How did I get onto this depressing topic (yet again)? Well, this article brought me to it. Read it and weep. If SA could close this gap with the rest of the world, thousands of new jobs will spontaneously jump out of nowhere, the internet economy will wake up and start catching up with the rest of Africa (yes, SA is lagging behind Africa) and then even the rest of the world (it’s way behind everyone). All of this will happen naturally – without the government having to do anything.

But, first government must invest in broadband infrastructure (which will create a lot of jobs on its own), to bring broadband costs for the consumer down and stretch consumer usage (at current speeds no-one wants to sit in front of a computer).

The article also answers the question, “why aren’t there more globally successful internet entrepreneurs in SA?”.

(A big part) of the answer: every morning an IT developer switches his computer on in SA to start his day, he is already 80% less productive than his counterpart in Europe. Because a page takes almost 8 times longer to load on a screen in Cape Town than in Stuttgart. Thanks to the SA government, IT developers in SA are completely and utterly unproductive compared to (almost everywhere else in) the world.

How much longer do we have to wait, President Zuma?

On 11 December 2008 I first suggested SA’s property market is hugely overpriced. And that a long period of slow “price rectification” was facing South Africans. In 2010 I repeated the mantra. In October last year my “gut feel statement” got some serious support and scientific backing in the form of SA’s property guru Erwin Rode (read here).

Today I received his latest newsletter with the best analysis of the situation I’ve seen to date (read here).

In short: real property prices* are on average 25% too high and it will take many years to deflate this price bubble. He suggests five years of five percent per year declines (in real prices!) are what we may see.

* A real decline is what you get when you deduct the inflation rate in a particular year from the nominal rise in that year. (Or add the inflation rate to a nominal drop!) Let’s say, nominal prices rose on average 1% last year, and inflation came in at 6%, then real prices would have dropped by 5%.

So, what would a realistic asking price be for the average house being advertised for R2 million today? R1.5 million. Or, you can hang on to it and sell it for R1.59 million in 2017.

Life is tough – and then you die.

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page295053?oid=560713&sn=2009+Detail

Apparently, Naspers had turned Zattoo down (already a few years ago).

Now, I hear through the grapevine, that Swiss media group Ringier (which is an internet competitor of Naspers in East Europe and East/West Africa) is talking to Zattoo. Ringier hasn’t been in TV until now and wants to get in. Apparently, price is the only thing still standing in the way of a deal.

It’ll be such a pity if Naspers lets this one slip through the fingers.

Here is how Zattoo describes what it does:

Zattoo (www.zattoo.com) is a company in the Live WebTV market with offices in Zurich, Switzerland and Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Zattoo provides live streaming TV channels on connected devices.

We are currently operating on PC, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone 7 and Android smartphones, with more devices in planning. Our small team of roughly 25 employees are the pioneers of this space and together we have created this leading service that has attracted 9.0 million registered users across Europe.

We provide a live TV service in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, UK, and Denmark. Zattoo is the origin and most active further developer of concepts and technology in this space. In addition, we have developed the most comprehensive recording-in-the-cloud solution thinkable. We successfully offer this state-of-the-art catch-up TV and time-shift service in Switzerland.

But, last year I discovered I can do something – I can change someone’s life with a loan as small as €25 and later get it back (when he’s on his feet). What’s more: I can choose who I want to help and/or in which country I want to help someone.

And I can see what he and his family look like and receive regular updates on progress with the repayment of my €25 loan. Of course, I could also give more. But, the magic is: €25 does the trick, because we’re dealing here with a “crowd-lending” action (that’s my word for it). And at the end you get your money back. Into your PayPal account. That is, if you don’t decide to finance another poor guy’s business idea.

It’s so much fun for so little time and effort, it’s hard to believe it’s true. And hard NOT to participate.

The not-for-profit organization sits in California and the website is at www.kiva.com.

I started doing my bit last year by lending €25 to a family of clothes manufacturers in Tanzania. Together with a number of lenders around the world we got around €800 together in no time. And about 6 months later the family had bought the stitching machine they wanted and repaid my €25.

This week I “re-loaned” my €25. This time to a cattle trader and his family in Zimbabwe. Here is a photo of the group. (Hope you can see it…might have to be logged in.)

This time the crowd-lenders (37 of them) got over €1,250 together for the cattle traders in just a few days. The group must pay back over 8 months. I’m confident I’ll get my money back (no interest paid). And if I don’t, it’s OK – the people of Zimbabwe have suffered enough under Uncle Bob. They deserve a break.

(I can see pics of the other 36 lenders and contact them, if I want. For instance, there’s a young guy from Berlin in my “lender-crowd” (another word-creation of mine), with outstanding loans to 37 business ideas around the world! I can’t see for how much, but even if it’s only for the minimum (€25), his exposure would still add up to an impressive €925.)

