Why employers need to rethink what a living wage means

0:00Welcome to MoneyWeb now. Business news every morning. It's the eighth day of September 2026. Sidney, you hear that sound? You know what time it is. Hello and welcome to the MoneyWeb now podcast with Simon Brown. I'm the Dozele Ramila in for Mr. Brown this morning. He's what you can look forward to. Jimmy Moyah helps us to look at the Sun International's interim results. Professor Innes Mayah is chairperson of the LivingWage South African Network. She argues a living wage could make South African businesses more competitive. She tells us how in a few moments. Faisal Lepenkeese is managing executive for business development at EPSA Business. He tells us why small businesses should have been at the top of the recently concluded the SEDIC summit's agenda. This podcast is brought to you by standard asset management. Invest in more global opportunities through their partnership with JPMorgan Asset Management. MoneyWeb now on the money.

1:02Also available on podcast. Morning headlines. MoneyWeb asked the question, prepaid power, are you paying more than you should and business day leading with electricity and water post-risk to Africa's data center growth. Morning markets, US markets back after Labor Day, S&P 500 down, not 10% of 1%, less down 3% of 1%. East is mostly mixed with the NK and the positive 3% of 1% Hanksen and the negative quarter of 1%. Commodities gold and the positive 7% of 1% at $4,437, bring up 4% of 1% trading at $97.50 cents a barrel, platinum in the positive 2.10s of 1% at 1,839, palladium 9.10s of a percent up at 1,414. The round is trading at $16,000 to the dollar, Bitcoin $78,936, the top 40 opening call, expected in the positive 133 points. Hospitality and gaming operators and international limited in at the 6 months in the 30 June

2:06reported a 7.4% increase in group income to 6.6 billion round and this was supported by strong momentum in its digital division and a return to growth across its land-based casinos. Addusted headline earnings per share increased 7.9% to 247 cents, board confidence in the group's cash generation and five year value creation plan translated into an interim ordinary cash dividend of 185 cents per share. Jimmy Moyahe is an independent analyst, he joins us for more. So Jimmy, digital and physical gambling, there's just no slowing down for sign international lift these interns are anything to go by. Yeah, morning, dude. The interim rumbers are quite impressive considering the environment that sign international is operating in, especially if you think about the rise of the gambling conversation that has been unfolding over the last 18 or so months, the sign international business, the Sunbet business in particular that online segment competing against both legal and illegal operators and still being able to grow its own share in the market and

3:11increase its own slice of the pie there. What's interesting around the land-based growth as well is from a Sun international perspective, we know that the land-based model has always been part of their strategy has always been part of their growth and they have made it very clear that they're not intent on abandoning this at all, they're not intent on diversifying completely into the digital and online space, they're quite happy to keep their land-based developments and you see that in the capital expenditure that they put towards refurbishing the likes of the southern city property, that capEx number just shy of the 500 million round mark for this first six months of the year, very much in line with their expected spend of up to 1.2 billion for the whole year, they will see where else they deploy that capital expenditure but very clear from the Sun international business that they're intent on balancing both the signs of their business as it stands and it seems to be paying off. Yeah, that capital expenditure almost doubling from the same time this time last year. Unfortunately,

4:15they are retrenching saying they've initiated multiple productivity initiatives which they expect to asher in results from 2027. So let's take a look at city lodge because they also came out with their voluntary trading statement. What did you clean from that? So the city lodge trading statement is just an indication of what we're going to be getting later in this week on Thursday around the 10th of September. We the JC has a requirement that if we are going to expect a variance of more than 20% in certain figures that the market be notified. Now from a city lodge that's not going to be in the case of earnings per share or headline earnings per share but rather adjusted headline earnings per share which is a preferred measure that they use compared to the standard earnings per share, headline earnings per share figure. So that is what's going to be higher than expected could be in between 13 to 24% higher but what's interesting around the city lodge conversation and this particular conversation related to Sun International is they operate all in the hospitality space and you're starting to see kind of a sense of how

5:18that hospitality sector is performing and how it could potentially be recovering. In the case of Sun International of course remember there's still the impact of having readjusted how it is that view that big table bay asset in the table bay hotel after its refurbishments as well. So I'd be interested to see from a city lodge perspective how their navigating vacancies whether their vacancy rates have come down substantially how that business was performed because that along with the updated numbers from Sun International by the end of this week will give us a very interesting idea as to how the hospitality sector in South Africa is recovering on how it's performing for the last four days for the 2020-26 calendar year. So those figures will be quite interesting to keep an eye out on but by all accounts it looks as though we are seeing quite a bit of a recovery in that sector. A very important sector in the broader tourism space as they carried us through 2025. Thank you very much Jimmy Moyaha independent analyst for your time at this morning. Let your money

