Business Day
Eskom pollution risks vexing World Bank
Resurgent power producer Eskom is risking the ire of the World Bank, which lent it money to build the Medupi power plant on condition it would retrofit the mega coal-fired facility with the technology needed to reduce emissions. The company has...
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Eskom looks to put surplus power to use
Eskom is looking to bring back lost industrial demand, including from the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique, while increasing electricity exports as it seeks customers for surplus generation capacity. In an interview with Business Day, group CEO...
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Price shock adds R56bn to SA fuel bill
Fuel importers have incurred at least R56bn in extra costs since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East in February sent the price of oil surging and created the largest and most sustained price shock since the 1990 Gulf War, with consumers...
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IDC looks to bring in private investors
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) aims to introduce private shareholding for the first time in its 86-year history to shore up its coffers and enable it to play a bigger role in the bid to reindustrialise South Africa’s economy. While still...
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Tariff pressures drive SA and Brazil into alliance
South Africa and Brazil temporarily put their trade wars on the back burner as they sought to deflect shared pressure from US-imposed tariffs. The two Brics members said yesterday they are seeking to turn their political alignment into deeper economic...
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Northam up for grabs after offer
The race is on to buy Northam Platinum, valued at R122bn on the JSE, after the group said it had received an unsolicited offer from one of its bigger rivals in South Africa. The potential transaction is set to test the market’s appetite for big...
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Joburg’s taxi rank get-up-and-go plan
The City of Johannesburg is looking for private capital to develop key socioeconomic nodes in the inner city, which will include the demolition and rebuilding of the iconic Noord taxi rank, the completion of a delayed drug rehabilitation facility and...
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ANC vows 30% cut in municipal debt
The ANC, launching its local government elections manifesto yesterday, has targeted a reduction of municipal debt owed to Eskom and the country’s water boards by at least 30% by 2031. The pledge seeks to address a debt crisis that has more than...
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Business to pitch in to rescue Joburg
The business sector has pledged resources to support government efforts to address Johannesburg’s deepening financial and governance crisis, finance minister Enoch Godongwana says, as the country’s biggest city becomes the focus of a new phase of...
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US agency reverses ban on SA research funding
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has ended its ban on funding South African research projects, opening the door for local scientists to apply for its grants once more. South African researchers, who are at the forefront of global research...
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Power price rejig to ‘grow economy’
South Africa is overhauling its electricity pricing system to address high tariffs, which have soared more than six times the rate of inflation since 2007, hurting industries and eroding households’ disposable incomes. Though electricity supply has...
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Ramaphosa shifts focus to Sadc unity
President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday moved to paper over the cracks resulting from the recent wave of anti-immigration protest actions in South Africa, calling for more cross-border trade and investment. More than 100,000 African immigrants fled or...
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Top DA MP’s firm faces forex probe
An explosive affidavit by the Reserve Bank alleges that Kastelo, a fintech group founded by DA federal finance chair Mark Burke, misrepresented its business activities to authorities in a bid to “circumvent” the country’s exchange controls. A legal...
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Standard Bank eyes R50bn record annual profit
Standard Bank paid its biggest interim dividend yet after reporting a record R26bn interim profit yesterday, putting it on course for a bumper fullyear performance as group CEO Sim Tshabalala prepares to hand over the reins to a new leader next...
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Sars targets Maumela matriarch in tax probe
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has acted against Morgan Maumela’s mother, Mboneni Benedicta Maumela, over unpaid taxes of up to R40m as law enforcement tightens the noose on the family at the receiving end of dubious state contracts. Sars...
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GNU gets blame as joblessness spirals
Young South Africans were again the worst affected as unemployment scaled higher in the second quarter of 2026, with community and social service, mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors shedding the most jobs. Just three months ahead of...
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Slow going in reforms to fix spatial inequality
About 80% of the reforms outlined in the second phase of Operation Vulindlela to address South Africa’s spatial inequality are either delayed or off track, underscoring the Herculean task of tackling the lingering legacy of apartheid. Following the...
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IDC warns: growth engine is collapsing
A study by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) warns that the dearth of private sector investment has become a structural constraint on industrial development, limiting the economy’s ability to generate sustainable employment and strengthen...
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Defence begs for R9bn to keep going
Defence & military veterans minister Angie Motshekga has pleaded with the National Treasury to provide the department with R9bn to ensure the smooth operation of the army. The cash-strapped army’s operations, locally and regionally, have been severely...
