The country’s post-2009 growth trajectory — persistently below 2% annually — has intensified debate about whether transformation and growth are being advanced together or are increasingly in tension.

Despite the enormous resources spent on compliance and accreditation, little is known about the impact of broad-based BEE over the past 23 years because compliance data is not publicly available.

The government’s unwillingness to publish the data means there is no authoritative research that quantifies compliance costs or assesses the firm and macroeconomic impacts of these requirements. So, we ran a survey to understand how firms view the costs and benefits of broad-based BEE regulations.

Our sample covers 126 firms, covering both small, single owner businesses and large enterprises with revenue exceeding R1bn. More than a third of these firms chose to be noncompliant, or level 8, because owners disagreed with broad-based BEE regulations, believed the policy was not applicable to them, their firm was too small, the policy was too costly to comply with or would hold no benefits.

The costs firms bear to establish their initial broad-based BEE strategy and structures varies greatly across companies. Some companies face no compliance costs. For example, if the firm’s founders are black and the firm is small, then there may be no set-up, advisory and initial accreditation fees payable.

However, our survey shows that the initial setup costs the median firm in each compliance category in our sample report faces range at R160,000-R650,000 in 2025 rand terms, with an ongoing annual cost thereafter of R225,000-R2.5m a year, depending on turnover and specific compliance choices.

These costs are significant. In terms of setup costs, the median ratio of these costs to annual turnover range at 0.4%-4%. Annual compliance costs also vary a lot across firms.

However, our survey shows that the initial setup costs the median firm in each compliance category in our sample report faces range at R160,000-R650,000 in 2025 rand terms, with an ongoing annual cost thereafter of R225,000-R2.5m a year, depending on turnover and specific compliance choices.

The median firm in our survey that faced compliance costs reported annual scorecard (things such as skills development, enterprise and supplier development, socioeconomic development or vendor financing) and accreditation costs (including internal administration and staff time, systems and software, external verification and accreditation fees, legal and valuation fees, any other broad-based BEE advisory or accreditation costs) of more than R2.5m at level 1, R225,000 at level 2, R600,000 for levels 3 and 4, and almost R1m a year for levels 5 and 6.

This ranges at 1%-1.5% of annual turnover and 6.25%-32% of net profit after tax across firms of different levels of accreditation that face these compliance costs by seeking accreditation.

When considering the impact of regulations it is important to consider not only their costs but also their potential benefits. It is possible that the broad-based BEE regulations create growth opportunities for compliant firms and support job creation and investment. However, a high proportion of firms that responded to our survey do not report such benefits.

When asked if it would be commercially beneficial to raise their company’s broad-based BEE level, more than two thirds of firms did not see a benefit from improving their scores. We also asked firms what they thought would happen if their scores fell one level, and only 25% of firms expected revenues to fall while fewer than one in five firms expected any revenue benefits from a one level increase in the score.

Do firms think the broad-based BEE regulations support employment? No. Only 4% of firms report that it has increased net employment and 35% report lower net employment.

What about investment? Almost 50% of firms report reduced reinvestment and more than 40% report having reduced new investment as a consequence of BEE regulations, compared with 4% reporting increased reinvestment and less than 2% reporting increased new investments.

Do firms think the broad-based BEE regulations support employment? No. Only 4% of firms report that it has increased net employment and 35% report lower net employment.

The survey shows that these compliance costs act as stealth taxes that strongly disincentivise firm start-up or growth if the company is small and the founders are not black. The microeconomic costs of these regulations are particularly high for firms that approach the R10m revenue or 50 employee thresholds.

Our estimates suggest that compliance costs are so large as to make compliance either infeasible or economically irrational if shareholders are not black. While phased share allocations or staged broad-based BEE investments could provide some offset, these regulations have ongoing impacts on firms’ cash positions and ability to accumulate retained earnings for growth.

We observe this in the data: the average formal business in South Africa has declined in size by more than 80% since democracy. Discouraging growth weighs on productivity and efficiency by reducing economies of scale and inhibiting job creation. This is the opposite of what South Africa needs to drive faster and more inclusive economic growth.

It is also no surprise that there has been an 87% decline in the value of broad-based BEE transactions over the past six years. If these transactions yielded ongoing value to shareholders we would see an increase in broad-based BEE transactions over time. Instead, we show that several high-profile JSE empowerment share schemes trade at discounts exceeding 50%. This represents a direct and measurable transfer of wealth away from the black South Africans the policy is designed to benefit.

The amendments to the broad-based BEE framework that are moving through the legislative pipeline assume that further raising the effective tax that compliance implies and forcing compliance will see firms invest and employ more. South Africa’s experience to date suggests that these amendments will achieve the opposite.

• MacKay is CEO of XA Global Trade Advisors. Steenkamp is CEO of Codera Analytics and a research fellow with the Economics Department at Stellenbosch University.

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The City of Johannesburg, plagued by water and electricity outages due to infrastructure degradation and a lack of maintenance, had only spent 49% of its R8.43bn capital budget for 2025/26 by end-March, significantly below its 70% target by this stage.

But MPs were assured that more of the budget would be spent in the remaining months of the financial year as budgets are reallocated and projects come on stream.

In parliament on Tuesday, Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero described the city’s challenges as “structural, systematic and financial”.

He stressed in reply to a question by ActionSA MP Alan Beesley that MECs had to be appointed on political grounds based on their political ability to deal with matters affecting the city rather than being experts in a particular field and that they are expected to “learn on the job”.

The decaying infrastructure and lack of maintenance contributed to a total revenue loss of R8.5bn in the 2024/25 financial year, R5.7bn due to electricity and R2.8bn to water, consuming about 10% of the financially distressed metro’s budget and placing its future sustainability in jeopardy.

However, there was a sharp improvement in electricity revenue losses from 40% in the first quarter of 2025/26 to 28.4% in the third quarter.

Morero noted that Johannesburg Water faced losses of about R3.8bn in nonrevenue water (44.7%) and City Power’s total losses on electricity were about R5.7bn.

The mayor gave these details in an engagement between a delegation of Johannesburg city executives and parliament’s standing committee on public accounts and the co-operative governance and traditional affairs committee on the city’s audit outcomes for 2024/25.

Beesley said the city’s performance on infrastructure development is an “indictment” but city manager Floyd Brink emphasised that the city is working on renewal.

Group CFO Tshepo Makola said the end-March position in capital expenditure was due to delayed procurement, site constraints, contractor performance and project readiness issues.

He stressed the need for funding for investment in electricity and water infrastructure to reduce the losses, noting that the capital investment backlog at Johannesburg Water is about R32bn over the next 10 years and City Power at about R45bn.

“Those numbers cannot be only financed from the balance sheet,” Makola said.

Addressing the R10.3bn wage agreement, which finance minister Enoch Godongwana said in a letter to the city was unaffordable and contrary to the Municipal Finance Management Act, head of group corporate services and shared services Mbulelo Ruda said that the agreement was about justice, redress and institutional stability. Payments under the agreement were made conditional on the affordability and sustainability of the city’s finances.

Brink said expanding revenue and improving cash collection are being implemented to improve liquidity, reduce impaired debts, and put the city on a path of financial recovery. Collecting debt is critical, he said.

He noted a big improvement in revenue collection from 71% in January to 90% in April, with the trajectory looking positive. The city is working with the SA Revenue Service (Sars) to improve its revenue collection.

Creditors at end-May stood at R7.5bn.

A council-approved turnaround plan is in place for City Power focused on losses, billing and collection and expenditure control and Brink is confident that the entity can be turned around.

Also under focus was the R13.3bn in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in 2024/25, down from R23.6bn the previous year. However, new unauthorised expenditure remains at about R9bn annually, which MPs were told indicates systemic financial management challenges in the city.

Makola told MPs that the city has been engaging with the Treasury about this expenditure. It will table a strategy to deal with it with the council at month-end, thereby avoiding the Treasury withholding its July equitable share allocation.

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Eskom is eyeing the mining and manufacturing sectors as launchpads for its renewable Eskom Green energy proposition as the group reveals the building blocks of its future.

South Africa’s biggest emitter due to its coal power station fleet, which has powered the economy for the past 100 years, launched Eskom Green on Tuesday to make amends.

Group CEO Dan Marokane said the establishment of Eskom Green is not a thumb-sucking exercise but follows an international benchmarking exercise stretching across 20 utilities.

“This new entity is built on the decades of power generation skills and expertise the nation has invested in, and Eskom Green reflects successful adaptation to new technologies in Eskom,” Marokane said.

“We have been playing in this space for some time, and we are now putting a stake in the ground — this is a development that South Africa can be proud of.”

The first stop for Eskom Green, which will have its own governance structures, is to support larger power-user customers via long-term power purchase agreements.

The mining and manufacturing industries, indispensable to South Africa’s economy, will benefit from the initiative.

Emissions from South Africa’s mining sector are largely linked to electricity use. Decarbonisation of the mining sector will be driven by a cleaner electricity supply, eliminating about 75% of scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Some of the country’s mining majors have begun building their own renewable energy capabilities.

Eskom Green will operate in Eskom as a separate renewable energy platform focused on developing and supplying large-scale renewable energy projects.

It is expected to be separated into a wholly owned subsidiary in future, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, the utility said.

“Eskom Green is, in essence, a response to what we know our customers need and what South Africans have told us they need,” said group executive for Eskom Renewables, Rivoningo Mnisi.

Eskom said delays in South Africa’s renewable energy rollout also informed the decision, saying that a big share of awarded projects with grid allocation and offtake agreements has yet to reach completion, despite growing demand for new capacity from industry.

“The challenge is not lack of technology. The challenge is execution, infrastructure and the integration of renewable energy into a reliable and resilient power system,” Mnisi said, adding that variability in renewable generation introduces system risks that must be actively managed.

The platform will initially focus on utility-scale solar PV generation, battery energy storage systems, wind and pumped storage.

The early pipeline includes about 2GW of projects, forming part of a broader development pathway of about 5.6GW by 2030, 21GW by 2035 and up to 32GW by 2040.

Projects will be structured on long-term supply agreements with large users, including take-or-pay contracts designed to provide revenue certainty for financing.

Eskom said this approach will support the use of special-purpose vehicles for individual projects, combining its balance sheet in the early phase with private-sector capital over time.

Some of the planned capacity will be developed at existing Eskom power station sites, where land and transmission infrastructure are already in place. The utility said this is intended to reduce grid connection delays, which remain a key constraint on new generation projects.

Eskom chair Mteto Nyati said the decision to enter the renewable energy space was taken by the board several years ago as part of efforts to secure the utility’s long-term relevance as older-generation assets are retired.

He added that the platform is not intended to replace independent power producers but to operate alongside them by leveraging Eskom’s grid access, land portfolio and system integration capabilities.

“We see Eskom Green as a direct response to those needs,” Nyati said, referring to growing demand from customers for price certainty, reliability and access to low-carbon electricity. “Our role is to help derisk the transition and accelerate delivery where it matters most,” he said.

While acknowledging concerns that Eskom’s entry into the sector could crowd out private developers, the utility maintained that the platform is designed to complement rather than displace existing market participants.

“Eskom is not entering this space alone … we believe we bring capabilities that complement, rather than compete with, the private sector,” Nyati said.

Minister of electricity & energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa framed the initiative as part of a broader effort to address infrastructure delivery constraints and accelerate industrial development.

He said South Africa’s experience shows that procurement alone has been insufficient to bring new generation capacity online at the required pace due to delays and grid constraints as key challenges.

“The challenge is not the production of clean electrons only … the challenge is consistency,” he said.

Tilly defines collective violence as episodic social interaction that immediately inflicts physical damage on persons or objects, involves at least two perpetrators and results at least in part from co-ordination among those who carry out the damage. South African xenophobic attacks (the major waves in 2008, 2015, 2019 and smaller flare-ups ever since) match this definition precisely.

They are not random individual crimes but co-ordinated mob actions in townships. They are often triggered by rumours, service delivery protests or political rhetoric, with perpetrators shielded by community silence or complicity. Just recently, protests inspired by the group March and March turned violent in Mossel Bay, forcing people from their homes, burning houses and looting immigrant-owned shops; at least two men from Mozambique were killed.

If you have ever explained xenophobic violence by saying, “South Africans are poor and unemployed, so they turn on foreigners” you have been invoking, perhaps without knowing it, Ted Robert Gurr’s relative deprivation thesis — a theory once widely cited to explain exactly such outbreaks.

In his influential 1970 book Why Men Rebel the political psychologist argued that collective violence erupts when people experience a widening gap between what they expect (jobs, services and living standards) and what they actually get. The greater the perceived deprivation, Gurr believed, the greater the likelihood of rebellion or riot.

But it turns out that this common-sense theory does not survive scrutiny. Further research has shown that relative deprivation on its own does not explain most collective violence. In a landmark 1996 article in the Journal of Conflict Resolution physicist and science historian Stephen G Brush examined the rise and fall of Gurr’s theory, showing that his framework did not hold up under empirical testing.

Political scientist Edward N Muller’s 1972 study of racial disturbances in Waterloo, Iowa, found that relative deprivation was a weak predictor once other factors were considered. Muller discovered that the potential for violence depended far more on a low degree of trust in political authorities, combined with the belief that violence had worked for dissidents in the past. When those variables were controlled for, relative deprivation “does not seem to matter”.

Muller discovered that the potential for violence depended far more on a low degree of trust in political authorities, combined with the belief that violence had worked for dissidents in the past.

In South Africa the same two variables are visible. Xenophobic violence flares if citizens do not trust the authorities to address what they perceive as the source of their deprivation (competition from foreigners for scarce jobs, housing and services) and if the belief has taken hold that mob action gets results. The state’s own failures have entrenched both.

Poverty, unemployment and inequality are undeniably severe. These are conditions that generate real deprivation, not merely the perception of it. Yet most desperately poor South Africans never join xenophobic mobs. Deprivation supplies the fuel; it does not explain the ignition. This deprivation is spread nationwide, including in provinces that rarely experience xenophobic violence; yet the attacks concentrate disproportionately in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

If deprivation alone were the cause, outbreaks would be geographically uniform rather than clustered. What explains the ignition is not the deprivation itself but the actors who identify and activate social group boundaries by exploiting real grievances to build political capital and organise collective violence. For that analysis we need Tilly.

Tilly argues that collective violence is best understood not as the automatic eruption of frustrated individuals but as the product of social relations: how group boundaries are drawn and activated (“us” South Africans versus “them” makwerekwere).

Relational weapons

The present wave of March and March protests provides a textbook illustration. Its leader’s false claims that immigrants are “invading”, hijacking the R900bn township economy and committing most rapes and drug crimes, are relational weapons that activate boundaries and lower the perceived cost of violence.

Muller showed that distrust of authorities and the belief that violence works are what tip grievance into action, and Tilly explained xenophobic violence is episodic and geographically concentrated rather than a constant feature of deprivation. This does not absolve us of the duty to fight poverty, but it directs our attention to the mechanisms that actually turn grievance into co-ordinated damage.

The policy implications follow directly: stronger local policing, decisive prosecution of perpetrators, clearer migration policy and political leadership that refuses to activate “us-them” boundaries for short-term gain.

• Davhie is research associate at the Centre for Risk Analysis, focusing on political risk and foreign policy.

So, where to go at short notice with our outdoor-mad daughter visiting from Gqeberha, and still be able to do some hiking? Traveller’s Rest in the Agter Pakhuis region of the northern Cederberg seemed to provide the answer. Yes, it would still be raining most of the time, but the difference in rainfall forecast between the two venues was stark: 20mm drizzle over two days for Traveller’s Rest versus 170mm torrential downpour at Beaverlac. And, driving a 4x2 SUV, the quality of dirt tracks en route was also a consideration that favoured the former.

I’ve stopped many times at the eponymous farm stall en route to Nieuwoudtville, Calvinia, the Tankwa Karoo and the Biedouw Valley, but it’s only my third overnight stay here. Once a convenient outspan next to the perennial Brandewyn River, today it’s a roadside attraction that has over the years mushroomed from a small padstal into a major restaurant and function venue. Yet, as long as I’ve been coming here, it’s always been run by the inimitable Charité van Rijswijk. Installed in her reserved chair on the stoep, she presents a welcoming presence at this burgeoning enclave of hospitality 34km from Clanwilliam.

But when we arrive there, the Brandewyn River is flooding, the restaurant’s outer walls are sandbagged and the doors barred. “So much for drizzle,” a weather gnome whispers in my ear. To add insult to injury, there’s no cell reception and we’ve no idea which of the 29 well spread out cottages we’re booked into. Slightly miffed and very wet, we head back up the Pakhuis Pass and re-establish comms just beyond Louis Leipoldt’s mountain grotto grave.

Learning we’d been just 200m away from our rented front door when we turned around doesn’t soften my mood, but we turn the situation around by immediately building a fire in the hearth when we get there, toasting our fast-reducing coldness and misery with a warming glass of Red Jerepigo. In addition, imbibing in the voorkamer of an old labourer’s cottage immediately brings the crazy antics and humorous anecdotes of Herman Charles Bosman’s Oom Schalk Lourens to mind, and all is soon right with the world again.

Charité tells me later that farmworker Gertjie, past owner of the namesake cottage we’re staying in, had an overdeveloped love of booze. Apparently he’d be sozzled pretty much all weekend, every weekend; yet still worked like a Trojan in between on this old potato and rooibos farm. Another worker, Willempie, was apparently so intoxicated one Sunday that he tried to take an eland down by tackling it — needless to say, he came off second best.

Thankfully for Willempie, the local Cape mountain leopards, of which there are still a number here, are too shy and fleet-footed to be rugby tackled by chemically compromised humans. I’ve always ached to see one of these furtive creatures in the wild, and while I’ve come across fresh footprints — once just outside Hoek-sonder-Koffie cottage, about 8km from our present digs — and also heard one outside our tent once, these magnificent and mostly well-monitored and well-tolerated cats still elude me.

Though Charité is not absolutely sure of Gertjie’s ethnic heritage, the diminutive stature and much-wrinkled face she remembers make it likely he carried at least some traces of Bushman DNA. It’s a theory strengthened by the many San clans that once inhabited this northern region of the Cederberg and the hundreds of rock-art sites concentrated here.

Apart from being water-, bulb- and shelter-rich and surrounded by some of the San’s favourite quarries (eland and hartebeest), these mountain fastnesses put a natural barrier between the San and the burgeoning Khoi herdsmen to the west. These superiorly armed people, giants by comparison to the diminutive Bushmen, usurped the San’s coastal foraging lands when they arrived in modern-day South Africa about 2,000 years ago; lands they needed as pastures for the fat-tailed sheep and other cattle their existence depended upon.

It’s to one of these rock art sites we set off the next morning. As it’s raining, albeit lightly, I’ve had my work cut out convincing my wife, Annette, that the opportunity cost will not be too high; reminding her, too, that it’s a fine time to test her new “waterproof” hiking boots.

What I’ve told neither her nor our daughter, Ashley, though, is that I’m really not sure whether I’ll be able to find the cave in which I discovered the rock art about 13 years ago. Of course, this perilous situation would have been avoided had the river not flooded and cut us off from the nearby Sevilla rock-art trail we’d planned to do; but hey, increasing extreme weather events like this uncharacteristic deluge seem to be the new reality.

As we squelch our way south, alongside the Brandewyn River roaring north in a channel five times its normal girth, I think of the small posse of British soldiers chasing after the harrying “rebel” Boer commando, which Jan Smuts led over this craggy landscape in 1901. It was ideal topography for the hit-and-run Boers, and even more ideal for their snipers to take out British horsemen in pursuit of their comrades.

One of this small posse’s members was 21-year-old Lt Clowes, a member of the Gordon Highlanders 6th Military Intelligence (MI) Unit and it was he who paid the ultimate price when they rode into the heart of a Boer ambush. His compatriots, Cpt Gordon and a private, whose name is not known, fared only slightly better; the former being wounded and surviving, while the latter was captured by the Boers and succumbed to his injuries later.

About 3.5km on, our damp and bedraggled hiking crew startles a small herd of hartebeest that quickly canters away. It’s happened to me before that I see some of the San’s favourite quarry and then uncannily stumble across some rock art nearby. And it’s no different today. Just 200m south of this point we locate a large overhang above a narrow water canal and there’s the panel of rock art I remember from all those years ago.

I’m relieved, not only because I could play smug “I told you I’d find it” dad, but it’s Ashley’s first sighting of Bushman paintings and as a young and curious environmental scientist these sorts of things really matter to her, and of course, to me.

Travel Notes

Getting there: Traveller’s Rest is 285km from Cape Town and 34km from Clanwilliam. It’s best reached via the N7 and R364, but can also be accessed from Calvinia (156km) on a mixture of tar and gravel (80% gravel), which is in reasonable condition in good weather.

What to do here: Most folk come here to hike, mountain bike, view rock art, swim in mountain streams and just to chill in nature. But other activities include flower viewing in spring (the nearby Biedouw Valley can be particularly rewarding); visiting the nearby Englishman’s grave; taking a day drive to Klawer for wine-tasting via the Nardouwsberg and Brand se Berg road (high clearance SUV or AWD required in wet weather) or collecting some souvenirs from the local shop and/or enjoying a meal at the on-site restaurant.

What to take with you ― food, wood, drinks, books, walking shoes, a hat and a costume.

Suggested reference/reading: the Slingsby Cederberg map and Cederberg: The Book.

Where we stayed ― there are 29 self-catering cottages at Traveller’s Rest. We stayed at Gertjie, near the restaurant; it sleeps four comfortably or six “family style”. We paid R1,600 per night. Call Charité on 082-554-9303 or email her on: charite@travellers-rest.com

Best time of year to go: April to November, though August to September is best.

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By Marc Strydom

Portugal will be a threat and looking to end Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup career with a bang in North America. Colombia have been impressive and are dark horses, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are making a historic return to the tournament.

Portugal

Portugal are hugely experienced campaigners at the World Cup. There is also a feeling they have underachieved, especially in the now-ending Cristiano Ronaldo era.

While the rival to Lionel Messi for the past two decades for the title of the world’s best player was able to lead “A Seleção” to their first European Championship title in 2016, he has been unable to emulate Messi winning a World Cup, let alone reach the final.

Portugal’s best placing in the Ronaldo era was a quarter-final in Qatar four years ago, while they had last 16 exits in 2010 and 2014 and a group stage exit in 2006 and 2014.

Apart from a third-place finish in the era of the other Portuguese great, Mozambique-born Eusébio, in 1966, the above has been their most successful era — the Iberian nation only had two qualifications until 2002.

One might assume that with an ageing Ronaldo, they might not be rated as a top contender in North America, but that’s not the case.

Ronaldo, at 41, continues to bang in goals in the Saudi Pro League, with 28 in 30 games steering Al-Nassr to the title in 2025-26, and he captained Portugal to the 2024-25 Nations League title.

The manager who took them there, Roberto Martínez, is hugely experienced and has a best finish of third place at a World Cup with Belgium in 2018. He has a world-class midfield, led by Bruno Fernandes. Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva and the Paris St Germain pair of Vitinha and the dynamic João Neves complete a quality engine room.

Democratic Republic of Congo

The DRC are returning to the World Cup for the first time since making history in becoming the first Sub-Saharan qualifiers as Zaire in 1974, a campaign best remembered for a colourful and controversial moment.

In a 3-0 defeat to Brazil, Mwepu Ilunga bizarrely charged out and kicked the ball before the South Americans could take a free kick. At the time mocked, it later transpired to have been a moment of quiet rebellion after threats over pay disputes from the Mobutu Sese Seko regime. Unsurprisingly, it was an awful World Cup all round for Zaire, conceding 14 goals in three defeats, including a 9-0 humbling by Yugoslavia.

The modern DRC are known for some tough defensive and hard-running attacking football and should not be bleeding goals in North America. They trod a hard patch back to this World Cup. After finishing as runners-up to Senegal in their qualifying group, they reached the World Cup by shocking two powerhouses in the playoffs — Cameroon 1-0 in the semifinal and Nigeria 4-3 in the final. They then beat Jamaica 1-0 in the inter-confederation play-off final in Mexico.

Uzbekistan

A 48-team World Cup will throw up some surprising qualifiers. With countries like Curacao, Jordan and Haiti, rookies Uzbekistan, admitted to Fifa in 1992 after the break-up of the Soviet Union, are among those.

Yet Uzbekistan have a decent ranking of 50th and have generally been competitive in the Asian Cup, with quarter-final appearances in six of the last four tournaments and finishing as fourth-placed semi-finalists in 2011.

