ROB, DAWIE & ANTHONY: What the US Political Meltdown Signals for South Africa | STATE CORRUPTION

The checks and balances just have not been very good in government. There's a huge amount of wastage plus fraud. The Democrats were getting a lot of votes from the Somalian immigration population.

So that's interesting. So America is on an absolute tear. Davi, tell us what's going on in South Africa.

Everything is very, very well aligned for much stronger economic growth. There's one thing outstanding that's going to be a huge blow to the ANC. So you are an American and you're considering investing in South Africa, and South Africa is an amazing place to invest for a number of reasons.

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So could I just say there are Democrat states, uh, run states such as Minnesota and California, including Washington State where Seattle lies, where they're imposing wealth taxes There's this so-called billionaire tax that's going to come into California. You've probably heard that they've chased out the founders of Google, which is Alphabet today. Now, something like half a trillion dollars of net worth is being chased out of California to Texas and Florida. There's a massive amount of fraud going out the back door. So for all the taxes that they're trying to raise, there are not the audits and the checking. So in Minnesota, there was a particular scandal now, but this has been going on for a decade. It just hasn't been partly been covered up. It's to do with childcare and disability payments, transportation and healthcare costs that have been paid out in the multi-billions. It's not just limited to Minnesota, by the way. It's probably going on across 50 states if you want the truth, Rob. California is so much bigger. I assume that the amounts here are even bigger. The checks and balances just have not been very good in government. There's a huge amount of wastage, plus fraud. And for political reasons, Minnesota probably may have covered up some of this because they were getting— the Democrats were getting a lot of votes from the Somalian, uh, immigration population. And that, by the way, is causing a backlash on immigration when you hear these sorts of stories. Americans don't want these sorts of folks, uh, taking over.

But they want Afrikaners. That we know. All right. So that's interesting. So America is on an absolute tear. Darby, tell us what's going on in South Africa. I mean, we've got population growth of 2%, economic growth 1%. We're going to get it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, can I, can I just, can I just make a question? Because as an outsider, I'm quite concerned about what is happening with the Fed at the moment. These allegations of Powell and the criminal— well, I don't know really if they— I must tell you, if this is something that I think you guys should be concerned about.

Yeah, yeah, the independence of the Fed, of course, is sacrosanct, and there is an issue. I mean, obviously the Republican, whoever's the president, is able to appoint his own chair typically to the Fed. Greenspan was a famous very close to President Reagan. He had been an economic advisor. You typically appoint your own economic advisor to be the Fed chair. Historically, these guys had PhDs. Powell does not have a PhD. He was a lawyer in private equity. Frankly, he may have had the weakest economic background of any previous Fed chair. He's done a reasonably decent job. Trump's obviously got it in for him because he hasn't dropped rates fast enough. Trump, being a real estate guy, just wants rates to come down twice as fast as they have. There has been this massive construction or reconstruction of the Fed building project there, which has taken years like any other government project. It seems to have overrun its budget. So they're going after Powell. He's only got 6 months left in his term, but they're giving him a really hard time. They found an angle there to go after him on this building project, but they've gone after some other Fed governors on the fact that their mortgage applications were inaccurate. So Yeah, what can I say? It's par for the course with Washington right now. There's a lot of nastiness on both sides. It's a very divisive space. I'm not as concerned about it. He's only got 5 and a half months, maybe 6 months left of his term, so he'll probably ride it out.

South Africa, Davi?

I can tell you, you don't need a PhD to be— to run. And I say you don't need a PhD to run a central bank. And as a monetarist, or having worked at the South African Reserve Bank also for a couple of years, if you're unsure, keep rates high. That's, I mean, that's the, that's the answer to that. I know it's very unpopular, but that's, that's the answer to it. It's much easier if you have high rates to lower them when you have low rates to increase that. So I, I think you guys should be concerned about what's happening to the Fed at the moment. Okay, coming to South Africa. Well, Rob, okay, this is what's been happening in South Africa. I think There's something happened last year in South Africa. Many things happened, but suddenly I think we've turned a kind of icon in South Africa. If you look at the equity markets, did very well. The bond market, and maybe we can spend some time on the bond market, the bond market did very well. So last year, we waiting for the final numbers, I think around roughly about 1% growth. And, and while the population, as you've mentioned, Rob, is probably growing at around 1.5%. So we will be getting poorer again. I don't think this year we're going to shoot out the lights, but the important point I want to make is that everything is very, very well aligned for much stronger economic growth. There's one thing outstanding, one major thing outstanding, the one thing standing in the way of stronger growth in South Africa, and that thing is called the ANC. That is the only thing standing in the way of stronger growth in the ANC. But I think We're going to change that as well. I think by the end of this year, if we see local authority elections by the end of this year or early next year, I think the ANC will again lose big time. I've got the, I've got the sense that the electorate in South Africa is moving to the right a little bit more, at least sympathy for some of these more realistic political parties and some of their policies. I think Helen Zillebet, for example, chances are quite good that she could be the next mayor in Johannesburg. And that's going to be— I mean, that's going to be a huge blow to the ANC. But that's the only outstanding thing. Everything is very, very— is ready for stronger economic growth. We only need to get rid of Gwede Mantashe, Rob, and you know, you said that yourself. We have to get rid of him. We have to get rid of the ANC. We have to get rid of the silly policies like expropriation and BEE and BELA and all that sort of nonsense. If we can fix that, this economy is going to fly, I promise you. And then we're going to talk. About 5-6% for South Africa as well.

Davi, I want you to address the issue of deindustrialization. And for our viewers, can you explain what that means? And I just want to give two examples because I'm actually working on a project with Stafford Marzi and Karina Joachim, Warren Wiki, on Bitcoin mining and AI hyperscaling with Ferroalloys, which is the only manganese smelter in our country, closing down. And ArcelorMittal, the big steelmakers, closing down a lot of their steelmaking facilities in South Africa. That is deindustrialization. But can you just give the statistics and what it means for our viewers?

Basically what it comes down to, we are closing down facilities that produce or mine things. That is basically what it comes down to. But here's the interesting thing, Rob.

The—

I, I've been— we've been talking about what the financial markets have been doing the last couple of months in South Africa. They really did very well. Now imagine you are an American. So you are an American and you're considering investing in South Africa, and South Africa is an amazing place to invest for a number of reasons. One is you invest in South Africa and your entrance is very cheap because you buy a cheap currency, an undervalued currency. So you're coming into South Africa with a lot of money. Okay, so that's point number one. The second thing is the financial markets in South Africa are very well regulated. It's very easy for a foreigner to invest in South Africa. They can buy bonds and equities and everything. They'll go and they do that, and it's good. Unfortunately, what I would like the Americans to do is to certainly keep on buying our equities, but I want to come into South Africa and to start a new mine and to start a new factory and to do that kind of stuff, because that is the real economy. We are losing our factories. I've spoken to an engineer some time ago, Rob, that worked at Eskom. No, he worked at this place where they enriched the, um, at Palindaba, where they enriched the, uh, the uranium. I don't know if you guys know, but we had, we had nuclear weapons in South Africa, in Old South Africa, uh, but this guy worked there, and he told me during his time working at Palindaba He would, he would send out a, would ask for quotes for certain machineries like electric engines or machines or whatever. And he would give this location and will get 100 companies that will quote on that specific whatever machinery that he needs. South African companies. There's not one left anymore.