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The economy is weak, but money is visibly circulating. Grocery and liquor chains are expanding. Independent pharmacies are being swallowed by big chains. Informal traders are busy. Service businesses are cleaning homes, installing security fences, restyling kitchens, and building luxury pools. It looks like plenty of money is around.

But money circulating is not the same as wealth. A household can spend every day and still have nothing. That is the paradox: South Africa has a lot of money moving through it, but not enough of it stays with the people who need it most.

Where the money is visible

Look at liquor. Big grocery chains such as Shoprite, Checkers, Pick n Pay, and Spar have been expanding their liquor footprints, often by absorbing smaller independent liquor stores. If that is an indicator, there is still a lot of money to be made in booze. The same pattern appears in pharmacies. Clicks and Dis-Chem have grown aggressively, while many independent pharmacies survive only because they offer personalised service the big chains cannot easily replicate.

Then there is the informal economy. It is estimated at R900 billion to over R1 trillion a year. Township businesses are everywhere. But nearly 80% of them are unregistered, which cuts them off from formal finance, markets, and the tools that could help them grow. Many are survivalist, not entrepreneurial. A street trader might make R150 on a bad day, and that money goes straight to food, transport, airtime, and sending something home.

There is also a service economy built around the wealthy. As the super-rich have risen in opulence, they have created demand for domestic cleaning, gardening, security, home restyling, and luxury pools. That money is real. But it flows to a relatively small number of service providers, and it does not build broad-based wealth.

Who is actually spending?

It is not only the wealthy. Low-income and middle-income households spend constantly. But much of that spending is survival, not comfort. It is often debt-funded.

We need to be precise about who “the poor” are. By absolute poverty lines, roughly 37.9% of South Africans—about 23 million people—live below the lower-bound poverty line of R1,300 per person per month. Over 30 million live below the upper-bound line of R1,634. That is real destitution.

But there is also a squeezed group earning up to R30,000 a month who are not poor by those poverty lines, yet still struggle. They are not accumulating assets. They are servicing debt, paying transport, electricity, school fees, and groceries. Their complaint is not that they have no cash at all. It is that the cash does not last, and nothing builds up.

Where the money goes

The problem is structural. Money flows into the economy, but it leaks out through debt, monopolies, and the cost of survival.

Among lower-income earners, about 96% of debt is unsecured. Non-bank personal loans have a serious delinquency rate of around 41.3%, meaning nearly half of borrowers are three or more months behind. The most vulnerable consumers, earning R5,000 or less a month, use about 92% of their income for debt repayments. When 92 cents of every rand goes to debt, you are not “having money.” You are managing a crisis.

Then there are the big financial institutions—banks, insurers, medical aids—and the large retailers. They capture a huge share of household spending. Wealth remains concentrated: South Africa’s Gini coefficient for wealth is around 0.81–0.82, among the highest in the world. The top 10% of households hold more than 85% of financial assets, while the bottom 60% hold less than 5%.

So even when money is moving, it is moving upward. The poor remain a major source of income for big companies, especially liquor stores and food chains. It is a familiar pattern: the poorest pay for services they can barely afford, while the institutions providing those services record profits.

Why complaints persist

People complain because spending money is not the same as having money. A household might have cash today from a grant, a stokvel payout, or a good day’s trading. But there is no reliable income stream, no savings buffer, and no asset base. The spending you see is a flow, not a stock. It comes in and goes out.

There is also relative deprivation. As the rich get richer, the poor feel poorer. When people see political elites displaying luxury cars and expensive homes while they share a standpipe and a communal toilet, the sense of injustice is acute. It is not just that they lack money. It is that they lack money in a society that visibly has so much of it, concentrated in so few hands.

The last three months

There are only three months left in the year. This is plenty of time for those making big money—supermarket chains, liquor store chains, banks, insurers, and other businesses—to extract as much as they can. Small service businesses and community businesses will also be out to get their portion. People will still complain that they have no money, but many will also be hustling to survive.

So don’t be disheartened—but don’t be fooled either. There is plenty of money around. The real question is not whether money exists. It is who gets to keep it, who gets to accumulate it, and who is left merely spending it. Until asset ownership, debt relief, and structural inclusion change, the complaints will continue.

There are chairs and tables on the shoreline at the Kiddies tidal pool in Kalk Bay now, and with them a question that has followed public land around South Africa for most of this year: at what point does a place people have always used become a place someone else runs?

The seating was set out by The Brass Bell, which holds the concession from PRASA, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, turning the pool area into somewhere to eat and drink. Generations of local residents have swum there — children, their parents, their grandparents before them.

Residents object, and they have called a protest at the pool for Heritage Day on 24 September 2026. It is one of only a few demonstrations planned for the holiday. On its face it is a small dispute: a tidal pool, some outdoor furniture, a strip of coastline.

It is also the same argument that has been made this year at a river confluence, at a wetland, on the edges of Johannesburg parks and along the mining belts of Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

A pattern across the year

The demonstration at the Kalk Bay shoreline is the latest flare-up in a running dispute over shared public space, not an isolated one. Through 2026, civil society organisations, traditional leaders and suburban ratepayer groups have repeatedly mobilised against developments that fold historically significant sites into commercial use.

Earlier in the year, opposition built around the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black rivers in Cape Town, where civil society groups and Khoisan traditional representatives held pickets and public vigils against commercial construction at the Two Rivers landscape, saying it would permanently disrupt a site of indigenous significance. Similar opposition emerged at Princess Vlei, where community coalitions formed human chains and held public meetings against peripheral commercial rezoning they said threatened a protected wetland.

Inland, the disputes have taken different shapes — and the organisations behind them are more specific than the national picture suggests.

