Professional management in the public health sector is a key factor if the implementation of a NHI is to stand any chance of success. Ailing state facilities can be turned around by proper management, as shown by the shining example of Frere Hospital in the Eastern Cape, where a new hospital manager turned what was a shambolic institution into something that resembles the Department of Health’s proposed ideal clinic model. But what if it is the provincial department that is incompetent? The negative impact of poor management is then spread over a much larger area.
A sterling example of failing management at a provincial level is the Xhariep District Hospital in Trompsburg, completed in 2013 at a cost of around R500-million to South African taxpayers. Subsequently, further great sums of money were spent on building staff housing in Trompsburg to accommodate nurses and doctors and on equipping the radiology department with state-of-the-art scanning and X-ray equipment. It is commendable of the Department of Public Works to deliver this fully equipped district hospital in Trompsburg, to serve a vital need in the area.
However, management failings at the Free State Department of Health led to not a single staff member currently working at the Xhariep district hospital. Three years later, the hospital remains closed and unused. The district’s need for a hospital was anecdotally proven by an accident that occurred on the adjacent N1 highway in December 2015. Five people died as a result of having to be transported 130km to Bloemfontein for emergency treatment instead of to the fully equipped hospital a mere 5km from the accident scene.
The severe lack of strategic planning, financial- and human resource management at the Free State Department of Health, unfortunately, is an example of what will lead to the undoing of government’s grand NHI design for South Africa. Political cadre deployment at operational levels of Government departments lead to incompetent and inept individuals being expected to perform in positions for which they are unqualified.
Currently, hospitals in South Africa have a similar bed capacity than that seen in 1976. The Competition Commission Health Market Inquiry indicates that, to the great chagrin of private medical funders, private hospital beds are increasing and are used to serve an obvious need in the community. At the same time, the number of public hospital beds are now below 1976 numbers. Government has not taken any of the necessary steps to increase the capacity of the South African public healthcare system, but, instead, is counting on the NHI to free up private capacity for public use.
What happens in the upcoming decade until NHI is implemented? South Africa cannot afford for all efforts to expand the public health service and keep the medical funding industry sustainable to grind to a complete halt in anticipation of the NHI. 
The NHI looks ever more unaffordable with every passing day as the South African economy flounders from one political crisis to the next. Can we afford to sit back and hope a new funding system will fix our dysfunctional public healthcare system a decade from now, or is it time to start taking some much needed action?
Author Dr Johann Serfontein is a member of the Free Market Foundation Health Policy Unit. he views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Free Market Foundation.
 @FMFSouthAfrica﻿

OPINION: Will mismanagement scupper S.A's National Health Insurance?

Following Eskom’s continued refusal to provide EE Publishers with generation performance information, EE Publishers has approached the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) to assist in its legal quest to obtain the required information.﻿
The information, requested through a Promotion of Access to Information Act application submitted in June 2016, includes information such as the 2016 week-on-week energy availability factor, demand and energy sent out, and is used to analyse Eskom’s performance.
Eskom’s failure to act transparently in providing such data prevents independent analysts and researchers from reviewing and understanding generation performance trends in South Africa, and enables Eskom to hide inefficiencies and present one-sided and misleading information to the public.
Eskom has stonewalled EE Publishers, and effectively refused to provide the requested information, without providing any reasons for doing so. The information requested was previously made publicly available on the utility’s own website for years, but is now no longer accessible.
OUTA’s legal team has drafted court papers that have been issued to the North Gauteng High Court on 19 October 2016 and served on Eskom in order to obtain a court order forcing the utility to release the requested information. Attorneys acting for Eskom have indicated that Eskom intends to oppose EE Publishers’ application.
In communications between Eskom’s information officer and EE Publishers, the information officer stated that the request for information was being considered by an “executive director” of Eskom. The only two executive directors of Eskom are the CEO, Brian Molefe, and CFO, Anoj Singh.
However, no response has since been received from Eskom, which in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act is deemed to be a refusal of access to the requested information.
The right to access to information from public bodies such as Eskom by the public and the media is a constitutional right, and forms the basis of the Promotion of Access to Information Act. The ability of the media and the public to effectively assess Eskom’s performance, or that of any government institution, relies on such publicly available information.
“Litigation was a last option to get the information requested. One can’t imagine why Eskom would refuse access to this most basic generation performance data”, says Chris Yelland, managing director of EE Publishers.
EE Publishers and OUTA believe that litigation could easily have been avoided, had Eskom acted reasonably by providing the requested information, as it has done in the past.﻿

