The Editor's Desk - Mon 12 Jan 2026: Southern Africa’s political tremors, and a rules-based world under strain

Yesterday was Friday the 13th. The Ricardo portfolios don’t do superstition. We do cash flow. And this week, a lot of that cash went into buying back shares. Greg Abel spent $9.6bn on Berkshire’s own stock, the clearest signal yet that Buffett’s successor thinks the shares are cheap. Vistra grew…

Rachel Kolisi has spent the past few months on the road in South Africa with Falling Forward, her book and the documentary that followed. Fourteen events and more than 10,000 people later, she is taking the project to London, a move prompted by women who travelled from Europe to attend…

To sell internet access in South Africa, you first have to show ICASA the race of your shareholders. Sakeliga has now taken the regulator to the Pretoria High Court, but, oddly, not to scrap the 30% black-ownership rule. Chief executive Piet le Roux told Alec Hogg why he chose the…

Political commentator Solly Moeng tells Chris Steyn that voters who shut the ANC out expect ActionSA and the DA not to cushion it over personal grudges: the ANC belongs on the opposition benches. Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie calls Swimming South Africa one of the country's worst federations, says the Act…

A year ago, Charles Savage made Alec Hogg a list of promises. This week he came back with Purple Group's best numbers yet: profit before tax up 36%, more than R100 billion in client assets, and nearly R17 billion deposited in a year when markets gave investors far less. So…