In Johannesburg, the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, JoburgCan, a division of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, and the Joburg Crisis Alliance held placard demonstrations and submitted petitions in May 2026 against the abandonment and proposed redevelopment of the Joburg Metro Centre civic precinct and the civic spaces around it. Through early and mid-2026, the same groups filed formal objections to plans by municipal development agencies to relocate collections and repurpose parts of the Johannesburg Art Gallery precinct near Joubert Park.

In the rural mining belts, the mobilisation has been more directly about land and graves. In March 2026, Mining Affected Communities United in Action, which represents communities in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, petitioned Parliament and regional mining authorities over the destruction of ancestral land, grave relocations and damage to heritage sites by open-cast coal and platinum operations. In February 2026, community groups in Mpumalanga led by the Khuthala Environmental Care Group brought High Court proceedings against the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources over open-cast coal mining near Ermelo, arguing that uncontrolled blasting and pit expansion had damaged historic settlements and threatened graves and heritage sites nearby.

Researchers have documented the same pattern. Work published through Wits University Press and Newcastle University has found that open-cast mining across the Highveld and in Lephalale and Sekhukhuneland relies heavily on exhuming and relocating ancestral graves under the National Heritage Resources Act, producing what affected families describe as spiritual dislocation and a steady stream of pickets and legal challenges.

What links these disputes is not one developer or one law. It is the point at which a public asset acquires a private operator, and the paperwork that follows.

Regulatory gaps and the commercial footprint

The recurring issue is the ambiguity surrounding long-term land leases and municipal oversight. When a public authority or a state-owned entity such as PRASA grants a commercial lease over land that includes a historic public amenity, the line between private operation and public right of access blurs — and it tends to blur in the operator’s favour, because the operator holds the lease.

The Integrated Coastal Management Act and municipal coastal by-laws protect public access to natural resources on paper. Enforcement lags behind construction in practice. Once a wooden deck, a boundary fence or a set of tables is in place, the administrative burden shifts onto the community that wants it moved.

That is what makes a public holiday a useful platform. Heritage Day gives civic groups a national stage for what are otherwise local planning complaints, and the Kalk Bay protest is timed for exactly that reason.

Formal government addresses will take place at official venues on Heritage Day. The demonstration at the Kalk Bay shoreline will be held at the pool itself, where the tables are.

Organisers have not yet publicly set out specific demands.

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Editorial Disclosure & Disclaimer

Financial News Daily is an independent business news syndicate and a wholly owned subsidiary of Idea Accelerator. We publish financial, environmental and corporate commentary for digital platforms, media outlets and organisations. Nothing published here constitutes investment, legal or financial advice. All opinions are editorial commentary on matters of public and economic interest.

There comes a time when, even though you have been a graduate of this university, you still may need a refresher course. Or you may never have attended and are suffering the consequences. You’re not going to survive in any organized way of doing things—clubs, associations, societies, corporate organizations, political organizations, NGOs, whatever—if you’re not a graduate of the university that deals in this curriculum. You’re going to find it very hard.

First lesson: eat humble pie, and love the taste of it. That’s the main dish required to survive.

Assess the players. Some are well-meaning but will still stab you in the back given half a chance. Others gladly accept you into their inner circle but secretly undermine you at every opportunity. Just because. It is their way of self-preservation.

It’s not Terry Pratchett’s Unseen University, though you could learn from the wizards whether lazy or inept. This is a university grounded in brutal reality. Only you will know when you have passed and become a graduate. Fail, and you go back and learn again, eating humble pie along the way. Brown-nosing won’t gain you a pass. Stand your ground.

And it isn’t the University of Maximegalon either — Douglas Adams’s institution from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with its History Department ranking parallel Earths on a massive research priority list, and its Maximegalon Institute of Slowly and Painfully Working Out the Surprisingly Obvious (MISPWOSO). Forget it because Alafter the Infinite Improbability Drive was invented, the history faculty closed and the buildings were handed over to a joint faculty of Divinity and Water Polo.

No — the university we are talking about has no such departments. If you have illusions about your competency to handle these merciless organizations, then is the time to attend the University of Life, the University of Hard Knocks, or, as some call it, the University of Screw-U.

This university doesn’t have a curriculum. You will soon find the necessary curriculum for yourself or get eaten alive.

Once you get involved in these organizations, human relations will be your all-encompassing curriculum. The University of Screw-U will teach you to pick out sharks in suits, pretenders, people who act like clowns but are really leading you in, and those out to embarrass you so they can appear smart.

This university’s only graduation test is whether you can survive the people who smile while holding the knife.

If you want to stay in any of these organizations, you have to chin up and learn all you can. Otherwise, you might as well give up and walk away, or worst of all, get booted out.

A short week, with all eyes on Heritage Day on Thursday and what is going to happen — and what there is to do. We have a few ideas at the bottom of this post.

In the Cape, meanwhile, the weather remains distinctly unspringlike, with overcast days still the order of the day, although we have had some welcome sunshine.

It was particularly sad to see South African motorsport lose two competitors in separate tragedies during the past week.

Marcel Angel died following an incident at Killarney International Raceway, while Robert Wolk was shot and killed in Ekurhuleni.

There has also been some interesting reporting from Europe, which I mention below.

But first, the business story.

Municipalities: business is watching

With the local government elections approaching in November, business will be watching what happens to South Africa’s municipalities, particularly Johannesburg.

The city has become a major problem for business and residents alike, and organised business has already been involved in attempts to help turn it around. The scale of the task is enormous, given the city’s financial, governance and service-delivery problems.

The ANC’s local government manifesto proposes what it calls “re-municipalisation” — bringing a range of outsourced services back into municipal hands. These include cleaning, security, waste collection, meter reading and water tankering.

The argument is not simply about public versus private services. It is about what works, what it costs and where ratepayers’ money goes.

A concern that has been raised is that bringing more services back under municipal control could also create more opportunities for tenderpreneurship — giving political interests another way of getting their fingers into the pie through municipal contracts.