S.A: Eskom secrecy to be challenged in court

Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world, but this is paradoxically an advantage for the region: it approaches development differently and has already taken concrete steps to address the backlog,
With the help of 10 myths Euler Hermes decrypts reasons why Africa is a special continent of many resources, which will find its way of growing and becoming a key player in the global economy.﻿
Myth #1: All African countries are the same
Most African countries have a complicated business environment &#8211; even Nigeria. However the continent’s driver is ranked 169th in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2016.
Nonetheless, there are differences among African economies in the pace of growth and level of diversification. There are three groups of countries in Africa. First, the strong links such as South Africa and Morocco with an attractive business environment, but their growth (+0.5% and +2% respectively in 2016) remains moderate, although stable. Then the change champions, including Ivory Coast and Ethiopia. These economies record strong growth rates (7.5% and 7% respectively in 2016), pushed by their will to diversify and improve their business environment. Finally, lagging behind are countries such as Nigeria or Cameroon where change needs to be fostered.
Myth # 2: Africa only relies on raw materials
Africa has tremendous raw-material sources and is often viewed as an indispensable pool of labor for the near future. But the African economy is also a hotbed of innovation. “Compared with Singapore and its 2% of GDP spent on R&amp;D, Africa ranks lower. But this gap is going to narrow very rapidly thanks, for example, to hubs and the will to overcome the infrastructure deficit. Each region has its own champion: Kenya (0.9% of GDP) in the west, South Africa (0.75%) in the south, and Morocco (0.8%) in the north.
This innovation effort is also reflected in the creation of technologic hubs, whose number is steadily increasing in the African continent. At present there are 24 hubs in South Africa, 11 in Kenya and 7 in Uganda. In Kenya, the technologic incubator iHub has contributed to the development of 150 companies since 2008, an evidence of its role in the growth of African economy. 
Myth # 3: African infrastructures are non-existent
The infrastructure gap (water, electricity, internet, transport) in Africa remains important. The example of Nigeria is striking: to fill its infrastructural gap, the country must spend USD 1900bn by 2030, that is nearly USD 130bn a year (25% of current GDP). This gap penalises African economies and costs two percent of growth to the region every year, according to the African Development Bank.
But the development of African infrastructures is also an economic opportunity. “African countries cannot finance these infrastructural investments themselves. In the long term, this should trigger significant investments in the region, that will contribute to finance the regional economy.
Myth # 4: Africa is isolated from the world
African foreign trade continues to growth &#8211; well, almost. In 2016, Africa is expected to lose USD 12bn exports by value (totaling USD 560 billion) because of the commodity shock. In 2017, demand to Africa should increase by USD 30bn. “This is not only in the short term. Actually, by 2025 African countries should continue to open up and the continent’s heavyweights, i.e. Nigeria (+USD 210bn of additional exports in ten years / + USD 150bn of imports), South Africa (+ USD 140/180bn) and Egypt (+ USD 83/79bn), will see their trade with the rest of the world soar.
The favourite destination of African exporters remains China (27% of African exports in 2016). However, the raw material part in African exports to China has decreased from 97% in 2010 to 83% in 2015, in contrast with low-value-added manufactures (3% in 2010 vs. 7% in 2015).
Myth # 5: African institutions are non-existent
Next to countries where institutions do not (or have stopped to) evolve, there are countries launching important reforms. Rwanda for example has strengthened its fight against corruption, by setting up a national anticorruption council and an entity supervising the award of public contracts. The purpose of this is to reduce the differential quality between institutions in Rwanda and those in more developed countries such as Brazil or Italy.
On the other side, the needs of public-service users are changing and the same occurs with demands for social security. Moreover, institutions have to respond differently: The digital revolution can help African institutions to skip several stages of development. South Africa, Rwanda and Ghana have already developed online public services of relatively good quality, and this is how institutions in these countries are catching up with international standards. 
Myth # 6: No-one is going to finance African growth
Once the oil aftershock has worn off, Africa will resume growing at an average +3% a year. Some countries still post record growth rates higher than +5%, despite the hard shock. In addition, the financing and rebalancing of growth, including investments to be made, will be the key to a sustainable takeoff. “The mix of funding will be crucial. In addition to external resources, particularly from foreign direct investment (FDI), some countries are already able to finance at least part of their growth with budgetary resources. This is the case in South Africa, Egypt and Senegal where they account for 25% and 30% of GDP in 2016. Household confidence and investor confidence will be indispensable to collect savings.
Nevertheless, the way ahead will be thorny: (i) budgetary revenues make up only 14.5% on average of the African GDP, compared with 30% in developed countries; (ii) FDI is only 2% of GDP, compared with 2.4% in developed countries.
Myth # 7: African consumers are not bankable
Consumption growth in Africa is well under way. In 2016, Africa reports the highest consumption growth rates, led by Côte d’Ivoire (+6%), Uganda (+7%) and Nigeria (+5%), compared with +1.4% in OECD countries or +2% in Pacific Asia. “Consumption development in Africa is driven by the continent’s exploding urbanization: by 2045, African towns will be flooded with 24 million people, compared with only nine million in China and 11 million in India.
But African consumption development should follow a different path from that of developed countries. “The wealth effect and internet access add to the volume growth of African consumption. Consumers in Africa are going to skip some steps and force business sectors to reconsider their approach. This is especially striking in distribution, financial services or transports: for example, 70% of Moroccans have internet access (55% in China), and 14% of Kenyans use contactless payment cards (60% of French are still and always using bank checks).Euler Hermes has worked out a proprietary consumption potential indicator combining these three determinants. The verdict is final: Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa are the leading pack, followed by Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Sudan and Congo, DR.
Myth # 8: It’s hard to work with African companies
Given the payment terms granted by foreign suppliers to African companies, it is undisputable that stronger confidence would free considerable resources for growth. “Out of EUR 800bn of goods imported every year by Africa, approx. 60% are paid cash. If transactions were settled at 30 days, this would free EUR 40bn of working capital requirements, equal to the GDP of Tanzania, or to 1.6% of the GDP of Africa.
This situation engenders a sort of vicious cycle for African companies. Their cash flow suffers from the multiplication of cash payments, and this makes them more exposed to possible economic risks. As for domestic trade, this calculation in a country like Nigeria generates EUR 10bn of additional cash flows: a foot on the ladder for growth-seeking SMEs.
Myth # 9: Agriculture, something of the past
Agriculture is the driver of economic growth in Africa: it remains the first contributor to employment and lifts millions of people out of poverty every year. Nevertheless, what is needed is a true green revolution to accelerate the catalyst role of the farming sector, by focusing productivity, market access and technologic contents.
In terms of growth by value of agricultural exports from 2005 to 2015, Ethiopia and Ivory Coast (+30%), Kenya and Rwanda (+20%) have specialised in high-value cash crops. Other countries, such as Zambia, Senegal and Morocco, have managed to use mechanisation and technology to increase agricultural productivity.
Myth # 10: It’s hard to find entrepreneurs and talents in Africa
Education levels are increasing in Africa. In particular, access to university education in Cameroon has grown from 4.6% in 2000 to 13% in 2013. However, even in South Africa, the most proficient student, the percentage of youth entering university is only 20% by age group. Furthermore, official statistics on entrepreneurship are disappointing: in South Africa, just to make an example, only two companies are set up every 1 000 inhabitants.
These low figures mask the rampant informal entrepreneurship that is set to remain the basis for human capital development in the short term. Therefore, attention should be focused just on this entrepreneurial environment, apart from access to education. In Nigeria and Uganda for example, the towns of Lagos and Kampala have only recently reformed their registry system, a big problem for all those wishing to start business.

