The world’s 400 richest people collectively lost $127 billion on Friday when it became clear that a majority of UK voters had opted to leave the European Union.
That figure from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index is equivalent to almost half of South Africa’s GDP — wiped out in a day.
In the build-up to the 2014 national elections, Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing the then newly-formed Economic Freedom Fighters, was a guest on my radio station’s weekly current affairs show. We chatted briefly in the parking lot thereafter, and I posed the question: “If you end up doing well and driving the ANC below 50 percent in some areas, would you consider going into coalition with them?”
“Never,” he said quite decisively, indicating that he thought that would be the kiss of death for the new party.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A guy flies from Johannesburg to Hong Kong to get his suits bespoke tailored there because he’s crunched the numbers and has worked out that it would actually be significantly cheaper to do so than buying from the Hugo Boss store in Sandton City.
So he stops by to pick up the finished product and is impressed by the impeccable sartorial elegance. He tries to strike a pose in front of the full-length mirror, and his hands instead slip down the sides of his trousers. He turns to the tailor bewildered.
Opinion piece for the Daily News on the legacy of Barack Obama's presidency.