Tim Cohen
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timcohen.bsky.social
Tim Cohen
@timcohen.bsky.social
210 followers 73 following 2.4K posts
South African journalist, Senior Editor at Currencynews.co.za. Former editor of Business Maverick, Business Day, and the Financial Mail. Blogs at www.timcohen.co.za. Views my own, obvs.
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I.am.not.making.this.up💥 Why do (some) dumb ideas never die? www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
November 9, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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I.am.not.making.this.up💥Righteous capital: buying your way into the kingdom of compliance
The Department of Trade and Industry is reportedly considering a voluntary way of “shortcutting” black economic empowerment regulations, which would allow unlisted companies to bypass some aspects of ...
www.timcohen.co.za
October 12, 2025 at 12:53 PM
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I.am.not.making.this.up💥 Enshittification, reloaded *
Here is a big question: what is artificial intelligence going to do to website income, and how will that change the internet?  The problem with big, global, tough questions like this is that the qual...
www.timcohen.co.za
October 3, 2025 at 6:52 AM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up: 💥 If only there were a global forum … oh wait
There is no question that the world is in a period of global geopolitical flux. If only there were a global forum where you could hear the world's leaders address these pressing challenges and propose...
www.timcohen.co.za
September 28, 2025 at 12:01 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/ithe-prince-...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥The Prince and the perils of candour: Ramaphosa’s painful confession
We got treated to some wonderful evidence this past week about the abstruse dangers of political honesty.  When President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed thousands of ANC councillors and mayors from across...
www.timcohen.co.za
September 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥Reset, not romance: Inside the GNU’s awkward peace
During a press presentation on Friday, MTN CEO Ralph Mupita made a brief comment, almost in passing, about the various kinds of questions he gets on his international roadshows. He’s currently on one ...
www.timcohen.co.za
September 7, 2025 at 7:56 AM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up 💥Smoke and Mirrors: The glamour, the grift, and the smoky lies we tell ourselves
When I smoked, I was always somehow convinced that the act of smoking made me seem more attractive. When people asked why I smoked, I would respond, “Isn’t it obvious? I just looked so much suaver, br...
www.timcohen.co.za
July 27, 2025 at 5:48 PM
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PODCAST 📣 Listen Up! Is South Africa disintegrating, and would a kiss cam help?
The news of the past week has been worrying, from the crisis in the police, to more news about the construction mafia, to South Africa getting bad press internationally. In this podcast, Mark Barnes ...
www.timcohen.co.za
July 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/you-cant-han...
You can’t handle the truth — but the bond market can
Why is the truth so difficult? American journalist and social-political activist Gloria Steinem once said, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” And that captures the heart o...
www.timcohen.co.za
July 6, 2025 at 10:55 AM
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www.timcohen.co.za/bee-or-bust-...
I.am.not.making.this.up: 💥 BEE or Bust? SA’s Empowerment Dilemma in the Starlink Spotlight
If the Starlink debate has done anything, it has rekindled South Africa’s long-running, anguished and contested debate about Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and affirmative action.  Confronted with ...
www.timcohen.co.za
June 7, 2025 at 6:57 AM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up. 💥 Fact checking the fact checkers: truthiness in the age of verified outrage
Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s theatrical meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday last week, there has been an absolute outpouring of “fact-checking”. It's been a tidal wave: interviews, opinion...
www.timcohen.co.za
May 29, 2025 at 3:53 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up 💥 Bling, books, and base politics: The strange symmetry of Trump and Ramaphosa
In the end, they both came away with a book. The much-heralded confrontation between SA President Cyril Ramaphosa and US President Donald Trump, which one US diplomat anticipated would be an “unmitiga...