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JSE lays out pan-African digital vision
The JSE is assembling the building blocks to establish a pan-African digital marketplace and digital-asset capabilities within the next five years as Africa’s largest stock exchange plots its next evolution after almost 140 years in existence. The...
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Tighter crypto rules to curb illicit flows
The National Treasury and the Reserve Bank have introduced new proposals to direct cross-border transactions in crypto as part of a broader effort to strengthen the oversight of financial activities and curb emerging risks associated with virtual...
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Land reform law under scrutiny
A dispute that once threatened to unravel the government of national unity (GNU) reaches the Western Cape High Court today with the DA asking judges to strike down a law its own cabinet minister is now legally bound to defend. The DA filed papers...
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Minister suspends three Idac allies of Johnson
Justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi yesterday announced the suspension of three senior Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) employees, all close allies of former head Andrea Johnson. Chief investigator Dylan Perumal, tasked with a...
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Standard Bank, Pepkor open exploratory talks
Asset- and cash-rich Standard Bank and major retailer Pepkor, whose footprint spans 6,000 stores, are exploring a possible partnership that might see them launch an offensive in the personal banking industry and dethrone Capitec. Business Day can...
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Treasury blinks in municipal standoff
The National Treasury’s capitulation in agreeing to release the balance of R7.1bn it had withheld from 49 municipalities over their continued failure to comply with the Municipal Finance Management Act sends the message that local governments can flout...
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Imports push local sugar growers to the brink
The sugar industry has raised the alarm over a surge in imports threatening the survival of local producers, calling on trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau to urgently finalise the update to the tariff mechanism so that it reflects market...
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Godongwana races to fix paralysed PIC
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana is expected to move swiftly to appoint a new chair for the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) after a string of resignations left the state asset manager’s board without a quorum and legally unable to take binding...
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Banker: anti-migrant policy will cost SA
Standard Bank Group CEO Sim Tshabalala says South Africa should look to the UK’s departure from the EU as evidence of the economic cost of restricting migration. Speaking at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation winter seminar, Tshabalala said the UK’s...
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Lamola meeting seeks to mend fences with Ghana
International relations minister Ronald Lamola has met Ghanaian President John Mahama as the government intensifies attempts to contain the fallout from the recent eruption of anti-immigrant sentiment and violence in South Africa. Tuesday’s meeting in...
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Board exodus deepens PIC crisis
Four more board members have resigned from the embattled Public Investment Corporation (PIC), bringing the number of nonexecutive directors to quit the asset manager in the past week to six. The exits pile pressure on finance minister Enoch...
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Tau urges SA Inc to save arms makers
South Africa must confront the long decline of its defence industry after three decades of shrinking procurement, collapsing research funding, the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and an exodus of skills that will not be easy to replace, says trade,...
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Spilling the beans on PIC blunder
A partner at accounting firm Crowe, which is at the heart of the controversial R400m payment by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to BEE outfit Acapulco, was recently sanctioned and fined by the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba)...
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SA launches safeguard probe for steel sector
South Africa has told the World Trade Organisation (WTO) it has launched a safeguard investigation into imports of certain cold-rolled products of iron and steel, widening a campaign of trade protection for a domestic steel industry that has been...
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PIC factions at war as crisis grows
The breakdown in relations between executives at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and the board reached the point that critical information was not transmitted to an equally divided board, drawing the ire of the Financial Sector Conduct...
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MPs clear Mchunu of underworld links
Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of criminal infiltration into the criminal justice system has found no evidence of criminality against police minister Senzo Mchunu but raised serious governance and integrity concerns against...
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Another SA interest rate hike predicted
Though inflation is expected to ease later this year, elevated expectations could prompt the Reserve Bank to deliver another rate hike of 25 basis points (bps) at its meeting next week, according to Bank of America. In its latest South Africa...
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Mantashe acts to avert fuel shortfalls
Private oil companies and wholesalers will be legally compelled to store 21 days of backup fuel at their own expense in a big pivot that transitions the country from a voluntary into a mandatory regime, forcing the private sector to store significant...
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Slow factory activity a bad omen for GDP growth
Manufacturing production decreased 4.3% on an annual basis in May, its biggest contraction in just over a year, highlighting how the sector remains under pressure from higher input costs partly triggered by the war between the US and Iran. Yesterday’s...
