Cosatu pushes Parliament for R10bn fuel bailout & Joburgers invited to capture the city

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

And now, The Money Show with Stephen Grootes on 702 Let's walk the talk.

Stephen Grootes (0:07)

The Money Show with Stephen Grootes is brought to you by Absa Corporates and Investment Banking, connecting global finance to the future. That's how Absa's invested in your story. Nine minutes after six, good evening. Welcome to the program. I'm Stephen Grootes. I did think that there would be calls at some point for government to intervene in fuel prices. And if you look at diesel prices, likely to go up by three round a litre next week. And now Cosatu has sort of made that call. We'll speak to them in a few moments. But I think my first question to you tonight would be, where do you think money could come from to help government do this? So would that be something government stops spending on? Or is there money somewhere else? Where would you start? Where would the money come from to help manage fuel prices? Basically, to stop some of the tax, in other words, that money has to come from somewhere, or perhaps to subsidise it in some other way, although the history of subsidising fuel around the world is a very difficult and often quite bitter one. All sorts of unintended consequences. I wouldn't suggest that at all. But where do you think the money could come from to basically reduce fuel taxes, or taxes on fuel rather? I can think of one or two places.

Let me just get it out the way so that you don't have to. I'm sure someone will suggest the VIP protection unit.

There might be other places, but 72 702 1702, please. We will talk to Matthew Parks from Cosatu about that in a few moments. But before that, the newly appointed CEO of the Road Accident Fund, Wasim Karim. Aish, what a job. Wouldn't want that. We'll ask him why he's taken it and agree to it in just a moment. There's a really ambitious plan taking place in Joberg over the weekend. The idea is to try and catch the city in as many places as possible over a 24-hour period.

I think it's got a really interesting idea. We'll speak to Dawn Robertson, the Creative Economy Catalyst at Jozi My Jozi. I think that's going to be quite interesting. And then don't forget, just before 7 o'clock, the Friday Bis Blitz as well, some very interesting questions to come. We're really looking forward to that, actually, just before 7 o'clock. Good to hear from you tonight. 11 AA30702, 21 4460567 And where should government cut back, please? 10727 21702

SPEAKER_1 (2:22)

The Money Show with Stephen Grootes, live on 92.7 and 106 FM, streaming on the Prime Media Plus app and DSTV channel 856

Stephen Grootes (2:33)

Well, confirmation now that the former acting CEO of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, Wasim Karim, has been appointed to the position of CEO of the Road Accident Fund. And the fund, need I remind you, mired in controversy for years, looks technically insolvent, a focal point for big debates in our society too, from time to time about who should get compensated when they've suffered an accident.

Wasim Karim is the newly appointed CEO of the Road Accident Fund. He joins us now. Wasim, good evening. I really appreciate the time. The horror AF, I don't need to remind you, it's been mired in trouble for so long. Why did you decide to say yes to the job?

SPEAKER_3 (3:14)

Yeah, good evening, Stephen and good evening to our listeners as well. You know, Nietzsche once said that if you want to live a long and fulfilling life, do difficult things, yeah, you know. I guess that's a really good reason I can provide for why to do it. But I think they are, you know, the state is important. I have always believed the state is important here. You know, the Director General of National Treasury has an MBA from Harvard. He can do any job in the world, but he says that he chose to work in government because, you know, the scale of change that you can make is quite significant here, yeah.

So I do believe in the state as a concept and its ability to influence people's lives and make transformative changes in people's lives, yeah.

Stephen Grootes (3:54)

No, I mean, I get it, and we're lucky to have a cadre of people who believe that. So many people in the Road Accident Fund have been implicated in some kind of corruption. I mean, there was Collins, let's swallow. I won't ask you to make a comment on that, but we all saw that.

What this means is, and when this happens, is that you're moving into an environment that from the outside, I've never worked there, I haven't been to any of their offices. But it looks really quite toxic. I mean, one of your problems is going to be, who can you trust and who can't you? And I mean, if you're a hardworking member of the Road Accident Fund, you might think Stephen's being unfair. He may be, but it does show how much needs to change.