They have a genuine Italian defensive legend as coach in 52-year-old Fabio Cannavaro, who in his formative career on the bench has won league titles in China, though leading Uzbekistan to the World Cup is his major postplaying achievement.

Manchester City’s 22-year-old centreback Abdukodir Khusanov is the undoubted star player.

Colombia

Experienced campaigners Colombia have one of their strongest combinations going to a World Cup and are being touted as dark horses.

They finished third in South America’s Conmebol single qualifying group behind Argentina and Ecuador and ahead of Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay with seven wins, seven draws and four defeats. Given they were also 2024 Copa America runners-up to world champions Argentina, they are being put forward not just as the second-strongest combination in Group K to Portugal but a side capable of a deep run in North America.

Argentinean coach Néstor Lorenzo, appointed in 2022, among the strong World Cup and Copa campaigns, presided over a record 28-match unbeaten run that included victories over Brazil, Germany, and Spain. The 60-year-old is stepping out of the shadow of being a long-time assistant to the acclaimed José Pékerman.

• TimesLIVE, Sowetan, The Herald, Daily Dispatch and Business Day online are profiling 2026 World Cup groups until the tournament’s June 11 kick-off. Also catch the Star Player profile every Friday.

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MTN has upped the ante in a bid to win market share in the lucrative video streaming market, offering a product that will cost as little as R30 a month.

Known as MTN One TV, the service will initially be available in South Africa and Zambia as the mobile telecom group pushes into online media.

Customers will have different access options depending on their market, including free-to-view content, advertising-funded viewing, pay-as-you-watch access, and subscription offerings.

Registration for the service is free, with special data bundles available via the company’s Momo mobile payments service, credit card or as an addition to one’s postpaid bill.

South Africa’s mobile operators have attempted — with varying degrees of success — to conquer the video streaming market. Still, MTN One’s pricing, which will range from free to “a low R30 a month”, appears to be targeting customers who find Netflix’s R59 or YouTube Premium’s R80 starting prices out of reach.

In South Africa, it is only available to MTN customers with a valid mobile number from the operator.

Customers can access MTN One TV on up to five devices linked to one account. However, you will only be able to watch/stream on one device at a time. A new device can only be added if one of the five linked devices is removed, the company said.

Tapping growing demand

Video streaming has enjoyed wide adoption across South Africa, with YouTube, the world’s largest video streamer, holding the top spot. Google Africa MD Alex Okosi told Business Day recently that YouTube had 25-million viewers in South Africa, a sign of the group’s dominance in local entertainment.

The biggest competition is in the video-on-demand space, where players use film and television content produced by broadcasters and studios to compete. YouTube is a user-generated content platform, akin to social media, which means any person with a Google account can easily upload a video without the need for licensing, complex intellectual property agreements, distribution deals and other red tape.

Access to the service is also free, with monetisation coming from advertising. Customers can choose to pay for an advert-free experience.

With MultiChoice’s Showmax now defunct, the local paid video streaming is dominated by international services such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+. DStv Stream will soon be folded into the Canal+ super app.

In the free-to-air space, SABC+, eMedia’s eVOD and Hong Kong-based Viu are the main providers.

Online streaming has been a big driver of increased mobile data demand in South Africa. Ironically, it has yet to garner large user bases for mobile operators.

The first major attempt was by Cell C in 2017. South Africa’s fourth-largest mobile provider reportedly spent R1bn on content for its Black video service before shutting the doors on the venture in 2019, citing low adoption while it was trying to preserve cash.

Most recently, Telkom helped to set up the SABC’s streaming service SABC+. Initially dubbed TelkomONE, the fixed-line operator streamed the SABC’s radio and television content before handing over the platform to the state-owned broadcaster entirely in 2022 after two years of running the platform.

In 2017, Telkom launched its LIT service, which — through special data bundles and a set-top box — enabled users to stream video from services such as DStv, Netflix, YouTube and Showmax, with music from Apple Music, Simfy Africa and Google Play Music.

It was never an exciting story, but it was coherent enough to justify a slow compression of the risk premium on South African assets. The Constitutional Court has now put that thesis under serious strain.

Its ruling that parliament’s 2022 vote to shelve the section 89 Independent Panel report was unconstitutional does not, by itself, remove President Cyril Ramaphosa from office. However, it reopens an impeachment process at the worst possible moment: inside a coalition already negotiating its second-year tensions, in a local government election year that will redraw the political map, and at a point when global conditions are already testing emerging market resilience. The combination of these pressures ― legal, political, and electoral ― is more consequential than any one of them in isolation.

The channels through which this flows into asset prices are not complicated. Presidential bandwidth is a finite resource. A head of state managing an active impeachment process in parliament, while simultaneously navigating GNU coalition arithmetic and preparing his already-under-great-pressure party for the local government elections, is not a head of state with the political capital to push hard on fiscal consolidation, merit-based appointments or structural reform. These are not background issues for investors; they are the entire basis on which the post-2024 rerating of South African assets was justified.

There is also a coalition dimension that markets have not fully priced. The DA’s leverage ― provided it is willing to use it ― inside the GNU increases as the ANC’s domestic position weakens. That leverage can be used constructively ― pushing harder on accountability, on the anticorruption agenda and on property rights. Or it can become a source of instability if the ANC’s internal factions respond to the impeachment pressure by lurching toward their base rather than their coalition partners.

Which direction the GNU moves in under this kind of pressure is precisely the question that should be driving portfolio and capital allocation decisions right now. The Centre for Risk Analysis’s latest briefing, Ramaphosa’s Nkandla Moment, maps the parliamentary and legal tracks running in parallel and lays out the specific votes, dates and committee arithmetic that will determine the outcome.

The historical parallel is worth stating plainly. The Jacob Zuma years demonstrated that political risk in South Africa is not a soft overlay on the macro view; it is the macro view. The rand, the bond curve and business confidence do not move on economics alone; they move on the credibility of the executive and the stability of the institutions around it. The post-2024 period has been different precisely because those credibility signals improved. The question now is whether that improvement was structural or cyclical.

Between now and November 4 ― the country’s next local government elections ― South Africa will produce the answer. The base case remains a managed process: parliament works through the committee stage, the coalition holds, and investors treat the episode as a political distraction rather than a structural break.

The downside scenario, in which the impeachment process fractures the GNU and accelerates ANC factional realignment, carries real consequences for growth, fiscal credibility and the cost of capital. The upside ― a clean process that reinforces institutional accountability and strengthens genuine reformist figures and impulses ― is also possible and would justify a faster rerating than the market now contemplates.

Teams that engage with this framework now will recognise the inflection points before they show up in the rand or the curve. Those waiting for the price signal will, as usual, be reacting rather than positioning. South African political risk is back at the centre of the investment case. The next two quarters will determine which version of this country investors are holding.

• Hattingh is executive director of the Centre for Risk Analysis, a Johannesburg-based strategic intelligence and risk advisory think-tank.

As all too often in the past, the beautiful game is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Tickets to matches in the host countries – the US, Canada and Mexico – are hideously expensive.

Donald Trump, America’s president, has a lukewarm relationship with his neighbours and co-hosts. He accuses Mexico, which hosts the opening game between its national team and Bafana Bafana on Thursday, of being a nation of drug dealers, crime cartels and illegal immigrants.

By asserting the agency of middle-income countries at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney appears to have offended Trump’s superpower sense.

The world’s most popular sporting tournament has unfortunately been mired in unnecessary controversy. Coming after air strikes on Iran last year, the abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro earlier this year fuelled anti-US government sentiments.

The war against Iran, now into its fourth month amid fragile talks, has soured the mood. It’s only recently the US confirmed that the Iranian team will be allowed travel documents to attend the tournament. The talks to end the war have contributed to the thawing of relations, allowing the beautiful game to continue.

Omar Artan, who was supposed to be the first Somali to officiate in a football World Cup, was denied entry into the US this week. He is stuck in Turkey with no sign that he will be allowed to travel to the US at all.

Football is supposed to be a game of peace and friendship, and the most important stakeholders are supposed to be the fans, alongside the players.

Fifa’s miscalculation

Fans are made up of two categories: the fanatics, or addicts, who will go anywhere to attend a game; and ordinary supporters. The latter often can’t travel and support their national football teams mainly by watching the games on television.

The pricing of World Cup 2026 tickets has prevented even many football fanatics and addicts from attending the tournament. That has strangled football tourism, a key byproduct of the game, and the vibe around the world is muted.

There is a basic misread of what the global game is about. For many years Fifa, with all its problems, has advocated for football to be free from politics. Yet inexplicably, Fifa president Gianni Infantino invited politics into the global game when he decided that Trump deserved a “peace award” from world football’s governing body.

By way of context, Trump joined Israel in strikes against Iran and allowed the bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon. It boggles the mind how Infantino deemed it fit for him to receive a peace award in the middle of such conflicts.

Infantino ought to have known that Trump’s insistence that he is a president who ends, not starts, wars was nonsense. His peace board for Gaza has yet to take off.

Fifa has scored other own goals in the run-up to the tournament, bringing in new rules to govern the game. Most of these are unnecessary, deprioritising the interests of players and fans.

After the conclusion of the African Confederation of Nations (Afcon) tournament, Afcon, a Fifa affiliate, decided to strip Senegal of the cup because its players and coach walked off the pitch in protest during the final. It has been trying to backpedal ever since.

Wrongs and rights

With all its faults, there are some things that Fifa has got right in this edition of the tournament. While the world body got the football horribly wrong, it got the money issue right. The expansion of the tournament to include more teams is a welcome amendment, and the focus on players’ wellbeing is also a positive.

On paper at least, Fifa exists to serve the interests of its affiliates. However, under Infantino this mission appears questionable. A number of the events it organises seem to rival the calendars of its affiliates.

The most significant criticisms of the organisation of this edition of the World Cup are the irrational changes of several rules and allowing politics to come into the game.

Those mishaps are regrettable but shouldn’t define this tournament. Fans must set aside the off-the-field theatrics and concentrate on the games themselves.

The game is bigger than the administrators and politicians. Players and fans matter more than administrators and politicians, who come and go.

• Dludlu is a former Sowetan editor.

Except, apparently, at the recent Conference of the Left, where ideological self-identification was the sole entry requirement (“The conference that divided the Left”, June 5). That was an unfortunate “boundary failure”, to say the least. It meant it was hard to take the whole thing seriously, given that the collection of misfit comedians and criminals known as MK turned up, alongside the EFF and the core organisers, the SACP.

At least the EFF can make a half-case for being on the Left, even it is only on the basis of the “shoehorn” theory, whereby far Left and far Right are not poles at the end of a straight-line spectrum but a fingertip touch away from each other as the ends bend to meet, to the point where far-Left populists and far-Right fascists often look and sound remarkably similar.

In contrast, MK is devoid of ideology and doesn’t even say things that could superficially be described as “leftist”; it is a cult, pivoting around former president Jacob Zuma and his ghastly entourage of sycophantic family members and crony fellow travellers. This may explain some of the commentary about the conference.

‘Last rites’ or new life?

In his Sunday Times column, Barney Mthomboti dismissed the event with glee, apparently relishing what he described as the “last rites” of the SACP and inviting us all to not waste our breath on the party (“Time to kick the last breath out of the SACP”, June 7).

Mthomboti seems to think it is the SACP that should be blamed for the ANC’s failures in government. That’s not what I’ve witnessed. It has often been SACP members that have been the more diligent and energetic members of the ANC, which will miss their organisational zest in future elections now that the SACP has decided it will contest the local government election in November on its own.

This will be a defining moment for the SACP, which will discover just how cold life outside the ANC can be, having exercised disproportionate influence under the rafters of the ANC’s broad ideological church for so many decades. Strategically that made sense. The ANC was a winning ticket. Why risk life outside when you can yield power quietly on the inside? But now the game is up — the ANC has not only lost its majority, with only one in seven eligible voters voting for it in the 2024 national election, but it is also a declining force.

No doubt the ANC leadership, conspicuously absent from the Conference of the Left, will cast them as rats abandoning the ship. But from the SACP’s perspective, now is tactically the right moment — even if it wins only 1%-2% of the vote.

As seen in countless different scenarios since the ANC dam started to burst a decade ago, a small party can easily be the tail that wags the dog in the febrile world of coalition politics. The SACP could become a far more interesting and serious, as well as progressive, king-maker than some of the rogues who have weaselled their way into power through dodgy coalition deals in recent years.

Besides, a strong democracy needs a perpetual flow of new ideas and policy contestation of the sort that has been painfully absent in recent years as the ANC’s own capacity for policy (re)generation has been eclipsed by patronage and the pursuit of power for power’s sake.

So, I am unwilling to either mock the SACP or prematurely celebrate its demise. It could be the end of the road for The Party, or it could be the beginning of some kind of renewal.

• Calland is founding partner in political economy advisory The Paternoster Group and a visiting adjunct professor at the Wits School of Governance.

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South Africa’s economic growth is likely to be muted in 2026 despite beating expectations in the first quarter, as higher input costs deriving from a sharp jump in fuel prices take their toll on sectors such as manufacturing, mining and agriculture.

Finance, agriculture, trade and transport did the heavy lifting on the production side of the economy in the first three months of the year, resulting in a slight uptick in growth to 0.5% from 0.4% during the fourth quarter of 2025, Stats SA said on Tuesday.

The demand side was supported by a decline in imports and a rise in household and government consumption as well as exports.

Economists had predicted a slowdown in growth to about 0.2% in the first three months of the year, anticipating that rising input costs stemming from a steep jump in fuel prices due to the Middle East conflict would be a drag on GDP.

But the economy held up relatively well, propped up by the finance, real estate and the business services industry, which increased by 0.9%, contributing 0.2 percentage points to the overall number. Mining was also stronger due to higher output in platinum group metals, gold, chromium ore and diamonds.

Factory production, however, declined by 0.8%, subtracting 0.1 percentage points from first-quarter GDP growth. Five of the 10 manufacturing divisions reported negative growth rates.

The economy only felt the partial impact of the US-Iran conflict, which has disrupted the flow of cargo through the Strait of Hormuz since it broke out at end-February, Standard Bank economist Shireen Darmalingam said. The effect is certain to be more pronounced for the rest of the year.

“We anticipate a slowdown in GDP growth in the coming quarters, driven by the protracted Middle East conflict and the resulting increase in fuel costs. Business confidence has already deteriorated in the second quarter and we expect mounting pressure on consumers who were already under strain prior to the fuel price shock,” she said.

Expenditure on real GDP increased by 0.5% in the first quarter after a 0.3% increase at the end of last year, Stats SA data shows. But household consumption, historically a key growth driver, expanded by a marginal 0.1%, the lowest growth rate in eight quarters.

We anticipate a slowdown in GDP growth in the coming quarters, driven by the protracted Middle East conflict and the resulting increase in fuel costs.

Shireen Darmalingam, Standard Bank economist

“The softer consumption spending momentum in 1Q26 is particularly concerning, especially as it pre-dates the significant domestic fuel price increases and the latest interest rate hike,” First National Bank economist Thanda Sithole said.

The South African Reserve Bank raised its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 7% last month, citing intensified inflation risks stemming from higher oil prices.

Since the start of April, the retail price of petrol has leapt by R7.76/l in the economic hub of Gauteng and other inland areas, while the cost of diesel has jumped by R9.54-R10.17.

Further increases are in store for consumers as the government phases out the temporary relief it has provided by reducing the general fuel levy built into pump prices.

Tuesday’s economic data came a day after the government published its revised industrial development strategy, acknowledging South Africa must urgently secure an affordable, reliable energy supply, particularly electricity, and address bottlenecks in its ports, rail and telecommunications networks to get economic growth to 3%.

This is the level the economy needs to grow at annually to make a significant dent in unemployment, which edged up to 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026 from 31.4% in the last quarter of 2025.

The document notes that the gradual deindustrialisation of the economy since the advent of democracy in 1994 has whittled the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP to about 13% from about 23%.

The economy expanded by a tepid 1.1% in 2025, again weighed down by manufacturing and missing the National Treasury’s estimate of 1.4%.

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana forecast a 1.6% increase for 2026 in his February budget but is likely to cut this in his medium-term budget policy statement in October as higher input costs hinder production.

Today, Squealer has slid from the farmyard to the boardroom and exchanged his clipboard for a sleek slide deck. Nowhere is his presence more detectable than in corporate artificial intelligence (AI) doublespeak. From Johannesburg to Sydney to Mumbai to New York, we are facing a moment of huge disconnect between what we’re told and what we’re experiencing.

Earlier this year Reuters reported that major hyperscalers Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft are projected to spend more than $650bn on AI capex in 2026. Enterprise adoption has surged globally, and more than 70% of organisations now regularly use generative AI.

Task-level productivity is soaring — emails are written faster, lines of code are generated virtually instantly, and customer tickets are closed with efficiency — but a picture is emerging that indicates financial performance is not keeping pace.

If you are able to look at the data behind these pronouncements you will confront a different reality. Most of these organisations report little or no measurable enterprise-level impact on their earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit).

When a productivity gap like this occurs, a natural corporate reflex is triggered. If financial metrics do not move, or aren’t moving fast enough, the impulse is to shift the focus of reporting from the bottom line to operational adoption metrics. And while insights on engagement scores, user licences and so-called “AI-touched workflows” are useful, they are simply not telling the true story.

For South African boards and shareholders this global productivity gap is even deeper when our unique structural challenges are accounted for. If you have been to a single AI conference in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Stellenbosch this year, you will have heard the same story: South Africa is Africa’s AI leader.

Our AI adoption rate climbed from 21.1% in the second half of 2025 to 23.1% in the first quarter of 2026, according to Microsoft’s Global AI Diffusion report, well ahead of Nigeria and Kenya. Some 82% of African businesses are piloting AI, 59% of African businesses plan to spend more than $50m on AI in 2026. South Africa ranks fourth globally in public sector adoption.

It is, by every metric the decks want to show, a triumph. But now look at the labour data. According to Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (May 12), the national unemployment rate stood at 32.7% in the first quarter on the narrow definition, and a crisis-tipping 43.7% on the expanded definition. Youth unemployment reached 45.8% among people aged 15–34, and even graduates face an unemployment rate rising to 12.2%.

Both data sets are accurate but they present two different versions of the same terrain. The conference deck focuses entirely on technological progression, while the economic data reflects a deep underutilisation of human capital and a ticking time bomb that has far surpassed its ignition date.

I don’t believe this disconnect is driven by malice but it is certainly an organisational design flaw. Yes, digital transformation dashboards are naturally designed to justify, explain and validate the strategies they monitor. But if boards and shareholders want to ensure that capex translates into sustainable economic value we must undergo a vital shift from mere recipients of the digital updates that are on transmit into active, strategic interrogators.

Whether you’re a nonexecutive director, exco member or shareholder, your starting point should be these critical questions:

• Are we measuring task efficiency or profit and loss (P&L) optimisation? Minutes saved per employee are meaningless if the surplus time is absorbed by operational slack. Today’s executive teams must be able to demonstrate how task-level efficiency actively moves the Ebit line or reduces core operating costs
• Are we democratising capability or restricting it? Innovation accelerates when tools are placed in the hands of those closest to the execution. If access to advanced AI capabilities is restricted only to senior leadership while junior staff skills development budgets are shrunk or cut, business risks stifling the next generation of leadership. If we are serious about growing our economy and creating sustainable long-term value, upskilling our young and low-skilled workers cannot be cut.
• Does our AI roadmap create capacity for growth? The pace of change that AI and new technologies have inflicted can mean business defaults to using AI as a mechanism to cut costs and buy time until it can be better understood and deployed. But right now AI can be an engine to scale operations, enter new markets and unlock fresh revenue streams that can absorb and upskill South African youth, if you can ask the right questions and define the right direction.
• Are we investing in repeatable solutions? Capital allocation must move away from generic, multivendor “spray and pray” experiments and pilots and rather focus on building scalable, compliant and secure digital architecture that creates recurring long-term value in a way that matters for your business and its stakeholders.

Orwell’s final critique left us with the conclusion that while all animals are equal, some are more equal than others. In business today this equality can still be understood in relation to who has the power to determine which metrics are highlighted and which are left out of the report.

We have the infrastructure, entrepreneurial spirit and tech-hungry youth necessary to lead the continent’s digital economy. But true leadership will require an alignment of the promise of technology and AI investments with the reality of South Africa’s economic and employment crisis.

In the end, Orwell’s tale reminds us that true progress is measured not just by what we’re told, but by the reality we create. Let’s ensure our metrics reflect the world we want to build, one where both technology and opportunity uplift everyone.

• Goddard is a partner and leads software development at technology and management consultancy iqbusiness.

The two-pot system, introduced in September 2024, allows pension savers to withdraw a portion of their retirement savings without leaving their jobs. The question now is whether it is working as intended.

The opening act was dramatic. In the first nine months R57bn was withdrawn from retirement savings. Most of it went to paying down debt — particularly to nonbank lenders — with some covering education costs. The Reserve Bank did revise its consumption forecasts upward in late 2024, crediting two-pot payouts as a growth tailwind, and Black Friday spending that year was the strongest since before Covid-19.

However, the uplift was modest relative to the scale of the withdrawals, and formal retailers reported no meaningful surge. A large consumption splurge did not occur. What did happen was that withdrawals were taxable as income, and the revenue service collected about R15bn — almost three times what it expected. That helped the tax agency beat its targets handsomely.

The system’s long-term design is straightforward. One-third of contributions flow into a savings pot, accessible once per tax year with withdrawals taxed at marginal rates. Two-thirds go into a retirement pot, locked until retirement. The point was to end the destructive habit of workers cashing out their entire retirement savings when changing jobs. At the very least, that has been achieved. Two-thirds of contributions are now preserved for retirement. That is unambiguously an improvement on what came before.

The worry is what is happening to the savings pot. The tax logic strongly favours leaving it alone. Withdrawals are taxed at your marginal rate — potentially pushing you into a higher bracket. Money left invested compounds tax-free and can eventually be taken as a lump sum at retirement with considerably more favourable tax treatment. The savings pot should, in theory, function as a buffer that most members rarely touch.

It is not working that way. Alexforbes data shows 67% of members who withdrew in the most recent tax year are withdrawing again — half of them in the first month of the new tax year, the earliest opportunity — and taking the maximum available. This is not emergency access; it is habitual, and it is costing members substantially in tax and foregone compound growth.

This behaviour also reveals a flaw in my own criticism of the two-pot system. When it was tabled, I argued for a penalty tax approach instead of forced preservation — a model closer to the UK system, which allows withdrawals for clearly defined expenses but taxes them at 55%. That seems to work there.

It is not working here. The evidence shows that South African savers are so pressed for cash that a substantial tax penalty is not a deterrent. The rational utility optimisation the penalty approach assumes is not the behaviour displayed.

What is shown is hyperbolic discounting — applying a high discount rate to future cash flows relative to present ones. Studies consistently show that the lower your income, the higher your discount rate: the more urgently you want cash now relative to any future benefit. There is also evidence that this is more pronounced in fragile societies, where low trust in institutions and an uncertain future make long-term saving feel futile.

The debt repayment is not showing up in bank data, though. Banks have reported no meaningful paydown of loans. The working theory is that savers are repaying informal sector debt — to mashonisas and loan sharks.

The behavioural economics literature (Mullainathan and Shafir’s work on scarcity in particular) argues that financial stress actively narrows cognitive bandwidth, making long-term planning harder and reinforcing the very decisions that perpetuate scarcity.

The spending data supports this diagnosis. Research from Old Mutual and Sanlam shows about a third of withdrawals are covering living expenses — food, rent, electricity and transport — and between a quarter and half are going to service debt. No-one is buying flat-screen TVs. This is distress spending, not discretionary spending.

The debt repayment is not showing up in bank data, though. Banks have reported no meaningful paydown of loans. The working theory is that savers are repaying informal sector debt — to mashonisas and loan sharks. That would also explain why R57bn flowing out of retirement funds has produced so little measurable macroeconomic impact. The money is circulating in an informal economy largely invisible to standard data collection. So far, the most consistent beneficiaries of the two-pot system appear to be informal lenders.

A darker scenario lurks in that finding. If the members currently building retirement pot balances are also accumulating informal debt at high interest rates, they risk arriving at retirement with annuities that are immediately absorbed by creditors. The two-pot system may be improving preservation while doing little to address the underlying debt spiral that drives the withdrawals in the first place.