The truth about Africa: 10 myths debunked

Donald Trump was declared the next president of the United States (US) on Wednesday, November 9. The election outcome caught markets by surprise, and the global economy is now facing significant uncertainty only months after another surprise decision by the United Kingdom to exit the European Union.
The consequences of a Trump presidency for Africa remain uncertain. Some broad Trump policy ideologies that have emerged include trade protectionism, fiscal austerity and anti-immigration, amongst others.
That said, questions remain as to how aggressive these policies will be pursued – Mr Trump’s stately victory speech was somewhat surprising and a sign that he will adopt a more measured approach as president.
The impact on global financial markets has been more muted than analysts feared, with initial sharp losses on major equity indices partially overturned on Wednesday already.
The safe-haven appeal of gold stood the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in good stead, although the rand lost some 2.4% of its value against the greenback by the time of writing. Having weathered some tumultuous storms this year emanating from global risk events, financial markets seem to have taken a more sanguine approach to the US political dynamics.
With regard to monetary policy, the latest political developments could very well see a slower pace of US interest rate normalisation, due to an increase in uncertainty and given that US economic growth is seen as lower-than-baseline under a Trump presidency. In addition, safe-haven appeal would likely add to downward pressure on bond yields.
Domestic challenges and policy reforms will play a defining role in relation to how sensitive African currencies are to US political developments in the near term.
Kenya and Zambia for example have made progress with reining in volatility in their respective local currency units by utilising the price mechanism rather than throttling forex supply – which incentivises parallel market activity – whilst setting a credible precedent that monetary policy will be utilised to discourage speculative long-dollar positions.
In turn, substantial barriers to capital flows and current account impediments continue to weigh on the largest West African economies, distorting benchmark pricing, suppressing economic growth, and undermining proper functioning of the monetary policy transmission mechanism, ultimately discouraging private flows.
In the face of these substantial domestic challenges, we do not see the primary source of risk to most African currencies and fixed income markets as stemming from US political dynamics. The latter will however increase the probability that certain African sovereigns may not be able to meet external borrowing targets. 
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﻿The medium- to long-term impact of Mr Trump’s presidency will only become clear once the dust has settled over the coming months. It is nonetheless prudent to briefly review the relationship between the US and Africa to identify some of the channels through which potential shocks could be transmitted.
Trade is one such channel to be mindful of, especially considering the president-elect’s protectionist stance in this regard.
Total trade between the US and Africa has declined sharply in recent years, mostly due to a decline in US imports from Africa – this is partly ascribed to the US shale-boom which reduced the need for African crude oil. In this sense, Africa has become less exposed to US demand. That said, a number of African countries still benefit immensely from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
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A shift towards an investment strategy that is more inward looking – possibly to rebuild infrastructure and create employment as Mr Trump alluded to in the victory speech – may also hold direct implications for Africa.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the US held the second largest amount of foreign direct investment stock in Africa in 2014. 
 The US also represents a key development partner of African countries. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US represents sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) principal benefactor in terms of bilateral official development aid (ODA).
A fiscal austerity drive could see the world’s largest economy rein in development aid, which would adversely affect countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
On the foreign policy front, many fear an escalation in conflict due to Mr Trump’s rhetoric regarding Islamic State, tearing up agreements with Iran, and renegotiating Nato agreements. But campaign trail rhetoric may in time give way to more level-headedness and American interests, and Mr Trump may backtrack on some of these statements.
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We are moving into uncharted territory.
In the near term, the biggest risk relates to the impact of uncertainty on financial markets. That said, global financial markets have weathered a number of storms, emanating from different avenues, this year.
The surprise US election vote once again underlines the importance of strengthening fiscal and external buffers to limit spill-over to African economies, although we see risks to domestic financial assets as stemming primarily from domestic sources as opposed to external events.
That said, economies with little excess slack may necessitate a faster and more aggressive pace of monetary policy tightening to rein in growth in consumer prices and to anchor inflation expectations should exchange rate volatility gather pace.
Looking further ahead, while far from being insulated from US shocks via the channels outlined above, Africa may not be very high on the Trump administration’s agenda at first.
However, this is of little comfort, as adverse implications of US policy on key trading partners will ultimately spill over into African countries.
US policy towards China has to be monitored carefully moving forward due to the possible impact on demand for African minerals, investments from Beijing, Chinese loans for infrastructure development and the likely impact on commodity prices.
It is still too early to ring the alarm bells, but at this point in time it is hard to see any major positive effects on Africa stemming from the outcome of the US election.﻿

OPINION: Will the US election outcome Trump Africa?

Recently, I have been intrigued to see how parts of this great continent are beginning to take up the mettle and make a mark when it comes to technology prowess, particularly, the platform economy.
We might still not have created the likes of Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, but our foray into M-Pesa, the platform that has come to define the era of mobile money in Africa and many other innovations, demonstrates that it won’t be long before the continent enters the ranks of producing a global platform of note.
I have been clamoring for a company to originate from Africa that creates games for the people of Africa and of course the world.  Gaming is the way one can express how their culture is reshaped and changes over a period of time &#8211; <a href="http://www.chopup.me/">Chopup</a> is one such tech platform.
Chopup is the brainchild of two youngsters in Nigeria, who have chased their dream to make sure African games like their peers around the world have a voice and more importantly, the people of this continent can also enjoy games that are made in their own circumstances.
These games that are created use the environment and caricature of the bustling energies of Lagos particularly the Yellow Combies, which pry commuters from one part of the city to the rest.
To get their creation going, these youngsters arranged gaming challenges at different universities across Nigeria, taking a cue from the playbook of the forerunner of the social media, Facebook.
These youngsters have won accolades about their growing creation in gaming and continue to learn and aspire to take their games across the continent and world.
Recently, their games have been uploaded into the gaming portals of MTN, Etisalat and Huawei and are slowly making their way across the continent.
The journey of these two youngsters is still in its infancy, but the steps taken shout of a growing tech future as attested by the recent visit by Mark Zuckerberg to Nigeria and Kenya
*YPO is a global community of chief executives dedicated to becoming Better Leaders through Lifelong Learning and Idea Exchange.TM  We create trusted spaces where leaders gather, connect, share and grow. The YPO platform provides more than 24,000 members in more than 130 countries – representing diversified industries and types of businesses – with access to extraordinary educational opportunities, alliances with leading institutions, and interest-based communities to support their businesses, communities and families. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.ypo.org/">ypo.org</a> .﻿