The ANC says its objective is to rebuild municipal capacity and improve service delivery. The opposing argument is that municipalities should use private providers where they can deliver services more efficiently and cost-effectively.

For businesses and ratepayers, the practical question is the same: will the service work, and what will it cost?

Markets

The JSE All Share Index was around 113,000 points on Monday morning after ending the previous week lower.

The Nasdaq Composite had closed at about 26,523, the FTSE 100 at roughly 10,659 and Germany’s DAX at about 25,304.

The rand was trading at approximately R16.25 to the US dollar.

Oil remains a concern, with Brent crude around the $100-a-barrel level.

Diesel and October

September’s diesel prices are already high: about R29.11 a litre inland and R28.24 on the coast for 0.05% sulphur diesel, and R30.05 inland and R28.79 on the coast for 0.005% diesel.

The October picture could be worse. Preliminary calculations have pointed towards another substantial increase, although the final adjustment will depend on international petroleum prices, the rand and the fuel-price formula during the remainder of the month.

Two motorsport deaths

South African motorsport lost two competitors in separate tragedies within days of each other.

Marcel Angel, 62, died following an incident during the National Extreme Festival at Killarney International Raceway on Saturday, 19 September. Angel, owner of Cape Town-based Autohaus Angel, was competing in the Extreme SuperCars category. The remainder of the event was cancelled as a mark of respect.

Robert Wolk, 41, was shot and killed in Esther Park, Ekurhuleni, on Wednesday. Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing.

Two unrelated tragedies, but a grim week for South African motorsport.

A glance at Europe

Two headlines caught my attention this week.

Der Spiegel has been reporting on the strength of Germany’s AfD, while Le Monde has also been following the party and its position in Berlin.

It is another development worth watching as political parties across Europe face pressure from voters and changing political loyalties.

For those interested in the detail, Der Spiegel and Le Monde are worth reading.

Heritage Day

There is plenty happening around the country for Heritage Day and the long weekend. The Citizen has compiled a useful guide to events in Gauteng (link below), while Cape Town and Durban have their own programmes.

Cape Town

Among the Cape Town events worth noting are:

• Zeitz MOCAA: Free entry on Heritage Day, Thursday, 24 September, with tours, workshops, live performances and food.

• Taste of Mzansi Heritage Experience: Guga S’thebe Arts & Culture Centre in Langa on 24 September, with indigenous food, music, dance and storytelling.

• Full Tilt: Zip Zap Circus and School of Rock at the Homecoming Centre in District Six from 23 to 26 September.

• Kirstenbosch: A Heritage Day celebration featuring a heritage feast, live entertainment, marimba, gumboot dancing, storytelling and children’s activities.

• South African Astronomical Observatory: A free guided Heritage Day tour on 24 September, including the historic Observatory buildings and, weather permitting, a sungazing experience. Booking is essential.

Durban

Durban also has a full Heritage Day programme, including a Heritage Day concert at the Durban Botanic Gardens, a Heritage Get-Together at The Pier on South Beach and a family-oriented programme at Westown Square.

Gauteng

For Gauteng, The Citizen has a useful roundup covering everything from the GoWest! festival and markets to museums, heritage tours, food and Comic Con Africa.

As always, check times, ticket prices and availability with organisers before setting out.

https://www.citizen.co.za/lifestyle/entertainment/heritage-day-2026-things-to-do-in-gauteng-over-the-long-weekend/

In the 1970s, I used to go to a record shop in Cavendish Square. I can’t remember the name, but there I bought an album called “Dinosaur Swamps” by the band The Flock. I listened to it over and over because it was different to what was going on at the time. Now we’ll get into this band, but what I want to say is that it’s amazing that whilst I forgot about it, this band actually led to my interest later in bands like King Crimson and Weather Report.

All of this surfaced the other day because I was listening to a mini feature that Chris Pryor, the Rock Professor, had put out on the band called Lighthouse, a Canadian band. It was a recording that Chris had made somewhere in the 1990s with that music lover Leon Economides. So there was a lot of history there, and both of them were amazed how many instruments the band used, and that they couldn’t really play their music unless they had about 12 or 13 members in the band. But that was the band Lighthouse. The Flock band also played some interesting music, and I think it was the shoots for different styles of music. And later we can see how these bands actually influenced the next generation of bands, so there’s always this sort of progression from one type of music to another.

I don’t know if there are any bands that do this sort of stuff these days, not that I’ve heard of. I’ve got a short list at the end. But it’s worth remembering these bands because they did play an influential role in the progression of jazz, rock, blues type music.

So you may ask, when last did I listen to Dinosaur Swamps? Well, it was last year, to tell you the truth, and I think I listened to it on Spotify, and I was quite amazed how deep the music was, or rich it was, in instruments and the type of music they were playing. And I think that’s why they weren’t that popular—because they were advanced. They were breaking new ground, and people don’t like the breaking of new ground unless it’s in that sort of popular music genre. Anyway, there are bands today that are following in that spirit. Let’s just say spirit, because they’re completely different. That pioneering spirit of bands like The Flock, Lighthouse, King Crimson, and Weather Report.

Anyway, it’s been interesting reflecting on those fossil bands that played such an influence in a different path to what was popular music at the time, like your Grand Funk Railroads, and then later your Queens and your Santanas and your Led Zeppelins. Bands that are played to death on desperate “cool” radio shows with a new generation just as desperate to be cool and all knowing about music. Those first bands were the real pioneers, the breakthrough bands, not all of that other pop rock stuff.

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The Flock

The Flock was an American band from Chicago that combined rock with jazz, improvisation and unusual instrumental textures. Their music is generally classified as jazz rock, or early jazz fusion. The band was formed around 1965–1966, initially growing out of a group called the Exclusives, led by vocalist-guitarist Fred Glickstein and saxophonist-vocalist Rick Canoff.