That said, the overall trajectory is probably positive. As the current generation of savers reaches retirement, they will arrive better funded than under the old system. That experience — of actually having retirement income — may over time shift the sense of financial futility that underpins hyperbolic discounting. Behaviour may settle down as trust in the system builds.

But the policy job is not over. The two-pot reform has improved preservation while exposing a different problem: South Africans at the bottom of the income distribution do not appear to have access to well-priced formal credit when they need it. They are borrowing expensively from informal lenders and then raiding their retirement savings to repay them.

More accessible formal-sector lending at the bottom of the market would address a root cause the two-pot system has revealed but cannot fix. More layers of the onion remain to be peeled.

• Dr Theobald is founder and chair of research-led consultancy Krutham.

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The government plans to establish a court near the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg to deal with immigration-related cases as the government moves ahead with a long-delayed overhaul of the country’s court system.

The Kempton Park court falls outside the formal recommendations of the rationalisation committee chaired by retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke but was agreed on after consultations with Gauteng judge president Dunstan Ledwaba.

Justice & constitutional development minister Mmamoloko Kubayi cited immigration pressures as the reason for the move on Tuesday, after President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday pledged to establish dedicated immigration courts to speed up the deportation of undocumented migrants.

The country has seen a series of anti-immigrant protests in recent months, with the group March and March calling on undocumented migrants to leave the country by June 30.

“Though this initiative is not part of the recommendations of the rationalisation committee we believe that the circumstances, especially regarding immigration, demand that we act swiftly to create the necessary infrastructure and justice systems to attend to this important matter,” Kubayi said.

The broader court rationalisation, a constitutional requirement under schedule 6 of the constitution, will proceed in two phases with effect from July 1.

Phase 1 covers the reassignment of magisterial districts to high court divisions and the activation of new local seats where court infrastructure already exists. Revised guidelines for the appointment of acting judges, signed off by the chief justice, will also be gazetted and take effect in July.

Phase 2 covers the construction or expansion of court facilities at five new local seats recommended by the Moseneke committee: Palm Ridge, Gauteng; Welkom, Free State; Rustenburg, North West; Upington, Northern Cape; and Thembalethu, Western Cape. The proposed relocation of the Eastern Cape High Court seat from Makhanda to Bhisho will be subject to further stakeholder consultations led by the minister before a decision is taken.

“A process has been initiated with the National Treasury and Office of the Chief Justice to effect the 20% increase of the judicial posts to deal with the capacity challenges across the divisions of the high court, as recommended by the rationalisation committee in the phase 2 report,” she said.

The rationalisation of magisterial districts began in Gauteng and the North West in 2014 and was completed across all nine provinces by 2022.

The high court rationalisation follows from that process, as high court divisions derive their jurisdiction from magisterial district boundaries.

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Old Mutual has made several external hires across its insurance and banking businesses as it looks to make inroads in the mass and affluent markets while insurance and retail companies are upping the banking game.

To this end, Old Mutual’s banking proposition OM Bank has roped in the services of erstwhile FNB and Standard Bank staffer Ethel Nyembe as chief product and innovation officer.

OM Bank, which recently reported a surge in customers from 284,000 at the end of last year to 473,00 in the first three months of this year, has also hired another former Standard Bank and FNB employee as chief growth officer.

OM Bank is expected to launch its lending activities in the second half of the year. The fledgling bank’s CEO, Clarence Nethengwe, said the lender aims to redefine what banking means for South Africa’s middle class.

“For decades, banks competed on products. Now the real contest is about ecosystems, intelligence, integration and relevance. The winners won’t just offer cheaper accounts; they’ll embed themselves in their customers’ financial lives, helping manage risk, build wealth, enable smarter access to credit and unlock more value from every transaction. That’s the ambition driving OM Bank,” Nethengwe said.

“OM Bank is not entering the market as simply another digital challenger focused on capturing share. Rather, it is building a fully integrated financial ecosystem designed for the needs of aspirational South Africans, combining a digital-first experience with accessible human support through the trusted Old Mutual branch network and OM Bank contact centre.”

For decades, banks competed on products. Now the real contest is about ecosystems, intelligence, integration and relevance.

CEO, Clarence Nethengwe

Old Mutual mainstay rival Sanlam is also sharpening its banking claws via its partnership with GoTyme, formerly TymeBank. The partnership brings together about 17-million clients.

Pepkor’s financial services business is also growing at an exponential rate, adding gravitas to the group’s ambitions to launch a bank and take on the established lenders in the fight for the mass-market wallet.

The group on Tuesday reported a 41% rise in revenue to R3bn from its financial services segment in the six months ended March, a surge that lifted the segment’s operating profit by 63.4% to R691m.

The retail supermajor, with an arsenal of more than 6,600 stores, last year got the green light from the South African Reserve Bank to open a bank, with its more than 10-million digital clients and expansive branch network giving it a platform on which to build it.

With 32-million clients, Pepkor is expected to be a force to be reckoned with as it launches a foray into retail banking.

Old Mutual is not only recruiting for OM Bank but is also strengthening its other businesses with new expertise.

The financial services group has the founding CEO of Capitec Life, Katherine Barker, in an executive role in the group’s life and savings business, the group’s heartland.

Malusi Ndlovu has rejoined the group from Absa and will fill the role of MD of the mass and foundation cluster.

The group, worth R60bn on the JSE, has also hired Mari Janzen as COO of the Old Mutual Insure unit — joining from Hollard, where she filled the same role.

Group CEO Jurie Strydom said the new appointments constitute a statement of intent that the company is building the bench strength to compete and grow faster and deliver more consistently.

“We are delighted to attract external talent with proven expertise and experience to complement our internal talent pipeline. These leaders bring the skills, track records and outside-in perspectives that will make a real and immediate difference to our strategic delivery across the group.”

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Black ownership of shares in South Africa’s 60 largest listed companies stood at just R255bn at end-December 2024, equivalent to 6.9% of the South African assets held by those companies, according to a new report by economist Duma Gqubule for the Black Management Forum.

The figure stands in stark contrast to the BEE commission’s 2022 finding that JSE-listed companies had average black ownership of 39%, a discrepancy the report attributes to fatal design flaws in the BEE codes that allow companies to inflate their scores by counting passive pension fund holdings and claiming credit for black shareholders who have long since exited.

The gap between paper compliance and reality is illustrated by two examples in the report, including Pick n Pay, which has not concluded a BEE transaction but carried a 2025 BEE certificate showing 22% black ownership. Nedbank disclosed actual black ownership of 0.6% in its 2024 annual report, while its BEE certificate showed 36.59%.

The report traces the distortion to three policy concessions extracted by large companies during the drafting of the codes, including a provision that allows the Public Investment Corporation’s (PIC) R1.1-trillion shareholding in JSE Top 60 companies to flow through as black ownership credit to companies that have done little to transform their own share registers.

‘Back-door route’

“Recognition of indirect ownership means that companies get free points and full compliance in many cases, even if they do nothing to transform their ownership structures — a major contributor towards inflated scores of JSE-listed companies.

“A back-door route towards compliance rewards companies for doing nothing.

“Allowing passive indirect ownership to count is a betrayal of the spirit of true empowerment, which is to encourage direct ownership by active black shareholders who can influence company strategies.

“There are weak incentives for companies to get into replacement BEE transactions.”

The report recommends a comprehensive overhaul of the BEE legislative framework, including scrapping the mining sector’s once empowered, always empowered principle; closing the indirect ownership backdoor; and establishing a state-backed super fund involving the Reserve Bank, the PIC and the IDC to finance new black acquisitions of listed company shares.

Two-thirds of existing black ownership on the JSE is held through broad-based schemes, including employee trusts, community funds and public retail schemes such as MultiChoice’s Phuthuma Nathi, which has paid R19.6bn in dividends to 73,791 shareholders since 2006, countering the narrative that BEE has benefited only a politically connected elite.

“The biggest myth is that BEE has only benefited the politically connected few. While politicians such as President Cyril Ramaphosa and former Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale benefitted from earlier BEE deals, an analysis of the current composition of black shareholders within the JSE Top 60 companies shows that this is no longer true,” the report reads.

President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his usual delusionary, well-worn-out, clichéd and self-congratulatory speech when replying to the presidential budget vote debate last week. We have been subjected countless times to this repetitive rhetoric from the president.

His oratorical performances, flawed as they are with the same old, same old, undeliverable and unaffordable promises, plans and predictions, have become redundant. They do little to contribute to real national political, social and economic progress or provide the kind of inspirational leadership so desperately needed from a president of our ailing country.

However, the boorish conduct of some “honourable” members during the debate on the vote was deplorable, particularly from the EFF and MK parties. The proceedings resembled a raucous, puerile Punch and Judy show.

Given that the political, social and economic fabric of our society is in danger of being left in tatters, one would have thought MPs from all parties would behave with a level of gravitas in parliament and avoid petulant, degrading and delinquent conduct that is dishonourable and disorderly.

Shouting insults and rudely, persistently and pointlessly interrupting the speaker of the House, the presiding chairs and the speakers themselves displayed a buffoonery usually associated with clowns at a circus.

These MPs, funded as they are by taxpayers, should be charged with tax abuse and stripped of their rights to be referred to as “honourable” members for deliberately delaying, disrupting and frustrating the important processes and business of parliament.

It is embarrassing enough to have our National Assembly variously located in a parking lot and other venues rather than the historic parliamentary precinct, but to also have these temporary structures occupied is another matter. These self-important hooligans are an insult to all South Africans ― especially those who are homeless, unemployed and denied the most basic of services. In other words, the very same people these dishonourable parliamentarians profess to represent.

David Gant

Kenilworth

Farmers left vulnerable as insurers refuse flood coverage

Stella Mapenzauswa’s article discussed why South African farmers fail to take out adequate insurance (“Weather disasters lay bare insurance issues for farmers”, June 8). But it omitted a fundamental issue: many insurers and underwriters, having paid out claims, refuse to insure those risks again.

I have a small fruit farm in the Western Cape which, with many others, suffered much damage in the floods of 2023. As always, my insurer whittled down my claim for various reasons, eventually paying out about half of it. It then said it would no longer insure me against flood damage.

Initially I thought it was just punishing me for having had the audacity to claim for risks for which I have paid premiums for 30 years, but I then learnt, after contacting at least 10 brokers and insurers, that insurers countrywide are refusing to provide flood damage cover.

There is not much use in urging farmers to take out insurance for floods when no insurer will cover us. If the government were to provide some sort of cover for major risks that insurers have refused, such as flood damage to agriculture, it would be far more useful than the present Sasria cover for riots and political unrest (“Steenhuisen urges swift rollout of Sasria-style disaster insurance for farmers”, May 18).

Perhaps the admirable Wandile Sihlobo of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, who regularly talks sense in your columns, can take this up. But I won’t be holding my breath.

Jonathan Schrire

Kenilworth

Foot-and-mouth crisis will cost the DA votes

While John Steenhuisen was handed a poisoned chalice when he took over the department of agriculture, he has now been in this position for a while and has still gone against everything his party stands for ― efficient government with little red tape, complete transparency, private sector partnership and decentralised government.

Instead, he has wanted total, exclusive control in controlling foot-and-mouth disease without the trained or dedicated manpower to do the job (“State has secured 13.5-million vaccine doses to fight foot-and-mouth disease”, June 1).

I recently had the unpleasant experience of asking the head of the veterinary department in the southern Free State what the protocol was to get cattle vaccinated after the recent court judgment. The reply from the person designated to control this disease was: “I don’t know, phone so and so.”

The DA deserves to lose thousands of votes over this catastrophe and Steenhuisen should be fired by the party. Most South Africans have no idea how bad things are nor the devastation caused by Steenhuisen’s intransigence ― so much so that a suicide hotline has been set up for desperate farmers.

I have voted for the DA for 25 years, but not this time.

Charles Cadman

Bloemfontein

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South Africa’s alcohol industry could face the same fate as the country’s tobacco sector if the growth of illicit alcohol is not brought under control, says Heineken Beverages.

The warning comes as alcohol producers prepare for the outcome of the National Treasury’s excise policy review, with concerns that higher taxes could widen the gap between legal and illicit products and further strengthen criminal networks.

As the Treasury’s review continues, producers are calling for what they describe as a balanced approach that supports enforcement efforts while avoiding measures they believe could unintentionally accelerate the growth of the illicit alcohol market. The outcome could affect alcohol prices, tax revenue, jobs and consumer behaviour.

The alcohol industry supports more than 500,000 jobs and contributes to South Africa’s economy, according to industry research cited by Heineken.

Heineken Beverages South Africa MD Jordi Borrut said excise policy should balance fiscal objectives, responsible consumption, economic sustainability and efforts to limit the growth of illicit trade.

“In our view, the inflation-linked excise increase announced by finance minister Enoch Godongwana in the 2026 budget was an appropriate response in the current socioeconomic context,” the company said.

“We believe there is value in exploring how excise policy can better support product innovation in beer and cider, particularly by encouraging the development and uptake of low- and no-alcohol alternatives where consumer transition is most feasible and technological capability is already well established.

“Importantly, this shift should be underpinned by a philosophy of incentivisation rather than punitive measures, with such incentivisation grounded in the need to support the extensive agricultural value chains linked to beer and cider.”

Borrut expressed concern about proposals that could substantially increase excise rates in certain alcohol categories, arguing that policymakers should consider the broader impact on consumers, agricultural value chains, employment and the legal market.

Importantly, this shift should be underpinned by a philosophy of incentivisation rather than punitive measures, with such incentivisation grounded in the need to support the extensive agricultural value chains linked to beer and cider.

Heineken Beverages South Africa

He said legal alcohol volumes are growing broadly in line with adult population growth, while illicit alcohol is expanding much faster. He also argued that enforcement alone will not solve the problem if policy decisions make legal products much more expensive than illicit alternatives.

Heineken supports findings from a recent Euromonitor International study commissioned by the Drinks Federation South Africa (DF-SA), which estimates that illicit alcohol now accounts for 18% of the country’s total alcohol market.

The problem is particularly severe in spirits. According to the research, spirits account for more than half of the illicit alcohol market and illicit products make up almost 30% of the total spirits category, meaning about one in every three spirits drinks sold in South Africa is illicit.

The study estimates that illicit alcohol cost the fiscus R16.5bn in lost tax revenue in 2024. Illicit alcohol volumes have grown from 498,290 hectolitres of liquid alcohol equivalent in 2017 to 773,424 hectolitres in 2024, while the value of the illicit market has nearly doubled from R12.8bn to R25bn over the same period.

Borrut said organised criminal syndicates have become increasingly sophisticated, shifting from smuggled products to large-scale counterfeiting and local manufacturing operations.

The most affected category, according to Heineken, is white spirits. The company expressed concern that adding the high excise burden on spirits creates a strong incentive for illicit operators because they can avoid paying taxes and sell products at lower prices while still making substantial profits.

Already counterfeit alcohol is increasingly difficult to distinguish from legitimate products, according to Borrut, who said that criminal syndicates are infiltrating informal and formal retail channels.

He drew parallels with the tobacco industry where illicit trade expanded dramatically over the past decade.

According to information provided by Heineken, illicit tobacco grew from about 23% of the market to around 75%, while legal manufacturers repeatedly warned the government about the consequences of illicit trade. Heineken said South Africa’s alcohol market is approaching a critical point if enforcement and policy measures do not work together to contain the problem.

The concerns are not limited to Heineken. South African Breweries (SAB) recently warned that proposed excise changes could increase the risk of consumers turning to cheaper illicit alcohol products, Business Day reported.

Kashifa Ancer, project lead for the Rethink Your Drink campaign, an alcohol harms reduction initiative supported by the DG Murray Trust, said South Africa faces a substantial burden from alcohol-related harms, including road traffic injuries, violence, gender-based violence, child neglect and pressure on healthcare and emergency services.

“The suggestion that stronger alcohol control measures will inevitably fuel illicit trade overlooks the fact that many countries have successfully implemented taxation and other evidence-based alcohol policies while simultaneously strengthening enforcement against illegal products,” Ancer said.

“The alcohol industry frequently argues that regulation will drive consumers towards illicit alternatives. Yet this perspective assumes that the government is incapable of enforcing the law and ignores the substantial evidence showing that pricing, availability and marketing regulations can reduce alcohol-related harm.

“The appropriate response to illicit alcohol is stronger enforcement, improved border controls, better intelligence-led investigations and more effective prosecution of criminal operators. It is not abandoning or weakening policies that are designed to protect public health.”

But the speech failed as a meaningful attempt to calm anti-immigrant sentiment and prevent it from exploding into a full-blown conflagration. It also failed to assure South Africans that the government has a plan for the June 30 ultimatum that has been persistently issued to foreign nationals by anti-illegal immigration protestors.

On Sunday night, Ramaphosa announced a raft of measures to deal with the developing crisis.

Over the past few weeks, a civic movement known as March and March and its members have staged protests, sometimes violent ones, across major cities across the country. Their grievance is ostensibly simple: undocumented and illegal foreign nationals aren’t welcome in this country.

This movement also rides on the back of populist rhetoric by parties including Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance (PA), Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA and King Misuzulu kaZwelithini.

Ramaphosa’s address comes after his working visits to Zimbabwe, eSwatini and Botswana prior to him hosting William Ruto, his embattled Kenyan counterpart, last week. In a week, he is due to visit Ghana, a country that has had to airlift its citizens affected by xenophobic violence mostly in Durban.

Unsurprisingly, the migration topic has featured prominently in these interactions.

Among the many measures he announced to deal with the crisis were a clampdown on employers who employ illegal foreign nationals to avoid paying the minimum wage; stepping up anti-corruption efforts within the country’s immigration system; special courts; beefing up refugee processing centres and an inter-departmental approach to this multifaceted problem.

The address was reminiscent of former president Thabo Mbeki’s in 2008 in which he spoke of “naked criminal activity” at the height of xenophobic attacks in South Africa’s townships.

Mbeki’s speech came too late. Weeks later, he would be recalled by his party for how he managed the crisis, among other reasons.

Ramaphosa may not be facing an immediate recall. But his speech’s overly diplomatic tonality appeared too apologetic and out of touch with the simmering tensions on the ground. It lacked urgency.

Glaring gaps in the president’s address included the omission to remind people that tending a garden and cleaning their houses don’t qualify as scarce skills. These are jobs that can be done by any South African.

Second, his threats of fining employers seemed directed only at big businesses. State-owned enterprises and organs of state have also been outed for being complicit.

Third, the president should have been upfront that his address wouldn’t be a magic wand. The state’s capacity is woefully inadequate. The proposal to hire 10,000 inspectors this financial year is unlikely to materialise.

Fourth, he should have asked for help from business in tackling this problem.

And lastly, he should have directly addressed organisers of the protest marches and called out political players ― including the PA, which serves in his government of national unity ― for fanning the flames. It is not sufficient to say South Africans shouldn’t take the law into their own hands.

The government needs to communicate a clear message and a plan on how it will deal with the ultimatum of June 30 ― a date that has caused considerable panic among many.

Civic movements such as March and March have to be told bluntly that they have no expertise to tell who is here lawfully or not, and they should be warned to refrain from doing law enforcement work, which could easily descend into vigilantism and extortion schemes.

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Gauteng shopping centres and the country’s largest malls emerged as the strongest performers in the first quarter of 2026, signalling a shift in retail property growth patterns as the sector continued to show resilience despite pressure on consumers.

According to the Clur shopping centre index, superregional centres recorded the highest year-on-year trading density growth of 5.6%, marking the first time since November 2024 that they outperformed community and smaller centres. Regional malls followed closely with growth of 5.4%.

The broader sector remained resilient. National trading-density growth came in at 5.2%, ahead of inflation, while rental growth continued to outpace consumer prices.

The shift is consistent with the South African Property Owners Association’s (Sapoa’s) latest Retail Trends Report, which points to larger destination malls increasing their share of discretionary spending. While apparel sales remain muted in smaller centres, health and beauty retailers continue to outperform within superregional malls.

The macroeconomic backdrop remained subdued but relatively stable in the first quarter of the year, though rising geopolitical tension involving Iran and renewed volatility in global oil markets have introduced upside risks to inflation and consumer costs, the group said.

“The first quarter reflected a meaningful shift in growth across both shopping centre formats and provinces,” said Clur International managing director Belinda Clur.

Gauteng overtook the Western Cape as the fastest-growing retail property market, recording trading density growth of 5.6% year on year. The Western Cape followed at 5.2% while KwaZulu-Natal posted growth of 4.4%.

Despite losing the top growth position, the Western Cape remained the leader in trading density volumes at R50,262/m², ahead of KwaZulu-Natal’s R45,278 and Gauteng’s R41,842.

Large destination malls continued to dominate actual trading density volumes, with superregional centres generating R53,225/m². Community and smaller centres remained competitive at R49,131.

Rental fundamentals also remained robust. The national base rent-to-sales ratio held steady at 6.6%, a level maintained since mid-2024, while base rentals increased 5.5% year on year, comfortably ahead of inflation.

Superregional centres achieved the strongest rental growth at 5.9% while KwaZulu-Natal led provincial rental growth at 7.1%.

Cost-of-living challenges

Clur said the sector’s resilience is being supported by steady trading density growth and stable rental metrics, even as consumers face rising living costs and a challenging global environment.

She said consumers are increasingly prioritising value, trust and authenticity in their spending decisions, creating new pressures and opportunities for retailers seeking to maintain customer loyalty.

“Ongoing hard times, further exacerbated by the Iran war and associated energy and living cost increases, are central to this consumer position in the broader realm of global geopolitical tension. An emphasis on these elements is expected to deepen significantly over time,” Clur said.

Redefine, which owns large malls, recently reported that its annual trading density increased to R37,200/m² from R35,420/m² in the half-year ended February 2025, with rent-to-turnover at 7.7% for the six months to February.

“Our retail strategy is intentionally built around resilience, relevance and results. By strengthening essential categories, expanding experiential offerings and investing in targeted reconfigurations, we are seeing measurable improvements in trading performance and tenant retention across the portfolio. The stability in our rent-to-turnover ratios confirms that the interventions we’ve made are working, even in a constrained consumer environment,” said Redefine Properties retail asset manager Nashil Chotoki.

Every major technology era has needed new rails. Railways needed steel and land. Cars needed roads and oil. The internet needed fibre and servers. Cloud computing needed hyperscale data centres. AI needs power grids, chips, memory, data centres, cooling systems, fibre networks, cybersecurity and patient capital, all at once.

The next phase of AI may not be decided only by who builds the smartest model. It may be decided by who can secure electricity, build data centres, access advanced chips and finance projects that take years to complete.

This is why the AI debate can feel incomplete. Much of the public conversation still asks whether AI stocks are overvalued. Some may be. But the deeper question is whether the world has enough physical capacity to support the demand now being created. In many places, the answer appears to be no.

Computational power (compute) is becoming a strategic resource. Banks will need it for fraud detection and risk modelling. Hospitals may use it for diagnostics and drug discovery. Schools may use it for personalised tutoring. Governments will want it for security, public services and administration. Manufacturers will use it for robotics, simulation and supply-chain planning.

That makes AI infrastructure a matter of national competitiveness. Countries with reliable power, faster permitting, chip access and data-centre capacity will attract investment. Countries without those advantages may become dependent on others for the basic infrastructure of intelligence.

The bottleneck is not only demand. It is supply. Power grids are already under pressure in many regions. New data centres need land, water, cooling, transmission lines, substations and local approval. High-end chips remain difficult to secure. Building the AI economy is starting to look less like a typical tech cycle and more like a heavy industry buildout.

That brings finance into the centre of the story. AI infrastructure is too large and long dated to be funded by governments and banks alone. Public budgets are stretched. Traditional banks are not always well suited to financing long-term assets with short-term liabilities. Large data centres and power projects require capital that can wait, absorb complexity and earn returns over many years.

That creates a bigger role for pension funds, insurers, sovereign wealth funds, infrastructure managers and private credit. A data centre leased for 15 or 20 years to a major tech company may look less like a speculative technology bet and more like modern infrastructure.

Yet the social consequences should not be ignored. If AI raises productivity but most of the gains flow to those who own data centres, chips, platforms, power assets and financial claims on infrastructure, wages alone may not capture the upside. That would deepen one of the central tensions of the modern economy: work creates value, but ownership often captures it.

The same pressure may reshape companies. Large firms with capital, data and compute access could pull further ahead. Small firms may become more productive by using AI tools. But midsized businesses without scale, infrastructure access or a clear niche may find themselves squeezed.