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Treasury digs into dodgy police tenders
Damning revelations from the phone of crime intelligence boss Maj-Gen Feroz Khan have prompted the National Treasury to start an investigation into the awarding of multimillionrand tenders after its former chief director, Molefe Fani, was implicated in...
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Emirati group in R16bn deal for Shell’s SA fuel stations
British multinational energy major Shell has chosen Abu Dhabi firm Adnoc Distribution as the preferred suitor for its almost 600-strong network of fuel stations in South Africa in a $1bn (R16.3bn) deal that would mark the company’s largest investment...
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World Bank advises 15% corporate tax at all SEZs
The World Bank has recommended that South Africa consider extending a preferential 15% corporate income tax rate to all of its special economic zones (SEZ). The country has the infrastructure and institutional capacity to run a world-class SEZ...
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It’s war on illegal online gambling
The government aims to crack down on illegal online betting platforms that are said to account for 62% of a market on which South Africans spend billions of rand. New measures suggest the National Gambling Board has yielded to industry pressure to...
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Last manganese smelter warns of ‘death sentence’
South Africa’s last manganese smelter, Transalloys, has ceased production as high electricity prices batter the industrial base, with companies queuing at Eskom’s door for tariff relief. On Wednesday, Transalloys ceased production at its facility in...
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Richards Bay smelter for sale as part of R92bn deal
Australian miner South32, which was spun off from mining behemoth BHP a decade ago, has put its aluminium smelter in Richards Bay up for sale alongside its other aluminium assets, with US firm Alcoa the preferred buyer. The deal, worth about $5.6bn...
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Mbeki: Protests are ploys, not outbursts
South Africa’s waves of anti-immigrant protests are not spontaneous revolts by citizens but carefully orchestrated ploys driven by political objectives, former president Thabo Mbeki said yesterday. Speaking on the eve of expected nationwide...
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Afrophobia ‘puts ANC legacy at risk’
The ANC risks becoming a casualty of the antiimmigrant sentiment sweeping South Africa and set to culminate in protests on June 30, because of the party’s historical ties to the rest of the African continent, according to the Thabo Mbeki...
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‘Cat’ Matlala sets the dominoes falling
Alleged underworld kingpin Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala has, in a seismic turn of events, admitted to his role in a fraudulent tender awarded to his company by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in a move that will see him spill the beans on senior...
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Retailers told to brace for anti-migrant shutdown
The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA), representing some of the country’s largest retailers, has warned members to prepare for possible disruptions during anti-immigrant protests on June 30. “We wish to reiterate that CGCSA has engaged...
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New driver ID rules at Durban port
Transnet Port Terminals will from July require truck drivers accessing Durban’s container terminals to provide additional documentation, including proof of identity and immigration status, as part of efforts to strengthen security controls at the...
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KZN, Gauteng ‘to be June 30 flashpoints’
Fidelity Business Intelligence, a unit of the largest private security company in South Africa, has profiled the possible risk of immigration protests after June 30, and identified KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as the flashpoints. Pressure groups and...
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SIU called in as PIC airport debacle gets messier
Deputy finance minister and chair of the stateowned Public Investment Corporation (PIC) David Masondo has asked the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to weigh in on the PIC’s Acapulco debacle in the latest escalation of the multimillion-rand...
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Regulator flags risks if Gems bows to unions
The medical schemes regulator has raised concerns about the Government Employees Medical Scheme’s (Gems) plan to accommodate union demands for lower contributions, saying its proposal is neither financially sound nor in members’ long-term...
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Africa’s energy transition has a grid problem.
Africa’s energy transition faces both generation and a transmission challenges. Most analysis focuses on capacity shortfalls, underfinanced projects, and the slow pace of renewables build-out. Those remain real constraints. But as new generation...
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SA assets rally as oil tumbles on truce pact
South African assets have rallied strongly as growing optimism over a potential end to the conflict in Iran sent oil prices tumbling and pushed local bond yields to their lowest levels since the start of the war at the end of February. While local...
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Braced for anti-immigrant fallout across continent
The government says consular services are being expanded for South African companies that operate on the rest of the continent and are facing fallout from tension over anti-immigrant protests that have swept across the country. Part of the...
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IDC eyes South32’s stake to save Mozal
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) is weighing options to buy South32’s majority stake in Mozambique-based Mozal Aluminium and revive the smelter, which was placed in care and maintenance in March after it failed to strike a tariff relief...