The best-known line-up included:

· Fred Glickstein — guitar, vocals and organ
· Jerry Goodman — electric violin, guitar and vocals
· Jerry Smith — bass and vocals
· Ron Karpman — drums
· Rick Canoff — tenor saxophone and vocals
· Tom “T.S. Henry” Webb — tenor saxophone, flute and vocals
· Frank Posa — trumpet
· John Gerber — saxophones, flute, banjo and vocals

The Flock became notable because Jerry Goodman’s amplified violin gave the group a distinctive sound, while the horns, flute, organ and rhythm section produced an expansive jazz-rock texture. Their music could move between hard rock, free-form jazz, psychedelic rock, folk and occasional country influences.

Dinosaur Swamps

Dinosaur Swamps was The Flock’s second album and was released in September 1970 in the United States on Columbia Records. Some sources refer to it as a 1971 release because of later catalogue or reissue dating, but the original release is generally identified as 1970.

The album followed the group’s 1969 debut, The Flock. It was more varied and, in places, more country-influenced than the first album, and it did not sell as strongly. The debut reached approximately No. 48 on the Billboard album chart, while Dinosaur Swamps reached about No. 96, so the band achieved recognition but was not a major mass-market success.

The Flock’s career was short. A proposed third album, reportedly titled Flock Rock, was left unfinished, and the group had effectively broken up by 1972. Jerry Goodman subsequently became well known as a member of the jazz-rock group Mahavishnu Orchestra.

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Lighthouse

Lighthouse was a Canadian band formed in Toronto in 1969 by drummer and vocalist Skip Prokop and keyboardist and vibraphonist Paul Hoffert. It was conceived as a large “rock orchestra,” combining rock with jazz, classical music and swing.

The original band had approximately 13 members, unusually large for a rock group. The line-up included:

· Skip Prokop — drums and vocals
· Paul Hoffert — keyboards and vibraphone
· Ralph Cole — guitar and vocals
· Grant Fullerton — bass and vocals
· Vic “Pinky” Dauvin — percussion and vocals
· Ian Guenther — violin
· Don DiNovo — violin and viola
· Howard Shore — saxophone
· Keith Jollimore — saxophone
· Dick Armin — cello
· Peter Pantaluk — trumpet
· Larry Smith — trombone
· Bob McBride — vocals

Personnel changed considerably over the years, so the exact membership depended on the period being discussed.

Style and Records

Lighthouse’s music is usually described as jazz rock, brass rock or rock-classical fusion. Its arrangements used horns, strings, percussion and vibraphone alongside the conventional guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. This made Lighthouse less like a small jazz-rock combo and more like a touring ensemble with a full orchestral colour.

The band’s best-known songs included “Sunny Days,” “One Fine Morning,” “Pretty Lady” and “Hats Off.” Lighthouse won the Juno Award for Best Canadian Group in 1972, 1973 and 1974, and therefore had considerably greater mainstream success in Canada than The Flock had in the United States.

There are different ways of counting Lighthouse records. If you count the main early studio and live catalogue, there were about 9 albums through the original 1969–1976 period. If you count the broader catalogue including compilations, later releases and reissues, the figure is more like 17 to 23 albums. The difference arises because some discographies count only original studio and live albums, while others include compilations and later editions. The Canadian Walk of Fame describes the group’s broader catalogue as 23 albums, while another recent profile gives a figure of 17.

Lighthouse’s first major period ended with its break-up in 1976, although the group later reunited several times and has continued performing in changing forms. It is therefore more accurate to say that Lighthouse disbanded in 1976 in its original major period, rather than claiming that it permanently disappeared.

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Shared Musical Territory

The Flock and Lighthouse belonged to the broad movement usually called jazz rock, jazz fusion or, in some cases, brass rock. This music developed when rock musicians began using jazz ideas such as extended instrumental passages, improvisation, complex rhythms, electric keyboards, amplified violin, horns and larger ensembles.

The Flock’s main base was Chicago rock and jazz. Its characteristic instruments were electric violin, saxophones, trumpet, flute and organ. Its main genre was jazz rock and psychedelic jazz fusion. The ensemble was usually seven or eight musicians. Commercially, the band was respected and innovative, but only moderately successful.

Lighthouse’s main base was Toronto rock, jazz and classical music. Its characteristic instruments were horns, strings, vibraphone, percussion and keyboards. Its main genre was jazz rock, brass rock and rock-classical fusion. The ensemble originally had about 13 musicians. Commercially, Lighthouse was much more popular in Canada, with hit singles and Juno Awards.

The percussion element was important because these groups were moving beyond the straightforward four-beat rock format. Drums were combined with congas, additional percussion, hand percussion, Latin rhythms and shifting jazz patterns. In Lighthouse’s case, the enlarged ensemble created a layered, almost orchestral effect; in The Flock’s case, the rhythm section supported long, exploratory instrumental passages.

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Connection with Little Feat

Little Feat was not simply a continuation of The Flock or Lighthouse, but it developed within the same wider late-1960s and 1970s interest in mixing genres. Formed in Los Angeles in 1969, Little Feat combined Southern rock, blues, country, funk, jazz, New Orleans rhythm and swamp-rock influences.

The connection is strongest in the use of interlocking rhythms rather than simple rock patterns, jazz-influenced instrumental breaks, funk and New Orleans grooves, congas and other percussion instruments, a mixture of electric and acoustic sounds, and songs that allowed musicians to improvise on stage.

When Paul Barrère and percussionist Sam Clayton joined Little Feat, the group’s rhythm became more elaborate and dance-oriented. Little Feat’s music was therefore related to jazz-rock fusion, but its central identity was more rooted in Southern rock, New Orleans funk, blues and swamp music than in the experimental jazz-rock of The Flock.

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Connection with Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal was also part of this broad movement toward musical cross-pollination, although he came from a different tradition. He was primarily a blues musician who expanded the blues by incorporating Caribbean, African, reggae, gospel, Hawaiian and other world-music elements.