The AI boom is not only a market story. It is an energy story, an industrial story, a labour story and a capital markets story. The first phase of AI was about models and applications. The next phase is about the rails beneath them. Power is now AI policy. Data centres are now industrial strategy. Compute is becoming a scarce resource. Private capital is becoming part of the tech stack.

The world is not simply adopting AI. It is rebuilding around it. The question is who pays for that rebuild, who owns it and who gets to share in the gains.

• Muchena is founder of Proudly Associated and author of ‘Artificial Intelligence Applied’ and ‘Tokenized Trillions’.

The Californian triumph, in the year of the American Bicentennial, was trumpeted far and wide. Taber turned it into a book, Hollywood produced a movie, and the Academie du Vin Librairie, a publishing venture inspired by Spurrier, has issued a 50th anniversary album to celebrate the occasion. That’s a vast amount of verbiage about a wine tasting attended by a handful of people.

Henry Jeffreys, writing in his Drinking Culture substack, concludes: “So what does the Judgment of Paris tell us about wine? Very little really. California and other New World wines would have become accepted eventually. Bordeaux would have bounced back anyway. I think the wine world would look much as it does today if it had never taken place. But as a human tale, a story of folly and hubris, David vs Goliath, it remains as compelling as ever.”

Wine judging is also in the news because South Africa Wine, the Cape producers’ umbrella organisation, has set up a wine sensorial council as part of the industry’s professional body. It’s hoped that by establishing a more rigorous wine judging environment, real benefits will flow to wineries and to consumers. This won’t be simple. You can train for acuity and for sensitivity when it comes to tastes and aromas, but aesthetic judgment, by its very subjectivity, remains elusive.

This was made abundantly clear to me reviewing the results of this year’s Investec Trophy Wine Show — a four-day blind-tasting exercise where I served as the show chairperson. There were three panels, each with three senior judges, one of whom was an international specialist flown in for the occasion. Two were Masters of Wine (MW, and probably the world’s most rigorous wine qualification). The third was Oz Clarke, winner of the World Wine Tasting Championship, author, broadcaster and wine personality (voted the best-known wine critic in the UK). The local judges included an MW and distinction graduates of the Wine Tasting Academy hosted under the auspices of the University of Cape Town’s graduate school.

In short, there was no absence of competence or talent: as show chair, I review every class with the judges while the wines are still on the tasting bench. Medal awards are rarely unanimous. They are arrived at by discussion and disputation. The arguments aren’t merely about the actual scores (which follow the medal award) — they are sometimes about whether a wine even receives a medal, or gets a bronze, silver, or gold. Things are not as clear cut as the theoreticians would like them to be.

When the gold medal winners are brought back on the last day of the competition, and reviewed by all the judges sitting as a full jury (again blind, labels out of sight), the best-in-class wines acquire their trophies. But the judges can also vote against a particular wine awarded a gold by another panel. Every year there are a few thumbs-down scores at this point. Even with wines that have passed through several filters, there isn’t always unanimity.

This is as it should be: fine wine is not quantifiable in the absolute sense. The fastest car in the world may not give the greatest driving pleasure. The most accurate image is not the best painting. As it happens, 30 years after the original Judgment of Paris tasting Spurrier convened another panel that reviewed the identical wines, and California again emerged victorious. On another day — wine being performance art — the outcome might have been different.

• The full results of the Investec Trophy Wine Show are available here.

Washington/Dubai — US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Iran had shot down a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz and vowed to respond, deepening doubts about prospects for peace between the two countries.

Trump said the two US pilots involved in the incident were uninjured.

“Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he said on social media.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi did not directly address the incident, but said foreign forces in the region risked being involved in accidents or crossfire.

“To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave,” he said on social media.

The episode adds further strain to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider Middle East war and reopen Hormuz, a vital conduit for petroleum and other commodities. Trump has repeatedly said Iran and the United States are close to an agreement, though there have been few signs of progress since a tenuous ceasefire took effect in early April.

A US navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew, the US military said, after the US army attack helicopter went down in waters near Oman’s coast while on patrol at around 3am on Tuesday.

The US military’s Central Command gave no reason for the crash. It said the soldiers were rescued after two hours and said they were in stable condition — a more cautious assessment than Trump’s description.

In a parallel conflict, Israel struck the historic port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, killing at least eight people. It was the deadliest strike on the city since fighting erupted in Lebanon in early March, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel.

A video verified by Reuters showed debris strewn across a road at the site of the attack.

Israel’s refusal to end its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah has hindered Trump’s efforts to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran into a durable settlement.

Iran and Israel exchanged airstrikes earlier this week, killing two people in Tehran.

Trump told Axios on Monday he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to return to war with Iran: “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon’.”

Tehran has long said any peace deal with Washington depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon.

In northern Israel on Tuesday, Israeli troops operating in the Ramim Ridge area close to Lebanon’s border killed one person in an incident in which they returned fire, the military said.

Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people, saying the conflict should be treated separately from any US-Iranian ceasefire. Hezbollah has also continued its attacks.

At the same time, Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

US energy secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that ship traffic through Hormuz is rising “very meaningfully”, but added it would take many months to get back to normal flows of energy once the war is over.

Trump has said any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon. Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the strait.

Boston — A federal judge on Monday struck down a $100,000 fee US President Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, concluding that it constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorised.

US district judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas.

The administration argued the fee constituted a lawful monetary penalty that the president was authorised to impose under federal immigration law, which gives him the power to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals when he deems it “detrimental to the interests of the US”.

But Sorokin concluded that the fee was not a penalty but a tax that the Republican president lacked any authorisation from Congress to issue and that the US state department and US Citizenship and Immigration Services could not implement.

“Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” wrote Sorokin, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama.

The judge cited the US Supreme Court’s February ruling striking down Trump’s sweeping tariffs he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies. Under the logic of the justices’ decision in that case, Trump similarly had no authority under immigration law to levy a tax, Sorokin said.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers in a statement said the Trump administration is confident Sorokin’s order will be reversed on appeal.

“President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did,” she said.

The H-1B programme offers 65,000 visas annually, with another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years. Technology companies in particular rely heavily on workers who receive H-1B visas.

Employers seeking a visa for a foreign worker before Trump’s proclamation typically paid about $2,000 to $5,000 in fees depending on various factors. The fee will not apply to visas granted to foreign citizens already in the United States on student visas, who generally make up a large share of new H-1B recipients.

The increase in fees has discouraged H-1B visa requests, according to court filings. As of February 15, US Citizenship and Immigration Services had received just 85 payments of the $100,000 fee, the administration said in a March filing.

The Trump administration has also ordered enhanced vetting of H-1B applicants and proposed a new visa selection process that would favour higher-skilled and better-paid workers.

The $100,000 fee prompted at least three different lawsuits challenging its implementation, including a case by the US Chamber of Commerce, which is appealing a December decision by a judge in Washington, DC, who rejected its claims that Trump had no authority to set the fee.

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Fintech group Araxi is focused on ways to improve margins in the group’s software business, which trails behind its payments unit.

The group’s business includes selling payment terminals such as point-of-sale devices, including debit and credit card machines.

The group, previously trading as Capital Appreciation, also provides the back-end systems that enable these devices to accept payments and the technology that banks and other financial services companies use to add features to their digital platforms, including loyalty programmes and prepaid vouchers.

In addition, the group builds technology and software solutions for banks.

“We look at the margins in our two businesses separately because they have different profiles,” Bradley Sacks, CEO of Araxi, told Business Day.

“In our payments business, even though we had a decline in revenue, our margins were up.”

For the 12 months to end-February, Araxi generated R1.167bn in revenue, down 6.8% from the previous year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) fell 16.4% to R279.3m.

Reported ebitda margin came in at 24% overall, down from 26.7% previously, while the payments ebitda margin stood at 44.5%.

“That’s a pretty healthy margin, and it derives from our scale and ability to operate the business efficiently. And also, our maniacal focus on cost management. The team that runs our payments business is very deliberate around that and excels. We’re very pleased with the margins in payments,” said Sacks.

“We can sort of creep up from there a little bit. It will really depend on the mix of revenue. As we move to lower-cost devices, the margin gets squeezed. But we are also simultaneously moving to a much more software-heavy revenue stream, and that’s what is up by 31%.”

On the whole, Araxi — valued at R2.44bn on the JSE — sees room for margin growth in software, but it faces “two countervailing forces” that challenge the ambition, as margin is also a function of revenue mix.

“Software is very human capital intensive,” he said, explaining that the unit had a 77% increase in margin in the second half of the financial year as a result of “improved productivity and revenue”.

“But we are also moving to a more licence fee-heavy revenue stream where we are developing products that we licence.”

In this way, the group can participate more in models such as software-as-a-service, which carry much higher margins.

“The software business will not tend towards the ebitda margins that we’re generating in payments, but we are starting to recover and hope [for] margin in the high teens to low 20s,” Sacks said.

The group reported that overall revenue and profitability were negatively affected by “national and global economic headwinds, including a worldwide shortage of microchips that delayed the timely delivery of terminals”.

Headline earnings per share, which strip out the impact of one-off financial events, came in 18.2% lower in reported terms to 14.37c.

The group declared a final dividend of 7.5c per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 12c per share.

Over the years, the group’s acquisition pipeline has been busy, most recently concluding its R1bn takeover of fintech operator Pay@.

The group has also acquired 100% of African Resonance, Dashpay and Synthesis Software Technologies, as well as a 17.45% interest in Resonance Australia. It has a 35% stake in the government messaging platform GovChat.

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Police crime intelligence operation support boss Maj-Gen Feroz Khan received “kickbacks” in a R280m National Treasury tender, an affidavit released by the Madlanga commission of inquiry reveals.

The affidavit was filed by commission investigator Tshepo Nyatlo before the high court in Joburg.

The commission, established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2025, is investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in the country’s security cluster.

The affidavit opposes Khan’s legal challenge against police minister Firoz Cachalia and the commission. In the application, the police intelligence boss seeks to prevent the commission from accessing information extracted from devices seized without a warrant during his arrest on May 10.

Nyatlo, in the court papers, said chats between Khan and tobacco company executive Mohamed Sayed reveal the duo were involved, through another police senior officer, Lt-Gen Molefe Fani, in a R280m IT contract won from the National Treasury by the company Cyberia.

Fani at the time worked at the National Treasury as a chief director dealing with contracts. Now the divisional commissioner of supply chain in the SA Police Service, he is under suspension due to his role in another SAPS tender, the R360m Medicare 24 contract.

Attempted murder accused and alleged cartel boss Vusi Matlala is a big shareholder in Medicare 24.

Nyatlo says Khan and Sayed used the company Smada “for the Cyberia contract kickback”.

“He [Sayed] then messaged Gen Khan to explain that on the proposed contract of R280m, they would get about R92.4m, or 30%, which would be split equally three ways,” Nyatlo says in the affidavit.

“It is not clear whether the third party who would receive approximately R27.6m from the enterprise was Gen Fani or someone else.”

Sayed sent Khan a copy of a drafted contract between Smada and Cyberia’s Fuad Udemans.

The contract states Cyberia was awarded a contract by the National Treasury and that Smada “forged close business relationships at the highest levels with the government of the Republic of South Africa as well as in the private sector”.

Nyatlo, however, contends the agreement “appears to be a thinly disguised kickback agreement for improper facilitation ‘services’ provided to Cyberia to secure the contract with Treasury”.

Information extracted from Khan’s seized devices reveals chats about other tenders with Sayed.

The information uncovered by the commission remains under investigation, and Khan will be given a chance to respond when he appears at the commission on July 1.

The chats show Khan is a close friend of Sayed, senior executive at the tobacco company Carnilinx, which at some point was accused of evading tax on tobacco.

Nyatlo alleged Khan’s chats in June 2021 showed Khan, EFF leader Julius Malema and Sayed seemingly “orchestrating” the removal of then-inspector general of intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe.

Khan is said to have sent a series of questions to Sayed to be posed to Dintwe in parliament by the EFF.

The questions were about whether Dintwe was linked to alleged drug lord Timmy Marimuthu. Khan said Dintwe would lie when confronted with the questions, which would prompt calls for his removal.

Former EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi posed the questions in parliament.

According to the affidavit, Sayed also forwarded a request to Khan for information about a case opened at the Sandton police station by VBS Bank curator Anoosh Rooplal. The request allegedly came from Malema.

Khan provided a document showing personal details of Rooplal.

Malema and former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu were implicated in the VBS scandal by former VBS chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi in an affidavit before he was sentenced in 2023. Malema described Matodzi’s affidavit as untested evidence.

In the same month, June 2021, Khan sent Sayed a notice for his disciplinary hearing, in which Sayed asked if he could send it to “Juju”, believed to be a reference to Malema.

“On September 22 2021, Mr Sayed sent Gen Khan a message of support from Mr Malema in relation to his disciplinary proceedings: ‘I forgot to tell you that Ju called me and said you will not ever resign, no matter what, this is a fight and we will emerge victorious.’”

The references to Malema were not direct chats between Khan and the EFF leader but were through Sayed.

In the same year, Sayed messaged Khan about a tobacco company in East London, Protobac, giving details of their factory and what cigarette brands they manufactured and saying, “I need to f*** them out of sight.”

Nyatlo said this was Sayed’s strategy of knocking out competitors, by leaking information about “illegal tobacco” trading.

Khan’s legal challenge against the commission, Cachalia, crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and investigating officer Calvin Khorommbi seeking return of the devices was postponed by agreement. Khan will proceed with litigation in a review application.

Commission secretary Nolitha Vukuza described Khan’s litigation as an attempt to stop the commission from doing its work.

“He is not seeking to preserve the status quo; he is seeking to have the commission’s work stopped in its tracks so it can never use his information to further its investigations and make recommendations based on that information in its final report,” Vukuza’s affidavit reads.

Vukuza argues the commission does not have Khan’s devices but rather a hard drive of information downloaded by police from his devices.

She says the chats show Khan knew about Carnilinx, which has faced allegations of evading tobacco tax.

Vukuza contends that information analysed by the commission shows Khan was involved in improper attempts to manipulate procurement in the SAPS for the benefit of Sayed and himself and that Khan regularly shared confidential information from crime intelligence with Sayed.

Business Day

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Though Marizanne Kapp’s annoyance with her own form and more broadly that of the Proteas before the T20 World Cup in England is understandable, she will also be aware that it is better to blow out the cobwebs before the tournament starts.

Kapp took four wickets in a warm-up match against Ireland this week but declared herself unhappy.

“I don’t have rhythm yet; I’m not feeling great,” said South Africa’s star all-rounder. “It’s been a struggle; I’m hoping to get there by the time we start the first game [of the tournament].”

That first match is against Australia on Saturday at Old Trafford and is exactly where Kapp needs to be in rhythm and feeling good about herself.

It is a blockbuster opener for both sides; the Australians are desperate to re-establish themselves as the sport’s top dogs after being knocked out in the semifinals of the past two ICC competitions, while South Africa are still chasing an elusive world title.

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The Proteas have been slow starters in recent World Cups. They suffered a shock loss to Sri Lanka at Newlands in 2023, and in last year’s ODI event they were blown away by England, who dismissed them for 69.

Still, the South Africans did recover to finish as runners-up in both those tournaments. Nevertheless, they will want to avoid any early missteps. They’re in a tricky group, which contains another of the competition’s favourites, India, along with Pakistan and Bangladesh, who on their day can upset the best-laid plans.

Kapp knows the importance of a good start and wants the batters to provide more support for skipper Laura Wolvaardt.

“We know what she can do. Wolvie always performs on the big stage, but the rest of us need to chip in too.”

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Wolvaardt is leading arguably the most experienced squad she’s ever had into the World Cup, which includes Kapp, Shabnim Ismail and Dané van Niekerk.

“They have a lot of knowledge of the conditions over here, and I think someone like Shabs, since she retired, we’ve sort of been lacking that really fast bowler in our line-up and someone who can make a bit of an impact throughout the game,” said the Proteas captain.

“Same with Dané. She still offers so much from a leadership point of view as well and can help me with a lot of captaincy stuff too.”

The Proteas’ preparations were hampered by bad weather this week, though they play one more warm-up match against New Zealand before travelling to Manchester for the clash against Australia.

The tournament starts on Friday with hosts England taking on Sri Lanka.

In a sport where youth is a highly prized commodity, the World Cup starting this week offers evidence you cannot keep a good man down.

A record eight players aged 40 or older have been selected to play at the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the US — one more than at all the past 22 tournaments combined.

The previous entrants in this rarefied category include six goalkeepers and Cameroonian striker Roger Milla, who remains the oldest man to score at the finals after netting at 42 in the 1994 tournament. Milla’s achievement won’t be bettered this time, but the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Edin Dzeko will be looking to join him in the over-40 World Cup goalscorers’ club.

The oldest player of all at the 2026 finals will be 43-year-old Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who, if he plays, will slot into second spot in the all-time list of oldest World Cup competitors behind Egypt’s Essam El-Hadary, who was 45 when he kept goal for Egypt against Saudi Arabia in Volgograd in 2018.

Gordon, however, is expected to back up first-choice Angus Gunn.

Ronaldo is the oldest outfield player at 41 and participating in a record sixth World Cup, a distinction he shares with 40-year-old Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and Lionel Messi, who turns 39 later this month.

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez said he will be relying on Ronaldo’s vast experience above all else.

“None have lived what he has in the number of decisive games he’s played over his career,” Martinez said.

“He also brings experience in decisive moments that nobody else in the squad can match.”

This tournament’s other over-40s players include goalkeepers Vozinha from debutants Cape Verde and 2014 World Cup winner Manuel Neuer, who is hoping to be ready to play for Germany against Curaçao in Houston on Sunday after struggling with a calf injury.

Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera celebrates his 40th birthday next Tuesday, the day after Uruguay take on Saudi Arabia in Miami in their first Group H match.

While Messi and Ronaldo have each had injury issues in recent months, their reputations will be under no threat: Messi led Argentina to glory at the last World Cup, while Ronaldo already has behind him the remarkable record of scoring in all five tournaments he has played at.

Like his Barcelona predecessor Lionel Messi he draws comparisons to, the Spanish prodigy seems set to dominate world football for the coming 15 years. The 2026 World Cup could well be the springboard to that.

At 18, the Barcelona star has just helped the Catalan club lift their third La Liga title in succession, capping their rejuvenation after a rebuilding phase that saw them go dry in the league from their last triumph in 2018-19 to their next in 2022-23.

Fascinatingly, as a baby, long before there was any inkling Yamal might be Messi’s successor as world’s best footballer, the infant was once photographed in the arms of and also being bathed by the Argentinian great. The photo, by an Associated Press freelancer, resurfaced when Yamal’s father reposted it on Instagram in 2024. It had been taken after the family won a Unicef raffle held in their town of Mataró, with the prize “to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player”, photographer Joan Monfort told AP.

Roughly a decade-and-a-half later Messi was asked at a World Cup advertisement launch who he believes the best player of the next generation is. “It would be Lamine. No doubt about it: for me, he is the best,” he answered.

Born to immigrant-origin parents — a Moroccan-origin father and Equatorial Guinean mother — Yamal grew up in Rocafonda, a working class neighbourhood in Mataró. His paternal grandmother famously snuck onto a bus to gain entry from Morocco to Spain. After his parents split when he was three he spent his time between his mother’s home in Granollers and father’s in Mataró, honing his skills in small-sided games on concrete squares.

From being spotted for his extraordinary dribbling and spatial skills from just six, Yamal has shattered age group records progressing at Barça’s famed La Masia academy after joining at seven, then at senior level. He played just seven minutes of one game in their 2022-23 La Liga title campaign, but in doing so became Barcelona’s youngest player (15 years, 9 months, 16 days), then the youngest La Liga scorer (16 years, 2 months, 25 days), youngest to reach 100 appearances and this year the youngest three-time champion.

He is Spain’s youngest player and scorer, debuting at 16 years and 57 days and scoring in a 7-1 Euro 2024 qualifying win against Georgia in September 2023. Helping Spain win their first major title since being world champions in South Africa in 2010, Yamal became youngest European Championship scorer in the semifinal against France, easily taking Euro 2024’s Best Young Player award. At 17 he became the youngest Ballon D’Or nominee in 2024 and youngest runner-up at 18 to France’s Ousmane Dembélé in 2025.

• Age: 18
• Club: Barcelona
• Previous clubs: None
• Previous World Cups: None
• International caps (goals): 25 (6)
• Club honours (wins only): Barcelona: La Liga (3) 2022-23, 2024-25, 2025-26; Copa del Rey (1) 2024-25; Supercopa de España (2) 2025, 2026
• International honours: UEFA European Championship (1) 2024; UEFA Nations League runner-up (1) 2024–25

Colombia have been impressive and are dark horses, while Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are making a historic return to the tournament.

Portugal

Portugal are hugely experienced campaigners at the World Cup. There is also a feeling they have underachieved, especially in the now-ending Cristiano Ronaldo era.

While the rival to Lionel Messi for the last two decades for the title of world’s best player was able to lead “A Seleção” to their first European Championship title in 2016, he been unable to emulate Messi winning a World Cup, let alone reaching the final. Portugal’s best placing in the Ronaldo era was a quarterfinal in Qatar four years ago, while they had last 16 exits in 2010 and 2014 and a group stage exit in 2006 and 2014.

Apart from a third-place finish in the era of the other Portuguese great, Mozambique-born Eusebio, in 1966, the above has been their most successful era — the Iberian nation only had two qualifications until 2002.

One might assume that with an ageing Ronaldo they might not be rated a top contender in North America, but that’s not the case.

Ronaldo, at 41, continues to bang in goals in the Saudi Pro League, with 28 in 30 games steering Al-Nassr to the title in 2025-26, and he captained Portugal to the 2024-25 Nations League title.

The manager who took them there, Roberto Martínez, is hugely experienced and has a best finish of third place at a World Cup, with Belgium in 2018. He has a world-class midfield, led by Bruno Fernandes, the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season breaking the EPL’s assists record and helping Manchester United to third place in 2025-26. Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva and the Paris St Germain pair of former Ballon d’Or finalist Vitinha and the dynamic João Neves complete a quality engine room.

There are strong performers in defence too in City’s Rúben Dias, PSG’s Nuno Mendes and Barcelona’s João Cancelo.

With striker or playmaker Ronaldo hungry to bow out with a bang, fifth-ranked Portugal can be a threat at this World Cup.

• Fifa ranking: 5
• Best World Cup finishes: Third place (1966)
• World Cup appearances: 9

Democratic Republic of Congo

DRC are returning to the World Cup for the first time since making history in becoming the first Sub-Saharan qualifiers as Zaire in 1974, a campaign best remembered for a colourful and controversial moment.

In a 3-0 defeat to Brazil, Mwepu Ilunga bizarrely charged out and kicked the ball before the South Americans could take a free kick. At the time mocked, it later transpired to have been a moment of quiet rebellion after threats over pay disputes from the Mobutu Sese Seko regime. Unsurprisingly it was an awful World Cup all round for Zaire, conceding 14 goals in three defeats, including a 9-0 humbling by Yugoslavia.

The modern DRC are known for some tough defensive and hard-running attacking football and should not be bleeding goals in North America. They trod a hard patch back to this World Cup. After finishing as runners-up to Senegal in their qualifying group, they reached the World Cup by shocking two powerhouses in the playoffs — Cameroon 1-0 in the semifinal and Nigeria 4-3 in the final. They then beat Jamaica 1-0 in the inter-confederation play-off final in Mexico.

French coach Sébastien Desabre won multiple titles at Asec Mimosas in Ivory Coast and steered Uganda to their best Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finish since 1978 with a last 16 placing in 2019. Taking charge of DRC since 2022, he took them to fourth place in the Afcon in 2024, losing on penalties to Bafana Bafana in the third-place playoff, and is now back at the World Cup.

Star players include captain and defensive stalwart Chancel Mbemba (Lille), Newcastle United forward Yoane Wissa, Real Betis striker Cédric Bakambu and West Ham defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

• Fifa ranking: 45
• Best World Cup finishes: Group stage (1974)
• World Cup appearances: 1

Uzbekistan

A 48-team World Cup will throw up some surprising qualifiers. With countries like Curacao, Jordan and Haiti, rookies Uzbekistan, admitted to Fifa in 1992 after the break-up of the Soviet Union, are among those.

Yet Uzbekistan have a decent ranking of 50th and have generally been competitive in the Asian Cup, with quarterfinal appearances in six of the last four tournaments and finishing as fourth-placed semifinalists in 2011.

