Step. Out. Through. The students or the. Training successful. Talking to me. Starts october 16th w. Self africans hit the streets theyre angry about jobs and corruption times are already tough before the pandemic now many say the situation is becoming unbearable. Also on the show the pandemic has been kind of the worlds billionaires who are growing in number and wealth. But it hasnt been affected women executives in germany a new study shows their numbers are sinking. Well welcome to the show im Stephen Beardsley in berlin its good to have you with us. We begin in south africa emerging economy that in recent years has emerged very far rising state debt slow growth and falling failing rather infrastructure have frustrated South Africans corruption too and that was before the pandemic now the pictures even bleaker and the mood among workers is sour face. This is how it looks like when south africas largest trade Union Federation organized this as a protest during the times of pandemic almost 2000000 members well to either just stay at home or go out and join pickets and motorcades like this one here in cape town that are happening throughout the country. It is unusual. But on the other stright we have not expected that the term is going to be like this we are very surprised and we appreciate the support that we have receiving from one members to this pandemic. You know for. All the good nations in me that stooping to the number that we have we must. Have that things but this is a very big surprise to us. He. Was. Demonstrating for a variety of issues a reform of the public transport sector Decisive Action against gender based violence and a stronger stand of the government against corruption you can read over here or option it is the biggest threats to our hot one democracy and the past years under the watch of the governing party a. N. C. Corruption has been rampant in south africa and although president Cyril Ramaphosa promised to change things there. Has been any high profile arrest and fat people saw more and more scandals coming out for example around the procurement of personal protective equipment during the president and many people here are angry about that. To me theres still a long way to go theres still a long way to go and theres still more that needs to be made because theres people that we know that have done this action you know that has not been dealt with if we want to see results people who want to see people being not you see that is the seriousness that we are looking to see people being arrested going to jail for what they did but of course theyre also calling for better Economic Conditions around 3000000 people have lost their jobs because of the pandemic and a 6 months locked down the union calls for decisive state intervention in strategy just sectors of the economy and a strengthening of the public sector. That includes small investments and struggling state owned enterprises. They must remain public entities because those outlays of those all over the public we cant sell them to any private person or any private institution because of those are that is what the rooms that is the transfer. Of the public at the end of the day but further investments into state owned entities are controversial within the government and amongst the people here billions of runs have been wasted in the past because of corruption in Companies Like south African Airways the National Airline but also the National RailwayService Money has been looted and wasted for a long time and even if the government was willing to invest more money into these entities in the future will it be able to afford it because of the pandemic of a South African government came up with a 25. 00. A relief package for the economy thats 10 percent of the countrys Gross Domestic Product and the government had to take loans from International Institutions like the International Monetary fund with an expected decrease in tax incomes in the next months and years the country might face massive financial problems in the future and already now south africa has a junk status rating from all 3 Major International rating agencies. Already done his age or increase the there with a picture from south africa and we go over to the u. S. Where wall street indexes have bounced back from tuesdays late session slump which was triggered by president Donald Trumps call to end stimulus talks a wednesdays rebound came after trump later demanded Congress Approved 25000000000. 00 to support airlines and a further 135000000000. 00 for Small Businesses both items that were in the goshi asians in the talks the prospects for both remain uncertain however with congress recessed until later this month. Now president unexpected tweet came hours after the u. S. Federal reserve chairman urgently appealed for exactly that type of aid from Congress Chairman powell warned that without further help the u. S. Could enter a recessionary downward spiral with tragic outcomes heres part of what he had to say the burdens of the downturn have not been evenly shared the initial job losses fell heavily on lower wage workers in Service Industries facing the public job categories in which minorities and women are over represented combined with the disproportionate effect of coded on communities of color and the overwhelming burden of childcare during quarantine and Distance Learning which has fallen mostly on women. The pandemic is further widening divides in wealth and economic mobility. Read a bleak assessment there from the worlds leading central banker and that stands in stark contrast to our next report 2020 has been a great year for the ultra rich billionaires in particular according to a new analysis from u. B. S. And p w c theyve seen their fortunes grow throughout the coronavirus pandemic often dramatically now in 2017 the worlds billionaires were collectively worth just under 9 trillion dollars theyre now worth a record 10. 2 trillion dollars thats a 15 percent rise according to the reports now some fortunes have risen even faster amazon founder jeff bezos has personal wealth ballooned this year from roughly 115000000000. 00 to more than 200 1000000000. 00 so who has the most billionaires the u. S. Leaves with 788. 00 chinas next with 342. 