His connection with these bands lies less in a direct band-to-band influence and more in a shared willingness to use hand percussion and unusual rhythm instruments, African and Caribbean rhythmic ideas, steel drums, kalimba, tuba and other non-standard sounds, extended instrumental arrangements, and blues, rock, jazz and folk traditions in the same performance.

It would therefore be misleading to classify Taj Mahal simply as a jazz-rock musician. He is better described as a blues, blues-rock and world-music artist whose work overlapped with the same wider period of experimentation that produced The Flock, Lighthouse and the more rhythmically adventurous side of Little Feat.

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The Wider Musical Development

A useful way to see the development is: rock and psychedelic rock moving into jazz rock and fusion, and then into funk-, Latin- and world-influenced rock.

The Flock explored this through electric violin, horns and extended improvisation. Lighthouse explored it through a large ensemble containing brass, strings, percussion and vibraphone. Little Feat absorbed related ideas into a more groove-based mixture of Southern rock, New Orleans funk, blues and jazz, while Taj Mahal brought comparable openness to the blues and world music.

Other artists associated with related territory include Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Soft Machine, Colosseum, Traffic, Weather Report, Santana, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Mothers of Invention and Sly and the Family Stone. They did not all sound alike, but they shared the period’s interest in expanding rock through jazz improvisation, horns, percussion, funk, Latin music and unusual instrumental combinations.

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Modern Equivalents

Today, the closest equivalents are usually described as progressive rock, jazz fusion, experimental rock or instrumental fusion rather than simply “jazz-rock.” Jazz fusion itself began by combining jazz improvisation with rock, funk and rhythm-and-blues elements.

Good modern or still-active starting points include:

· Snarky Puppy — large ensemble jazz-funk fusion with horns, keyboards, electric bass and percussion; probably the closest modern equivalent to the collective spirit of Lighthouse.
· Jaga Jazzist — Norwegian experimental jazz group combining electronic music, rock, brass, woodwinds and complex percussion.
· Kneebody — energetic jazz-rock with distorted guitar, keyboards, horns and rock rhythms.
· The Aristocrats — instrumental progressive fusion led by guitar, bass and drums.
· Cory Wong — funk, jazz and horn-driven arrangements with strong rhythmic precision.
· GoGo Penguin — a more atmospheric piano-trio approach, combining jazz with electronic and minimalist influences.
· Dewa Budjana and Tigran Hamasyan — useful choices if you enjoy the more intricate, improvisational side of Weather Report and King Crimson.
· King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard — not a direct copy, but their progressive, psychedelic and jazz-influenced work often uses unusual rhythms and extended forms.
· The Mars Volta — a more aggressive modern descendant of progressive rock, with complex structures, improvisation and Latin-percussion influences.
· Tool and Porcupine Tree — heavier or darker progressive-rock alternatives with some of King Crimson’s atmosphere and rhythmic complexity.

If you enjoy Lighthouse’s large, horn-and-percussion sound, try Snarky Puppy, Jaga Jazzist and Cory Wong. If you enjoy The Flock’s violin, horns and adventurous jazz-rock, try Kneebody, Jaga Jazzist and The Aristocrats. If you enjoy King Crimson’s complex progressive rock, try The Mars Volta, Tool, King Gizzard and Porcupine Tree. If you enjoy Weather Report’s keyboards, bass and electronic fusion, try Snarky Puppy, Tigran Hamasyan and Jaga Jazzist. If you enjoy the percussion and groove of Little Feat or Taj Mahal, try Snarky Puppy, Vulfpeck and Antibalas.

These groups are not identical copies of the older bands: modern musicians tend to blend jazz-rock with funk, electronic music, hip-hop, world music and progressive metal. The continuing link is the use of electric instruments, improvisation, complex rhythm, layered percussion and arrangements that go beyond a conventional rock song.

For the most direct listening route, start with Snarky Puppy, Jaga Jazzist, Kneebody and The Aristocrats; then move to The Mars Volta and Tigran Hamasyan for more experimental or demanding music.

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Sources

1. The Flock (band) – Wikipedia
2. The Flock on Apple Music
3. Dinosaur Swamps – Wikipedia
4. The Flock: The Flock / Dinosaur Swamps album review @ All About Jazz
5. The Flock (Part 3) – Forgotten Hits 60s
6. Lighthouse (band) – Wikipedia
7. Lighthouse – Canada’s Walk of Fame
8. Lighthouse Discography – Qobuz
9. Five Minutes With: Rock Band Lighthouse – Toronto Guardian
10. Little Feat – Wikipedia
11. Little Feat – Playing For Change
12. Little Feat Musician – All About Jazz
13. Little Feat | Encyclopedia.com
14. Taj Mahal (musician) – Wikipedia
15. Taj Mahal | Biography, Albums, & Facts – Britannica
16. Jazz fusion – Wikipedia
17. Sub-Genres We Play | Prog Radio
18. LIGHTHOUSE-1969-1974 THE RISE OF LIGHTHOUSE – Derek’s Music Blog
19. Lighthouse Discography – lighthouserockson.com
20. Sam Clayton – Wikipedia
21. Little Feat – Apple Music
22. Taj Mahal: How He Turned the Blues Into a World Language – Blues Chronicles
23. Henry Saint Clair Fredericks – Taj Mahal – Strathdee

WARNING: If you’re driving through the Northern Cape, hide your burgers — or prepare to pay in patties!

You gotta be careful on the roads today, folks. You never know what might happen — especially in them there country areas like the Northern Cape!

Thank goodness when I drove up there, I wasn’t stopped by no traffic cop. But there’s a court case going on this week in Upington about famished traffic police officers stopping motorists, fining them, and then saying they could make the fine “go away” — for a price.

And that price?

BURGERS!

That’s right, folks — these cops weren’t looking for cash. They were looking for CHEDDAR.