A Nigerian startup that's redefining gaming in Africa

Millions of Americans, especially those in the Washington establishment, woke up on Wednesday feeling shocked and hurt by the surprise election of Donald Trump to the White House. But like every failure or painful turn in life, it will mean nothing and lead to nothing but hurt feelings unless these wounded Americans learn a real lesson today and become tomorrow&#8217;s wise. To do that, they must accept and learn the real reason Trump won.
First, they need to ignore the prevailing angry explanations that are all off the mark. The first incorrect reason many of us began hearing well before Election Day was that Trump was being bolstered by overt racists and more nuanced &#8220;alt-right&#8221; haters who were acting like a springboard after eight years of an African-American in the Oval Office. That theory went further to insist that Trump&#8217;s hard-line stance against illegal Mexican immigrants invigorated a nascent nativist hatred movement.
But the facts simply didn&#8217;t bear that out throughout the election and now we know that even more based on the fact that Trump did five points better than Mitt Romney among black voters and two points better among Latinos. Trump&#8217;s victory is simply not the result of some kind of burgeoning race war.
&#8220;This is a divide that truly began in America during the Vietnam War, which was protested and defended by the rich and upper middle class while the lower middle class and poor actually did the fighting in country. That divide and the wounds from it have never really healed.&#8221;
The second reason many people have been using as a crutch against the real reason for Trump&#8217;s victory is sexism. Many of us are being led to believe that, in the end, too many American voters just wouldn&#8217;t vote for Hillary Clinton because she&#8217;s a woman. There&#8217;s probably no way to prove this is false via statistics. But based on what most of us saw and heard on social media and elsewhere throughout the election, it sure seems like more people voted for Clinton because she&#8217;s a woman rather than the other way around. Moreover, if the morose Left would just try to find a silver lining in all of this today it might realize that Clinton&#8217;s gender never really played much of a role at all in this election for the overwhelming majority of Americans. A glass ceiling has indeed been broken when it comes to the way voters think. That should not be forgotten or missed.
The last wrong explanation for Clinton&#8217;s loss is one people both on the Left and the Right are making: The Clinton email scandal. Of course, the continuing cloud of the on again/off again FBI investigation into Clinton&#8217;s illegal private email server didn&#8217;t help her campaign. But it always served as one of those fake reasons people give for not voting for someone they just never were going to support anyway. That is not to say the use of the server wasn&#8217;t reckless and serious, but Clinton&#8217;s fate was sealed long before most Americans had ever really learned of the scandal or knew the name &#8220;James Comey.&#8221;
Nope, the real reasons Trump won have been real in America for at least the last 40 or so years. They are all the same reasons I finally recognized five-plus months ago when I first realized he was headed to victory. It&#8217;s simple: The largest single economic group in our country has been sold out and ignored by the leaders of both parties for more than a generation. They are the hourly wage-earning Americans who have been bounced around from good manufacturing jobs, to service jobs, to seasonal work without the rest of us noticing that much. And that&#8217;s even though there are a lot more of them than the college-educated white collar office workers out there. You know the financial uncertainty you felt last night when you saw the Dow futures crash down by 750 points? That&#8217;s the kind of emotion millions of your fellow Americans have been feeling every night for years even though they&#8217;re not &#8220;poor&#8221; or even necessarily unemployed.
These are the people who have been the acceptable sacrifices for our trade and wage-deflating immigration policies that do boost our economy overall &#8230; just not for them. These are the people who have been scoffed at for not choosing to go to college, even though doing so has become an exercise in playing a game of &#8220;economic chicken&#8221; with student loans and irrelevant skills.
And it goes beyond economics. This is a divide that truly began in America during the Vietnam War, which was protested and defended by the rich and upper middle class while the lower middle class and poor actually did the fighting in country. That divide and the wounds from it have never really healed. I doubt we&#8217;ll ever see an exit poll this specific, but I&#8217;d be willing to bet that Trump won 60 percent plus of the Vietnam veterans&#8217; vote because he spoke to their past and current pain in a way actual Vietnam vets like John Kerry and John McCain — guys who actually served in the war — never could.
Since Trump can&#8217;t affect positive changes for this group of long-ignored Americans without help, it&#8217;s imperative that Democrats and Republicans get acquainted, really acquainted, with the people who elected him.
Hillary Clinton and the 16 Republicans who lost to Trump in the primaries failed because they really have thought of this group of people as &#8220;deplorables.&#8221; Clinton was just the unlucky one who got caught saying so.
The good news is that this is not a segment of the population that relies on welfare or needs new government handouts. In fact, just knowing that someone in Washington is finally listening to them and not writing them off as racists or Neanderthals will be an amazing start. And the politicians and other establishment types who do the most and best listening over the next four years will be the ones who move this country the most forward and reap the most rewards.﻿

OPINION: Sorry, uncovering America’s racist underbelly wasn’t why Trump won

The Republican nominee, Donald Trump has sensationally won the White House as the next President of the United States of America and democratically elected Leader of the Free World. But what, if anything, does this mean for South Africa?
US Consul General of the United States in South Africa, Teddy Taylor recently advised that there is no reason to expect any changes in the US’ relationship with Southern Africa.“People change, but our institutions remain the same. Our institutions will survive the results of the elections,”said Taylor. According to Taylor, US foreign policy is (currently) geared to strengthen governance and institutions of governance to enhance trade and create jobs 
A key question would therefore be the extent to which Obama’s successor will deviate from the present trajectory of US foreign policy.
In this regard, the economic policy which has strongly been advocated by President-Elect Donald Trump to date, has been very isolationist. During his campaign, Trump indicated multiple times that should he win, harsher trade restrictions will be put in place with emerging markets such as Mexico and China – thereby creating more job opportunities for Americans.
In addition, on the topic of South Africa, Trump stated during his campaign:“South Africa is a total and very dangerous mess”. Trump also expressed his views on South Africa upon the passing of former-president Nelson Mandela: “I really like Nelson Mandela but South Africa is a crime ridden mess that is just waiting to explode – not a good situation for the people”.Trump has also during his campaign been less engaged on international trade, foreign aid and providing multilateral solutions to international problems such as climate change. It is therefore likely that Trump will be loathe to engage with South Africa during his tenure as President.
What would this mean for South Africa? The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a United States Trade Act, enacted on 18 May 2000. This Act seeks to provide assistance to African economies and to facilitate bilateral trade between Africa and the US through the provision of, for example, tax free exports from African countries to the US.
As one of South Africa’s largest trading partners, trade with the US amounted to US$12.7 billion in income for South Africa in 2015. South African exports to the US were valued at US$896 million for the year to date, in June 2016. The AGOA has also since its inception created 60 000 jobs for South Africans in the labour-intensive agriculture and automotive industries. The AGOA Act has since been renewed to 2025. However, negotiations regarding the renewal of the Act are set to take place during Trump’s tenure as President. In view of the above, it is at this stage uncertain which position Trump will take in relation to the renewal of this Act.
In addition, in terms of the role of US banks in project and trade finance, short term financing and the like, South Africa has the largest exposure of any country within the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) region at 43% of our Growth Domestic Product (GDP). Uncertainty regarding the stance that Trump will take in relation to the emerging economies such as South Africa is likely to mean that foreign investment will move to safe-haven markets or markets with minimal (or beneficial) exposure to the USA such as Russia and Hungary. This may therefore result in a direct decline in foreign investment into South Africa.
Historically, during a period of economic uncertainty and periods where business opportunities are less certain, companies reduce their investments which are longer term and where returns are uncertain such as investments in innovation. Some smaller enterprises and new entrants to a market may actively increase their innovation expenditure during such a period in an attempt to “swim against the current” and capitalize on the stance taken by their more conservative competitors.
In an emerging economy such as South Africa we need to remain focussed to ensure that our companies and our country remains globally relevant during an economic downturn. The only way in which we can do so is to continue to actively invest in the development of new technology and ideas, especially where the potential market spans beyond the borders of South Africa. This can only be done by maintaining investment in the R&amp;D and innovation processes during tough economic times.
Globally, we are moving towards a “knowledge-based economy” and South Africa cannot afford to fall behind in this regard. The short-term impact of Trump’s election as the next President of the United States may hold less than ideal consequences for the fledgling South African economy.  However, it is up to South African businesses to ensure that we remain ahead of the game and remain competitive internationally in the longer term. ﻿