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May 22, 2025 at 4:28 PM
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www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025... www.currencynews.co.za www.timcohen.co.za
After the Bell: Casting off — my last Bell at Daily Maverick
My most enduring, most heartfelt thanks goes to the readers of this column who have been fabulously thoughtful, reactive, instructive and supportive of some views which at times have strayed, I’m prou...
www.dailymaverick.co.za
May 15, 2025 at 8:05 AM
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www.timcohen.co.za/iwhat-milei-...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥: What Milei got right, Trump got wrong, and Ramaphosa can't afford to miss
There are few things more fun than seeing economists having a fat go at each other and getting proved wrong by history. Perhaps that’s an overstatement; the spectacle of economists arguing is perhaps ...
www.timcohen.co.za
April 28, 2025 at 12:34 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.Am.Not.Making.This.Up💥: Fingers of cheese and fingers of blame - the transatlantic tiff nobody ordered
One of my favourite comic writers, Dave Barry, recently wrote an article on his substack entitled Summer Vacation Travel Tips. It has the subtitle, “I honestly don't have any.”  In his comic way, Bar...
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March 29, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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I.Am.Not.Making.This.Up💥: From Pepfar to perdition: sorry Elon, but you are in fact harmful
Some time ago, I was granted a one-on-one interview with Bill Gates, the renowned entrepreneur, healthcare buff, and global philanthropist, as everybody knows. To say this was a rare honour would be a...
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March 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up 💥 Don't Poke the Bear: Ebrahim Rasool and the art of diplomatic self-sabotage
One likes to be open-minded and free-thinking, but for reasons of diplomacy and decorum (especially if it’s your job), there are things you just don’t say, especially on a recorded zoominar.  If you ...
www.timcohen.co.za
March 16, 2025 at 1:58 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥: South Africans are ghosting the news - but why now?
Something odd is happening with the readership of South African news websites; it's dropping like a stone. Why? Is that globally unusual? Will it come back? Who, or what, is responsible? I think most...
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March 9, 2025 at 12:56 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥: The ghost of Neville Chamberlain smiles on Washington
Foreign policy is often so carefully hedged and circumspect and subsumed by niceties, that it's hard to follow. But then suddenly, there is a moment which penetrates like an icy knife into the very he...
www.timcohen.co.za
March 2, 2025 at 7:09 AM
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www.timcohen.co.za/vats-all-fol...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥: VAT’s all, folks! The hot mic that exposed Treasury’s tax turmoil
Thank goodness for the occasional hot mic. What politicians say all over the world is now so scripted, and controlled, and preordained, that it's a pleasure when a politician, or banker, or anyone in ...
www.timcohen.co.za
February 24, 2025 at 6:29 AM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥: Chainsaws, weirdos, and the shrinking state - why maverick leaders are winning
Or... why is reducing the size of government becoming a vote-winner? If there was an iconic image of elections worldwide in 2023/24, it was the Argentinian president-to-be Javier Milei snarling at th...
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February 18, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/icymi-the-ha...
ICYMI: 🔔 The harsh mathematics of land reform in SA
President Donald Trump’s executive order on Friday offering to resettle Afrikaner “refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination” invites the question: Is there a violin small enoug...
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February 12, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥: Sun Tzu vs the two-headed Hydra, or How does SA outmanoeuvre Trump and Musk?
What should South Africa do in the face of the sudden emergence of the two-headed Musk/Trump hydra from the depths of the underworld?  Well, I think it's worth asking the expert in this field, Sun Tz...
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February 9, 2025 at 1:28 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥Behind the Blackout: The paranoia fuelling SA’s latest load-shedding crisis
Just when South Africans thought load-shedding was a thing of the past, it has returned. It's like the Creature from the Black Lagoon or any other horror movie villains - they always return because we...
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February 2, 2025 at 5:05 PM
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www.timcohen.co.za/i-am-not-mak...
I.am.not.making.this.up💥: A compendium of commentary on DeepSeek
Like a huge number of people on the planet, I have been delighted to tear myself away from the craziness that is President Donald Trump’s first fortnight in office to read extensively about DeepSeek. ...
www.timcohen.co.za
January 30, 2025 at 7:37 AM