A psychometric test done on me by one of the large US retail chains concluded that I had great attention to detail but unusually for a Chartered Accountant I saw the big picture and took decisions easily. I was told that I could join their group in the USA whenever I liked. I have extensive financial experience having been the Special Advisor to the  Minister of Finance 1995-1996 and currently still give evidence as a financial expert in High Court actions in SA. I have appeared as a financial expert at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris on two occasions. I have restructured listed and unlisted South African companies and state-run entities.

I was, for over a decade, the Deputy Chairman of Société Générale’s banking operations in South Africa and have held board appointments on companies listed on the JSE, the UK and USA stock exchanges. I suppose the best judges are those with whom I interacted during the latter days of Apartheid and since the dawn of a new South Africa. I have had the privilege of interacting with a range of people internationally, including South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela. Their comments are testimony to my wide-ranging skills and incisive analysis of the issues of the day, and my ability to “think outside the box.”

The purpose of these articles is to try and stimulate thinking “out-of-the box” in the hope that concerned citizens and the business community take our very precarious current financial position into account, as our failure to do so could end up with a disastrous new government. It is hoped that participation will encourage creative solutions, bearing in mind that I am an accountant and not an economist or political analyst. I recently met Ndaba Mandela, one of President Nelson Mandela’s grandsons, who supports the principle and objectives of these articles as he, like me, is extremely concerned that his grandfather’s vision, as set out by his grandfather during the Rivonia treason trial when he said – “I HAVE fought against white domination; and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities”, this vision is not being met – The Rainbow Nation is being destroyed and he supports any ideas that may save our country.