OPINION: S.A business should focus on R&D to survive Trump, retain investor confidence

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Wednesday she was saddened by the fact U.S. voters had not elected a woman president, and expressed concern about what President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s policy towards Africa would be.
Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to be elected a head of state in Africa, said: &#8220;We are extremely saddened by this missed opportunity on the part of the people of the United States to join smaller democracies in ending the marginalisation of women.&#8221;
In an interview with BBC television, she said that Liberia, a nation founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves, had a long and historical relationship with the United States and she expected that to continue.
&#8220;We are concerned as to whether President-elect Trump will have an African agenda, will be able to build bridges with Africa. We can only hope that he will do so in due course.
&#8220;I&#8217;m worried about trade deals for Liberia, for Africa. I&#8217;m worried about investment and the special programmes that have been put in place by President Obama and by President George Bush before him, and we just don&#8217;t know what the policy towards Africa will be.&#8221;﻿

Liberia's Johnson Sirleaf saddened after Trump win

Kenya plans to increase coffee roasting and is encouraging farmers to link up with foreign partners who can help build markets abroad, to add value to its raw bean exports that are a major source of foreign exchange.
Kenya grows just 1 percent of the world&#8217;s coffee a year, but punches above its weight in quality as many global firms seek its arabica beans to blend with lower quality varieties.
However, most of its produce is exported as cleaned beans and just 5 percent is roasted, so Kenya misses out on the added value from selling roasted and packaged coffee.
Kenya produced 45,000 tonnes of beans in the 2015/16 season and forecasts output of 50,000 tonnes in 2016/17.
It is seeking to raise the amount of coffee roasted locally by 5 to 10 percent annually over the next five years, Richard Lesiyampe, principal secretary for agriculture, told Reuters.
&#8220;Any value addition that can give us more money, that is the direction we want to take. We should actually go to 50 percent if possible,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is really ambitious but can be done.&#8221;
In the coffee growing region of the central highlands, Othaya Farmers Co-operative is installing a roasting machine and a grinder at a cost of 50 million shillings ($500,000) to produce packed coffee for local retail and export in future.
The aim is boost earnings for the co-operative&#8217;s 15,000 farmers, who now earn a maximum of 78 shillings per kg on the best quality raw beans but could earn 100 shillings after roasting, co-operative chairman James Gathua told Reuters.
While a 50-kg bag of top grade AA coffee fetches about $500 at the weekly auction in Nairobi, a bag of lower grade coffee goes for about $150. But experts say the value of this lower grade coffee can be doubled when roasted.
&#8220;Opportunities exist for private partnerships with roasters abroad, who have expressed interest in investing in roasting machinery in Kenya,&#8221; Kenya&#8217;s industry regulator, the Coffee Directorate, said in response to questions.
Among the new entrants, Denmark&#8217;s African Coffee Roasters (ACR) set up a roasting facility this year.
For now, local roasting is dominated by C. Dorman Ltd, which operates a chain of coffee shops in Kenya and also exports to foreign markets, and Java House, which has a fast growing chain of coffee shops and restaurants that is expending beyond Kenya.
President Uhuru Kenyatta launched a study this year into ways of revive coffee production, now roughly half output at its peak in the 1980s.
Growers want the government to support producers including by removing duty on roasting machines.
&#8220;If the government can support us, the portion of locally roasted coffee can go to 10 percent in the next three years,&#8221; said Matthew Mugo, the managing director of Gibsons coffee Co.
$1 = 101.7000 Kenyan shillings)﻿

Kenya increasing coffee roasting to lift earnings

Isabel Dos Santos, daughter of Angolan President Jose dos Santos, defended on Wednesday her father&#8217;s decision to appoint her head of the state oil firm, saying she had been picked for a her expertise and competence.
Ranked as Africa&#8217;s richest woman by Forbes magazine, Isabel Dos Santos was given the job of chief executive of Sonangol in June, prompting 14 lawyers to file a lawsuit accusing the president of nepotism and violating Angolan probity law.
&#8220;The issue of my professional competence does not seem to be something reasonable,&#8221; she told reporters at the opening of a school funded by Sonangol. &#8220;To me this looks to be part of the political games ahead of elections.&#8221;
The Angolan Supreme Court asked the president last month to respond to an inquiry on his appointment of his daughter, court papers seen by Reuters showed.﻿

Angola's Isabel Dos Santos defends her appointment to run state oil firm

South Africa&#8217;s weak economic growth and heightened political risk are a risk to its investment grade sovereign credit rating, the central bank said on Wednesday.
In its second and last financial stability review for 2016, the Reserve Bank also said thin liquidity was a recurring problem for the rand currency, and it would closely monitor conditions in the currency market.
Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy is only expected to expand by 0.5 percent this year, down from a target of 0.9 percent the Treasury set in February.
The central bank also cut its own estimate to 0.4 percent in September, and kept interest rates on hold as a result, despite inflation pressures.
&#8220;The low economic growth is presenting headwinds to the domestic banking sector and has put the country&#8217;s sovereign credit rating at risk,&#8221; the bank said. &#8220;Key threats to the country&#8217;s sovereign rating also include heightened domestic risk.&#8221;
Ratings agencies, which are due to review South Africa&#8217;s rating before the end of the year, have warned of downgrades over the underperforming economy, and the political turmoil.
Moody&#8217;s rates South Africa two notches above subinvestment grade, with a negative outlook, while Fitch and S&amp;P Global Ratings have it just a step above &#8220;junk&#8221;.
Investors have been jittery since President Jacob Zuma inexplicably changed finance ministers twice within a week in December, replacing the well-respected Nhlanhla Nene with an relatively unknown junior politician.
Zuma re-appointed Nene&#8217;s predecessor Pravin Gordhan to calm markets after a run on the rand and government bonds, but an ongoing police probe into Gordhan&#8217;s role in setting up a surveillance unit at the tax department, which police say spied on politicians, has hurt sentiment.
Gordhan, who denies any wrong doing, has called the investigation, as well as fraud charges, which were later dropped, politically motivated. Prosecutors have rejected the accusation.