They have a genuine Italian defensive legend as coach in 52-year-old Fabio Cannavaro, who in his formative career on the bench has won league titles in China, though leading Uzbekistan to the World Cup is his major postplaying achievement.

Manchester City’s 22-year-old centreback Abdukodir Khusanov is the undoubted star player that former central defender Cannavaro will pin his hopes on for his team to mount a major upset and progress past the group stage.

Captain and striker Eldor Shomurodov, 30, who played in Serie A with Genoa and Roma, is the country’s record leading scorer with 43 international goals. He had a strong, 20-goal 2025-26 campaign with Turkish Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir. Club teammate Abbosbek Fayzullaev, 22, was voted Asia’s best young player in 2023.

• Fifa ranking: 50
• Best World Cup finishes: Never qualified
• World Cup appearances: None

Colombia

Experienced campaigners Colombia have one of their strongest combinations going to a World Cup and are being touted as dark horses.

They finished third in South America’s Conmebol single qualifying group behind Argentina and Ecuador and ahead of Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay with seven wins, seven draws and four defeats. Given they were also 2024 Copa America runners-up to world champions Argentina, they are being put forward not just as the second-strongest combination in Group K to Portugal but a side capable of a deep run in North America.

Argentinean coach Néstor Lorenzo, appointed in 2022, among the strong World Cup and Copa campaigns, presided over a record 28-match unbeaten run that included victories over Brazil, Germany, and Spain. The 60-year-old is stepping out of the shadow of being a long-time assistant to acclaimed José Pékerman, including when they steered Argentina to a penalties defeat to hosts Germany in the 2006 World Cup.

Star players include attacking wing talisman James Rodríguez, the 34-year-old former Porto, Monaco, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Everton, and now Minnesota United winger. Left winger or midfielder Luis Díaz was a key player in Bayern Munich’s record-breaking season under Vincent Kompany where they won the Bundesliga with just one defeat and reached the Uefa Champions League semifinals.

Richard Ríos of Benfica and Jhon Arias of Brazil’s Palmeiras provide the work and creativity in central midfield.

• Fifa ranking: 13
• Best World Cup finishes: Quarterfinals (2014)
• World Cup appearances: 6

• TimesLIVE, Sowetan, The Herald, Daily Dispatch and Business Day online are profiling 2026 World Cup groups every Tuesday until the tournament’s June 11 kick-off. Also catch the Star Player profile every Friday.

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By Stephanie van den Berg

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan has been suspended pending a vote by member states on his fate, the court’s governing body said on Monday, after a probe into accusations of sexual harassment made against him.

A diplomatic source briefed on the decision told Reuters the court’s governing body’s executive bureau has ruled Khan had committed serious misconduct after an 18-month-long probe into accusations that the prosecutor had non-consensual sexual interactions with a lawyer in his office.

The source added that the bureau has recommended the prosecutor be removed from office.

The ICC’s governing body will send its conclusion on to all 125 ICC member states which will vote on Khan’s fate in a special session convened at a later date.

In its press release, the bureau said it had made a decision on the disciplinary proceedings against Khan and referred the matter to the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, but did not give details about what it decided.

“The decision of the bureau and the related documentation will remain confidential,” the press release said.

Khan’s lawyers said in a statement that he rejected the decision in the strongest terms, and repeated he denies any wrongdoing. “The decision is unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence,” the statement said.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has been thrust into crisis by the investigations into Khan — its most prominent official — as well as by US sanctions over the court’s actions, including arrest warrants for Israeli officials for alleged war crimes.

Khan has not been at the helm of the ICC office of the prosecutor since last May when he took a voluntary leave of absence pending the outcome of the inquiry. He is the first ICC prosecutor to be formally suspended from his role by the court’s oversight body.

Sources told Reuters earlier that a report by UN investigators found a “factual basis” for the allegations of sexual misconduct made by a female aide and that witness accounts “lend support to her claims”.

However, a second report by three judges that analysed the UN report found the evidence insufficient to establish the truth of the allegations “beyond a reasonable doubt”, they added.

Lawyers for Khan had told Reuters that the judges unanimously concluded that the “factual findings do not establish misconduct or breach of duty”.

Reuters

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Minister of agriculture John Steenhuisen has condemned an email sent by his chief of staff after a screenshot circulated on social media appeared to show a farmer’s correspondence being shared among senior departmental officials “for some amusement”.

The controversy centres on an email allegedly forwarded by Steenhuisen’s chief of staff Jana Le Roux to the department’s head of department, director-general and deputy director-general.

According to screenshots shared online, Le Roux attached a response from Andrew Morphew, a dairy farmer from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, and remarked that she was sharing it “for some amusement”.

The email exchange reportedly followed an appeal by Steenhuisen for members of the public and stakeholders in the agricultural sector to share their concerns with him and his office.

Responding to the backlash on X (formerly Twitter), Steenhuisen condemned the email and said he had instructed the staff member involved to apologise.

“I note an email originating from a ministry staff member. The email was in bad taste and I have requested the person concerned to apologise to the respective parties,” said Steenhuisen.

The minister called for mutual respect.

“We must continue to show mutual respect and always act in good faith because it is only through collaboration that we can overcome major obstacles in the sector,” he said.

The incident has sparked criticism on social media, with former DA MP Renaldo Gouws accusing the ministry of failing to take concerns from farmers seriously at a time when the country is grappling with a severe outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

“This is shameless behaviour from a chief of staff, but what makes this so much worse is that the agriculture department need as much support as they can get with the worst FMD outbreak in recorded history in South Africa, and not only do they mock these roleplayers behind their backs, but they refuse to listen to experts in the field,” Gouws wrote on X.

He further claimed that the document attached to the email was not critical of the department but was intended to assist government efforts to contain the outbreak.

“The worst part is the document he attached was to thank the minister for securing vaccines and to ask how they could assist in the rollout of these vaccines, and how the farmers could get some of these vaccines to start private vaccinations,” said Gouws.

TimesLIVE

The decision is being taken in silence, often without minutes, increasingly under the cover of generic AI policies downloaded from other jurisdictions. The cost of that silence will accrue to the country for a generation.

Two years of field research across three secondary institutions in São Paulo, with longitudinal measurement at eight months and about 50 teachers tracked from training onwards, surfaced a result that runs against the dominant intuition. The variable that best predicted adoption, downstream pupil skills and integrity of assessment was not the platform chosen.

It was not the training budget allocated, not the demographic of the student body, not even the technical proficiency of the teachers at the outset. The variable was institutional posture. Institutional posture is the prior decision school leadership communicates about what AI is.

There are two coherent postures and a great deal of incoherent improvisation in between. The first treats AI as a competence to develop in pupils and teachers, with explicit standards, transparent norms and assessment redesign. The second treats AI as a transgression to police, with detection software, punitive frameworks and informal pressure to pretend the tools do not exist. Same platform, same budget, same student demographic, opposite results.

Schools resolving the posture towards competence development produced pupils who could critique, correct and extend AI output in the subjects we tracked. Their teachers, after eight months, reported sustained use of generative tools in lesson planning, formative feedback and differentiation. Their assessment integrity improved, not despite the change, but because of it, as redesigned assessments rewarded reasoning that could not be reproduced by any current model.

Schools defaulting to the policing posture produced what we have come to call compliance theatre. Detection software triggered weekly, learners learned to obscure rather than to think, teachers reported exhaustion, and senior leadership reported policy success measured by the volume of incidents detected, not by pupil outcomes. The capital spent on the same platform produced no return on either side of the ledger.

South Africa is, in this debate, structurally luckier than most jurisdictions. Section 29 of the constitution does not merely guarantee a right to basic education. It guarantees a right that the state must take reasonable measures to make progressively available and accessible in a constitutional framework that has been read by the Constitutional Court as requiring substantive, not merely formal, equality.

Few education systems anywhere in the world have such an explicit constitutional basis for arguing that the school’s obligation runs forward in time towards the competencies a pupil will need to function as an adult in the world that actually arrives.

Section 29 of the constitution does not merely guarantee a right to basic education. It guarantees a right that the state must take reasonable measures to make progressively available and accessible in a constitutional framework that has been read by the Constitutional Court as requiring substantive, not merely formal, equality.

That argument cuts cleanly through the current paralysis. If AI will materially shape adult labour markets, civic participation, scientific literacy and economic agency for the cohort now in grade 8, a posture that treats AI primarily as a transgression to be policed is not just pedagogically weak.

It is, on a defensible reading of section 29, a failure of the state’s positive obligation to take reasonable measures. The Constitutional Court has never accepted lack of knowledge as a justification when the evidence was available. The evidence is, by now, available.

The quintile structure complicates this only superficially. Quintile 1 and 5 schools face the same posture decision, with different capacities to execute on it. The posture question itself does not require capital. It requires governance. A school governing body in a quintile 2 township school can resolve the posture as cleanly as a quintile 5 independent school in the northern suburbs, and the resolution produces an immediate compass for every subsequent decision about platforms, training and assessment. The capital then follows the posture, not the other way around.

What this asks of school governing bodies, of provincial education departments and of the department of basic education is straightforward to state and uncomfortable to do. The posture must be decided explicitly, written down, communicated to pupils and parents, and tested against the constitutional standard before any platform is procured, any detection software licensed or any training delivered. The platform question is downstream. The posture question is upstream and, in South Africa, is also constitutional.

The cost of getting this wrong is not symmetrical. Schools defaulting to policing now will have to undo that posture under conditions of public scrutiny and pupil complaint within three to five years, when the cohort that lost those years reaches matric and the labour market. Schools deciding the posture deliberately now, towards competence development, will have those same three to five years to refine practice while their peer institutions are still litigating their initial silence.

South African education does not need to invent the framework for this decision. The framework is already in the constitution. What it needs is for the institutions tasked with implementing section 29 to recognise that the AI literacy decision is not a procurement decision. It is a constitutional one. The schools that recognise that first will be the ones their pupils thank in 2035.

• Do Nascimento, a PhD candidate in pure mathematics at the University of São Paulo, is an AI solutions developer and consultant. He is a confirmed keynote speaker at the second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Generative AI in Cape Town this September.

South Africa plans to add to its automotive incentive programme minerals used in the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries to boost local electric vehicle (EV) production and support related supply chains.

The government is reviewing its automotive policy to address the global shift towards electric and hybrid vehicles, tightening emissions rules and rising competition from low-cost imports, particularly from China and India.

The current list of “standard materials” covered by the incentives includes inputs such as aluminium, steel and platinum group metals but not minerals critical in EV battery production.

The International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) said in a government notice released late on Monday it planned to expand the list by adding materials such as rare earths, iron, lithium, graphite, copper and cobalt.

To be included in the programme, the materials will need to be sourced from the Southern African Customs Union and countries of the Southern African Development Community.

Half of their value would be counted as locally value added, allowing producers to qualify for production incentives on that basis.

The revisions are intended to align the programme with the South African Automotive Master Plan 2035, which aims to raise output to about 1.4-million vehicles a year, deepen localisation and support the transition to electric mobility.

SA’s automotive programme supports the industry through customs duty rebates and refunds, production-linked incentives, investment support, and a volume-based allowance that rewards carmakers for producing vehicles at scale in SA.

The public has four weeks to comment on the proposed amendments.

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Companies in South Africa’s global business services (GBS) sector are enhancing their offerings to global clients so that their call centres and recruits will have an edge against the onslaught of AI.

Kyle Goeté, director of Human Xperience, told Business Times that the clients’ needs being channelled towards South Africa’s professionals were complex.

“They [clients overseas] desire something more than transactional calls, and I think that’s driving our cost up because they want something better, and they’re here in South Africa to get something better. We’re moving out of the basic easy calls into work not only because of natural progression in IT but also because of AI,” he said.

“All of the mundane, monotonous, repetitive tasks are going to be taken by the AI tools that are there, not to take jobs but to make things more efficient so they can deal with more calls and be more complex in their work environment.”

According to the UiPath 2026 AI and Agentic Automation Trends Report, practitioners are successfully applying multi-agent systems to their complex, hard-to-automate processes, including inquiry triage, resolution drafting, compliance, and tone review.

Key drivers of the adoption of AI in these sectors at a global level include:

• the high cost of human labour;
• demand for faster response times; and
• the need to scale up capacity without raising headcount.

Human Xperience is a global GBS assisting international companies with their business process outsourcing (BPO) needs. One of its partners, Everlight Radiology, specialises in connecting radiologists based in South Africa and finding radiologists for the world’s needs at flexible hours.

We’d rather work with AI to strengthen the value proposition, but you still need a warm body to take that call or make that call that shows compassion and care to solve people’s problems right here from the southern tip of this continent

James Vos, Cape Town economic growth MMC

This presents opportunities to utilise South Africa-based radiology expertise for an incident in Australia outside of Australia’s working hours.

Cape Town economic growth MMC James Vos said the city regards the BPO sector as a high-growth sector that created skills pipelines in the order of sectors like clothing, financial services, pharmaceuticals and ICT.

“This is a sector very close to our hearts. The BPO sector now nearly employs 100,000 people in Cape Town, both domestic and international, and it’s a sector that contributes about R24bn every year to the Western Cape economy.”

Vos gave his support to the BPO sector to ensure it is responsive to the challenges and opportunities that AI presents to their businesses and their recruits.

“AI is going to take over these calls, right? And that’s what we don’t want. We’d rather work with AI to strengthen the value proposition, but you still need a warm body to take that call or make that call that shows compassion and care to solve people’s problems right here from the southern tip of this continent.”

Elvira Riccardi, Afrizan founder and CEO, said the business recently launched its Cape Town BPO call centre to enhance its customer-care offering domestically before branching off to prospective clients in the UK.

“We don’t intend to be a 10,000-seater. We are looking to build bespoke niche products that will partner with AI. AI is a fundamental part of everyone’s journey. We would be silly to exclude that. We’ve developed a programme or philosophy,” she said.

According to the Business Process Enabling SA (BPESA) GBS Sector Report for the third quarter of 2025, frontline, voice-based contact centre agents employed in the sector during October to December 2025 accounted for 84% of new hires or 5,579 jobs.

“These voice jobs were reported as falling within inbound customer services [at] 72.65% or 4,053 new jobs, inbound sales [at] 15.79% or 881, outbound customer services [at] 10.24% or 571, and outbound sales [at] 1.32% or 74 new jobs,” it said.

Back office and non-voice services accounted for about 16% of recruits, or 1,064 jobs, between October and December 2025, with back office processing at 55.47% or 590 jobs, finance and accounting at 33% or 351 jobs, and human resource management at 4.51% or 48 jobs.

“There was also further growth in online tutoring [at] 3.57% or 38 new jobs, digital and information technology outsourcing [at] 3.35% or 36 new jobs, and procurement services [at] 0.10% or 1 new job.”

In an announcement on Tuesday, Pepkor said Luhabe had advised that she would resign with effect from June 30 2026 as she is “scaling down her board commitments”.

Luhabe joined the Pepkor board in January 2019 and was appointed chair in December 2020. She also serves as chair of the nominations committee and will step down from that role when she leaves the board.

“The board thanks Wendy for her service and leadership during her tenure as chair of the board,” Pepkor said.

The retailer said a process is under way to appoint a new chairperson.

Until a permanent appointment is made, lead independent director Ian Kirk will serve as acting chair of the board and acting chair of the nominations committee, it said. Kirk joined the Pepkor board as an independent non-executive director in June 2021.

Luhabe is one of South Africa’s most prominent business leaders and corporate governance figures, with more than three decades of boardroom experience across listed companies, development finance institutions and multinational corporations.

She is the founder of Women Investment Portfolio Holdings, established in 1993 to expand investment participation among South African women.

Over her career, she has served as a non-executive director or chair at several major companies and organisations, including Vodacom, the Industrial Development Corporation, Tiger Brands, Telkom and Libstar. She also serves on the board of Richemont, as a representative of the company’s A shareholders.

Beyond the corporate sector, she has also been chancellor of the University of Johannesburg.

Geneva — Efforts to trace contacts in the Democratic Republic of Congo to try to contain the country’s Ebola outbreak have improved but are below target, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

There have been 550 confirmed cases of Ebola, including 101 deaths, according to the WHO’s latest figures, as well as 94 suspected cases.

The outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus was announced on May 15, though officials have since said it went undetected for weeks, complicating efforts to bring it under control.

“We have reached 62% of contacts, but our target is 90%-95%,” Dr Abdi Mahamud from the WHO said via video link from Bunia in the DRC.

“It is slow, steady progress, but we have not reached where we want to be,” he said, adding that it was important for healthcare workers to build building trust with communities to identify and refer cases and help with contact tracing.

Mistrust and resistance ‌

“With the ramp up of contact tracing and community workers, we hope to achieve that target in the coming weeks,” he added. Mistrust and resistance ‌have ⁠hampered the response, with attacks on burial teams and treatment centres reported.

The latest attack occurred on Sunday when two people were seriously injured and two vehicles damaged when a burial team was targeted at the Nyamurongo cemetery in Bunia, a source familiar with the government response said.

Separately, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on Tuesday that contact tracing was uneven — with 78% reached in Bunia but 0% in some health zones.

Bafana will ‘fight like lions’ against ‘complete team’ Mexico, says Broos

Bafana World Cup opening match

June 9 2026, 14:03

MAHLATSE’S DAILY WORLD CUP TALKING POINT | Modiba in race to be fit for Bafana-Mexico

WATCH | MAHLATSE'S DAILY WORLD CUP TALKING POINT | Will key Bafana defender Aubrey Modiba be fit for the clash against Mexico? pic.twitter.com/f6Pxxg9wcK

— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) June 9, 2026

June 9 2026 13:37

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos on the pressure of playing against the co-host in opening match of the World Cup.

June 9 2026 12:56

Sports minister Gayton Mckenzie says he has high hopes for Bafana Bafana at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

June 9 2026, 6am

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is confronted with a selection headache ahead of the anticipated Fifa World Cup opener against co-hosts Mexico at the imposing Azteca Stadium on Thursday.

Broos faces selection headache for Bafana v Mexico

June 8 2026, 16:59

Former Bafana Bafana and Everton star midfielder Steven “Schillo” Pienaar has entered the Relebohile Mofokeng discussion.

Pienaar implores Broos to unleash Relebohile Mofokeng at World Cup

June 8 2026, 16:58

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says he is not bothered by people who filmed their practice match against Jamaica at the weekend.

Broos not bothered by people who filmed Bafana’s Jamaica game ahead of Mexico clash

June 8 2026, 10:35am

Mahlatse’s daily World Cup talking point: Broos wants his players to fight for each other against Mexico. pic.twitter.com/nkfk87geOv

— Sowetan (@Sowetan1981) June 8, 2026

June 8 2026, 7am

WATCH | Bafana Bafana and AmaZulu supporter Ndumiso 'Dlamini' Zondi on his way to the 2026 Fifa World Cup in Mexico. pic.twitter.com/YI0LhNG4ym

— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) June 6, 2026

June 8 2026, 6.50am

After two days of travel, sports reporter Mahlatse Mphahlele has arrived in Mexico for the 2026 Fifa World Cup. Stay tuned as he brings you all the latest news and updates from Bafana Bafana’s base in Pachuca

After two days of travel, sports reporter Mahlatse Mphahlele has arrived in Mexico for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Stay tuned as he brings you all the latest news and updates from Bafana Bafana’s base in Pachuca. pic.twitter.com/uAKYOmTxqD

— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) June 7, 2026

June 8 2026, 6.45am

Mexico City resident Manuel Gutierrez on what visitors must expect in the country during the World Cup

Mexico City resident Manuel Gutierrez on what visitors must expect in the country during the World Cup. pic.twitter.com/Gh0PnEnACx

— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) June 7, 2026

June 8 2026, 6.30am

Bafana Bafana supporters brought Mexico City International Airport to a standstill with songs after arrival in the country

Bafana Bafana supporters brought Mexico City International Airport to a standstill with songs after arrival in the country. pic.twitter.com/r6vz1rBCxn

— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) June 7, 2026

June 8 2026, 6am

Bafana meet Mexico in the World Cup opener at the Azteca: here’s what to expect

Just like 16 years ago on that bitterly cold evening at FNB Stadium in Joburg, Bafana Bafana are in the opening match of the Fifa World Cup against Mexico, this time at the Azteca Stadium.

South Africa are making their fourth World Cup appearance and the first since they hosted the tournament in 2010.

Coach Hugo Broos and his men have a monkey on their backs, as they never made it out of the group stages, and their main priority is to get rid of this unwanted record.

TimesLIVE

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The ANC chief whip in the national assembly, Mdumiseni Ntuli, has confirmed political party study groups will continue operating, dismissing a Public Service Commission’s (PSC) advisory note as insufficient grounds to alter a practice the party considers a legitimate and long-standing parliamentary co-ordination mechanism.

The PSC issued its guidance on June 5 after receiving complaints that public servants were being drawn into informal party caucus structures where departmental information risks being discussed outside formal parliamentary processes.

The commission warned such participation compromises the constitutional principles of impartiality and transparency that govern public administration.

The advisory note placed responsibility squarely on directors-general and heads of department to prevent informal political influence over their administrations. But without a binding legislative framework, and with the governing party signalling that business continues as usual, those officials now sit in the uncomfortable space between constitutional obligation and political expectation.

“The PSC notes that political parties are constitutionally entitled to establish internal caucus and study group mechanisms for political co-ordination and legislative preparation, concerns arise where public servants participate in such fora outside formal, transparent and accountable institutional processes. Accordingly, the view of the PSC is that such participation may create governance and ethical risks that undermine the constitutional values and principles governing public administration, including impartiality, accountability, transparency, fairness and professional independence,” the PSC said in a statement.

The PSC has indicated it will monitor the political-administrative interface through targeted assessments, oversight inspections and integrity monitoring. Whether that oversight produces consequences remains to be seen.

The PSC, drawing on sections 195, 196, and 197 of the constitution, argues that even the appearance of political alignment in the public service is damaging enough to warrant formal guidance. It does not require actual wrongdoing to have occurred.

“We are currently looking at it and its implications. However, I am of the view that the premise was, in the first place, wrong because it was based on allegations or deviation as opposed to reality,” Ntuli said.

Public works & infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson after receiving tip-offs about the practice, issued a directive in 2024 prohibiting officials from attending study groups and reissued that directive in May 2026. That a directive needed to be reissued suggests the first one was not enough.

“Publicly available information, including official ministerial diaries, parliamentary schedules and departmental records, demonstrates that these study groups not only exist but have become a regular feature of the interface between the executive and the ANC’s parliamentary caucus,” UDM leader and deputy minister of defence Bantu Holomisa said.

“Senior members of the ANC and several cabinet ministers sought to dismiss these concerns, insisting that such study groups either did not exist or that they were benign administrative engagements.”

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Three-time Comrades Marathon champion Tete Dijana will be looking to win his first up-run on Sunday when he lines up for what is billed as “the ultimate human race”.

Dijana, who claimed victories in the 2022, 2023 and 2025 down-runs, has never won an up-run. Victory on Sunday would see him complete the collection of both up and down races and also move level with four-time champion Alan Robb.

As he prepares for his third up-run on Sunday, Dijana insists he is not under pressure to win the race and admits that running from Durban to Pietermaritzburg is not his favourite.

“My pressure is to defend the down-run,” Dijana told his Hollywood AC club’s media department. “I’m not an up-run specialist, and everyone is right [about it].”

I trust my training ... I will just flow with the race.

Tete Dijana

While many also see the race as a rivalry between Dijana and Piet Wiersma, the Dutchman who won the 2024 up-run, Dijana said he doesn’t see it that way.

“I trust my training. All international and national athletes [are rivals for the title], I will just flow with the race,” he said.

“There is no pressure. [Hollywood] trusts that I can do it. They supported us as a happy bunch through tough times, and they made sure we didn’t stress about something beyond our control.”

Dijana will also come up against his friend and former up-run champion Edward Mothibi, while he will also face Russians Nikolai Volkov and Vasilii Lorytkin, Britain’s Alex Milne, Joseph Manyedi, Gordon Lesetedi and world 100km champion Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania, who will make his debut.

Meanwhile, the Comrades Marathon Association confirmed a combined prize purse of more than R8.2m and incentive bonuses with a total purse of about R5.8m up for grabs across the top-10 positions.

This includes a staggering R925,000 prize each for the first man and woman over the line, while runners-up will receive R464,000 and third-place finishers will get R334,000.

