Business Day
State Aids drug suppliers fall into business rescue
Two of the pharmaceutical companies that won a slice of the health department’s latest Aids drug tender are in business rescue and have been unable to reliably supply the state. Avacare Health subsidiaries Barrs and Innovata, which last year each won...
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SA ‘genocide’ a red herring
US President Donald Trump yesterday repeated claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa, creating an unwanted distraction to the country’s investment drive in Davos, Switzerland. Finance minister Enoch Godongwana is leading a high-level delegation...
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Fossil fuels feast on R110bn in subsidies
South Africa spent nearly R200bn on energy subsidies in 2025, with most of it going to fossil fuels, slowing down the country’s climate goals. The latest report by the Canada-based International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) finds that...
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Motus faces staff revolt over pay cuts
Motus, South Africa’s largest vehicle showroom, is headed for a legal showdown with its employees over plans to slash salaries by up to 30% in a big cutback on benefits. The cutback plan arose after Motus was caught napping while Chinese brands won...
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Port woes sour Cape fruit exports
Prolonged wind disruptions and operational inefficiencies at the Port of Cape Town since November have disrupted the export of table grapes and deciduous fruit at the peak of the export season. The turmoil has resulted in losses and extra costs...
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Closure of BAT factory puts 35,000 jobs at risk
The decision by British American Tobacco (BAT) to stop producing cigarettes in South Africa due to rampant illicit cigarette sales will put more than 35,000 jobs at risk, devastating tobacco growers who have relied on BAT for more than 100 years. The...
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Police may be on hook for R56bn
Nearly 49,000 unlawful arrest and detention claims have left the South African Police Service (SAPS) exposed to R56.7bn in contingent liabilities — a figure that underscores systemic rights breaches and poses a huge fiscal risk. In a written reply to...
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Chinese car surge widens gap with SA
Chinese car imports are driving South Africa’s largest bilateral trade deficit, with the country running a R136.6bn gap with China in the first nine months of last year. This comes as nearly 375,000 vehicles flooded the local market and Chinese brands...
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SA’s trade deficit with Brics partners widens
The trade deficit between South Africa and its Brics partners has grown by $9.6bn, new research shows. Conducted by top academic Bhaso Ndzendze, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Johannesburg, the study calls for...
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Tau throws lifeline to distressed industries
Trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau has thrown a lifeline to the country’s ferrochrome and steel industries as the government steps up its interventionist efforts to save industries on the verge of collapse due to high energy costs. In a...
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EFF presses Mashatile on link to licence awardee
The EFF wants deputy president Paul Mashatile to account under oath for his dealings with the consortium to which the lucrative licence to operate the national lottery was awarded. The licence is said to be to the value of more than R80bn. The EFF...
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ANC charts escape from sharp end of US tariffs
The ANC is discussing at its mid-term national general council an investment and exportdiversification plan that aims to lift South African exports to R3-trillion as the government seeks to shore up the economy in response to recent punitive tariffs...
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Ministers work together to save ferrochrome smelters
The government is preparing to deploy sovereign backing to rescue the struggling ferrochrome industry. Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is finalising a package with finance minister Enoch Godongwana that would help reduce power tariffs for...
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Eskom’s lifeline to ferrochrome sector
Eskom and Glencore have sketched out a deal to carve out dedicated electricity from specific power stations and sell it under a contract designed to keep furnaces running and shield Eskom from volatile coal price risk. A memorandum of understanding...
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Cars feel bite of tariffs but PGMs ease the pain
The US tariffs that took effect in August made their first appearance in South Africa’s quarterly balance of payments, but their overall effect was muted as third-quarter exports to the US rose. The Reserve Bank noted in a response to Business Day...
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Stats SA rebukes new population scepticism
Stats SA has firmly rejected a private fibre operator’s claim that South Africa’s population could be far higher than official figures, saying novel techniques cannot replace transparency and replicable statistical methods. “Stats SA has noted...
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GDP growth streak extends
The economy grew for the fourth consecutive quarter, its longest period of sustained growth since the post-Covid recovery began in 2021. The performance in the third quarter of this year was broad-based, with nearly all sectors (except electricity)...
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Call for revamp of financial system
South Africa could unlock as much as R5-trillion in new investment for gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) and for its just energy transition if it undertakes sweeping reforms to its financial system, according to a report drafted for the National...
