Shein’s SA threat and how local retailers are fighting back & Should the govt subsidise fuel?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

And now, The Money Show with Stephen Grootes on 702

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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. Eight minutes after six, good evening. Welcome to the programme. I'm Stephen Grootes. Well, as always, so much to come tonight. Just a reminder, the president due to speak at seven o'clock this evening. We'll bring that to you live, of course, from the Union Buildings when he speaks about the, well, scourge of gender-based violence. I prefer, in fact, I think we should call it what it is. It's violence against women. That's just me. I intend to refer to that, refer to it in that way as often as I can. But I think violence against women really is calling it what it is. I don't think it's sort of gender-based. It doesn't go both ways. It only goes one way.

A bit of expectation, I suspect, about what the president can say. I must remind you, of course, he has spoken about this before. There's been an address. There's been talks. There's been meetings. There's been workshops. There's been all sorts of things. We all know the issue, the complexities of this issue. Either way, we'll hear from the man himself about an hour or so from now. Lots of conversations this evening around fuel prices. Diesel expected to go up by around three round a litre next week. That'll be a record high. We've never gone there before. I suspect almost automatically we'll end up having conversations around whether or not there is space for government to ease some of the pressure. We'll speak to the Independent Economist, John Loos, about that in a moment.

The CIPC, they of course are the people who look at who owns who. We'll be speaking about some of their changes. They've got some plans to help law enforcement there. Kamil Ali is the spokesperson at the DTIC. We'll be looking at that this evening. Also, Shein, the fast fashion retailer, just doesn't seem to be doing very well, and yet it seemed at one point like it really was going to take over the world. No longer. We'll speak to Bronwyn Williams, the retail analyst, about that. And really looking forward to speaking to Roy Marais, the CEO at Dischem. This is part of our Business with Purpose, Business is a Force for Good with Trialog. Normally we do that after 7, but we thought let's rather hear from him before the President. So really looking forward to that conversation. Good to hear from you this evening.

011-883-0702 and 021-446-0567.

Also, of course, the impact for you on fuel prices, please, as they go up and up and up.

Is it having an impact on your daily life yet? Three rand a litre? Is it going to change what you do on weekends from next week, perhaps? 072-702-1702. 11 minutes after 6

SPEAKER_1 (2:51)

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 (3:02)

Well, I suspect about a week from now, you might be listening to The Money Show in a queue outside a petrol station. I have a forecast just a few days away from the final announcement suggesting that diesel prices will go up by three round a litre. That will push diesel to record levels. Petrol prices are expected to go up significantly too.

John Loos is an Independent Economist. John, good evening. I suspect there will be calls from the AA, from others, from ordinary motorists about whether government could or should try and ease the pressure a little bit. Is it possible for government to cut the taxes of charges on fuel in the way it did a little earlier in the year?

John Loos (3:40)

Yeah, I think Stephen, they've shown that it is possible.

Anything in that regard is possible. The fuel levy component of the fuel price is just over four and a litre. And a few months ago, yes, they reduced it by somewhere in the region of that, if I remember correctly, temporarily for a few months, and then gradually eased back into the fuel levy when the fuel price came temporarily down. So it is possible, and it wouldn't necessarily break the bank once or for... The last one was estimated at, I think, five to six billion rand worth of savings for the consumer, in other words, costful for national treasury, I guess, which is the way you look at it. You know, in a budget that's over a few trillion rand, it's not a big amount in the grander scheme of things. I guess the only...