The new Minister of Finance in South Africa, Mr Pravin Ghordan, has just announced some meaningful relaxation of Exchange Controls in his first Medium Term Budget Speech. Of interest generally will be the following:

• The R2 million investment allowance has been increased to R4 million;
• The annual discretionary allowance has been increased to R750,000;
• The limit for processing of outward investments by banks has increased to R500 million, from R50 million;
• Allowing for advance payments on imports (where a R250,000 limit previously existed); and
• Allowing SA companies to open foreign bank accounts.

The Rand is at the time of writing approximately 9% overvalued; this may be the perfect time to take some funds offshore. To discuss this further contact us, and to find out more about what to do with your funds offshore, contact Craig Field in the USA by clicking here.

We invite anyone who wants to To read an extract of the Minister's speech, relevant to this topic, click here...

To read the full  South African Reserve Bank's announcement, click here...

In the speech he discusses various aspects of the economy and prospects under a worsening deficit and lower than expected GDP, but he also announced further relaxation of exchange controls. This we believe is to be welcomed not only because exchange controls are antiquated and destructive to economic progress, but because it further encourages international investment and development in South Africa which is the surest way to a prosperous future for the country. It is only by adopting this sort of expansive economic policy that South Africa can encourages the growth needed to absorb the huge numbers of unemployed and attract desperately needed skilled labour.

Moving is never easy, and with a business where one has to juggle demands of clients and staff, with the logistics of physically moving everything, it's just that much more difficult. However, once it's done, and everyone settles into the new ways and surroundings, the hardship is quickly put away and business goes on. The team are getting back on top of things and encourage anyone with any urgent matters to contact us to be re-assured your affairs are being dealt with. We will be holding a welcoming party on Thursday evening at the new offices and have tried to be sure everyone was invited. If however you did not get notified, please contact us to let us know you're coming. Here is a picture of the new signage, and we hope to have lots more photos on Friday.

Kusasa and our affiliated audit practice of Craig HD Field & Associates are human capital businesses. These means we rely on our highly qualified and dedicated team members to deliver our service, for which they are paid a monthly salary. If our clients do not pay their accounts timeously, we cannot delay paying our staff, because we do have client that pay well, and in many case pay in advance.

So to be fair to everyone, Kusasa and Craig HD Field & Associates are embarking on a strict policy of debt collection from delinquent accounts and will not process any further work or hand over any information or records until the account is brought back into line.

Kusasa is pleased to announce that we are moving to new offices at the end of July 2009. The new offices will no only give us more space for staff and growth, but also enable us to have a more professional presentation to our growing client base. We look forward to meeting you at the new premises in the weeks and months ahead. For address details see Contact Us.

Kusasa Capital Group has launched a new website. This step sees the publication of the group's strategy to streamline it's services into a single point of contact with a view to improving service to clients.