Seems the boys in blue had a serious case of the munchies, and they figured the best way to fill their bellies was to shake down innocent drivers for a double-patty with extra pickles!

Now look, this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened.

I don’t mean burgers — I mean this kind of thing.

There’s more of this going on around the country than you can shake a sesame-seed bun at!

I remember years ago, driving in Sandton after a night at the restaurant. The cops were out in full force, coming up with all sorts of things, secretly saying behind your vehicle:

“You know, I can make this thing go away…”

And then you knew exactly what that meant.

Stash some cash from your wallet in the cubbyhole.

The officer would lean in, have a good look around your car, slide his hand into the cubbyhole and help himself to your money.

You know what?

This has been going on for a HELL of a long time.

Needless to say, I never went to a restaurant in the evening again in Sandton.

Because if you had more than one glass of wine, you were in for BIG TROUBLE.

So just forget it!

Anyway, back onto the roads.

These traffic policemen see you coming from a mile off. They know what they want. They have speed traps. They give you bogus fines.

And then they want whatever they can get from you.

In the courts, evidence is being led that the cops wanted BURGERS because they were HUNGRY!

So be careful when you’re driving in the Northern Cape — or on any national road, for that matter, in any of the provinces.

Instead of thinking about your tyre inflation, the amount of petrol you’ve got to get to the next town, or your spare wheel — or, mostly these days, them biscuit tyres — what you should really be thinking about is:

Do I have enough burgers?

And don’t mention “biscuit” to the cops.

They might want to EAT THE BISCUIT!

My advice?

Keep an EMERGENCY BURGER PACK in your car.

Probably a minimum of four burgers.

Yes, four.

Because these traffic cops seem awfully hungry for BURGERS!

So remember, folks:

Keep your licence, your registration and a warm bag of burgers on the passenger seat.

You never know when a hungry officer might need a little “roadside assistance” — of the edible kind!

— Weekly Northern Cape Road Report

Financial News Daily – Friday Wrap

What to make of the U.S. Federal Reserve increasing interest rates? It might seem distant, but a rate hike like this has far-reaching effects. We want to look at what it is going to do to the rand, the currency in South Africa. We want to look at how it will affect the governor of the Reserve Bank of South Africa regarding interest rate hikes or further interest rate hikes. We’ll just briefly touch on that.

The other interesting item was that Canada is going to be made a member of the European Union. This is for economic reasons and to show solidarity with Canada because it has been excluded and targeted by the United States, namely under the president of the United States. It’s interesting, but it also seems to make sense because there are a lot of French speakers in Canada, for one, so they still have a language commonality between Canada, for example, and France and other French-speaking areas such as Switzerland and parts of Italy. A lot of new alliances are taking shape.

The U.S. president is unhappy once again about a move like this and is playing tit for tat. It’s an ongoing tit-for-tat game here in South Africa too. The United States has also singled out public officials responsible for illegal expropriation of land. This is not going to go down well in South Africa, and this tit-for-tat game is just going to continue with the real issues not being addressed.

Right, let’s move on to business, highlighting some of the important developments during the week, and then we’ll touch on a few lighter issues before you go.

South Africa: economic, financial and business highlights

The Fed and South Africa: What It Means for the Rand and the Reserve Bank

The US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00%, its first increase since 2023, and its projections point to another increase this year. The rand weakened after the announcement, reinforcing the pressure on emerging-market currencies when US returns become more attractive.

The immediate issue for South Africa is next week’s Reserve Bank decision. The MPC has to weigh the weaker rand and inflation risks against an economy that contracted 0.2% in the second quarter.

Canada, Europe and the New Alliance Game

The European Commission has proposed that Canada become the EU’s first associate member, while also deepening cooperation in trade, defence, critical minerals, energy and technology. It is a striking example of the way old alliances are being supplemented by new economic and strategic relationships.

That matters to business because alliances are no longer simply about diplomacy. They can influence where companies source, manufacture, invest, sell and obtain technology.

Washington has also imposed visa restrictions on South African officials, accusing them of involvement in what it describes as race-based discrimination and uncompensated land seizures. South Africa rejects the allegations.

A changing world order – and why business should care

A new analysis from Boston Consulting Group puts some numbers behind the changing international order. Its BCG Institute Power Index uses more than 50 indicators covering economic, military and soft power to examine how power is being redistributed and how alliances can rapidly alter the balance.

For business leaders, the implication is practical: changing alliances can affect market access, supply chains, technology choices and investment decisions. Companies may increasingly have to stress-test their strategies against several possible geopolitical configurations rather than assume that today’s trading relationships will remain intact.

Companies and Deals

Omnia Holdings: India’s Solar Industries has made a R21.8 billion all-cash offer for Omnia at R134.50 a share, in a deal that would take the agriculture, mining and chemicals group off the JSE and A2X.

Premier Group: Premier expects earnings to rise by 22%–32% in the six months to September, with revenue forecast to increase by 35%–45%, helped by the RFG Holdings acquisition. The company has also commissioned a new bakery in Middelburg capable of producing 8,000 loaves an hour.

Momentum Group: Momentum’s normalised headline earnings rose 13% to R7.06 billion for the year to June, taking it past its R7 billion target a year earlier than planned. The group is now looking at acquisitions to expand its financial-adviser network.

Sasol: Sasol is moving further into sustainable aviation fuel, with fuel partly made from used cooking and vegetable oils set to power White Desert’s tourist flights from Cape Town to Antarctica. The first Sasol-powered flight is expected in November.

Tourism: South Africa’s first Club Med resort has opened at Tinley Manor in KwaZulu-Natal after an investment of more than R2 billion. The development has created 600 permanent direct jobs and is expected to support a further 1,500 indirect jobs.

Sanlam: Sanlam has received regulatory approval to offer transactional banking services through its partnership with GoTyme. Beta testing is planned for the second half of 2026, followed by a phased public rollout in early 2027.

