Gavin Chait Articles

Trevor Manuel and the "Plunder of Skills" - Click To Read Article
Trevor Manuel, South Africa's long-serving Minister of Finance, has had a busy time of it. When he hasn't been demanding reform at the IMF, he has been lecturing the US and Western Europe on their theft of valuable skilled people from our nation.

The war of informal markets against central states; a bellwether of support - Click To Read Article
"When do you think Zimbabwe will collapse?" asked Tama Muru, from the BBC's HARDtalk. "It has already collapsed," said Whythawk.

This festive season: the accumulating effects of individual activity - Click To Read Article
There are plenty of good reasons to buy hand-made or bespoke goods. There is the support of individual craftsmanship, high-quality originality, and ensuring that life doesn't become a mass of hum-drum sameness. Declaring that "hand-made" is more efficient and better for the environment is not one of them.

The redistribution of poverty - Click To Read Article
Governments and social movements the world over often call for the redistribution of wealth; that the people with money and assets should give some of these to the poor. They believe that it is merely the absence of cash that makes poor people poor. They are wrong.

The Miracle of Investment - Click To Read Article
"Look here," said the man in the parking lot. "No, I'm not begging. Look at this chair. It is the first one he has made."

Start your business in Johannesburg but hire your advisor in Cape Town - Click To Read Article
Small business development is a crucial part of government's strategy to reduce unemployment and increase black economic empowerment.

Slaves to land, the policies of Land Affairs - Click To Read Article
The land that peasant farmers, or shack-dwellers, live on is frequently either public land, or land that vests in a tribal chief. The residents act to improve that land in some form, either by farming it or building a home on it. Neither the improvement or the land are theirs to trade.

Of Capitalism, Socialist Greed, Poverty and Remaining Silent - Click To Read Article
It is rare that major businesses dare to stick their necks out and object to government policy. Mostly they're too busy keeping their heads down to avoid all the shrapnel sent their way.

Jobs are from Mars, Business is from Venus - Click To Read Article
It is astonishing the lengths that humanitarian and development organisations will go to avoid talking about business, or to businesses.

Killing the Golden Goose, a lesson in Economic Freedom - Click To Read Article
Aesop's Fables tell of a Golden Goose that, each day, would lay a single golden egg. The farmer who owned the goose was ecstatic but it wasn't long before his wonder gave way to greed.

Jacob Zuma, Inflation Denialist? - Click To Read Article
The queues in Zimbabwe, that shopper's paradise, were extra long this Christmas. Ordinary people were withdrawing their maximum daily allowance of Z$ 50 million while business owners were shunted to the back. Their allowance is a substantially more generous Z$ 750 million and Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, said that they could wait.

Exports and parliamentary laziness - Click To Read Article
There are few moments at which business executives may safely weep and earn nothing but respect and admiration. One of these is at the opening of a new manufacturing plant.

Ending poverty means abandoning charity and accepting reality - Click To Read Article
Benin Mwangi, who blogs about doing business in Africa, asked me recently: "should the discussion be about how to get the informal sector to become part of the formal sector or should it be how to cater to the informal sector?" This in an excursion into the morass of African poverty and development. The short answer is: neither; ending poverty has nothing to do with the informal sector.

Do you hate the poor enough to be charitable? - Click To Read Article
You're going to despise me, so let's get that over and done with. It is winter in Cape Town. Temperatures plunge to the low single Celsius digits. Worse than that though is the hurtling, searing, icy bullets of rain thrust malevolently in gales that reach over 100 kilometres per hour. You don't want to be living in a plastic shelter in an informal settlement during one of our winters. Millions do.

Black Economic Empowerment, like charity, is not investment - Click To Read Article
South African businesses have become one of the largest investment blocks in Africa. Many African countries regularly fret that they are losing their local business ownership to their cousins down South. Every sector of South African business is represented in this new scramble to invest; from mining to telecommunications to retail.

Africa, China and Investment - Click To Read Article
Welcome to the Central African Republic of ChinaSouth Africa receives more than 20% of the foreign direct investment (FDI) placed in Africa each year. Don't celebrate too quickly.

100 Days of Sodom - Click To Read Article
Public Works Minister Thoka Didiza is considering importing an Indian employment model that will guarantee every household the right to 100 days of paid work per year. Didiza, as a representative of the state, is promising people the right to a job based on the premise that not having a job is sufficient reason to get one.


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