6:20weather the storms with stand-up asset management invest in the stand-up global select fund a diversified or weather equity portfolio submanaged by JP Morgan asset management. Money web now on the money. Alrighty let's take a look at this now early adopters of a living wage initiative stand to benefit sooner and win a greater share of the market. As according to Professor Innes Mayer of the Living Wage South Africa Network she argues that companies that want to preserve their market share will eventually have to pay their employees at least a living wage. In South Africa the National Minimum Wage Act compiles companies to pay workers a rate not lower than the prescribed amount whereas a living wage is completely voluntary. Professor Mayer joins us for more thank you very much Professor your time maybe to start with definitions what is a living wage. Good morning and good morning to the listeners. A living wage is a wage which allows a very humble but decent life

7:21that means that it's enough with careful budgeting to bring one through the month to enable choice about areas of life that are really important to oneself and an important part of the living is that it should be possible to keep some money aside for savings for unforeseen shocks, unforeseen expenses such as windowpane breaking having to buy new school shoes earlier than expected and the life. Gotcha. Is there a figure around what would afford one a humble and decent life? Is there an acceptable figure at least? So the University of Cape Town conducts an annual living wage survey across the South Africa about 2000 people provide the view on what would allow them a humble and decent life. We don't ask that directly but we ask how much choice to people

8:25currently have and which areas of life are important to them and the link that to the income amount that they provide us and the living wage South Africa adopts this figure that comes out of this research and for the current year it is 20,000 grand per month net. Okay so when you speak at two businesses what do they tell you about this meeting this amount at least? It really varies very widely. There are a number of businesses specifically in the financial services sector that have adopted the living wage for South Africa as their minimum wage that they offer and that staff but they of course also businesses is the necklace especially for small businesses that say at the moment this is just not possible to afford which is very understandable in the economic climate but for those businesses our advice as the living wage South Africa network is

9:28take it as a figure to aspire to know that this is what is required if you want to afford people to dignified life and then contact us and we can work with you or to assist you to find out how can we make this possible over time. I think you mentioned the number of 2000 in terms of people that you spoke to the survey that you conducted in that survey in your answer a little bit earlier on you mentioned that with careful budgeting people can afford to live within their means. What do they tell you about this concept of budgeting and stretching 300 grand to become 3000 grand where and if possible? Are we seeing that people are saying I can live within my means but this money just can't take me further than what I can go. Yeah so we don't ask about questions about budgeting in that survey we specifically focus on what areas of life are important to you

10:30at the moment and that includes things like housing access to information, political participation social relationships, it's a range of things and we then ask right now how possible is it for you to realize this area to an extent that allows you to live a good life and from that we then develop a an index, a quality of life index and we pitch that against the incomes that people have provided us. So we don't ask how are you going to make this happen? The reason I said careful budgeting is because you have two groups of individuals in South Africa there are those who are earning way below this and somehow have to make life happen and for whom many have said oh but this is way too much and then we have another group that says 20,000 net it's impossible to live of 20,000 net a month and so it really depends on which perspective are you coming from and from which

11:31perspective are you looking at it? Whether people budget or not I can't say and I'm saying careful budgeting to those who look at this figure and say it would be impossible to live of this amount. Fair enough what do people say is important to them of the group that you spoke to? So most things are important to individuals and what is out and note was the about this particular survey in South Africa is that political participation is not seen as very important and that is concerning given that we live in a democracy but also telling about how people perceive the current state of the country and also government performance is seen as not being in line with what people expect. So those are the two that are standing out for the rest generally people think everything is important has relative importance on average across the 2000 people. Given that a living wage

12:38is voluntary what then is the recommendation right because now you're depending on people's goodwill to say this is how people are living and this is how you can make a difference in their lives but what would move the needle to afford people a humble and decent life? The real important thing behind it is to not just see the living wage as a number but to see it as one aspect in a broader strategy and that is to afford people dignity and in life do I as an employer want to give people dignity why this really matters is because voice law it said in an interview on money web actually when he was the CEO of KWV people are the glue that hold your business together and what you want to do is to really make sure that this glue is strong and for that it is important that you value each individual employee as an individual that you value them

13:42that you truly see them and paying a living wage affordling people the ability to live rather than to just survive is one way in which we say as employers we value you amongst many other things. Thank you so much prof of your time at this morning Professor Innis Mayer of the Living Wage at South African Network. Give you money smoother returns for Stanlib Asage Management the Stanlib flexible income funds agile investment process preserves and grows capital in all markets. Money Web Now on the Money One thing the recently concluded 46th that said it summit should have done is put small micro and medium enterprises at the heart of its agenda. The case of SMMEs creating jobs and economic growth has been made time without number yet coordination remains and arguably at infancy stage we speak now to phasal keys and managing executive for business development at EPSA

14:46business about this. Thank you very much phasal because you penned an opinion piece about this so said egg much like the rest of the continent is not short of strategies promoting SMMEs. What is your observation of what was done yesterday and what is being done today to realize the full might of SMMEs in said egg tomorrow? Good morning to do thanks very much for the opportunity and good morning to your listener. So in essence what we are arguing in terms of our own observation is that there is no doubt that for the continent and also for the South Christians to make progress and deal with some of the challenges that we see are talking about high levels of unemployment for youth and also promoting growth. It is going to be very important that this time around we do justice in terms of making sure that the policy guidelines that are out with regards to Sadek SME development and competitive strategies are implemented in a coordinated way so that you can deal with some of the historical things that have held us

