Thomas Johnson - The Blog

South Africa has a new financial regulatory model called "Twin Peaks" based on Australia's.  Financial services will be regulated by two regulators - the Prudential Authority responsible for prudential regulation and Financial Sector Control Authority for market conduct and consumer protection. In the article Twin Peaks: the good, bad and ugly  (Business Times) Roxanne Henderson writes: “In the Twin Peaks model, financial services will be regulated by ... the Financial Sector Control Body (FSCA) to strengthen the country’s approach to consumer protection and market conduct.”   She quotes U niversity of Western Australia financial regulation expert Andy Schmulow who said “the implementation is going to be absolutely crucial”; UNISA law professor Michelle Kelly-Louw: “Australia’s model [on which South Africa’s is based] had encouraged deeper consumer participation in the financial services sector, which South Africa needed”, and Odette de Beer: “t...

Groundup is a Cape Town non-profit online magazine.   According to its mission they “report news that is in the public interest, with an emphasis on the human rights of vulnerable communities. We want our stories to make a difference”.   It was one of a dwindling handful of local online magazines I read, that is, until today.   It reported on issues affecting the community including small stories that might not be published elsewhere. Its stories are often republished. I thought its reportage was honest and trenchant. I particularly liked its coverage of Cape Town's water crisis.  They published many of my letters about various topics except three, two of which were about public healthcare. But I no longer read it because Groundup has revealed it’s little different to South Africa’s declining media. The final straw for me was Khayelitsha Hospital under the spotlight about the hospital’s failure to address patients’ complaints.   I wrote a lette...

In her Daily Maverick column premier of the Western Cape Helen Zille writes: “Why being corrupt is harder than you think”. “Honest officials must apply the rules without fear or favour. This is why I’m more than amazed at how people get away with corruption in South Africa.” Zille, in my view, is one of the most disingenuous and sanctimonious politicians in the country.   She presents herself as omniscient and expert of all things governance, ethics and those matters she has little to no direct knowledge of, e.g., her oft-stated opinion audits of government departments is a hindrance to service delivery and must be changed.   When I disputed the last in a comment to one of her columns – when Daily Maverick still allowed comments – she replied I didn’t understand government audits (I was once a contracted auditor-general auditor). To her credit, she’s often fearlessly, and at times inadvisably, gone against the flow of public opinion, mostly on Twitter, despite the...