Capitec’s latest annual report shows a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) training, as it put 568 employees through cloud-focused learning last year with staff clocking nearly 43,000 hours on Udemy Business and Pluralsight. The bank is running its own masterclasses in SQL, Java and JavaScript, and has built internal “centres of mastery” across engineering, data and payments.

This is more than a skills investment story. While continuous upskilling remains a vital corporate responsibility, it signals how rapidly the capabilities required by industry are evolving, making it vital for higher education and industry to work together more closely. That is a gap that institutions of higher learning, private and public, increasingly need to address.

Nowhere is this more visible than in technology, where AI, cybersecurity, automation and data-led decision-making are reshaping industries. PNET’s latest Job Market Trends Report confirms that AI is no longer a future concept but is actively reshaping how South Africans work, hire and build careers and is no longer limited to technical roles. Professionals across industries are integrating it into everyday workflows.

The AI economy does not reward the deep specialist working in a single lane. It rewards the person who can navigate across several. Technical competence alone will increasingly not be enough as employers now seek graduates who can combine computational thinking with ethical judgment, systems thinking, communication skills and the ability to work across disciplines.

Closing the gap

Some privately funded higher education institutions have a clear advantage in being able to pivot to industry’s evolving requirements relatively quickly, particularly as AI technologies continue to develop at pace.

They can update curricula in line with technological change and offer more personalised learning environments. This differs from many traditional higher education environments where large-scale curriculum review and approval processes can naturally take longer due to institutional and regulatory complexity.

That agility shows up in the classroom too. Modern, technology-rich campuses and smaller class sizes support hands-on learning and individualised attention. Focused programmes in software development, cybersecurity, cloud computing, AI and data science attract students seeking career-relevant education. Employers increasingly look for graduates who can contribute from day one, not after 18 months of internal retraining.

At Belgium Campus iTversity disciplines such as AI, intelligent systems, data science, cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity are approached as interconnected ecosystems rather than isolated technical streams, with emphasis on applied problem-solving, interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding how digital systems interact within real organisational environments.

While platform-based learning solutions like Udemy play an important complementary role in continuous upskilling, higher education institutions can integrate technical capability, contextual understanding and applied problem-solving within a more holistic learning environment — producing graduates who enter the workplace with stronger foundations and require less catch-up training once employed.

The private sector’s demand for AI skills, from banking to manufacturing, is also changing job design in ways that go beyond technical abilities. New demand is emerging for professionals who can manage AI systems, interpret outputs, govern data, ensure ethical use and combine technical tools with business understanding.

Delivering on the promise

As the country accelerates its digital transformation, private institutions are playing an increasingly important role in developing that talent — and smaller, specialised, industry-connected institutions are often structurally better positioned to respond quickly to emerging skills demands.

When a major bank builds its own internal training capability to compensate for what the education system did not deliver, that is a signal worth taking seriously. Private institutions have the tools, the agility and the industry alignment to close that gap upstream.

The credibility of that proposition depends on actually living it: building programmes that reflect where technology is heading, not where it has been.

South Africa’s corporates will keep investing in internal training. The goal should be a market where that investment deepens expertise rather than remedies its absence. We know what the market needs.

We have the tools to deliver it, and we must help enable greater digital transformation and economic growth.

• Klopper is academic head at Belgium Campus iTversity.

Dambile, whose 19.77 sec from Nairobi in April ranks him third on the 200m top list, is one of only two South Africans in action on the night.

Middle-distance star Tshepo Tshite, the South African 1,500m record-holder who used to compete regularly at 800m, is stepping up to the 5,000m where he faces world championship silver medallist Isaac Kimeli of Belgium and 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Grant Fisher of the US.

Dambile, 24, finished strongly in his most recent outing in Stockholm on Sunday, ending second behind American star Kenny Bednarek, who is second on the world list with his 19.69 from Rabat on May 31.

But the pace-setter for 2026 so far is 18-year-old Australian prospect Gout, who is being touted as a future track-and-field star.

The 18-year-old is running his first 200m since he went 19.67 at the Australian championships in Sydney in April.

The favourite in the line-up is probably Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, who was second behind Bednarek in Morocco. Dambile ended third in that race.

Bednarek is not competing in Norway.

Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago, who has a 20.13 200m season’s best, is also in the mix, having finished third in the 400m behind Zakithi Nene in Sweden on Sunday.

Defending champion Reynier Mena of Cuba, with a 19.63 personal best, also won the 200m at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting last year.

But all eyes will be on Gout, who finished second behind Dambile’s training partner, Bayanda Walaza, in the 200m at the under-20 world championships in Peru in 2024.

Dambile and Gout have not raced before, but the South African advanced further at the world championships in Tokyo last year.

Both progressed beyond the heats where Dambile was third in 20.27 and Gout was also third in 20.23. But Dambile advanced to the final when he went 19.97 to cross the line third in a stacked semifinal won by Noah Lyles. Zharnel Hughes of Britain was second.

Gout, the child of South Sudan refugees, ended fourth in his semifinal in 20.36.

So far, Gout is 1-0 up against Mena and 0-1 down to Tebogo.

Nanyuki, Kenya — Kenyan police fired tear gas on Tuesday and detained protesters demonstrating against a quarantine centre for Americans exposed to Ebola that the US has raced to build despite Kenyan court orders barring further work.

The proposed 50-bed unit on an air force base has angered many Kenyans, who accuse the US of offloading the risk of caring for those exposed to the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

Two people were killed in protests last week in the central town of Nanyuki, where frustration has grown as Kenyan and US authorities publicly reaffirm their commitment to the plan.

Police fired tear gas to disperse small groups of protesters who had gathered again in the town, which is next to the air force base, early on Tuesday. One protester carried a white cross emblazoned with the phrase “Respect Ebola” in red. A Reuters witness also saw officers round up six demonstrators and load them into police vehicles.

“We are not happy with the idea of establishing this Ebola facility here,” protester Bethwel Onyango, 24, told Reuters.

“Why would a government set up a facility to control a disease we don’t have when they can’t deal with the ones ailing us?” US President Donald Trump’s administration has ⁠said it “cannot and will not allow” any cases to enter the US, unlike during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa when several infected US nationals were treated on US soil.

Several US citizens have been exposed to Ebola in eastern Congo and Uganda, where there have been more than 500 confirmed cases and 100 confirmed deaths from the outbreak declared last month.

Six, including one who tested positive for the disease, were moved to a medical facility in Germany last month, while another was taken to the Czech Republic. The Nanyuki facility is designated for Americans who ​have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic. Patients with symptoms would be sent to other countries, US officials have said.

Deadline expired

A high court judge has twice issued orders barring Kenya’s government from taking steps to build or begin operations ⁠at the site. Her latest order gave the government one week to disclose all agreements and operational protocols related to the facility.

Joshua Malidzo, a lawyer challenging the quarantine plan on behalf of the Katiba Institute legal advocacy group, said the court’s deadline expired on Monday without the government complying.

The Kenyan government has not commented on the court’s order, and a government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. President William Ruto said last week that his administration was doing “the right thing” by establishing the facility.

US military planes have continued to ferry in staff and equipment even after court orders blocking the plan, according to US and diplomatic sources and flight tracking data, with several aircraft expected to land this week.

Satellite imagery seen by Reuters shows an increasing build-up of white tents in the middle of a plot of land totalling around 0.046km² cleared within the Laikipia Air Base since May 27.

The US has said it is aware of the court challenge and was “working with the Kenyan government to resolve any objections”. Shortly after the Kenyan government agreed to the quarantine plan, the US said it would provide $13.5m for Kenya’s Ebola preparedness effort.

Kenyan officials have said the facility would also serve Kenyans and foreign nationals, but US officials have not confirmed this.

Reuters

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The economy expanded by 0.5% in the first quarter of the year — above expectations — with growth in finance, real estate and business as well as agriculture, forestry and fishing offsetting a contraction in the manufacturing sector, Stats SA said on Tuesday.

Economists had predicted growth of about 0.2% in the first three months of the year from 0.4% in the final quarter of 2025, anticipating that rising input costs linked to the Middle East conflict, which has sent fuel prices soaring, would be a drag on GDP.

But the economy held up relatively well at the start of 2026, propped up by the finance, real estate and business services industry, which increased by 0.9%, contributing 0.2 percentage points to the overall number.

The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry rose 3.9% — accounting for 0.1 percentage points — primarily due to increased activity for field crops and horticulture products.

The catering and accommodation industry also ticked higher, as did transport, storage and communication.

Manufacturing, however, declined by 0.8%, subtracting 0.1 percentage points from first-quarter GDP growth.

Five of the 10 manufacturing divisions reported negative growth rates, with the largest negative contributions being petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic; basic iron and steel; non-ferrous metals, metal products and machinery; wood and wood products; and paper as well as publishing and printing.

Tuesday’s GDP data comes after the government published its revised industrial development strategy, acknowledging South Africa must urgently secure an affordable and reliable energy supply, particularly electricity, and address bottlenecks in its ports, rail and telecommunications networks to get economic growth to 3%.

This is the level the economy needs to grow at annually to make a significant dent in unemployment, which edged up to 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026 from 31.4% in the final quarter of 2025.

The document notes that the gradual deindustrialisation of the economy since the advent of democracy in 1994 has whittled the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP to about 13% from about 23%.

The economy expanded by a tepid 1.1% in 2025, again weighed down by manufacturing and missing the National Treasury’s estimate of 1.4%.

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana forecast a 1.6% increase for 2026 in his February budget but is likely to cut this down in his medium-term budget policy statement in October as higher input costs hinder production.

Consumer demand, a key driver of economic growth, is also likely to be muted this year as the South African Reserve Bank keeps interest rates relatively high to try to control inflation pressure stemming from fuel prices.

Business Day

This is one of the many allegations contained in an affidavit commissioned by Madlanga commission secretary Dr Nolitha Vukuza in response to an application by Khan, who is seeking an interdict for the commission not to download any information from his devices that were seized during his arrest in May.

Vukuza further attached an affidavit commissioned by the inquiry’s investigator, Tshepo Nyatlo.

According to Nyatlo, in July 2021 Khan leaked his disciplinary hearing notice to businessperson Mohamed Sayed, who is known to Malema.

On September 5 2021, Sayed sent Khan a voice note informing him that “Juju” (a reference to Malema) informed him that things are moving smoothly and that Khan should give him time.

Seventeen days later, Sayed sent Khan a message that read, “I [forgot] to tell you that Ju [reference to Malema] said that you will not ever resign, no matter what; this is a fight [from which] you will emerge victorious.”

The affidavit further alleges that at the request of Sayed, Khan provided Malema with confidential information.

WhatsApp chats show that on June 15 2021, Sayed forwarded Khan a text that is believed to be from Malema wherein he is demanding to know a complainant in a case opened at Sandton Police Station.

“Khan obliged by providing an extract from the South African Police Service’s (SAPS’) computerised case filing system with details of the name of the complainant in the case,” the affidavit read.

“A copy of the extract from the SAPS case filing system is attached as annexure ‘TN21′. Gen Khan then also separately messaged Mr Sayed with not only the complainant’s name but also his address.”

The complainant in that case is VBS Mutual Bank curator Anoosh Rooplal.

The investigator further highlights that Malema and former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu were implicated in the VBS looting scandal.

The Madlanga commission is investigating allegations of criminal and political interference in the criminal justice system.

The commission has issued a notice for Khan to appear before it on July 1. Among the topics that the commission intends to probe him on is the nature of his relationship with Malema and whether Malema politically protected him from disciplinary hearings.

Malema and Khan have not commented on the allegations as the application was made public only on Monday night.

Sowetan

Business Day

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South Africa is one of the countries that could benefit from a new initiative intended to help combat the shortage of Eligible Emissions Units (EEUs) within the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia) programme aimed at neutralising international flight emissions.

Corsia EEUs are carbon credits approved by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). It allows airlines to purchase credits to offset CO₂ emissions from international flights that exceed established baselines.

Airlines are expected to purchase around 200-million Corsia EEUs by January 2028, at an estimated value of $4–5bn. That figure could increase to nearly 2-billion EEUs through 2035. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) estimates that Africa has the potential to supply up to 57.6-million EEUs.

During its recent AGM in Rio de Janeiro, Iata launched the Supporting Alliance for Corsia EEU Supply. It aims to boost the availability of 225-250-million Corsia EEUs in 2027 by pooling the participating organisations’ resources and targeting bottlenecks.

Classified as a developing nation, South Africa is exempt from Corsia offsetting until 2027, when it becomes mandatory worldwide. South Africa has already been required to comply with Corsia’s monitoring, reporting and verification obligations, but the country has not yet set up the mechanism to make EEUs available for carbon credit trading.

In the view of Kamil Al-Awadhi, Iata’s regional vice-president, Africa and Middle East, the global energy disruptions caused by the outbreak of the war in the Middle East has once again reinforced the link between energy security and sustainability

This puts local airlines at risk of not being able to trade carbon emissions credits in South Africa.

At the end of October 2025, the National Treasury published a consultation paper entitled “Developing the South African Carbon Credit Market”. The paper proposes reforms to:

• modernise carbon credit infrastructure;
• clarify legal and financial regulations; and
• stimulate investment in South Africa’s low-carbon economy.

It aims to introduce appropriate standards and local capacity, develop local certification adapted to South African conditions, promote participation from both local and global stakeholders, and support South Africa’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. Stakeholders were requested to submit feedback by December 1 2025.

In the view of Kamil Al-Awadhi, Iata’s regional vice-president, Africa and Middle East, the global energy disruptions caused by the outbreak of the war in the Middle East has once again reinforced the link between energy security and sustainability.

Africa could unlock significant climate finance in this way. So far Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Madagascar have made EEUs available.

Marie Owens Thomsen, Iata’s senior vice-president sustainability and chief economist, says all carbon market stakeholders and related organisations are invited to join forces in the Supporting Alliance to help Corsia realise its potential social, economic and climate benefits.

Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said on Tuesday Mkhize had been suspended after years of concerns that Outa raised about governance, procurement practices, transparency and accountability in the organisation.

He said Mkhize’s suspension should mark the beginning of efforts to uncover the full extent of any maladministration or wrongdoing at Inseta, which manages billions of rand in skills development levy funds for the insurance sector.

Duvenage said five consecutive qualified audit outcomes raised serious questions about governance and financial management at Inseta and stressed it needed to manage funds with integrity, transparency and accountability.

“For years, serious questions have been raised about governance, procurement and transparency at Inseta. A suspension is not accountability. It is the start of a process. South Africans now need assurance that these concerns will be investigated thoroughly, independently and without fear or favour,” Duvenage said.

Outa recently instituted legal proceedings against higher education and training minister Buti Manamela to review and set aside his decision to reappoint Mkhize to the Inseta board for a further five-year term, from 2025 to 2030.

South Africans deserve confidence that public institutions are governed in the public interest and not for the benefit of a few

Wayne Duvenage, Outa CEO

“Outa contends that the appointment process was procedurally flawed and failed to adequately consider concerns relating to governance and accountability. The organisation has also raised concerns about Inseta’s audit outcomes,” Duvenhage said.

“During Mkhize’s tenure as the accounting authority, Inseta received qualified audit outcomes for five consecutive years, raising serious concerns about governance, financial controls and oversight in the institution.

“Over several years, Outa submitted numerous requests for information to Inseta in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, seeking records related to governance and procurement matters. Despite following the prescribed processes, the requested information was not provided.

“After escalating the matter to the Information Regulator, Outa continues to pursue all available avenues to obtain access to the information and remains committed to ensuring transparency and accountability at Inseta.”

Duvenage said transparency was not optional in publicly funded institutions, and when access to information was repeatedly denied and concerns unanswered, public confidence was undermined.

“Accountability requires openness, particularly where public funds are involved. The organisation believes investigators should engage all relevant stakeholders and examine concerns that have been raised over several years regarding procurement processes, governance failures, and financial management practices at Inseta.

“A credible investigation must follow the evidence wherever it leads. It should establish whether there was irregular or wasteful expenditure, whether procurement processes complied with the law, whether conflicts of interest existed and whether any provisions of the Public Finance Management Act were breached.”

If misconduct is identified, appropriate disciplinary, civil and criminal action must follow.

“South Africans deserve confidence that public institutions are governed in the public interest and not for the benefit of a few.”

The Inseta board said in a statement it had placed Mkhize on precautionary suspension pending the outcome of an internal process. “The decision was taken in the interest of good governance and to allow due process to unfold without interference. The suspension is precautionary in nature and does not constitute a finding of wrongdoing.

“Business operations and service delivery will continue uninterrupted during this period, under the leadership of Zanele Malaza as the acting CEO and the oversight of the board.

“Inseta remains committed to transparency, accountability and maintaining the integrity of the organisation’s operations and governance processes,” the board said.

Update: June 9 2026

This article has been updated with comment from the Inseta board

Business Day

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By Aadi Nair and Kristina Cooke

Iran’s football federation said on Tuesday its ticket allocation had been pulled just days before the World Cup starts, leaving supporters who had already made travel plans unable to attend their team’s matches.

The World Cup begins with the opening match between co-hosts Mexico and Bafana Bafana at Estadio Azteca on Thursday (1pm in Mexico City, 9pm SA time). Iran play their first two Group G games in Los Angeles, against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, and then face Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

In a statement, the Iranian federation said it had already begun the ticket sales process for the matches but could no longer provide them to fans.

“This is despite the fact that many Iranian football fans, relying on the officially announced process, had already made the necessary plans to attend the matches,” the FFIRI (Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran) said.

“Depriving Iranian supporters of access to their lawful and official allocation of tickets is an action contrary to the spirit governing international competitions and the principle of equality among participating countries.

La selección de #Iran ya está en Tijuana donde tendrá su sitio de concentración.

Ha sido muy maltratada está selección ya que le exigieron que tenía que llegar y salir de suelo estadounidense el mismo día de sus partidos, terrible. pic.twitter.com/dRWlJSg2Hk

— World Cup Plus (@WorldCupPlusX) June 7, 2026

“This development raises serious questions about the interference of non-sporting and political considerations in the organisation of the world’s biggest football event.”

Each participating federation at the World Cup receives 8% of the tickets for each of their matches to be allocated to fans according to their own criteria.

The FFIRI did not say who had made the decision to withhold the tickets but urged Fifa, soccer’s governing body, to adhere to “the principles of neutrality, fairness, and established regulations” and called on it to prevent off-field issues from casting a shadow over the tournament.

Iran’s national team has arrived in Tijuana, Mexico.

The squad can only enter the United States on matchdays and must leave the very same day. pic.twitter.com/ugoakOc1Et

— Soccer Observer (@soccerobserve) June 7, 2026

Fifa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s participation in the World Cup has been clouded by uncertainty since the US and Israel launched air strikes on the Islamic Republic in late February, triggering a regional conflict.

The FFIRI negotiated to move the team’s base camp from Arizona to Mexico, due to uncertainty over whether they would be granted US visas and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the US should be kept to a minimum.

After weeks of uncertainty, the US awarded visas to all the players last week — 10 days before their first match — but several members of staff did not receive them.

A US official told Reuters on Friday the administration had issued “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup”.

Africa's top referee will not be allowed to officiate at the World Cup after he was refused entry to the USA, FIFA has confirmed 🚨 pic.twitter.com/GUsUyLcMlM

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 9, 2026

Fifa said earlier on Tuesday that Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom had held a “positive discussion” with FFIRI president Mehdi Taj after the team arrived at their tournament base.

“With the team now in Mexico, Fifa will continue dialogue and collaboration with the FFIRI to ensure the team and the delegation’s experience is a positive one,” Grafstrom said in a statement.

There have been numerous other issues regarding players and officials struggling to obtain US visas to travel to the World Cup.

The US denied entry over the weekend to referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, who had been expected to be the first Somali to officiate at a World Cup match.

A Fifa spokesperson said on Monday Artan will not be able to train and officiate at the World Cup after he was not allowed to enter the US.

Admissibility determinations are made on a case-by-case basis using law enforcement, national security, and immigration information available at the time of inspection

US Customs and Border Protection

“Fifa is not involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications, and has been informed by authorities that Mr Artan’s status will not be changed at present,” the spokesperson said.

The US Customs and Border Protection, without naming him, said in a statement a Somali national arrived at Miami International Airport from Istanbul on Saturday and was deemed inadmissible due to vetting concerns.

The agency did not elaborate on those concerns, but said the referee underwent routine additional inspection before being denied entry.

“Admissibility determinations are made on a case-by-case basis using law enforcement, national security, and immigration information available at the time of inspection,” the CBP said.

The Trump administration’s strict immigration policies have been a point of concern ahead of the World Cup. Last year, Washington imposed a sweeping travel ban on citizens of 12 countries, including Somalia.

Artan, who was named the Confederation of African Football’s Best Male Referee for 2025, had a valid visa, according to media reports. Somalia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters

Starlink, which operates around two-thirds of all satellites in space and is the major driver of revenue for SpaceX, has signed up 11 new airline customers globally so far in 2026, after 22 in 2025 and eight in 2024, compared with three in 2022, according to Valour Consultancy, an aviation intelligence firm.

Amazon, which is building out its Leo satellite constellation, faces a potential setback after a Blue Origin rocket failure last month. It has signed up its first customers, securing deals with Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways .

Installing Starlink or Amazon’s satellite broadband is a significant investment for airlines, running into the hundreds of millions of dollars for large fleets. But as carriers increasingly rely on premium products to boost margins, they are likely to commit more heavily in the coming years, said Decius Valmorbida, president of travel at Amadeus, a travel technology company, describing the technology as a “game changer”.

“It’s going to become a necessity that every airline will rush to have its own version of. It is becoming a must-have,” Valmorbida told Reuters.

SpaceX holds Starlink contracts covering more than 7,000 aircraft, cementing an ‘undeniable’ lead, said Daniel Welch, a senior consultant at Valour Consultancy

Starlink, which uses thousands of low-Earth-orbit satellites rather than larger, slower geostationary satellites, is many times faster than legacy systems, according to Ookla, a broadband analytics firm.

In a sign of demand across the airline spectrum, Southwest Airlines said it chose Starlink for its “speed to market”, but has not ruled out Amazon’s Leo as it pushes for industry-leading Wi-Fi.

“There are many ways to get there,” Tony Roach, Southwest’s chief customer and brand officer, told Reuters.

American Airlines said in late May it would equip more than 500 narrow-body aircraft with Starlink starting in early 2027.

Ryanair says ‘no’ to Starlink

Not everyone is convinced. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has ruled out adopting Starlink, citing costs and fuel burn from the antennas, prompting a fiery dispute with Musk.

Jefferies analysts estimate American Airlines’ Starlink rollout could cost $150m to $250m for equipment and installation, based on its fleet, before annual service fees that could exceed $60m.

Reuters could not identify equivalent public estimates for airline deployments of Amazon’s Leo.

Airline Wi-Fi will ‘become a battleground’

Lluc Palerm, research director at Analysys Mason, said airline Wi-Fi “will become a battleground” between Starlink and Amazon Leo, though Amazon remains limited as its satellite constellation is in its infancy.

SpaceX holds Starlink contracts covering more than 7,000 aircraft, cementing an “undeniable” lead, said Daniel Welch, a senior consultant at Valour Consultancy.

Palerm said Starlink’s early gains are meaningful because switching providers is costly: aircraft must be taken out of service for installations, onboard equipment is provider-specific and contracts typically run for years.

The airline sales come as SpaceX’s upcoming record-breaking public listing has sharpened investor focus on Starlink’s expansion beyond consumer broadband. Starlink generated $11.4bn of SpaceX’s $18.67bn revenue in 2025, according to SpaceX’s IPO filing, making it by far the company’s largest revenue source.

For airlines, faster Wi-Fi is about more than keeping passengers entertained. It gives carriers another way to draw customers into loyalty programmes and market flights, upgrades and credit cards after the trip ends

Starlink is emphasising speed and installation simplicity, while Amazon is pitching a broader technology ecosystem, including cloud computing, entertainment and retail links it says can help airlines serve passengers beyond basic connectivity.

Delta’s choice of Amazon Leo illustrates that distinction. The carrier selected Amazon Leo for an initial 500 aircraft beginning in 2028, building on its Amazon Web Services relationship.

Legacy in-flight Wi-Fi providers including Viasat, Intelsat, Panasonic Avionics and Hughes remain embedded across large fleets, with multi-orbit backup offerings and coverage in markets where newer Leo providers face regulatory hurdles.

