On 29 August 1995 I was admitted as an attorney. It was a tremendously proud day for me, marking as it did the end of a long journey which begins with school, went through two degrees at university, the Practical Legal School in Durban where I was the class Chairperson, and then one year of articles at David Levithan.

I was admitted in the Pretoria High Court and the advocate that assisted me with the application, was extremely bright and very influential in my career at that time, John Peter has subsequently become a Senior Counsel and will no doubt, in due course, become a judge.

It is amazing how quickly time flies - I really do not think it has been 25 years although if I went on the basis of stress then it probably felt like 50 years. If I went on the basis of time, I would say it probably feels more like 10 to 15 years. There are so few attorneys that last 25 years in the profession that the Law Society actually gives out certificates to them at the Annual General Meeting. But, since I know the real purpose of those certificates, it is not something I would attend, simply to collect a certificate. The real purpose, and I sat on the Law Society when they came up with the idea, is to get more people in attendance at the AGM and to sit through six or seven hours, to collect a framed “endurance” certificate is just not me. It is about what it means to me, what I have achieved as opposed to time, and not getting any accolades in front of a crowd.

Apple is very close to becoming the first $2 trillion company by market capitalisation.  It also is now 6,5% of the entire S$P 500, the index of the biggest 500 shares in America.  That is a huge percentage of an index for any one company to have and at its peak, 35 years ago, IBM was 6,4% of the market.  It is amazing if for so many years people knocked Apple shares giving a variety of reasons why they would not rise and they have now gone absolutely crazy.  Later this year of course the new iPhones are going to be released including their first 5G phone.  As somebody who owned and sold Apple (at a good profit) at considerably lower prices than now I cannot help but feel that it is just too high, but it is one of those companies that really absolutely leads and totally dominates in its market.

*I am not a registered financial advisor and I do not give financial advice to people.*

It is fascinating to see the various statistics that come out each and every day and of course, a blog is going to be outdated pretty quickly.  We currently have 590,000 cases in SA with a total of 12,000 deaths.     

We need to compare that to other causes of death in SA, including guns and violence and specifically to motor accidents - which result in approximately 14,000 deaths a year.  In America, Covid-19 is already the third leading cause of death for the year, but many people would have thought it would be the leading cause.  Cancer and heart disease still kill more people in America than Covid-19 does even though, at the time of writing this, it had killed 170,000 Americans and infected 5,4 million.

How many people are killed will depend on how soon a vaccine becomes available and by available I mean available to you and me – not just to people in special risk groups, politicians and sports people and celebrities who will all no doubt get it before the rest of us. 

It has become increasingly obvious over the last few months that one of the most important things, when dealing with Covid-19, is to ensure fresh circulation of air.  The virus floats in the air, and people who work, or congregate in a closed area, such as a nightclub, are the most at risk.  Open air, or creating a flow of air in and out of a building, is obviously the best place to find oneself. 

In that regard, all of my staff are encouraged to keep all of their windows and the doors of the offices open.  It may not seem convenient during the colder months, although truthfully Johannesburg and Pretoria have wonderful weather in the late morning and early afternoon on any given day, but it's the right thing to do.  One can always dress for the weather, and if it means that the offices are colder than normal, but safe, that's clearly the most sensible option.