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‘We will participate’: Ramaphosa pushes back against Trump
President Cyril Ramaphosa has not given up on South Africa–US relations despite rising tensions under President Donald Trump’s administration, pushing back against suggestions that his country could be barred from the G20 summit in 2026. Trump, who...
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SA lags as Africa growth surges
South Africa is in danger of being left behind by faster-growing African peers, a new S&P Global Ratings report says, as the country’s weak growth and entrenched structural problems leave it vulnerable. This is as the continent posts the strongest...
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Online gambling tax plan slammed as unworkable
The National Treasury’s proposal to slap a 20% tax on the online gambling industry to curb harmful gambling will only channel punters to illegal platforms and become an administrative nightmare for the South African Revenue Service (Sars). These are...
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Mighty Pepkor takes on banks
Pepkor aims to marshal its unrivalled retail footprint of more than 5,000 stores, servicing more than 30-million clients, to launch an audacious foray into the crowded banking sector. Pepkor’s retail network is bigger than the branch networks of...
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Sars opens dialogue with top taxpayers
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has opened a formal channel with one of its largest corporate taxpayers — part of a group that paid R600bn in 2024/25 — as it seeks to rebuild credibility and stabilise the second-largest source of state revenue...
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SA clinches surprise G20 consensus deal
South Africa pulled off an unexpected diplomatic victory at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, securing consensus on a leaders’ declaration after weeks of high expectations and deep geopolitical rifts. Delegates from several regions said Pretoria’s...
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Ratings upgrade and rate cut likely
SA could be in line for a credit rating upgrade from S&P Global Ratings on Friday and a possible interest rate cut at next week’s monetary policy committee meeting after Wednesday’s mediumterm budget policy statement (MTBPS) and the announcement of a...
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High-stakes talks to rein in gambling
SA’s bookmakers have opened industry talks to consider measures the sector can take to bar recipients of SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) grants and National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) recipients from channelling taxpayer assistance to the...
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Sibanye suffers R3.7bn blow from failed mine deal
Sibanye-Stillwater’s balance sheet is set to suffer a R3.7bn hit after the miner agreed to settle its drawn-out legal brawl with London-based Appian Capital Advisory out of court. The $215m (R3.69bn) settlement, about the same value as Sibanye’s...
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JSE heads for showdown with the Competition Commission
The JSE and the Competition Commission are headed for a legal showdown over allegations Africa’s largest bourse has breached SA’s antitrust law by starving smaller rival A2X of trading volumes to maintain its market dominance. The imminent legal...
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JSE aims to rein in Sens information overload
The JSE, Africa’s largest and most liquid bourse, plans to rein in unnecessary dissemination of information on its news service, saying boilerplate updates on debt securities and exchange traded funds (ETFs) are crowding out material information and...
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Discount power deals shift burden
Eskom’s CEO has flagged serious flaws in negotiated electricity pricing discounts for energyintensive firms, saying they shift the real costs onto households and the utility. Speaking on Business Day Spotlight, a podcast that has hosted stalwarts such...
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PIC furious over R400m payout
Acapulco Trade and Invest, the BEE partner at Lanseria Airport, was last month paid more than R400m by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in a move that is said to have incensed the board, which is now contemplating legal action to recoup the...
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BoA hints at SA ratings upgrade
Bank of America (BoA) has pointed to a potential credit rating uplift for SA, arguing that improving growth prospects and falling debt ratios could pave the way for a sovereign upgrade by S&P in November, provided the government of national unity (GNU)...
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Fix inflation, help the poor — Kganyago
Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has sketched out a technically grounded but politically resonant logic for locking in a 3% inflation target, framing the shift as a pro-poor, pro-growth and fiscally prudent move that deserves formal institutional...
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Clarity sought on tax credits
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has written to Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse asking for “urgent clarity” on the government’s plans to phase out medical tax credits to finance National Health Insurance (NHI). The BHF is a medical...
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New study highlights R100bn SA upside
Research by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), one of Africa’s largest fund managers, done in partnership with the University of Oxford, says SA can create 250,000 jobs in the next five years and R100bn in economic uplift if it doubles down on...
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Taxes for NHI ‘are years away’
The government may not need to raise new taxes for National Health Insurance (NHI) for almost another decade, according to a health department presentation to parliament on Tuesday. NHI is the ANC’s controversial plan for universal health coverage,...