Cenbank : S.Africa's low economic growth a risk to credit rating.

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<div class="attribution"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a> threw out campaign spending conventions as he stormed his way to the American presidency.</div>
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The businessman racked up 278 electoral votes as of Wednesday morning, versus 228 for Clinton, with three states still not called by NBC News.
Trump did so with thin traditional campaign spending. His chaotic and often divisive campaign drew constant eyeballs, earning him billions of dollars in free media and allowing him to spend comparatively little on television ads and ground operations.
READ: <a href="/news/financial/2016/11/09/trump-the-real-work-begins-now/">Trump: The real work begins now, will Africa feature?﻿</a> 
His campaign committee spent about $238.9 million through mid-October, compared with $450.6 million by Clinton&#8217;s. That equals about $859,538 spent per Trump electoral vote, versus about $1.97 million spent per Clinton electoral vote.
Those numbers do not include spending from Oct. 20 to Election Day.
While Trump&#8217;s campaign increased its spending on television ads in its final election push, it still used the traditional outreach tool much less than Clinton&#8217;s did. As of late October, Clinton spent&#8217;s campaign spent about $141.7 million on ads, compared with $58.8 million for Trump&#8217;s campaign, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/clinton-maintains-nearly-3-1-ad-spending-edge-n672766" target="_blank" title="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/clinton-maintains-nearly-3-1-ad-spending-edge-n672766" class="inline_asset">according to NBC News</a>.
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<div class="bx-row bx-row-text bx-row-text-default bx-row-mLF9Ah9 bx-element-344155-mLF9Ah9">That disparity extended to campaign payrolls. For example, Clinton&#8217;s campaign had about 800 people on payroll at the end of August, versus about 130 for Trump&#8217;s. Democrats often have larger ground operations than Republicans.</div>
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Still, it wasn&#8217;t just Clinton who heavily outspent Trump. He shelled out much less money than other recent nominees, as well.
Through mid-October 2012, the campaigns of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent $630.8 million and $360.7 million, respectively.
Obama&#8217;s campaign also spent about $593.9 million through mid-October 2008. Sen. John McCain&#8217;s 2008 campaign actually spent less than Trump, about $216.8 million through mid-October.﻿
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The cost of Trump vs Clinton's election campaign

So here we have it; Donald Trump is the US President-elect and will be inaugurated in Washington DC on Friday January 20 2017. Against all odds, he not only secured the Republican nomination earlier this year but also defeated Democratic stalwart Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In itself it is an extraordinary feat but for someone from outside the political establishment, it seemed to be virtually impossible. But now the real work begins and he will be tested to the limit in his capacity as the most powerful person on the planet.
And that is probably the key to Trump’s success; his unique brand of obnoxious, politically incorrect and anti-establishment rhetoric obviously appealed to the marginalized in American society i.e. the former steelworkers in the so-called “rust-belt” states whose jobs have long ago migrated to China and elsewhere. It wasn’t difficult to identify them on international news feeds, as they were only too happy to be seen in public supporting their hero.
This perhaps disguised a different type of voter; the “closet Trump voter”- the voter who was ashamed to admit in public that he or she supported Trump and yet in the privacy of the ballot box were only too happy to draw their cross against his name.
There is precedent for this type of behaviour, first of all in the UK General Election of 2015, when Conservative Party supporters obviously felt stigmatised by voicing their support for the Conservative Party in opinion polls and secondly in the “Brexit” referendum in Britain in June 2016, when the Leave voters hid their light under a bushel for fear of being victimized for even suggesting leaving the European Union. In both instances, the opinion polls got it horribly wrong and the seeming underdogs won. As they did, with Donald Trump.
But Trump now inherits a huge responsibility, one that he may not be prepared for. His attention will have to be directed first and foremost with an inward focus to the deeply fractured American society. The country is hugely divided and a deep healing process will be required in order to get the buy-in of the majority of the population. That will take time.
He has promised a lot and it is doubtful whether many of his outrageous proposals such as erecting a wall between the US and Mexico, or immediately banning immigration of Muslims into the USA, will ever be accomplished. But he has to tread a very difficult path here, as many people voted for just such things, as horrendous, distasteful and impractical as they are. Once again, it will take time to please this segment of the population.
One of the most positive, albeit expensive exercises on which his administration will need to embark on is a wholesale rejuvenation of the creaking infrastructure in the US. Trump raised this issue in the election campaign, highlighting how shameful American airports appear alongside their emerging economy peers. Of course this may be difficult to achieve against a backdrop of a debt to GDP ratio approaching 120%.
Trump will need to surround himself with advisors who have a good track record and the will to begin implementing policies that make sense. Foreign policy will be one of his biggest challenges and like his predecessors in the White House, he will be given precious little time to prepare.
This leaves Africa.
The African continent has been struggling economically in the past year or so, with growth having come tumbling down from 6% forecast in 2014 to the current forecast of 1.5%. It will not be surprising, given the other pressing, mainly domestic issues which Trump will have to address in his first couple of years, if Africa slides to the very back burner.
Financial markets and emerging market currencies plummeted on the realisation of a Trump victory but have rebounded quickly. These are some of the best barometers of what may or may not happen as a direct result of political events.
Most people on Wednesday 9 November were walking around in utter disbelief on hearing the news of Trump’s victory. It is perhaps reflective of our rapidly evolving world that change is our only constant.
Donald Trump is an unknown quantity…a maverick…and somebody who appears to have the potential to do some really stupid things. But this may not necessarily be the case if sanity prevails. We also sometimes forget how little real power is vested in the office of the President of the US. There are many checks and balances embedded in the American constitution and the latitude for a manic to “press the nuclear button” is, in fact, limited.﻿

Trump: The real work begins now, will Africa feature?