Wi-Fi linked to higher passenger share

For airlines, faster Wi-Fi is about more than keeping passengers entertained. It gives carriers another way to draw customers into loyalty programmes and market flights, upgrades and credit cards after the trip ends.

A 2025 Journal of Air Transport Management study found Wi-Fi availability was linked to higher passenger share on routes studied. At Southwest, the first Starlink-equipped aircraft is expected to be serviceable later this month and the airline has targeted more than 300 conversions by year-end, though executives said the pace depends on how fast Starlink can supply equipment.

“I want to give you fewer and fewer reasons to book another airline or feel like you need to travel on another airline,” said Southwest’s CEO Bob Jordan.

Delta has said more than 163-million SkyMiles members have used its free Wi-Fi since 2023, showing the scale of passenger engagement airlines are building around onboard connectivity.

United Airlines said free Starlink Wi-Fi for MileagePlus members covers more than 25% of its daily flights, with full fleet coverage expected by end-2027.

“That is going to be a differentiator versus every other airline,” United CEO Scott Kirby said.

Reuters

Bengaluru — OpenAI confidentially filed for a US initial public offering recently, the ChatGPT maker said on Monday, joining rival Anthropic in a push toward a stock market listing as it looks to tap into insatiable investor demand for AI shares.

OpenAI did not disclose the size or terms of the offering and said a timeline has not yet been determined.

“It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” it said in a statement. Reuters had reported that the AI giant is targeting a valuation of up to $1-trillion in a stock market debut that could come as early as September.

At that valuation, OpenAI would set the stage for a trio of trillion-dollar-valuation companies debuting rapidly, which together are seen as the most consequential test of investor appetite for high-growth technology stocks in the last 10 years.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the first off the block, filing for an IPO that would rank as the largest in history if completed, with the company pursuing a $75bn offering at a $1.75-trillion valuation.

Anthropic, the company behind the viral coding assistant Claude Code, said on June 1 it had confidentially filed for a US initial public offering, weeks after raising $65bn in a funding round that valued it at $965bn.

“OpenAI is keeping options open as Anthropic edged ahead with its filing after a monster funding round,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, a partner at Cerity Partners.

On prediction markets, where traders wager on the outcome of future events, most participants had expected OpenAI to file for an IPO before Anthropic.

Heavyweight backers

The IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI would crystallise a transformative period for the technology industry and global markets, with AI rapidly emerging as the defining investment theme of the decade.

OpenAI said earlier this year that it was raising $110bn at an $840bn valuation from a roster of heavyweight backers, including SoftBank, Amazon and Nvidia.

At the time, it also disclosed that ChatGPT had more than 900-million weekly active users and over 50-million consumer subscribers. The IPO filing follows OpenAI renegotiating its partnership with Microsoft, one of its earliest investors, which allowed the AI pioneer to forge new partnerships with firms such as Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google.

The Windows maker’s early investment, totalling $13bn since 2019, ​helped pave the way for OpenAI’s rapid rise and powered growth at ‌Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing business.

In March, OpenAI said it was generating $2bn in monthly revenue and growing roughly four times faster than companies that defined the internet and mobile eras, including Alphabet and Meta.

That compares with about $1bn in quarterly revenue at the end of 2024.

OpenAI told investors during its most recent fundraising round that it did not expect to be profitable until 2030, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Meteoric rise

Yet the industry OpenAI launched has quickly become crowded, and investors are scrutinising whether the AI sector’s meteoric rise can be sustained.

Anthropic has emerged as one of the biggest rivals, with soaring demand for its Claude AI from software developers to handle their computer programming and some firms deploying its top-shelf model, Mythos, to unearth vulnerabilities in their code.

While the blockbuster offerings could inject fresh momentum into the US IPO market, some bankers warn they might also soak up capital that could otherwise flow to smaller deals.

“What OpenAI does not want is for the public market capital to exhaust itself,” said Gil Luria, managing director of DA Davidson.

“Not only are SpaceX and Anthropic ahead of it in line to IPO, but large public competitors could also raise tens of billions of dollars each in public market secondary issuances, as Google just completed last week.”

Musk-led SpaceX goes public this week.

Soaring costs

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a research-focused non-profit but created a for-profit arm four years later to help fund the soaring costs of developing AI systems.

Its unusual structure, which gave the nonprofit control over the for-profit entity, came under intense scrutiny in late 2023 when CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted before returning days later after employees revolted.

In December 2024, OpenAI unveiled plans to overhaul its structure by creating a public benefit corporation, saying the move would help it raise far more capital while easing restrictions imposed by its nonprofit parent.

OpenAI’s overhaul quickly became controversial after sharp criticism from its early backer, Musk, who later sued OpenAI and accused Altman and other executives of turning the nonprofit into a vehicle for private enrichment.

A US jury in May ruled against Musk in his lawsuit, finding the AI ​company not liable to the world’s richest person for having allegedly strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity.

The unanimous verdict removed a key overhang on the IPO, with analysts saying it cleared a major legal hurdle.

Story audio is generated using AI

The City of Johannesburg is grappling with more than R10bn in losses across its water, electricity and housing entities.

This is according to mayor Dada Morero, who revealed this before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday.

Morero acknowledged deep-rooted financial and governance challenges but argued the metro was making progress in addressing them.

“We understand the root causes articulated by the auditor-general, and we must bear in mind the population we are servicing, taking into account ageing infrastructure and budget constraints,” he said.

The municipality received a qualified report, and the appearance before the committee comes after the city was removed from the JSE’s non-compliance list.

Morero said Joburg Water was facing losses of 44.7% due to leaks, amounting to about R3.8bn.

He said City Power’s total electricity losses stood at about 30%, with non-technical losses costing for about R4bn and technical losses accounting for R1.7bn.

The mayor also highlighted challenges at the Johannesburg Social Housing Company, which is carrying a deficit of about R559m.

ALSO READ | Joburg and Treasury on collision course over R10.3bn wage deal

A timeline wasn’t given for the period over which the losses were incurred.

Despite the financial pressures, Morero pointed to several entities that had achieved clean audits and recorded surpluses.

“We have good stories to tell,” he said.

These included:

• Joburg Market, which posted a R153m surplus and accounts for 43% of the national market share;
• the Johannesburg Property Company, which had a R114m surplus; while
• the Johannesburg Tourism Company posted a R21.4m surplus.

Morero said metro trading reforms would help tackle “structural problems causing a split in accountability and lack of financial transparency and management accountability”, and governance failures, low revenue collection and weak investment.

The mayor reported progress in reducing historical unauthorised expenditure, saying accumulated balances had declined from R23bn to R15.3bn.

However, he warned “new unauthorised expenditure remains at about R9bn per annum”, while new irregular expenditure is about R3.7bn.

“A lot still needs to be done, and the foundation is laid. Our task is to focus on the implementation,” Morero said.

City manager Floyd Brink said the budget is funded, noting concerns raised by finance minister Enoch Godongwana.

Godongwana recently raised concerns that Joburg had passed an unfunded adjustments budget, overestimated its revenue projections, and signed an unaffordable R10.3bn wage agreement despite being in severe financial distress

Brink said the city’s focus was on improving revenue collection and strengthening expenditure controls.

He told MPs collection rates had improved significantly, rising from 71% in January to 81% in February and 96.5% in March, before remaining above 90% in April.

“The trajectory looks positive. It’s to ensure a high level of consistency and for us to be able to ensure our budget remains funded in a disciplined manner, and focusing on our cash flow,” he said.

Sowetan

WATCH | MAHLATSE'S DAILY WORLD CUP TALKING POINT | Will key Bafana defender Aubrey Modiba be fit for the clash against Mexico? pic.twitter.com/f6Pxxg9wcK

— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) June 9, 2026

Modiba, who got injured in the first leg at Lostus of Mamelodi Sundowns’ Caf Champions League final victory against Morocco’s AS FAR last month, is training with the team but there is a question mark over his match fitness.

Bafana have Samukele Kabini and Bradley Cross as cover if Modiba, who has been a stalwart of coach Hugo Broos’ national team for the past few years, does not make it for the huge clash against ‘El Tri’.

TimesLIVE

A squad of 51 players, including many uncapped young guns, assembled in Johannesburg on Monday to start preparing for matches against the Barbarians and Zimbabwe in a double header at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

In addition to the initial squad, Phepsi Buthelezi (loose forward) and Carlu Sadie (prop) have been called up and will join the camp in the next two days, along with the Stormers players following their return from Ireland, where they played in the United Rugby Championship (URC) semifinal over the weekend.

The highly rated Buthelezi made his Test debut against Portugal in 2024. The Stormers players arrived in camp on Monday and Buthelezi, who plays for the Sharks, reported for duty that evening.

Sadie, a former Junior Springbok who joined the virtual Springbok alignment camps from France, where he plays for European champions Bordeaux Begles, will arrive in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

“It’s great to be back on the field and to see familiar and new faces in the squad,” Erasmus said.

“The excitement in the group to get the season under way is palpable, and we are looking forward to the week ahead. We are also pleased to welcome Phepsi and Carlu to the squad, and we are confident they will slot in with ease.”

There was an emphasis on youth when the Springboks named a 51-man squad, featuring 21 uncapped players, for the Gqeberha double-header.

With the Bulls players unavailable for selection after booking their place in the URC final against Leinster, Erasmus selected several junior players.

Among the crop of rising stars is KuGompo City’s Sibabalwe Mahashe, who has impressed while playing for the Lions.

The extended group includes SA U20 players Yaqeen Ahmed (flyhalf/centre), Danie Kruger (prop), Luan Giliomee (utility back), Vusi Moyo (flyhalf), Oliver Reid (prop), and Liam van Wyk (hooker), Junior Springbok captain Riley Norton (loose forward/lock), Siphosethu Mnebelele (hooker), Markus Muller (centre) and Zekhethelo Siyaya (utility back), all of whom were members of the expanded Springbok alignment camp squad.

Other uncapped players in the group are Paul de Villiers (flanker), Bathobele Hlekani (utility forward), Hanro Jacobs (prop), Jurenzo Julius (utility back), Imad Khan (scrumhalf), JJ Kotze (hooker), Mahashe (loose forward), Haashim Pead, Nico Steyn (both scrumhalves), Emmanuel Tshituka (flanker) and Jaco Williams (utility back).

The Boks’ Japan-based players who have completed their club commitments will join their teammates from the outset of the camp, while the UK-based players will report for duty once their season officially concludes in line with World Rugby’s regulation 9.

Erasmus said he is looking forward to seeing how the younger players adapted to the demands of senior international rugby.

The Springbok squad for the opening leg of the Nations Championship against England, Scotland and Wales will be announced on June 21.

Croatia are contenders for second position, while Panama face an uphill battle to take points off the two European heavyweights but can pull a surprise or two.

The odds seem against Ghana based on their ranking.

ENGLAND

When Three Lions head coach Thomas Tuchel revealed his final squad for the global showpiece, it was received with much criticism.

Big names like Harry Maguire, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold, to name a few, were omitted. Many pundits labelled it a brave move by the German manager to leave out those marquee players who have been part of the build-up. All eyes will be on the England team and whether their boss made the correct choices.

The last time England tasted the competition silverware was exactly 60 years ago, on home soil in 1966.

Since then England have had a few “golden generations” made up of top-drawer English Premier League players, but haven’t managed to crack the code. The 1990 and 2018 semifinals were the closest they got.

Four years ago in Qatar they suffered a quarterfinal exit against France.

Can this year’s combination emulate the country’s celebrated 1966 heroes of manager Alf Ramsey, led on the field by Bobby Moore and spearheaded by Sir Bobby Charlton?

They appear more than capable of it.

They have the all-time leading scorer for England, Harry Kane, who has been in his best scoring form of his life for Bayern Munich. Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham and the Arsenal EPL-winning duo of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka are game changers and can finish off any opposition on their day.

Tuchel is a coach who knows how to win trophies, his titles including the 2020-21 Uefa Champions League, 2021 Uefa Super Cup and 2022 Fifa Club World Cup with Chelsea. He has prioritised a winning combination over trying to include all the star names, which had been a previous failing for England.

The Lions face Croatia in their opening game on June 17, and from there could make a dent at this World Cup.

• Fifa ranking: 4
• Best World Cup finishes: Champions (1966)
• World Cup appearances: 16

CROATIA

The Vatreni, every four years in, every four years out at the World Cup, always bring out their A-game. However since making their debut at the World Cup in 1998, the silverware has always managed to slip out of their hands.

There was the 2018 final defeat to France and third-place finishes in their inaugural campaign and 2022 in Qatar from a country that punches far above its weight in football.

Their roadmap to the 2026 World Cup has been red-hot, as they were unbeaten in the qualifiers.

The class of 2026 is a mix of experience and youth, headlined by legendary 40-year-old Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric and veterans Ivan Perisic, Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol.

Zlatko Dalić is one of the longest-serving coaches at the World Cup having served his country since 2017, and schemed their past tournament successes.

• Fifa ranking: 11
• Best World Cup finishes: Runners-up (2018)
• World Cup appearances: 6

GHANA

Asamoah Gyan’s penalty hitting the top of the crossbar and flying over in the quarterfinal against Uruguay in 2010, after Luis Suarez had hand-balled the striker’s shot on the line, remains a nightmare memory even today for the Black Stars.

This year’s group has another chance to erase that painful memory from 16 years ago when the Black Stars were cruelly denied becoming Africa’s first World Cup semi-finalists on the continent’s soil at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.

In 2014 and 2022 Ghana failed to make it past the group stage.

Form-wise, they are in good shape going into this year’s edition, as they comfortably topped Group I in the African qualifiers with 25 points to second-placed Madagascar’s 19, earning eight wins, a draw and a defeat in 10 games.

But what would be a concern would be the new tactics and strategies brought by veteran Portuguese manager Carlos Queiroz, who took over in April, replacing Otto Addo just months before the World Cup.

Ghana also failed to rebuild much of their 2010 combination well into the 2020s, meaning they have had an ageing combination for some time.

The Black Stars do still have star quality, though. Queiroz named a strong squad, with hugely experienced Jordan Ayew (now at League One club Leicester City) serving as the captain, Villarreal’s Thomas Partey, Atletico Bilbao’s Iñaki Williams and Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo included.

They face Panama in their opener at BMO Field in Toronto on June 18.

• Fifa ranking: 73
• Best World Cup finishes: Quarterfinals (2010)
• World Cup appearances: 4

PANAMA

Los Canaleros return to the big stage after making their debut in 2018.

Though they bowed out in the group stage after three defeats in Russia, they created unforgettable moments and won friends with some sparkling football. They will hope to perhaps cause some big upsets in Group L.

They will be led by Danish coach Thomas Christiansen, who steered them from the Concacaf qualifying process to the World Cup. Midfielder Adalberto Carrasquilla, who won the Concacaf Men’s Player of the Year award in 2024, will be their go-to man.

A ranking of 34th suggests they could perform better at this World Cup.

• Fifa ranking: 34
• Best World Cup finishes: Group Stage (2018)
• World Cup appearances: 1

• TimesLIVE, Sowetan, The Herald, Daily Dispatch and Business Day online will profile a 2026 WORLD CUP GROUP every Tuesday until the tournament’s June 11 kick-off. Also catch the STAR PLAYER profile every Friday.

The United National Transport Union (Untu), the largest union at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), provisionally withdrew its application to halt the retrenchment process at the rail operator from the labour court roll, to give the task team — comprising Prasa and labour representatives — a chance.

“The task team is continuing with its work, and a report on the progress made will be sent to the transport minister on June 19,” Untu spokesperson Atenkosi Plaatjie said on Tuesday. “We should have an update then.”

Untu’s electing to withdraw the court application last week followed the rail operator informing the union that the retrenchment process had been extended to June 30 to allow for continued engagement between management and organised labour.

“Untu wishes to assure members that while the urgent interdict has been provisionally removed from the roll, the application can be reinstated should Prasa proceed with the retrenchment process or fail to engage in good faith.”

Plaatjie has said Untu remained disappointed by Prasa’s handling of the matter, as the “uncertainty, emotional distress, anxiety and overall harm experienced by hundreds of workers and their families could have been avoided had management engaged labour meaningfully and constructively during the CCMA consultation process”.

Labour met Prasa group CEO Hishaam Emeran recently to find a solution to the looming job cuts. Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Business Day reported recently that labour had rejected moves by Prasa to have the affected employees sign documents issued in relation to the retrenchment process.

Prasa, which has a network of more than 2,000km of track, has historically been plagued by ageing infrastructure, vandalism, unreliability and ineffectiveness, fraud, corruption and safety concerns.

The entity launched its general overhaul programme in 2022 at a cost of R7.5bn (of which R3.48bn had been spent by the end of March 2025).

The overhaul was established to refurbish and extend the service life of Prasa’s legacy rolling stock fleet — the older Metrorail coaches and mainline passenger services locomotives that serve millions of commuters in South Africa’s metropolitan regions.

Business Day

Story audio is generated using AI

Failure to secure assistance for the Land and Agricultural Bank will not only imperil the struggling entity but further undermine the broader state mission of supporting South African farmers who need access to competitive and flexible finance.

This is according to a bank delegation who briefed parliament’s select committee on finance on Tuesday morning. The briefing comes after the entity signalled it would request R20bn in financial assistance amid debt stress.

Land Bank acting CEO ​Jabu Mphambo told the committee the bank has borrowed under strict conditions and short repayment tenures to finance a sector where loan tenures are typically long-term, which has increased pressure on the bank itself.

“We have also been engaging National Treasury around the potential recapitalisation. We will be submitting a formal request for this. This is part of the funding model of the bank. It’s not necessarily to say the bank is being bailed out.

“The bank is being funded to ensure it can fulfil its mandate. Without this, we will have the problems of farmers paying high costs with the bank. The source of funding determines how a client is charged. For us to support a strong position for the bank to be developmental, to focus on the fulfillment of its mandate, the funding mix must be appropriate.”

The bank defaulted on some of its debt in 2020, forcing the entity to look to its loan book for means to repay the debt. Mphambo said part of improving liquidity will require adjustments to the lending structure the bank engages with to ensure it can provide long-term finance to farms.

“Part of the funding we are raising is to solve the long tenure issue. The farmers we are speaking to, we have been very clear we are looking for funding that can be paid off over a long period and not a short period of time.”

He said the Land Bank planned to raise at least R7bn to refinance the liability solution funding and unlock another R3bn next year to fund development and support the agriculture sector. From there, it would draw down R2bn to R3bn yearly to support the sector into the future, he said.

Mphambo said blended finance was critical to the financial sustainability of the bank and the ability to offer concessional funding and cheaper rates, as most farmers cannot afford to pay the exorbitant rates the bank has had to absorb.

“We believe the posture of National Treasury has been positive. We believe we’ve got a good working relationship with them. It’s to make sure we can see materialisation of some of the programmes we have been discussing.”

He said since the default, when debt was at R41bn, the bank has managed to reduce debt to R6.7bn, repaid mostly from its own cash, as it had to sell its own loan portfolio to raise funding and settle the debt.

“Of course, it was a necessity that the liability solution partners required National Treasury and us to have that partnership approach, where the bank had to make alternative means to settle a significant portion of its debt, and then National Treasury contributed through its recapitalisation, which only came in 2023. A portion of that was given immediately, and the balance was released post the bank’s meeting specific conditions to support the sector.”

He said the Land Bank is now in the consolidation phase of its turnaround process as it continues stabilisation, which is expected to be fully concluded in 2028. Thereafter, the growth phase will commence in 2029, but the bank must first be geared for a full recovery.

TimesLIVE

Coach Hugo Broos said they will have to be at their best against a “complete team” that has ambitions to go as far as possible in the tournament Mexico are co-hosting with the US and Canada.

Mexico coach Javier Aguirre has put together a squad that boasts a blend of seasoned and established veterans and a group of rising and exciting domestic talents.

Key players for ‘El Tri’ include Guillermo Ochoa, Mateo Chávez, Edson Álvarez, Santiago Gimenez, César Huerta, Johan Vásquez, Gilberto Mora and Raúl Jiménez.

Bafana coach Hugo Broos on what they will be facing against Mexico. pic.twitter.com/ThJstl78M6

— Mahlatse Mphahlele (@BraMahlatse) June 9, 2026

“They are a complete team with movement and solidarity,” said Broos on what Bafana are up against at the venue that is famous for Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup semifinal.

“When you watch them play, you can see they really want to become world champions with their commitment in the game. They are a very good team, and we will have to be at our best level to get a good result.

“I saw their game against Serbia [Mexico beat Serbia 5-1 in a warm-up last week] and it was fantastic how they played, especially in the first half. They impressed with their movement, aggression, solidarity and defence.

“So they are a complete team and it is going to be difficult for us.”

Bafana coach Hugo Broos says they want to do their best for South Africas fans. pic.twitter.com/8yZWv9sy3X

— Mahlatse Mphahlele (@BraMahlatse) June 9, 2026

Though he is aware of Mexico’s strengths, Broos said South Africa is in no way going to lie down and roll over and will fight with everything they have.

“Football game is a football game, and we can’t think that we don’t have a chance against them. We have to be prepared properly and play at our best level.”

The coach urged his players to be highly concentrated on the small details.

“We know which opponent we are playing on Thursday, and we are focused on them. Our focus will be on how we are going to play when they have the ball and what we are going to do when we have the ball.

“These are the details we will have to work on. We will analyse their qualities and also look at where we can be dangerous and hurt them. This is the work that we are doing.”

We are playing for all those people who believe in us. I just heard that there is no Bafana shirt available in [the shops in] South Africa. It means a lot to us and it is for those people that we will fight like lions

Hugo Broos

Playing in an environment that is going to be hostile, Broos has asked his players to stick to the game plan and block out the noise.

“For us it will be a special and fantastic experience because my players have never played in this situation. It is going to be important for us to stick to the game plan and not listen to what is happening in the stands.

“We all know there will be [almost entirely] Mexicans in the stadium and a few South Africans, and because of that you can’t count on the support. Having said that, we know that we have the support of the whole nation back home.

“We felt it when we started the preparations in South Africa — that all South Africans are supporting us. This is something we have to remember on Thursday: that we are playing for the nation.

“We are playing for all those people who believe in us. I just heard that there is no Bafana shirt available in [the shops in] South Africa. It means a lot to us and it is for those people that we will fight like lions.”

TimesLIVE

The group said in a statement that the listing of Clinton Ward Myburgh as a non-executive director of the company “is entirely false”.

“This appointment is not recognised, authorised or approved by Ford or any of its representatives. Mr Myburgh is not associated with Ford Motor Company in any capacity and is not a Ford employee,” it said.

It added that any dealings or transactions with Myburgh as a purported representative of Ford are unenforceable and invalid.

“Customers, partners and stakeholders are cautioned that any commitments, agreements or representations made by Mr Myburgh as representing the company are fraudulent and constitute a deliberate misrepresentation.”

Ford has immediately commenced filing formal criminal charges, including fraud, extortion and misrepresentation with the SAPS and has lodged a formal complaint with the CIPC.

“Ford maintains the strictest corporate governance standards and protocols. The company has formally requested an urgent explanation from the CIPC regarding how this unauthorised appointment was permitted to occur without the involvement, consent or participation of Ford.”

Ford reserves all of its rights in this matter, it added.

Business Day

Pre-sale orders of the model that launches with normal, Maxi wheelbase and high-roof Kombi and Cargo models start on June 10 in German markets. Volkswagen Africa Group (VAG) says the local debut is set for 2027.

The cabin now integrates a 12.9-inch free-standing central display with reversing camera views, redesigned seat covers and trim strips vary depending on the trim line, and the Digital Cockpit Pro is now standard in all equipment lines, namely Trend, Life, Style, Edition and California.

The seating in the passenger models is variable for five and seven passenger configurations, with a foldable second row of seats that can be folded up to form a partition wall. Design, Winter and Assist system packages, as well as roof rails, can be fitted.

Features to be expected in the cabin include a 25W inductive charging tray for mobile telephones, USB-C port with up to 60W of charging capacity per socket. The interior has been touched up for better ergonomics, too, with the controls for adjusting the interior temperature below the central display now being illuminated touch sliders.

Some models now integrate grab straps on the B-pillars to aid entry, with manual and powered boot lid or wing doors also available. Customers also have the option of four new exterior paints — Reed green, Sunset red, Grenadilla black and Grey-brown. Wheel sizes range from 16-inch to 18-inch new design alloys.