00 and then germany is the european leader with 119. 00 now in contrast the whole continent of africa has 20 billionaires and more on this im joined now by my colleague with business Kate Ferguson shes already at the table kate good to have you with us. Why is it that the rich are getting richer and should we be concerned that this is happening this is not really a new trend at all the rich have been getting richer and the poorer for quite some time that there are a couple of reasons for this one of them is that over the past few decades and this is a global trend the rate of talks of the super wealthy in paying has actually fall and the argument for this is that it boosts innovation and it creates jobs but the effect is that these super wealthy individuals have a whole lot of money to play with and much of they do with that money they put it into the stock market often investing it in super risky but high yield offsets that you or i would be too sensible to invest in but that means that they just keep keep getting wealthier and wealthier and i think the effect of that is that what happened to the stock market has a one on one relationship to whats happening to billionaires and that is one reason that people see. Whats happening the stock market is very poor reflection of the Overall Health of the economy and the well being of its people which is interesting we look at trump in his remarks that the wall street economy is doing well but he was going to go back inequality was already being exasperated before i guess the penda make but the pen demick has somehow made things worse it looks like closer and so a couple of sectors like big tech and health care were doing very well before the pandemic but of course the coronavirus has given both of these sectors a real boost so if you look at Companies Like amazon with personal wealth or grow to over 200000000000. 00 it makes sense that anything up online at the moment is doing really well because people have more time on money to spend so what about some retail or in communications some Companies Like flock and zoom theyve become household names which certainly wasnt the case before the pandemic when it comes to health care the search of course for a 1900 and treatments have given a huge boost to pharmaceuticals in particular so thats just means that those who are already wealthy are growing even wealthier the rest of us are possibly like a little behind we mentioned regional differences there with the video wall what do we can we tell from that anything yeah there are definitely some places in the world that breed a lot more billionaires than others on its no surprise at all that the u. S. Is right at the top so its a wonderful place to be super wealthy tax rates are very low actually lowered the tax rate for the super wealthy very recently on the Regulatory Environment there is pretty locked as well especially when you compare it to a place like europe where theres been an increasing attempt to crack down on Companies Like get them to pay more tax when it comes to africa and well there are a lot of reasons why its likely behind a lot of them have to do with the legacies of colonialism with conflicts there overshadowing Economic Growth and even when you look at the billionaires in africa the kinds of areas where theyve become wealthy are construction commodities all oil and diamonds and those are all areas that are very sensitive to shifts in the Global Economy so no. Big names in tech in europe or africa yet so thats one reason why theyre fit to focus businesses came 1st and break it down for us thank you very much. Well go back to europe where German Companies have long trail behind their counterparts when it comes to getting women into the boardroom new reports suggest the pandemic is making things worse crisis said companies appear to have thrown any push for diversity out the window making it even harder for women to get the top jobs. Jennifer morgan broke ground in germany when she became the 1st woman to lead a tax listed business yet only a few months after her appointment at the Software Giant isapi she was ousted women are hard to come by at the top of Large Companies in germany in fact a new study published by the old Broad Foundation suggests the share of female executive Board Members is actually declining meanwhile companies in other countries tend to put women in top management positions more often than the 30 Largest Companies in the u. S. Women make up almost 30 percent of all Board Members in sweden and france for the share has risen to more than 20 percent poland 2 has made improvements in elevating women over the last year in contrast germany saw a decline now not even 13 percent of Board Members are female and the old broad find action says the Global Pandemic has made things even worse with Women Leaders being lost and replaced with men the crisis shows that the understanding all mixed leadership and get involved it is up next leadership isnt very deeply rooted in germany yet it looks like its the 1st thing to be about when a critical situation the foundation accuses germany of having a male monoculture it found there are currently more men called thomas undermines boards of directors than women. And thats it for me and the Business Team here in berlin as always you can find out more line dot com slash business im seeing theres a thanks watch. The 20 joining us election on. Johnny carson one of the biggest voting blocs in this country many of them point blank. Dont trump all into stomach but 1st single issues which matter smallest portion of. Young christian voters like the flames their decisions on Election Night want to report on t. V. All the news clips. In the height of climate change. Africas mix of. Whats in store. For the future. Come for the major cities to get insight could counter. This is do doctors use a show coming up today and i have asked to meet marking the beginning of 2. A battle 70 years ago today was the 1st step in china absorbing to pass into instead of 3 many years and allegations of Human Rights Violations lives up to beths future under the china trust. Allegations of forced labor in chinas cotton fields couldnt we do a detainee has made the t. Shirt no closer. Than fitting into