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New strategy maps path to halt decline of industry
South Africa must urgently secure an affordable and reliable energy supply, particularly electricity, and address bottlenecks in its ports, rail and telecommunications networks to halt the economy’s deindustrialisation, the government concedes in a new...
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President vows action over illegal migration
President Cyril Ramaphosa has put forward a number of government interventions to tackle illegal immigration. These include a phased relocation of refugee reception centres to border posts; setting up dedicated courts to fast-track the deportation of...
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Joburg woes a ‘national emergency’
Business has sounded the alarm on the financial and governance crisis bedevilling Johannesburg, urging President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government to do all in their power to facilitate urgent reforms that city-level leadership has failed to...
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Adcock accused of overcharging for dialysis
The Competition Commission has referred pharmaceutical manufacturer Adcock Ingram to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution for allegedly overcharging patients for its kidney dialysis products. The alleged transgression occurred between July 2019...
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Ramaphosa rejects xenophobic violence
Faced with increased pressure to contain the diplomatic fallout stemming from the antiimmigrant protests, President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday condemned xenophobic violence. Ramaphosa said the government will also crack down on illegal migration,...
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Ozempic maker takes on local firm
A high-stakes legal battle between Danish drug make Novo Nordisk and compounding pharmacy iDexis over weight-loss jabs is set to be heard in the high court in Pretoria on June 10. Novo Nordisk has asked the court to interdict iDexis from...
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Flood of illegal number plates
South Africa is facing a new security and law enforcement crisis caused by a proliferation of illegal number plates sold without proof of vehicle ownership or registration. The sales are undermining the integrity of the country’s vehicle registration...
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Households brace for pain as dominoes start falling
Indebted South African consumers, whose spending is a key driver of economic growth, will have to tighten their belts after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates, citing intensified inflation risks stemming from higher oil prices linked to the Middle...
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Student debt is squeezing universities
A growing proportion of South Africa’s soaring student debt to universities is unlikely to be recovered, jeopardising the financial viability of the sector, parliament heard yesterday. South Africa’s 26 universities were owed R24bn by end-2024, of...
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Ramaphosa blasts Phala Phala report
President Cyril Ramaphosa has pushed back hard at an independent report into the theft of millions of rand at his Phala Phala farm, saying it amounts to nothing but hearsay. The president is making a high-stakes bid to avert a potentially...
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China, India leave SA eating dust
South Africa’s vehicle trade deficit with key Brics partners China and India reached R90bn last year, exposing the skewed trade between the country and its manufacturing-intensive allies. The vehicle trade deficit, according to data from the Bureau...
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SA’s push for Agoa 15-year extension
The South African government has put forward a spirited defence of its eligibility for the African Growth & Opportunity Act (Agoa) despite its upper-middle-income country status, with Pretoria pushing for a 15-year extension of the duty-free pact. The...
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Jobs carnage is looming
The trading environment in South Africa has deteriorated and is set to worsen over the next six months as rising fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict drive input costs prohibitively higher for businesses, according to a survey published...
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Inflation: rate hike odds rise
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is increasingly likely to raise interest rates next week after April inflation accelerated, partly driven by higher transport costs linked to global oil supply disruptions caused by the US-Iran war. Consumer...
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SA’s steel tariffs to reshape trade ties
South Africa has imposed the steepest and broadest steel tariffs — the biggest protectionist move in two decades — to shield the local industry from cheap imports. The levies will create a seismic shift in trade relations between South Africa and its...
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De Beers sale now biggest threat to Anglo overhaul
The mooted sale of De Beers has become the single biggest hurdle looming over Anglo American’s restructuring ambitions and its merger with Teck Resources after the company landed a R65bn coal mine sale yesterday. Securing the coal buyer had been an...
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SA left exposed by SANDF cash crisis
The department of defence’s 2026 annual performance plan is replete with warnings that the acute underfunding facing the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) risks undermining the country’s sovereign defence industry base — with many programmes...
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Scandal-hit Tolashe axed
President Cyril Ramaphosa says his decision to fire beleaguered social development minister Sisisi Tolashe yesterday was well considered and that he had given her ample opportunity to respond to all allegations against her. The president dismissed the...
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Farming interests, human rights clash
An independent report into water challenges facing communities in Limpopo that rely on the Middle Letaba Dam (N’waManungu Dam) has found that more than 75% of the water in the area is gobbled up by commercial farmers — a situation it said amounts to a...
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