Happy Mandela Day, Ghosties!

One of the few things our ex-president Jacob Zuma got right was to introduce the concept of Nelson Mandela Day in 2009. Those were arguably happier times in our country, as we couldn't wait to welcome FIFA to our shores. I say "arguably" because load shedding started in 2008 and Wall Street bankers did a great job of breaking the global economy in 2007 - 2009.

Later in 2009, the General Assembly of the United Nations latched onto the idea and adopted a resolution to make the international community aware of his humanitarian work.

Today, we all know what Mandela Day has become: a wonderful catalyst for people to take some time out of their day to make a difference in the world, particularly for those who are less fortunate.

Babalwa Rubusana spends far more than 67 minutes a year helping people, or even 67 minu tes a day! As the founder of the Gugulethu Chess College, her work is making a difference in a community that desperately needs it. I played a lot of chess in my school days and I know from experience that it makes a huge difference to maths, science and even language marks. There's plenty of global research to back this up. By teaching and encouraging chess in schools, Babalwa is making an incredible impact.

Of course, it probably won't shock you that she has yet to receive a single chessboard from government, despite sending proposals for assistance. The private sector keeps her afloat and fundraising isn't easy. Thankfully, chess is a very low-cost initiative, so a significant impact can be achieved with modest funding.

I recently co-founded a startup called bizval, which helps entrepreneurs value their businesses at an incredibly affordable price vs. the cost of hiring professionals. I built the back-end model so I know that it uses the same p rinciples used by investment bankers in mergers and acquisitions. By standardising the questions and the model, we've built a tool that is immensely affordable and highly effective.

This Mandela Day, we decided to support the Gugulethu Chess College. We will donate 50% of our fee for any bizval valuation between 18th and 31st July to the college. You just need to use the coupon code 46664 on checkout. It's a win-win for literally everyone, as you get the benefit of a valuation for your business and you know that half of the fee is going to a wonderful cause. Find out more about this initiative at this link.

For those who are keen to find out more about Gugulethu Chess College, you'll find the link to the Facebook page in that article as well.

Moving on t o usual programming, there's plenty to keep you busy this morning.

In terms of feature articles, Chris Gilmour is back with the third and final part of his series on discretionary retailers on the JSE. In this article, he looks at Mr Price, The Foschini Group, Pepkor, Cashbuild and Lewis.

Ghost Grad Karel Zowitsky worked through the recently released Brait integrated annual report and picked up some excellent insights into the two most important investments in the group: Premier and Virgin Active. One thrived over lockdown and one took a hiding. Speaking of hidings, the Brait share price has lost 94% of its value in the past five years and is still trading at a large discount to net asset value. In this article, Karel gives you useful context to the group to assist you with further research.

There's an action-packed Ghost Bites this morning. The biggest news on Friday was MTN's potential play for Telkom, which sent the Telkom share price into overdrive. I included my cheeky tweet on this topic in Ghost Bites, as people seemed to really enjoy it. There's also news from Renergen, where the strategic deal with Ivanhoe has fallen over as conditions couldn't be met in time. I just wish the announcement told us which conditions. There are many more updates, including a strong sales update from Richemont and a request for a trading suspension by Ton gaat Hulett. Adcock Ingram released a trading statement and Ninety One gave us an update on AUM. Among the unusual updates, a landmark ruling against Old Mutual related to the Fidentia scandal has major ramifications for the industry and Old Mutual will be appealing the ruling. There's all this and more in Ghost Bites.

On Thursday morning, the team from TreasuryONE hosted a great webinar discussing the macroeconomic volatility out there and the key drivers. It was such an insightful presentation and those who attended took huge value from it. For those who missed it or didn't register, the YouTube version is now available. You can watch it at this link.

Friday's currency market was driven by the University of Michigan reducing its 5-year inflation outlook from 3.3% to 2.8%. Wichard Cilliers (Head of Market Risk at TreasuryONE) points out that this took the odds of a 100bps hike at the next FOMC way down again. The euro bounced back from breaking parity and traded above that magical figure for the entire session. The rand closed stronger on Friday after a week of immense pressure. The team expects to see another volatile week as focus turns to central bank meetings. The ECB rate decision is expected on Thursday (the market expects a hike of 25bps) and TreasuryONE expects a 50bps hike from the SARB.

For the podcast fans, there are two for you to enjoy today.

The first one is Episode 2 of Ghost Stories, in which I had an entertaining and insightful discussion with Justin Clarke, Operational Director at OrbVest and the founder of Private Property, a household name in South Africa. In the first part of the show, we unpacked his entrepreneurial journey that included surviving two major economic crises and raising capital from a famous global venture capital investor. We then discussed OrbVest's business, which brings US medical real estate investment opportunities to South African investors. It's rare to be able to invest in an alternative asset class for a low initial amount. Listen to the podcast to find out more.

In Episode 84 of Magic Markets, Craig Ant onie from AnBro Capital Investments joined us to talk about the terrible start to the year for growth stocks and how this compares to the Global Financial Crisis, for example. No two crises are the same, yet there are things we can learn from each one. I highly recommend listening to this episode.

There's so much to keep you busy today. Enjoy the content and I hope you manage to squeeze in something awesome for Mandela Day!