 – radical economic transformation – serve as a perfect example. Expect a storm of election promises.
Quotes of the year:
“The rand falls. It fell in apartheid and we will pick it up again now.” Water and sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane, whose statement made it as far as the BBC.
Donald Trump deserves a special mention for his iconic “Despite the constant negative press covfefe” tweet that sparked a worldwide search for translation.
Inspirational quote of the year:
“Our souls are not for sale.”
Pravin Gordhan’s parting message to the country, as he addressed the media at a briefing at National Treasury’s headquarters.
In 2018 we’re betting on… bitcoin breaking hearts (and bank accounts).
This is an edited extract of an article that originally appeared in the 14 December - 17 January edition of finweek. Buy and download the magazine here.