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Numsa threatens strike amid vehicle industry pay deadlock
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the country’s largest union with more than 400,000 members, has threatened to embark on a strike after reaching a wage deadlock with seven car manufacturers, which contributed about 5.2% of the...
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Armscor to front exports
State-owned arms procurement agency Armscor has taken the lead in exploiting “several substantial export opportunities” as arms manufacturer Denel struggles to burnish its reputation in international markets following years of...
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Reserve Bank: ‘We mean business’
The Reserve Bank has set out its strongest case yet for moving towards a 3% inflation target, releasing a series of technical stress tests in its October monetary policy review that show the economy is now capable of sustaining lower, more stable price...
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Skills exodus imperils air traffic control
Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) is struggling to fill critical positions, particularly air traffic controllers, with the outflow of experienced personnel outpacing the capacity of the entity’s training pipeline, “regrettably almost...
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Coca-Cola bottler set for JSE debut
Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), worth about £12.78bn (R300bn) on the London Stock Exchange, is set for a secondary listing on the JSE in what is likely to be the largest listing on the bourse in the past decade. CCH is the strategic bottling partner of the...
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Review of SA carmaker policy stalls
Hopes for a quick fix to problems in the government’s flagship motor industry policy, the Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP), have dimmed as no-one has yet been appointed to lead its review. The 2021-35 programme was originally...
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State revives pebble bed reactor plan
The government plans to revive its mothballed pebble bed modular reactor programme as part of its new energy blueprint, which aims to derive more than half of SA’s electricity from clean energy sources by 2039. The R2.23-trillion Integrated Resource...
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Premier-RFG mix whets appetites
SA’s food industry is cooking up its biggest consolidation in more than a decade. Premier has announced plans to acquire RFG in a share-swap deal that will create a food powerhouse with nearly R30bn in annual sales, bringing it within touching...
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Gambling revenue hits R75bn amid online surge
SA’s gambling operators generated gross revenue of R75bn in the 2024/25 financial year in a country plagued by poverty and unemployment. This does not reflect the full extent of gambling activities, much of which takes place on illegal online gambling...
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Moody’s sees SA growth rising to 1.6% in 2026
Moody’s Ratings expects SA’s real GDP growth to rise to about 1.6% next year, the most optimistic forecast among the three major ratings agencies, but warned that stronger growth will be needed to reduce debt sustainably. “Our perspective is that...
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Cash held by firms surges to R2-trillion
The amount of cash held by SA non-financial companies has surged by R700bn over the past six years, approaching R2-trillion at the end of July as a wave of corporate caution, persistent low growth and high inflation holds back investment. The Reserve...
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SA life expectancy falls to 66.5 years
In stark contrast to global trends, life expectancy in SA was worse in 2023 than two decades earlier, as a rising tide of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) undermined the country’s gains against HIV/Aids. Life expectancy in SA fell to 66.55 years in...
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Sars claim ‘could collapse banks’
A successful SA Revenue Services’ (Sars) R4.8bn lawsuit claim against Sasfin Bank would expose SA banks to a flood of liability for clients’ transgressions, the niche lender’s lawyer, Wim Trengove, argued in court on Thursday Sars took the bank to...
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Anglo chief blames policy
Two decades of policy that failed to support exploration have caused SA to miss out on a generation of new mines, Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad says. Addressing the Joburg Mining Indaba on Wednesday, Wanblad assured the crowd that the mining...
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SA hits up Afreximbank for $2bn-$3bn backing
The government is seeking $2bn-$3bn (about R34bn-R51bn) in support from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for the transformation fund, which is intended to provide finance to black-owned enterprises. The fund is the brainchild of trade,...
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ANC rolls the last dice
The ANC is pushing preferential electricity tariffs, export controls and infrastructure investment for SA’s chrome and manganese industries, in a move aimed at stopping factories from shutting and heeding long-standing industry warnings of creeping...
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Lifeline for SA mining
Trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau has followed through on a June cabinet decision to regulate exports of chrome as part of measures designed to clamp down on illicit trade in the critical mineral. On Friday Tau kick-started the process...
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State mulls levy to buy BEE status
The government is weighing a voluntary 3% revenue levy on unlisted companies to feed a central Transformation Fund, promising a predictable R40bn-plus a year in new capital for black-owned small businesses and an expedited route to high broad-based BEE...