Thomson Reuters Foundation
It is only 6 am but Veronica Lemungat is already setting up shop at the Namanga open-air market, on the Tanzania-Kenya border. She brushes twigs off her striped red and blue dress, and places a bundle of firewood at her feet.
Her back still aches from carrying the 10 kg (22 lb) load on the two-hour journey from Longindo, her village in northern Tanzania.
&#8220;I collect the firewood from the bush in the evening and go to the market in the morning because it is not too hot,&#8221; she explained.
Prolonged periods of drought in the region have depleted grazing land, forcing pastoralists to travel with their herds for weeks at a time – sometimes months – to look for greener pastures.
With their men gone, pastoralist women like Lemungat must find new ways to boost their income &#8211; by collecting and selling firewood, for example.
&#8220;Drought dries up rangeland vegetation, making firewood readily available in the bush,&#8221; Lemungat told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
For a 10 kg bundle of firewood, the mother of three makes 4,310 Tanzanian shillings (about $2) each day.
&#8220;With this money, I buy maize flour and vegetables to cook for my family,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s better than staying at home like I used to, with only sour milk to survive on during drought.&#8221;
 
KENYA BAN
Although Tanzanian law doesn&#8217;t expressly forbid collecting firewood in the wild, the country&#8217;s minister for agriculture, livestock and fisheries, Charles John Tizeba, told a conference in Nairobi in September the practice could lead to deforestation and encroachment of protected areas.
Harvesting rangeland vegetation is illegal in Kenya, however, which drives Kenyan traders to cross the border at Namanga, looking for firewood.
&#8220;I rely on firewood to make charcoal,&#8221; said Thomas Mwanzia, a Kenyan charcoal trader who buys wood at the Namanga market.
&#8220;Getting firewood in Kenya is becoming very difficult because the government protects natural resources like forests and rangelands.&#8221;
Another looming threat for Lemungat and other traders is Tanzanian youth, who have also identified firewood as a potential income source and trade it riding motorbikes.
&#8220;A motorbike can carry five times what I can carry on my back and reach the market faster,&#8221; said Lemungat. &#8220;The higher number of sellers is bringing firewood prices down in Tanzania.&#8221;
Collecting and selling firewood is not what she had hoped for in life.
In 2014, she tried to convince her husband to sell part of the family&#8217;s livestock and use the money to invest in a fresh milk business in Namanga. But he refused, saying his animals were more important.
According to Hellen Ntinina, a Maasai community leader in Namanga, &#8220;the main occupation among the Maasai is livestock herding – a man who owns livestock is respected by others&#8221;.
 
BRACELETS AND BEES
Dyno Keatinge, chair of the Association of International Research and Development Centers for Agriculture, a food security alliance, acknowledged that practices like collecting firewood may lead to deforestation in East African countries without laws to protect forests and the environment.
But there are other ways for pastoralists to boost their income without depleting rangelands, he added.
&#8220;Rather than directly exploiting natural resources, herders should have a good mixture of income-boosting activities to then withstand recurring drought if needed,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;Maasai women, for instance, are very good at making ornaments like bracelets and necklaces – the government should support that activity by linking the women to markets.&#8221;
George Marona, a community elder in Namanga, said non-profit groups like World Neighbors are training communities to set up modern beehives on rangelands, instead of harvesting the vegetation for firewood and charcoal burning.
The beehives have wooden frames where the honey is stored, which can be removed without crushing the bees, he said.
&#8220;This prevents people from using fire to scare away bees and harvest honey, as they normally do for traditional beehives, with flames that can lead to dangerous bush fires,&#8221; he explained.
 
($1 = 2,175.0000 Tanzanian shillings)﻿

Tanzanian herders trade firewood for food as drought effects are felt

Thomson Reuters Foundation
The 21 Chibok schoolgirls freed by Boko Haram militants last month say they were not abused or raped during two-and-a-half years&#8217; captivity in northeast Nigeria, a source close to the presidency said on Wednesday.
Many girls kidnapped by the Islamist militant group have been used as sex slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.
But the 21 freed girls said the militants treated them well while they were held captive, according to a confidential report based on their two-week debriefing prepared for President Muhammadu Buhari and seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The girls, released last month after Switzerland and the Red Cross brokered a deal, are now being held in a secret location in the capital Abuja for assessment by the Nigerian government.
State health workers confirmed that the girls were not sexually abused while in captivity, adding that they all tested negative for sexually transmitted diseases, the report said.
&#8220;The girls said the Boko Haram men always assured them that they would eventually go back home to their families, and were careful about what they said around the girls and how they treated them,&#8221; said the source, who declined to be named.
&#8220;They had been fed well and regularly, until the military cut off Boko Haram supplies,&#8221; the government source added.
More than 200 girls were seized from their school in April 2014 in Chibok in Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people.
Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children but the abduction of the Chibok girls &#8211; some 200 of whom are still missing &#8211; prompted outrage worldwide and their plight was publicised using a Twitter hashtag, #bringbackourgirls. 
 
NO FORCED MARRIAGE, CONVERSION
The daily routine for the girls, who were moved in captivity between the northeastern town of Gwoza and the Sambisa forest, a Boko Haram stronghold, involved personal time in the morning followed by Koranic teaching and cooking meals, the report said.
Most of the girls said they were held in makeshift dwellings made of zinc sheets in Sambisa, while those who were married lived with their militant husbands in camps across the forest.
The 21 recently released girls said that while the Boko Haram militants advised them to marry and convert to Islam, they were not forced into doing so, according to the report.
&#8220;The girls said that those of them who did not agree to marry were used as house girls (servants),&#8221; the source said.
The girls recognised almost all the faces of Boko Haram members on a government most-wanted list, but did not know the militants&#8217; names and never saw the Islamist group&#8217;s established figurehead Abubakar Shekau, according to the source.
When shown pictures of 142 of their still missing classmates, the girls said 61 had married Boko Haram militants, eight had died during Nigerian air force strikes, three during childbirth, and one of an unknown cause, the report found.
Another Chibok girl and her 10-month-old son were discovered by troops days ago while they were screening escapees from Boko Haram&#8217;s base in the Sambisa forest.
The first of the Chibok girls to be released by Boko Haram, Amina Ali, was freed in May. Ali has since been held in a house in Abuja for what the state has called a &#8220;restoration process&#8221;. She said in August that she &#8220;just wanted to go home&#8221;.
Boko Haram controlled a swathe of land around the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria&#8217;s army has recaptured most of the territory. The group still stages suicide bombings in the northeast, as well as in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.﻿