Economic Backdrop

Inflation eased to 4.3% in July from 5% in June, although fuel prices, the weaker rand and fertiliser costs remain risks.

GDP contracted 0.2% in the second quarter, with manufacturing down 1.8%. The figures underline how little room the Reserve Bank has to respond to external inflation pressure by simply following the US higher.

Birthdays – September 18

Musicians:

Dee Dee Ramone (1951) – Founding bassist of the Ramones.

Kerry Livgren (1949) – Guitarist and principal songwriter for Kansas.

Frankie Avalon (1940) – Singer and actor who became a teen idol in the 1950s.

Authors:

Samuel Johnson (1709) – English writer and lexicographer.

Steven Pinker (1954) – Canadian cognitive psychologist and author.

Light Jokes

My wife told me I should stop buying random stuff online. I told her I was just browsing. She said, “You’ve been browsing for three hours.” I said, “Yes, but I’m very thorough.”

I told my boss I needed a raise because three companies were after me. He asked which ones. I said: “The bank, SARS and my landlord.”

I finally organised all my passwords. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I put the list.

Weird and Wonderful

Most of the iron in your blood was forged inside stars before the solar system existed.

The first computer mouse, demonstrated by Douglas Engelbart in 1968, was made of wood.

An octopus has three hearts – two pump blood to the gills and one pumps blood around the body.

Deep Thought

“Leaders should be ready to respond to rapid shifts in global power by stress testing their organisations’ global strategies.”

— Boston Consulting Group

Quiz Question

What was unusual about the soldiers who manned Hadrian’s Wall?

A. They were all Roman citizens

B. They were recruited mainly from Britain

C. They came from across the Roman Empire

D. They were retired legionaries

Quiz answer: C. They came from across the Roman Empire.

Soldiers stationed along the Wall included men from places as far afield as modern-day Syria, Romania and North Africa.

There is one thing, and one thing only, that will decide whether your idea is a success or not. We’ll get to that soon.

The brutal and cruel truth is that no one is out there will hand you money for nothing. The only money you will ever get for nothing is the money that your parents give you or maybe an aunt or uncle or grandparent.

It might sound harsh, but listening to advice at tea parties, in bar rooms, at Saturday afternoon braais, being bedazzled by consultants or reading get-rich-quick magazines and books won’t get you very far.

It will take a long time to come up with a product and then to develop it into something that can be sold. It doesn’t matter if it’s a jersey, a bottle of jam, an iPhone app or a service for maintaining and cleaning coastal properties.

When you have fallen in love with your product or service then is the time to face cruel reality. Will your product or service be liked or desired by other people? This is where you test your product or service in a trial market run to determine its viability.

If this test shows promise, then take a deep breath and pat yourself generously on the back but don’t crack open the champagne.

You’ve come a long way. Now comes the real test where you go to battle in the marketplace. This takes courage and cunning.

But before you don your superman or wonderwoman suit and dive into the wild and fickle marketplace, do your numbers. Many business owners go through the whole process of selling their product or service only to come out with less money than they put into their misadventure. This makes a mockery of all their effort.

Charge as high as you can, make a fat profit margin and do everything you can to get repeat sales because that’s what determines volume and value. It goes against the grain of what the goody two-shoes are telling you but this is the reality, cruel and harsh as it is.

We have now come to the part you’ve been waiting for. Whatever you do to come up with a business idea and develop it and then put it into the marketplace and perhaps even make an ongoing business of it, you must remember that it’s all about the money.

The one thing that will decide whether your idea is a success or not is to have a paying customer. This means that someone will pay money to buy your product or service from you because it meets a need that they have.

It is easy to say this but it’s another matter to accomplish this. We not talking about family, friends or an aunt buying your product, we are talking about a stranger, someone who has a need for your product and out of all the other solutions to the problem or want, they have, they will buy your product.

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Editorial Disclosure & Disclaimer

Financial News Daily is an independent business news syndicate and a wholly owned subsidiary of Idea Accelerator. We publish financial, environmental and corporate commentary for digital platforms, media outlets and organisations. Nothing published here constitutes investment, legal or financial advice. All opinions are editorial commentary on matters of public and economic interest.

I remember driving up to Vanrhynsdorp in Namakwaland just before autumn began. It was hot up there. So hot that during the day it was more comfortable to sit under the shade of a tree than go out into the sun.

This was weather I like: hot, dry, and being able to dress in a T-shirt, shorts and slops. It was a wonderful time up there in the heat.

Coming back to Cape Town, there were still some hot days, but then autumn came. The days began to get shorter and the nights cooler. Then I knew winter was coming. I could feel it in my bones.

By the middle of winter, with its lashing gale-force winds and driving rain, the dreaded part of winter had arrived.

Winter has its own character and beauty, but the main problem is the cold. The cold nights that seem to start at about five in the afternoon, and the freezing mornings when you have to dress in several layers just to keep out the chill.

The other thing about winter is that wherever there is a weakness in your system, it is likely to show itself. It is like a boat. If there is a weak point in the hull, water is going to get in — sometimes trickling, sometimes pouring.

This winter of 2026 brought its own share of illnesses and life-threatening situations, but let’s not dwell on that. It’s part of winter. We only have four seasons in a year, and winter is one of them.

And in your life, you will only have so many winters. If you are 60 years old, you have already experienced 60 winters, and you begin to wonder how many winters you still have left.

That suddenly gives you a different perspective on winter.

So perhaps the thing to do is embrace it. That’s difficult, of course, if you don’t like winter and prefer spring and summer. But when you reach the midpoint of winter, as we have along the Cape coast, hope springs up because the days are suddenly getting longer. There is more light.

Even so, winter never seems quite ready to let go.

Here in the Cape, well into September, it can still be cold at night, still raining, and still blowing those north-westerly low-pressure gales.

