JSE's worst investment

SPOILER: READ ON TO SEE WHO, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF STEINHOFF, IT IS

Little more than two decades ago, in December 2003, you could've bought shares in one of the JSE's blue chip stocks. Saddam Hussein had just been captured; Rudolf Straeuli resigned as Springbok coach following the Kamp Staaldraad fiasco and an exit from the quarter-final round of the Rugby World Cup; and an original Spur burger cost about R25.

Shares in this blue chip could've been bought for around R90. Fast-forward 21 whole years, and shares are right back at that level (after briefly plunging as low as R30 during the Covid pandemic before rebounding strongly).

This means that if you buy and hold, your capital appreciation would be exactly zero. Usefully, you'd have received some healthy dividends across those 21 years, easily more than the current share price. But these haven't been consistent as the company plunged from crisis to crisis.

Textbook mistakes