Freed Chibok girls spared from abuse by Nigeria's Boko Haram

OPEC&#8217;s job of trying to prop up oil prices has just got much harder.
With Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election, the 14-country oil-producing cartel may have to battle a sourer outlook for the global economy and weaker demand for crude.
It also faces the prospect of increased U.S. oil output &#8211; a major bugbear for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries &#8211; given Trump&#8217;s pledge to open all federal land and waters for fossil fuel exploration.
OPEC&#8217;s internal dynamic could change, with Trump promising to tighten policies on Iran just as oil companies begin slowly to return to the Islamic Republic.
&#8220;Buckle up your seatbelts for a more turbulent and uncertain global economy that is ahead,&#8221; Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. oil historian Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman of the IHS Markit think tank, told Reuters.
&#8220;The outcome of the U.S. election adds to the challenges for the oil exporters because it will likely lead to weaker economic growth in an already fragile global economy. And that means additional pressure on oil demand,&#8221; Yergin said.
Oil prices fell almost 4 percent early on Wednesday but recovered to trade up slightly at around $46 per barrel by 1055 GMT.
OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 in an effort to curtail output and reduce the global oil glut that has seen prices more than halve since 2014.
OPEC sources said they expected oil to remain weak in the days and weeks ahead due to worries about the global economy and uncertainty about Trump&#8217;s policies for the Middle East.
&#8220;Oil is doomed,&#8221; one of the sources said.
A second source said the OPEC meeting in November might fail to have a strong impact on prices even if it strikes a deal to limit output: &#8220;I don’t think prices will go up much more than the current levels.&#8221;
Trump has promised to double U.S. economic growth but also pledged protectionist trade policies.
&#8220;This will have huge negative implications for Asia, given how much their GDP is tied to trade with the U.S. Hence it is negative for growth and oil demand, at least due to the uncertainty that Trump creates,&#8221; said Amrita Sen, of the think tank Energy Aspects.
Trump&#8217;s energy policies have been limited in detail so far.
But what he has said will be seen as supportive for the share prices of U.S. independent oil and gas producers as well as oil majors with large exposure to the U.S. shale industry such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell.
&#8220;Trump has vowed to lead a fossil-fuel revival to underpin job growth and has also put man-made climate change denial at the forefront of his energy policy,&#8221; JBC Energy analysts said in a note.
Trump said he was in favour of removing oil-sector regulations, opening federal land to drilling, and vowed to revive a major trans-Canadian and trans-U.S. oil pipeline project while pledging to support the coal industry.
The stocks of oil majors BP and Shell were down in line with the price of crude, while France&#8217;s Total underperformed peers.
Earlier this week, Total signed a deal with Iran to help it develop a huge gas field, becoming the first Western energy company to ink a major deal with Tehran since the lifting of international sanctions this year.
Trump has criticised the West&#8217;s nuclear deal with Iran, adding to uncertainty and frustrating Tehran&#8217;s push for foreign investment to revive its economy.
An executive from an oil major negotiating with Iran said that given Tehran wanted to repay investments slowly, maybe over five to 10 years, many oil firms would take a slow approach in finalising deals until Trump&#8217;s policies became clearer.
&#8220;It is a significant amount of money that will be put at risk should sanctions be brought back,&#8221; the executive said.﻿

OPEC's job has just become tougher with Trump win

Unfortunately divorce is an all too common reality in our current times. Statistics reflect that as the year winds down to a close, partners contemplate the reality of dissolving a union that is no longer working.
Most people going through a divorce will agree that the initial stages can be overwhelming – in fact the changes happen so quickly that the alternative &#8211; to stick their head in the sand and hide, may well seem a more attractive option.
As with most daunting undertakings, a plan and a checklist will assist. There are a few essential steps that need to be taken in contemplation of divorce proceedings to ensure that the financial settlement will be fair and you will be financially independent and secure once the divorce is finalised.
This is according to Lisa Griffiths, Associate Director of BDO Wealth Advisers, who highlights the following list of “to-do’s” to prepare for divorce:
1.  Establish a team of professional advisers
“Firstly, it is essential that you find your own lawyer and that it should not be a person who has or will act for your spouse.”
 “Also ensure that you have your own financial planner – their role will be critical in analysing the financial data. Once again, your planner should not be a person who will also act for your spouse – there is a clear conflict of interest!”
2.  Gather all of your financial information and documentation
“You need to be fully aware of the complete and complex financial situation facing you. Understand all of your debts — not only what the two of you have jointly, but also individually. To avoid any unforeseen surprises, you need to comprehend the full picture on credit card accounts, home loans, car finance and even other items such as personal loans, business debts and retail accounts. You must be prepared to disclose your full financial status.”
“Be prepared. It is so much easier to navigate divorce negotiations if you have the full financial information available early on in the proceedings,” says Griffiths, who goes on to advise that one should also keep a second set of documentation in a safe place.
3.  Establish your own financial identity
“Start by conducting a credit check on yourself.  Subsequently, open your own accounts that are solely in your name. This includes cheque, credit cards, savings, retirement plans, and even things like insurance. You should rout all of your deposits and salary payments through this account.”
4. Renegotiate bond repayments and/or rental agreements
Griffiths advises that if you have purchased a home together or are jointly on the lease of your current residence, you need to carefully consider your options when you prepare for divorce.  The bank that holds the home loan or the landlord that owns the property will expect the payments to be made regardless of your personal situation.
“Whilst you may want to move out and on as soon as you can, doing so may hurt your claim to the property.  For those who share the bond or rental payments, you are jointly responsible for this financial commitment.  In some cases, the two spouses can come to an arrangement about who keeps the house and what concessions are to be made. However, often the sale of the jointly held home is a cleaner process.”
5.  Change your Will
“Many couples have a joint Will.  If this is your situation, you need to draft a new Will drafted in your own name,” cautions Griffiths.  “If you already have your own Will then ensure that it is adjusted based on the divorce settlement agreement. You need to discuss and consider various issues such as who would be the executor of the estate or, if you have children, how children from your current marriage may be treated when compared with possible children or stepchildren from a future marriage.”
Griffiths states that reviewing your estate plan, no matter how small, is essential and will help to avoid any grey areas in the future — some of which may take years to surface and more years to resolve – if ever.
6.  Child maintenance
“If you have children, child support will absolutely be an issue when you financially prepare for divorce.  As parents you should (hopefully) be able to amicably come to an agreement that is equitable to the children and that does not affect their accustomed needs. If you won&#8217;t have primary custody of the children, accept that you will be paying some form of child maintenance. How much you pay is up to you and your spouse — and your financial situation. The court holds the view that the children’s needs come first and if you and your spouse cannot find a common ground, you will be at the mercy of the court imposed decision, based on the information presented by your attorneys.”
7.  Be vigilant
Griffiths cautions that in preparing for divorce it is not unheard of for a spouse to act in an unethical way and so you must be vigilant and watch for any unusual expenditure by your spouse and also pay attention to any unusual paperwork in respect of any of your assets.
“When it comes to financial planning for divorce, following the above advice can save both you and your spouse a lot of financial and emotional pain. It will also make it so much easier to establish your own life after the divorce,” concludes Griffiths. ﻿

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