I lived in Johannesburg — actually Randburg — for more than 40 years, and you could be pretty sure that by 1 September the warmer weather would start. The public swimming pools would open, and you could begin enjoying those long hours of sunshine.

Of course, that doesn’t happen anymore in the way it once did, partly because of the dire municipal crisis. At the moment, Johannesburg is enjoying temperatures of up to 24 degrees Celsius.

Here in the Cape, the best we have managed over the past week has been about 16 or 17 degrees at the warmest part of the day.

People say summer is starting later because of global warming and climate change. Another way of looking at it is that winter seems to be extending further into the year, sometimes towards October.

And that’s a pity because we’ve had our fair share of winter months with miserable weather, overcast skies and dark days. Now we want to embrace the sunshine.

Soon, the winter of 2026 will be gone and the summer sun will arrive with spring.

My coastal cottage will dry out. I can start repairing the wear and tear caused by winter. I can start going for swims at the nearby beach again and enjoy those long, lovely summer evenings.

But make no mistake: even in the best parts of summer, somewhere in the back of my mind will be the thought: What will the next winter be like?

So, make hay while the sun shines.

Enjoy the warmth, the light, the swims and the long evenings while they last.

Because eventually winter will return, grip the earth again and stay — sometimes longer than welcome, as it seems to have done this year.

A jar of peanut butter is not usually a geopolitical document. But on South African supermarket shelves, it has become one. Retailers such as Checkers and Shoprite, serving a broad and price-sensitive market, have increasingly stocked groundnuts and peanut butter imported from countries like India and China. For consumers, the appeal is obvious: a staple food at a lower price. For South African farmers and local manufacturers, the same shelves tell a more troubling story.

The retail logic is not difficult to understand. Supermarket chains face constant pressure to keep prices down, especially when their customer base stretches from the middle to lower-income brackets. Peanut butter is not a luxury in South Africa. It is an affordable source of protein, a lunchbox staple, and a pantry item that many households buy regularly. When imported peanut butter can be landed more cheaply than the local equivalent, the commercial temptation is strong.

For years, however, the playing field was not level. South Africa’s tariff structure contained an anomaly: raw groundnuts imported for local processing faced a customs duty, while finished peanut butter entered the country at almost no duty at all. A local manufacturer short of domestic groundnuts had to pay to import the raw material. A competitor could import the finished product far more cheaply. That structure discouraged local processing and weakened the incentive to grow groundnuts in South Africa.

The body responsible for such matters is the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC), a statutory body that investigates customs-duty changes and trade remedies and recommends them to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition. Recently, ITAC raised the duty on imported peanut butter. The aim was to correct the imbalance, not to inflate the price of locally produced peanut butter. Whether retailers pass on the benefits of local production, or use the tariff as cover for higher margins, remains an open question.

The South African Groundnut Forum, chaired by Adri Botha, has argued that the old tariff regime placed local producers at a structural disadvantage. RCL Foods, the maker of Yum Yum peanut butter, was among those pressing for protection. The recent duty is a partial answer. But duties alone will not solve the deeper problem. A larger, more consistent local crop, supported by predictable demand, is the long-term answer. Without that, the industry remains vulnerable to the next wave of imports.

Quality and taste complicate the picture. South African peanut butter generally follows the American style: smooth, consistent, and engineered to resist oil separation. Indian peanut butter has often exhibited more oil separation and a different taste profile. Some South African retailers previously moved away from imported Indian peanut butter because of quality concerns, preferring local private-label production. Yet imports have still risen. That suggests that for many shoppers, price matters more than taste.

This is not simply a story about peanuts. It is a story about politics. South African agriculture has long complained of being sidelined in trade negotiations. At BRICS meetings, where agricultural trade is discussed, there is no dedicated seat for South African farmers. Agribusiness organisations have repeatedly urged BRICS partners to lower tariffs and remove phytosanitary barriers that restrict South African exports. Yet the original BRICS countries account for only a small share of South Africa’s agricultural exports. As new deals are struck in Delhi and elsewhere, South African farmers watch from the sidelines.

The irony is sharp. The government has often blamed the agricultural sector for high food prices. Yet state policy itself has been a major driver of cost inflation. Electricity tariffs have risen sharply, fuel levies have increased, and the cumulative burden on farmers—who are price takers, not price makers—has been substantial. When one compares the cost environment for South African farmers with that of counterparts in India, China, or Brazil, the disparity is not merely a matter of scale. It is also a matter of state-created overheads. Whether the government will address this asymmetry is doubtful, given its historical aversion to the agricultural sector.

There is a cautionary tale in the Hartswater area of the Northern Cape. Decades ago, the Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme enabled South African farmers to produce groundnuts in sufficient quantities to supply the domestic market. That infrastructure, built through public investment, created a viable groundnut industry. Today, that investment is under threat. If local production declines because of import competition, the irrigation schemes and processing facilities that depend on groundnuts meanwhile lose their economic rationale. A tariff may slow that decline, but it cannot reverse it on its own.

Is it fair for foreign countries to import groundnuts and peanut butter in competition with South African farmers? In a globalised economy, competition is the default condition. The more precise question is whether the competition is fair. For years, it was not: the tariff anomaly systematically favoured imported finished products over local value addition. The recent duty corrects that anomaly. But it does not address the deeper structural disadvantages facing South African agriculture—high electricity costs, fuel levies, and a policy environment that has often treated farmers as adversaries rather than partners.

Consumers,, will continue to buy peanut butter. They will weigh price against taste, and many will choose the cheaper jar. That is their prerogative. The task for policymakers is to ensure that the choice is not artificially skewed by tariff distortions or by state-induced cost burdens that make local production unviable. Until that happens, the groundnut question will remain unresolved—a small jar on a supermarket shelf, containing a much larger argument about trade, fairness, and the future of South African agriculture.