15:46back compared to other regions in terms of progress. Our SMME sector can very well be argued that one it's informal in nature and when you speak of policy you've got this whole debate of national interest versus regional interest you know we're not as harmonized as we should be and so how do we think around that? In essence I mean there's nothing wrong in essence with Turkish two member countries competing you know for progress but what we are arguing at least from our perspective given our observations because you know we have businesses in the South Christians you know with what clients there we engage them you know we get to see opportunities and things that they have to deal with. Our argument in this instance is emphasized that you know there is a room for making sure that we understand the value change and then we can optimize on core competencies of each country so that you know the Sadek Christian

16:49can benefit in that in that in sense because we all know that what works exceptionally well in Botswana might be different in terms of a country like Mozambique for instance and what we are saying is that the Sadek countries needs to make sure that they're able to optimize in terms of their core capabilities and in the process if there is leverage in terms of collaborating and in a structured way working with a member country in such a way that you know both countries can benefit we believe that we have a better chance of making progress as a reaching if you are able to do that and then obviously you know our population and our people can benefit as part of this process and then we see it in some of the programs that we run to saying you know there is more to collaboration in a structured way organized way to make a difference as opposed to one country dealing its own challenges on its own because what you also find is that you know the challenges of SMEs in these regions are very similar so putting our minds together working together being

17:53in a clear way in terms of how we solve some of these things and we have a better chance of making progress. Fair enough. Where in the world are they getting it right? We are SMEs driving and contributing to economic growth. I think there are enough studies I think that we see particularly in the east I think we've seen quite a bit of that. I might just say that if one looks at East Africa I mean there is a clear evidence that we're making some good progress there in terms of you know development in terms of technology ability for people, business people and entrepreneurs to develop products that are able to transform you know their nation. I think we've seen quite a bit of that in countries like Kenya and Tanzania for instance and there's a lot of interesting things that are developing in terms of that economy in line with technological developments and I think those things are very stimulating in a sense that they are able to make

18:57life easy for everyday people that are wanting to venture into businesses so that they don't have to navigate some of the complexities that we sometimes we see in our market and over and above that obviously it's going to be unfair to compare some of the emerging economies like our selves in terms of strategic regions with regards to EU and we know that in EU because of time and development and investment that have happened over time in terms of those markets they're able to do a better job in terms of export contribution for SMEs and job creation is much more stronger but it's a question of time we believe that you know with structured plans and aligned government support we will get there over time. I'd like for us to expand on your point of structured plans there is an argument or rather let me put it like this often times you hear that SMEs have a big problem with accessing finance and then there's another side of the coin where you find that though you may support SMEs financially not all of them will scale that rather not all of

20:03them will succeed they need more than just financing right so it's about getting your compliance right it's about you know getting as much information as possible about all aspects of the business and maybe we can speak more on that when you speak of coordination and helping SMEs grow is it just about finance what else is needed to help SMEs scale to realize this industrial development that we speak of as a region. Yeah I mean we are absolutely correct to do so it's just not one principle I think if one looks at the recent policy documented camera of Sadek it's very clear that it's not just going to take one thing to make everything work so I think if one looks at the some of the key highlights of the plan that we have now is that access to market is going to be very important because once you are able to produce a specific you know good you need to find buyers for it you need to understand how do you take you know your products into those market obviously in some instances access to finance is one of the key things that that needs to be unlocked

21:08for those who don't have access so so that they can be able to move with their businesses. Obviously other structural things like for instance the regulatory environment, legal and policy framework in terms of coordinated way across decided Christian becomes important because one of the challenges that we know is that they are barriers to entering some of this market even if people are interested in doing cross-border trade they need to be able to navigate some of these complexities and hours working with some of our partners in business our aim is very simple to make sure that we can be able to put our resources together so that we can unlock the value for SME because they don't have the resources and the muscles that we have as large corporates our duty is to make sure that we can simplify some of these things and help support mental create skills development so that they can be able to succeed over time. Thank you so much sir for your contribution this morning. Faizone Kise is managing executive for business development at Absor Business.

22:11And that's it from myself and the team thank you very much for choosing us this morning. This podcast is brought to you by Stanlib Asset Management invest in more certainty to navigate volatile market conditions. Remember we're live every weekday morning on the MoneyWeb website and app at 6.30am and podcast just a little after 7am. A big thank you to the teams will see so no more clinical and pen your and to you of course for choosing us and to our guests for their time. My name is Dutus Ileramela in former St. Brown this morning and this is MoneyWeb now. We're back with you tomorrow morning have yourselves a magic day further bye bye. Listen to the live stream of MoneyWeb now the same time every weekday. For more business finance and investment news MoneyWeb now on the Money also available on podcast.