But, that just by the way. The point is: Kiva now makes it possible for everyone of us to become “mini-development banks”, finding and funding deserving business ideas in all poor countries of the world. And later getting our money back.

This is such a compelling idea, it’s a must-do. So, go to www.kiva.com and check it out. You’ll be amazed.

Unfortunately, South Africa hasn’t yet lifted its lame arse off the ground (as one of just a few countries in the world not participating with Kiva). So, you won’t be able to fund a deserving South African down-an-outer (yet). Until South Africa gets its arse into gear, you can do Zim, or Tanzania. Or any of a number of African countries.

So, check it out!

At the time, some readers might have thought I was just being “old, negative and pessimistic”. But now, you all…read this and tell me honestly that South African students could do the same (when they are not playing rugby or chasing girls).

An article in today’s Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) points in that direction.

You’ll remember Windhorst had lost money for the Hersov’s before. Read here and here. Apparently undeterred, the Hersov family recapitalised Sapinda in April 2009 and appointed Windhorst CEO of a subsidiary called Sapinda Deutschland GmbH.

Since then Windhorst has made it into position number three on the (very) unofficial ranking of Germany’s Most Controversial Businessmen (look here). In May 2011 a Sapinda spokesperson said the firm had mediated over €2 billion worth of investments worldwide in the past five years.

Sapinda Deutschland GmbH is a subsidiary of Sapinda Holding B.V., based in Amsterdam, with offices in Berlin, London, Hongkong and Seoul. (Read more in German).

So, now the FTD reported this on its front page this morning (in a nutshell):

Last year Windhorst convinced investors to put money into Munich-based building firm JK Wohnbau. Then the firm listed. Windhorst’s efforts and the listing brought €80 million together, reported FTD.

Did the Hersovs also invest? From this chart it doesn’t look like it. Hopefully not, because the problems started soon after. For the next year JK Wohnbau failed to publish quarterly reports. Yesterday it faced the media in Munich with bad news: in financial year 2010 the firm made a loss of €75 million, after a €6 million profit in 2009*. The share price promptly dropped 47 percent, before recovering most the ground later in the day.

The firm founder, who owns about a quarter of the shares, announced his retirement and said a new manager had been found.

Here is how the firm describes itself on its site:

JK Group was founded in 1995 and has since developed into one of the leading real estate companies in Munich. …It has positioned itself firmly in the Munich residential real estate market with a clear focus on high-quality properties in good locations with concepts for higher-end, sophisticated target group requirements. JK Wohnbau AG focuses on business areas comprising the construction of new residential properties, and the privatization of apartments. It buys existing properties, modernises them and sells them again as individual residential units.

* The fact that JK Wohnbau made a loss in 2010 gets “new meaning” when one reads this press statement on the company site (published on Dec. 1, 2010). Don’t miss it. Neither the official explanation for the loss.

It’s two days AC now, and events in the U.K. are unfolding exactly as I thought they would. Now, where could this all end up? Well, social unrest, anger vented at the banking community and a new government is where this might all end up. On top of that, the U.K. banking sector might now contract faster, than it would otherwise have done. Since the “new EU” may now proceed much faster with the “re-sizing” of its banks than with the U.K. around.

And the gap the U.K. bankers had hoped to step into, might shrink much faster than with them in the “new EU”.

Not that I like the mooted financial transactions tax. To the contrary – it’s a non-starter, if ever there was one. And, I can understand British bankers feeling they don’t want to be ruled by “the continent”, if this is the kind of stuff waiting for them.

Still, the banking sector should have looked beyond the functionaries pushing the tax and stomached the short-term madness for the sake of not being left out in the cold in the long-term. These functionaries won’t be around after 2013 anyway.

But, in the long-term we’re all dead, aren’t we?

A few years ago Naspers burnt its fingers on mobile TV in Germany. Read here and here.

Almost at the same time Zattoo started up. Today it’s an incredibly fast-growing company with an incredible product. And it just keeps on getting better.

If mobile TV has a bright future (which I’m sure it has), then this is a must candidate to be invested in.

This is how the company describes itself on its site:

Zattoo (www.zattoo.com) is a company in the Live WebTV market with offices in Zurich, Switzerland and Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Zattoo provides live streaming TV channels on connected devices.

We are currently operating on PC, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone 7 and Android smartphones, with more devices in planning. Our small team of roughly 25 employees are the pioneers of this space and together we have created this leading service that has attracted 9.0 million registered users across Europe.

We provide a live TV service in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, UK, and Denmark. Zattoo is the origin and most active further developer of concepts and technology in this space. In addition, we have developed the most comprehensive recording-in-the-cloud solution thinkable. We successfully offer this state-of-the-art catch-up TV and time-shift service in Switzerland.