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Eskom fleeced of R20bn
Rogue elements, including some from within, have fleeced Eskom of at least R20bn over the past three years by printing and distributing electricity tokens using a compromised online vending system (OVS), delivering a further blow to the utility’s...
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Khumalo arrest linked to blocking crime probe
The arrest of crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo was meant to stall the work of the political killings task team, KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said on Thursday. Khumalo, who managed the elite unit...
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Police officials offered cops bribes: Mkhwanazi
KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has painted a bleak picture of “delayed justice”, taking issue with a decision by now suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu to disband an elite task team probing high-profile murders and the...
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SA firms scale up Namibia operations
SA companies are scaling up their operations in Namibia as economic activity in that country moves at pace to exploit its vast oil and gas riches, which are expected to transform the economy into one of Southern Africa’s wealth centres. The surge in...
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Service delivery or ANC death
In a rare, high-stakes move that signals panic before next year’s elections, the ANC summoned its entire municipal cohort to Johannesburg on Monday with President Cyril Ramaphosa cautioning that the party’s political longevity is at risk if it fails to...
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Basa slams Tau’s credit act U-turn
SA’s most influential business lobby groups have voiced rare but blistering public dissent against trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau. This is after Tau scrapped proposed changes to the National Credit Act that were meant to help small...
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SA current account deficit nearly doubles
SA’s current account deficit almost doubled in the second quarter, widening to R82.8bn from a revised R47.8bn in the first, as weaker exports and larger payments to foreign investors weighed on the country’s balance with the rest of the world. As a...
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Nersa cracks whip after R54bn tariff blunder
The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) has suspended a senior staff member and ordered an independent audit after confessing to a R54bn “catastrophic” error in its calculations of Eskom’s revenue requirements used to set tariff hikes. Appearing...
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Anglo’s bold copper play
Anglo American has upped the ante in its copper play with the blockbuster merger with Canadian copper miner Teck in one of the biggest mining deals in more than a decade. The announcement of the proposed deal sent Anglo’s share up by as much as 11% on...
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Graft, hit jobs ‘are now industries’
Corruption and contract killings have become industries in SA, says Hendrik du Toit, CEO of Ninety One, the country’s largest asset manager, as he warns the authorities to rein in crime or risk capital flight as the rule of law wanes. Du Toit, who...
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Government unveils labour reform to shield small firms
The government has moved to implement one of the largest labour reforms since the nineties, giving more protection to smaller companies, which, unlike their bigger peers, do not have expansive human resources capabilities. The new rules, gazetted by...
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Runaway utility shocks
A new Competition Commission report shows water and electricity tariffs have surged more than double headline inflation since 2020, casting administered prices into the glare of public scrutiny and handing the antitrust watchdog and policymakers a...
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SA losing out on billions in duty relief
Large volumes of SA exports to the UK are still paying full duties — costing the economy billions — under a trade deal that should grant tariff-free access. Figures at Wednesday’s department of trade, industry & competition and SA Chamber of Commerce...
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Malema to bat for BEE in bid to win back voters
Julius Malema has pitched the EFF as the true leftist alternative, promising a rebound from electoral losses by waging a two-front battle. In a Business Day interview, the EFF leader said his movement would defend BEE and employment equity “in the...
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Anti-graft’s weakest link
The National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (Nacac), headed by acting police minister Firoz Cachalia, has warned that the country’s ability to combat corruption is being undermined by a weak crime intelligence system but stopped short of recommending...
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AfriForum rubbishes state of country’s lawless landfills
Most of SA’s landfill sites are “lawless”, posing risks to public health and possibly resulting in pollution of air, soil and underground and surface water, according to a new report published by the civil rights group AfriForum. Only 22% of 169...
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Nersa’s R54bn tariffs blunder
Cash-strapped consumers are looking down the barrel of steeper electricity bills after the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) admitted miscalculating Eskom’s revenue shortfall and quietly green lit a R54bn tariff clawback. The out-of-court...
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Mouton rewrites private education
Billionaire Jannie Mouton has put a hefty R7.2bn on the table to take Curro private in what would be one of the most audacious and biggest acts of education philanthropy in corporate SA. Mouton, founder of Capitec, PSG Group and PSG Financial...
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Justice DG faces axe
Two justice & constitutional development officials, one being director-general (DG) Doctor Mashabane, have taken the fall for procurement snafus that delayed a high-profile inquiry into allegations of corruption in the criminal justice...
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