“Senegal Clashes | Protests escalate in Senegal”- https://youtu.be/2Xz6yLAfSbY. Posted Mar 6, 2021

“Protests over the arrest of an opposition leader are continuing for a fourth day in Senegal. Supporters of Ousmane Sonko have been demonstrating since his arrest on charges of rape and inciting protests this week.”

“Family offices: More than just keeping it among kin and paying it forward.”dated 26 November 2019 at https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=https%3a%2f%2fwww.dailymaverick.co.za%2farticle%2f2019-11-26-family-offices-more-than-just-keeping-it-among-kin-and-paying-it-forward%2f&d=4702899173995044&mkt=en-WW&setlang=en-US&w=XcculH3wC8ZaofHgrhM_mtCGRKbh9K-f. Below are a few statements however it is worth reading in full.

The world’s first family office set up shop in the US in the 19th century. Its sole purpose at the time was to manage the fortunes of corporate moguls such as JP Morgan and John D Rockefeller. Fast forward a century or so, the offering has evolved into something more elaborate and further reaching. But it is in the past 10 years that family offices have gained real traction and become a significant contender in the money management game.

It’s a booming business. An EY report states that there are currently more than 10,000 single-family offices around the world, and research by Campden Wealth suggests family offices hold assets in excess of $4-trillion.

South African billionaires that crack the list include Nicky Oppenheimer, Johann Rupert, Patrice Motsepe, Koos Bekker and Michiel le Roux, according to Forbes.

But there is much more money to go around in South Africa than that among a handful of billionaires. A report by academics Ihsaan Bassier and Ingrid Woolard suggests that based on tax data, the country has an estimated 182,000 dollar millionaires.

It is for such reasons that Maitland opened up one of the largest full-service independent multi-family offices in South Africa in 2018. It said in a media statement at the time, that “the time is ripe” to tap into the growing wealth in South Africa.

Cheryl Howard, MD of the Maitland Family Office, says that the wealthy are quickly becoming “global citizens” and need a service that is truly international and delivered seamlessly across borders.

“This was compounded by increasingly complex regulations, a more litigious society and the risks of an unstable global economy.”

Maitland was founded in Luxembourg 42 years ago and according to the company, it counts some of the world’s wealthiest families as its clients. The group has 17 offices worldwide with private clients serviced mainly from Guernsey, Isle of Man, London, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius and Monaco.

The first business in SA to brand itself as a family office, however, was Stonehage Fleming. It was formed by the merger of Stonehage, which focused primarily on helping South Africans manage their overseas assets, and the family office interests of the UK’s Fleming family. The best-known member was Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond.

Stonewood, Vantage and Alpha Wealth are some of the other local operators. Citadel is planning to launch a family office operation in the second half of 2020.

Before them, the closest thing to a family office were the large trust companies such as Syfrets and BOE.

A move to a family office would see Tepper join several of his prominent peers, including George Soros, who moved in 2011 to close his hedge fund to outside investors. Billionaire John Paulson also indicated earlier in 2019 that he was weighing a transition. Leon Cooperman returned all capital to investors in his hedge-fund firm, Omega Advisors, at the end of 2018.

“Brooke Harrington of Copenhagen Business School worries that the growth is undermining meritocracy in capitalism.

“The bigger the apparatus they have behind them, the harder it is for the market to discipline them,” she says.

Chuck Collins of the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, frets over opacity — “they ensure ever more wealth goes off the ledger” — and their growing lobbying clout.

He argues that billionaires’ family offices have worked tirelessly to exploit loopholes and rig rules to further their interests, most notably by helping to gut America’s estate tax.

“They are in the dynasty-protection business, trying to arrest the normal, natural process of wealth dispersal,” he says.

“4 powerful explosions occurred at a military warehouse in Equatorial Guinea” - https://youtu.be/BbQf77yMpOs

“Huge explosions in Equatorial Guinea’s Bata kill 17, wound 400”- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/7/four-large-explosions-hit-equatorial-guinea-city-of-bata-reports

Cause of blasts at a military base in country’s largest city remains unclear; local television shows groups of people pulling bodies from piles of rubble.

At least 17 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in a series of powerful explosions at a military base in Equatorial Guinea’s largest city of Bata, according to the country’s health ministry.

The cause of the blasts on Sunday was not immediately clear. Early reports suggested they might have come from the armoury, according to a journalist with the local TVGE channel.

The health ministry said on Twitter 17 people had so far been confirmed dead, while the number of wounded stood at 420. There were fears the death toll could rise.

“We hear the explosion and we see the smoke, but we don’t know what’s going on,” a local resident named Teodoro Nguema told the AFP news agency by telephone.

Local television showed groups of people pulling bodies from piles of rubble, some of which were carried away wrapped in bedsheets. There were also media appeals for people to donate blood, saying hospitals are overwhelmed.

Pick-up trucks filled with survivors, many of whom were children, drove up to the front of a local hospital where some victims were filmed lying on the floor.

In the blast area, iron roofs were ripped off half-destroyed houses and lay twisted amid the rubble. Only a wall or two remained of most houses. People ran in all directions, many of them screaming.

Equatorial Guinea has been ruled by 78-year-old President Teodoro Obiang Nguema for nearly 42 years.

His son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice president with responsibility for defence and security, appeared in the television footage at the scene inspecting the damage, accompanied by his Israeli bodyguards, according to AFP.

Teodorin, as he is known, is increasingly seen as the president’s designated successor.

After the blast, the Spanish embassy in the capital, Malabo, requested its nationals to remain at home. “Following developments in Equatorial Guinea with concern after the explosions in the city of Bata,” said Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya on Twitter.

Separately, the French ambassador in Equatorial Guinea, Brochenin Olivier, expressed his “condolences for the catastrophe that has just occurred in Bata”.

Bata is home to about 800,000 of the 1.4 million people living in the oil- and gas-rich country – most of them in poverty. While Bata sits on the mainland, Malabo is on Bioko, one of the country’s islands off the West African coast.

“Ivory Coast opposition parties return for parliamentary election”- https://youtu.be/30ljGG4IBbI

“Ivory Coast’s parliamentary election today will see President Alassane Ouattara’s party challenged by two opposition parties led by former presidents. The vote is the first test for Ouattara since last year’s turbulent presidential election.”

“Combustible Conditions at Bongani Mountain Lodge | Carte Blanche | M-Net” [Triggered by the death of a suspected poacher]- https://youtu.be/aN6qu04mnQg

“What led outraged community members, from a wildlife reserve bordering the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga, to launch an arson attack on the R60-million luxury Bongani Mountain Lodge on their trust land? It may seem counterintuitive to burn down the biggest source of employment in an area, but criticism is rife that the lodge did not do enough for its neighbours. It was also said the arsonists sought revenge for the death of a suspected poacher who had lived in the community. But as the police investigation reveals, it’s clear that all is not as it seems. Carte Blanche pieces together the puzzle.”