“One of the root causes for low labour productivity is sustained underinvestment in our manufacturing base.”

Full marks to the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for taking its role as a responsible investor seriously and telling the emperors on all those remuneration committees that they are wearing no clothes.

Last week, thousands of mourners gathered at the remains of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh to pray for the 1 127 people who died when it collapsed on April 24.

Markets sensitive to mining disruptions, given the tragedy at Marikana last year.

The strike that shut down platinum producer Lonmin’s operations in Rustenburg last week briefly eclipsed what must concern everyone – and that is the value destruction that has been visited on the shares of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats).

Tony Leon, the erstwhile leader of the parliamentary opposition and ambassador to Argentina, has written the most trenchant book, The Accidental Ambassador, From Parliament to Patagonia.

The trade union movement is in a state of flux with many concepts such being challenged.

If China’s growth permanently slows in the coming years Chinese foreign investment and trade is likely to decline somewhat as well.

Few pieces of legislation have drawn such fire as Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies’s Licensing of Businesses Bill.

The unions have emerged over the years as the protector of workers’ rights.