The updated Caddy can be had with a petrol, diesel or eHybrid drive system. The latter covers a total range of 620km, with up to 122km on electric power alone. Depending on the model, the Caddy can also tow up to 1,500kg.

The Caddy California micro camper can be had in 4.5m, or 4.85m guise, with well-designed camping equipment fitted ex works, such as a removable bed and mattress with dished springs and an optional panoramic glass sunroof. A kitchenette in the rear is one of the optional features. The updated Caddy arrives with a five-year manufacturer’s warranty.

Volkswagen also offers business and fleet owners the Connect Pro digital fleet solution, which can be accessed centrally with login credentials. The system offers a central overview of vehicle data, warnings and service requirements for their Caddy Cargo models.

Alternatively, Fleet Interface offers a data interface (API) and enables seamless integration into existing systems.

Business Day

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Electric vehicle (EV) sales in South Africa nearly doubled in the first quarter of 2026, with consumers increasingly turning to electric mobility as fuel prices rise and confidence in the country’s electricity supply improves.

According to the latest quarterly review by Naamsa, sales of fully electric vehicles rose 96% year-on-year in the first three months of 2026, nearly doubling compared with the same period last year. The growth reflects a gradual shift in consumer sentiment as motorists respond to volatile petrol and diesel prices.

Industry body Electric Mission said the country’s EV fleet now comprises about 7,940 passenger vehicles, 562 commercial trucks and 134 electric passenger transport vehicles.

“The near doubling of fully electric vehicle sales shows that South Africans are responding to economic realities,” said Hiten Parmar, executive director of Electric Mission.

“Consumers are seeing how volatile petrol and diesel prices have become, while electricity costs remain comparatively predictable. Combined with over a year of electricity stability and growing public charging infrastructure, the market is beginning to understand that EVs make the most financial sense.”

Electric Mission estimates that EV owners and fleet operators are saving hundreds of thousands of rand in fuel and maintenance costs compared with conventional internal combustion engine vehicles.

According to the International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook 2026, almost 30% of new vehicles sold worldwide are expected to be electric by the end of this year

The improved reliability of South Africa’s electricity network has also helped address one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption. The country has experienced more than a year without load-shedding, easing concerns about the practicality of owning and charging electric vehicles.

The positive momentum comes as global EV adoption continues to accelerate. According to the International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook 2026, almost 30% of new vehicles sold worldwide are expected to be electric by the end of this year.

Locally, Electric Mission expects EV sales to more than double last year’s total if current quarterly sales trends continue.

Despite the encouraging growth, industry stakeholders warn that South Africa risks losing its competitive position in automotive manufacturing unless the government introduces stronger incentives and industrial policies to support the sector.

He said countries that position themselves early with supportive policy frameworks of the supply side and infrastructure are likely to secure the critical next generation of automotive and component investments.

Parmar pointed to growing competition from elsewhere on the continent, noting that Kenya has announced tax exemptions for the first 100,000 electric vehicles manufactured locally in an effort to attract investment.

He warned that South Africa could lose future automotive and component manufacturing projects to countries offering more attractive policy frameworks.

“As Morocco dethroned South Africa as the continent’s largest vehicle producer early in 2026, South Africa risks losing future automotive manufacturing investment to other African countries,” he said.

With battery electric vehicles already accounting for nearly a fifth of new vehicle sales in the EU, bold policy intervention will be needed if the local automotive manufacturing industry aims to remain relevant and protect employment.

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With its 23-inch wheels, heavily tinted windows and generally menacing presence this SUV looks like it would slot effortlessly into a blue light convoy.

The Range Rover Sport fits below the full-size Range Rover in the brand’s hierarchy but radiates a similarly alpha personality. Turning 20 this year and in its third generation, the Range Rover Sport is a performance-focused alternative that is slightly smaller, more driver-orientated and more affordable, and has a somewhat more youthful aesthetic. It potentially has the same off-road capability too, with trail-friendly tyres fitted.

It has all the necessary gear for off-roading including height-adjustable air suspension, all-wheel drive, a 900m water fording depth and modes for various types of terrain. A Range Rover Sport won’t necessarily be spending as much time in the bush as its more adventure-focused Defender cousin.

The Range Rover Sport lineup comprises several petrol and diesel models, and on test is the range-topping diesel derivative, the D350 Dynamic HSE which offers powerful yet frugal performance with a full house of luxuries.

More affordable means this vehicle costs R2.6m compared to a similarly specced full-size Range Rover D350 HSE which goes for R3.5m. The price includes a five-year/100,000km warranty and maintenance plan

At a snip under 5m in length, the Range Rover Sport is a big piece of hardware with a commensurately spacious interior room and a generous 647l boot that swallows a lot of luggage, expanding to 1491l with seats folded, and that’s with a full-size spare wheel. The cabin lays on stretch-out legroom with luxurious finishes and a raft of premium features, including electric adjustment for the front and rear seats, heated and cooled front seats with massaging, and most of the expected touch-operated niceties.

The high-spec HSE grade also includes a fridge between the front seats, an electrically adjustable steering column, a head-up display, adaptive cruise control, sliding panoramic sunroof and an electrically deployable towbar, among others.

Digital LED headlights with image projection are part of the deal too, as is a high-end 3D surround sount system.

There were a number of fitted options on the tester including the striking Velocity blue paint (R154,100), black exterior pack (R29,100) and the 23-inch alloys (R30,300). The car’s standard footwear is 22-inch tyres and those planning some off-road escapades (or simply to manage all the potholes on the road) can opt for more sensible 20-inchers.

Physical buttons are in short supply in the vehicle’s digitised and minimalist interior, which includes a 13.7-inch digital instrument panel instead of analogue dials. A large 13.1-inch Pivi Pro touchscreen provides a generally user-friendly infotainment experience and there are quick-access icons for the most important functions.

Surprisingly, Android Auto isn’t wireless as is becoming the auto industry norm and I had to plug in my Android phone for it to operate.

The inline 3.0l turbo diesel engine is a hearty performer with outputs of 258kW and 700Nm. It’s punchy off the mark, without any meaningful turbo lag, and is acoustically appealing too, with a surprisingly sporty roar for a diesel.

All that torque is available from just 1,500 rpm, providing a smooth spread of power across the rev range, and the eight-speed automatic transmission manages gear shifts swiftly. The factory-claimed 5.9 sec 0-100km/h acceleration figure seemed achievable by the way the big SUV bolted off the mark.

It is frugal too, with the tester averaging 8.5l / 100km in an urban-freeway mix, a noteworthy achievement given the vehicle’s substantial 2.4 tonne mass and full-time all-wheel drive.

The refined SUV has a plush ride on its air suspension. It glides with impressive smoothness over regular roads with undulations, though potholes and bumps expose the cushioning limitations of the low-profile tyres. There’s a price to pay for putting looks first.

Overall, the handling is acceptable and the grip is good, though the vehicle’s heft is exposed when trying to tackle tight corners fast.

Under that imposing image, the Range Rover Sport D350 delivers a blend of luxury, fuel economy and lusty, acoustically satisfying performance in varying terrain.

Range Rover Sport vs rivals

• Range Rover Sport 3.0D D350 Dynamic HSE, 258kW/700Nm ― R2,606,600
• Mercedes-Benz GLE 450d 4Matic AMG Line, 285kW750Nm ― R2,071,022
• Lexus LX 500d Overtrail 225kW/700Nm ― R2,681,500

Business Day

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Stellantis’s German brand Opel will invest more than €1bn in Germany by 2030 and produce the next generation of its best-selling Astra compact car at the subsidiary’s Ruesselsheim plant, the company said on Monday.

The carmaker plans at least four new models by the end of the decade, including successors to the Astra and Corsa and a new compact SUV developed with Chinese partner Leapmotor, a statement said.

Opel will also continue to invest in existing models in its portfolio, it added.

“The investment into the production of the next Astra generation in Ruesselsheim underlines the focus of Stellantis on Germany and the importance of Opel,” Stellantis Europe chief Emanuele Cappellano said.

Accounting for about 30% of total car sales in Europe, the compact segment is a key part of Stellantis’ European strategy, he added.

The future Astra and Corsa models will be based on Stellantis’s One platform, designed to underpin a new range of electrified ​vehicles across the group, whose brands also include Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep.

Last month Stellantis set out a €60bn strategic overhaul, including production partnerships with Chinese groups Leapmotor and Dongfeng.

Reuters

The legal proceedings are not an ideological battleground, nor are they an attempt by the private sector to block national unity. Rather, they represent a healthy, vital democratic process.

The hearings focused on a shared constitutional priority: ensuring that public participation, stakeholder funding models, and operational anxieties are fully integrated so that the eventual rollout is structurally sound and sustainable for everyone.

For corporate South Africa, this legal transition period is not a cue to step aside. It is a powerful masterclass in active listening and a clear signpost for the future of workplace benefit design.

ASI Financial Services — a leading provider of employee healthcare and benefits solutions for businesses — sees its role as being the architect of a bridge towards a shared destination: a hybrid healthcare future where the public and private sectors complement one another to build a healthier nation.

Elevating employee dialogue beyond the ‘checkbox’

A core theme of the ConCourt deliberations was the process of stakeholder consultation, specifically how deeply citizen and industry feedback was integrated into the final legislative text.

In democracy, as in business, true engagement requires moving beyond a formal, box-ticking exercise and into the realm of qualitative, interactive dialogue.

This dynamic offers a direct lesson for the C-suite. Too often, corporate wellness programmes and medical aid choices are managed as passive, compliance-driven payroll lines.

Organisations frequently roll out a standardised health plan once a year to tick an HR box, without deeply evaluating the diverse, real-world needs of their evolving workforce.

Just as the state seeks to build a healthcare system that reflects the needs of the collective populace, forward-thinking employers must implement interactive, data-driven listening strategies within their own organisations.

By directly consulting employees on whether they require localised primary care, robust support for chronic conditions, or flexible medical savings accounts, businesses ensure their internal benefit design mirrors the national mandate for responsive, human-centric care.

Dignity, equity, and the power of choice

As Dr Nicholas Crisp, deputy director-general of NHI, highlighted at a recent high-level roundtable hosted by ASI Financial Services in Johannesburg that the moral imperative of the NHI — pooling resources for the public good — is a shift that business leaders must constructively embrace.

The national vision focuses on macro equity and funding solidarity.

Simultaneously, the corporate sector has a complementary responsibility: managing micro-level workforce realities. A single, rigid health framework cannot adequately serve a multi-generational workforce spanning completely different life stages.

Real equity in the workplace means providing fair access to the right care. A 23-year-old graduate entering the corporate world may prioritise digital mental health tools and flexible primary care. A 55-year-old manager requires comprehensive chronic disease management and gap-cover protection.

Offering flexible, tailored benefit options honours individual dignity, aligns with the national spirit of inclusive care, and serves as a powerful talent retention tool during a time of systemic change.

Rejecting the boardroom risk of ‘wait and see’

Because the ConCourt has reserved judgment to carefully weigh the arguments, some corporate boards may be tempted to adopt a passive “wait-and-see” approach, freezing their health benefit strategies until absolute regulatory certainty arrives.

However, ASI Financial Services emphasises that healthcare is no longer just an HR line item: it is a critical strategic risk.

Waiting for the final legal gavel to fall before future-proofing your business introduces a three-fold boardroom risk:

1. Financial sustainability: Navigating a double-cost danger zone where companies risk paying twice for overlapping primary care services if they do not realign their payroll structures early.

2. The talent war: Failing to guarantee seamless, uninterrupted access to quality care during national healthcare flux, which weakens employee retention.

3. Benefit duplication: Facing operational friction and administrative bottlenecks by not proactively adjusting corporate remuneration and medical scheme frameworks ahead of time.

The future is not a binary choice between private and state care; it is hybrid. In this model, the NHI provides the foundation for universal access to primary care, emergency services, and screenings.

Forward-thinking employers will then step in to “bridge the gap” with targeted private cover for specialist consultations, advanced chronic disease management, and specialised mental health support.

The ongoing healthcare transition is a reminder that the best outcomes are achieved when systems are designed around the people they are intended to serve.

For employers, healthcare benefits are no longer just corporate perks they are active contributions to the broader narrative of a resilient, inclusive South Africa.

Business leaders face a distinct choice: remain passive spectators to this national transformation and scramble to react later, or take a constructive seat at the table now.

Leading the transition means moving beyond the fear of reform and towards the opportunity of a more equitable, productive South Africa. The system is changing, and ASI Financial Services has the expertise to help your organisation position itself to lead.

This article was sponsored by ASI Financial Services.

The complaint related to a TV advert aired on DStv that promoted the Jetour Dashing with the headline price of “from R4,999 pm” and a small disclaimer stating that terms and conditions apply.

The complainant argued that the advertisement did not explain crucial aspects of the finance offer, including the deposit required, the repayment period and any residual or balloon payment, leaving consumers unable to assess the true cost of the deal.

Jetour South Africa did not respond to the complaint despite being given an opportunity to do so, forcing the ARB to make its ruling based solely on the consumer’s submission.

Though Jetour is not a member of the ARB and is therefore not bound by its rulings, the regulator said it could still assess the advert for the guidance of its members, including media owners and advertising platforms.

In its decision, the ARB found that the advert breached clause 4.2.1 of the Code of Advertising Practice, which prohibits advertising that is likely to mislead consumers through omission or ambiguity.

The regulator also found a breach of clause 11.3 of the code governing motor vehicle advertising. This clause requires advertisements offering vehicles on a lease or instalment basis to disclose full details of payments and explain how any residual value will be determined.

According to the ARB, the finance offer’s terms and conditions indicated a 40% residual value and a repayment period of 72 months. However, these material details did not appear in the advertisement itself.

The directorate said merely stating that terms and conditions apply is insufficient when advertising monthly vehicle repayments because deposits, repayment terms and residual values are key factors in determining the actual cost to consumers.

The ARB acknowledged that advertisements cannot include every contractual detail but said the information required by the code could have been presented succinctly within the commercial.

As a result, the ARB has requested its members not to accept future Jetour advertisements that fail to clearly disclose payment terms and conditions within the advert itself.

Business Day

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Oil prices fell on Tuesday, erasing most of the previous session’s gains, after Iran and Israel said they had halted attacks on each other following an appeal from US President Donald Trump, though both sides warned they could resume hostilities.

Brent crude futures were down $1.14, or 1.2%, at $93.11 a barrel at 6.30am GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) declined $1.3, or 1.4%, at $90.00 a barrel.

Prices climbed 5% in the previous session after renewed Israeli strikes on Iran and attacks in Lebanon reduced the hope of an imminent end to the wider war but pared gains after Iran’s armed forces announced the end of military operations against Israel.

While this helped stop the situation snowballing, the geopolitical backdrop remains tense, and a lasting peace deal remains elusive.

Market analyst at IG, Tony Sycamore

“While there is some relief from the latest pause in direct strikes, investors are not convinced the truce will hold,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

Iran and Israel said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from President Trump that they immediately “stop shooting”, though Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“While this helped stop the situation snowballing, the geopolitical backdrop remains tense and a lasting peace deal remains elusive,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video carried by Israeli TV that Israel would respond with force if Iran attacked again.

Trump told Axios in an interview published on Monday that he warned Netanyahu that he might find himself fighting alone if he went back to war with Iran.

“The key question is whether current de-escalation efforts can finally translate into a longer-lasting resolution, or if we’re simply in another temporary lull,” Waterer said.

One of the key issues Washington is pressing Tehran for in peace talks is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s supply of oil passed before the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran at the end of February.

The key question is whether current de-escalation efforts can finally translate into a longer-lasting resolution, or if we’re simply in another temporary lull.

Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade

On Monday, US forces disabled an unladen oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman after it attempted to sail to an Iranian port in violation of the ongoing blockade against Iran, the US military said.

Reuters

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The Road Freight Association (RFA) notes the decision by cabinet to “finally close the historical e-toll debt” which involves the “close-out” of historical debt and the “resolution of all outstanding litigation matters”.

The minister of transport has “welcomed the cabinet decision”. Strange. Didn’t the transport department push this from the beginning, a “ringfenced toll revenue collection system to fund the vital routes in and around Gauteng”? Remember when this was referred to as the “Gauteng Freeway Improvement Programme (GFIP)”.

Recently transport minister Barbara Creecy noted “widespread tolling may become necessary to maintain South Africa’s road network” as the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) was given responsibility for (read that as “saddled with”) more than 13,000km of roads due to the inability of provincial and local authorities to maintain, develop or repair the existing network of roads.

More toll roads rely on the “user-pay principle”, and we have seen how well that worked with e-tolls.

Further, “road users who lawfully paid e-tolls while the system was legally in force will not be refunded”. That means those who refused to pay performed illegal acts. No punishment for them, but punishment for those who comply.

A lesson is to be learnt here, and it’s not the type of lesson any government should be teaching the citizens it counts on to keep it afloat through taxes and levies. The questions that could arise from any logically thinking taxpayer (or any other form of “service levy”) are: why should I pay (as others don’t and there is no deterrent) and what is the next levy/tax we as citizens should “oppose and refuse to pay”?

It is very sad that, despite promises from the Gauteng premier that there would be reimbursement (swiftly followed by a retraction), Gauteng citizens are going to pay off the Gauteng e-Toll portion of the “debt” as agreed to by the same premier. That means those who abided by the law and paid e-tolls will inevitably “pay a second time” through other levies and taxes.

A great “victory” for those who opposed e-tolls? Perhaps a sobering moment regarding the transient nature of government policy built on the foundation of popularist notions

The association was very clear at the outset of e-tolls that it would support the system subject to the government ensuring all who used the tolled routes would pay, and those who did not would be properly dealt with. Turns out that was another empty promise.

Our members abided by the law. Many citizens abided by the law. The association proposed alternatives before the first e-toll gantry began operating, but these fell on deaf ears.

Are the U-turns and detours seen over the past few years an indication of what will happen in the future regarding road development and maintenance, rail and port operations and the greater logistics network? One hopes not.

At least the uncertainty of looming legal action has been dealt a death blow.

A great “victory” for those who opposed e-tolls? Perhaps a sobering moment regarding the transient nature of government policy built on the foundation of popularist notions.

Now for the halt of anything of an Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences nature.

• Gavin Kelly is CEO of the Road Freight Association

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Iran and Israel said on Monday they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from US President Donald Trump, though Tehran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The most direct confrontation between the two countries since April threatened to wreck Washington’s efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end their more than three-month-old war.

Oil prices rose 5% after the flurry of attacks, then fell when Iran’s military said its first wave of strikes on Israel was over. The dollar retreated from its highest level in nearly two months.

A source briefed on the matter said Israel had also decided to halt its attacks on Iran.

Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday, calling them retaliation for attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia on the outskirts of Beirut.

Israel then hit Iranian air defence systems and a petrochemical plant it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.

No deaths were reported by authorities on either side.

The latest exchanges complicated Trump’s push to end a war the US and Israel launched on February 28. A ceasefire announced on April 8 paused all-out warfare, but flare-ups in the Gulf have continued.

Trump said Israel and Iran wanted an immediate ceasefire.

“Final negotiations on ‘peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way,” he wrote on social media.

US and Israeli officials said Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday.

In an interview with Axios published on Monday, Trump said he warned Netanyahu that if the Israeli leader went back to war with Iran, he might find himself fighting alone. “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon,’” Trump said.

Israel’s ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter pushed back on reports that Trump pressured Netanyahu, telling Fox News’ Special Report that conversations between the two leaders were co-operative and accusing journalists of playing up a misleading narrative.

“They have a deep friendship that goes back some 40 years, and sometimes lovers have a spat, and sometimes the tension in the room and in the conversation can get a little heated,” Leiter said.

An Israeli military official said Israel was prepared to continue operations for “as long as it takes”, while Iranian officials struck a similarly defiant tone. A military source quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Tehran was ready for a prolonged conflict and could renew strikes against US interests in the region.

‘Extreme suspicion’

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from any action that could further inflame an already volatile situation, according to spokesperson Farhan Haq.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was exchanging messages with Washington in an atmosphere of “extreme suspicion”.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, warned that any action against Iranian national security or Iran’s allies in the region, including Yemen’s Houthis, would be met with a decisive and costly response, Iranian media reported.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis pledged in a statement to stop Israeli navigation in the Red Sea and said they had also fired missiles at Israel.

The Israeli military later said it intercepted a suspicious aerial target from Yemen after hostile aircraft sirens sounded in the Eilat area.

The Houthis have so far largely stayed out of the regional war. They control territory at the mouth of the Red Sea, increasingly important as an alternative route for millions of barrels a day of Middle East oil otherwise blocked by Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

In Tehran, Iranian media reported explosions, with air defences shooting down a drone over the capital. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.

There were also signs of conditions returning to normal. Flights resumed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport on Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after being suspended following Iran’s missile attack on Israel, Iranian media reported.

Lebanese-Israeli talks to resume

Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people, saying it should be treated separately from any US-Iranian ceasefire. Hezbollah has also continued its attacks.

Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who had fired across the border.

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, said on Monday that Lebanese-Israeli negotiations had been scheduled to resume in Washington.

Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Trump has said any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon. Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the strait.

Reuters

The recall covers 2021-2025 model year Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Gladiator pickups over an electrical connection issue in the electric hydraulic power steering pump wiring, which in rare circumstances could cause combustible materials to overheat, potentially leading to a vehicle fire.

The recall includes nearly 1.08-million vehicles in the US, 106,000 in Canada, 23,000 in Mexico and about 125,000 in other markets around the world.

Stellantis said the recall will involve inspecting and possibly repairing or replacing the wiring harness or electric hydraulic power steering pump.

Stellantis said it is working to accelerate remedy availability and anticipates a recall fix no later than July.

It said it had received reports of one potential injury tied to the issue but no crashes or fatalities.

Reuters

This comes a year after Africa’s largest mobile provider announced a deal to create a new video streaming platform with UK based Synamedia.

The group said MTN One TV “brings together local storytelling, live channels, international programming,and market-specific viewing options tailored to how customers across the continent access and pay for digital entertainment”.

The company wades into a market in which the continent’s largest paid service, Showmax, found it difficult to turn a profit, with MultiChoice’s new owner Canal+ choosing to cut the service.

Until now, MTN has partnered with third party video-on-demand providers to promote their platforms, making its money through data bundles consumed on its network to access such services. The group has such partnerships with Disney+ and Viu.

Customers typically access the services at cheaper rates.

In the case of One TV, MTN customers will have different access options depending on which market they are in.

This will include free-to-view content, advertising-funded viewing, pay-as-you-watch access and subscription offerings.

“Depending on local availability, customers may also be able to pay through airtime, Mobile Money and other locally supported payment methods, helping to reduce common barriers to streaming access,” said the group.

With more than 312-million existing customers for its mobile service, MTN is pitching its new service as an opportunity for African creators, broadcasters and advertisers to offer content to a broader audience, leveraging the mobile operator’s vast scale on the continent.

“Entertainment is increasingly becoming an important gateway to digital participation,” said Selorm Adadevoh, the group’s chief commercial officer.

“Through MTN One TV, we are leveraging the scale of our connectivity, fintech, and digital capabilities to make relevant content more accessible while creating new opportunities for Africa’s creative and digital economies.”

The group will use a phased roll out for the service, launching in different markets according to “local market needs, existing services, and partnership opportunities”.

This is not MTN’s first foray into streaming.

In 2018, the company launched MusicTime, a music streaming service which allowed customers to buy time on the service, data inclusive, as opposed to a monthly subscription.

At the time, then CEO Rob Shuter saw thr model as a way to stand out from major streaming platforms including Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer, whose fees stood at about R60 a month, with an added cost of accessing the services on Wi-Fi or mobile networks.

Outside of data deals and building its own platform, MTN has also partnered with MultiChoice, providing the connectivity for its DStv Internet offering. Essentially a mobile virtual network operator, the service bundles video content streaming and connectivity for MultiChoice customers.

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Local pharmaceutical manufacturers have sounded a warning over the health department’s growing reliance on imported medicines, saying it threatens jobs and the country’s security of supply.

Over more than a decade, importers have gained a steadily increasing share of two of the health department’s biggest tenders at the expense of local drug makers, according to analysis by Pharmaceuticals Made in SA (Pharmisa).

“It completely flies against the country’s policy of localisation. Public procurement of pharmaceuticals is actually favouring and growing imports,” said Pharmisa chairperson Stavros Nicolaou.

Public sector contracts account for about 70% of the pharmaceutical products purchased in South Africa, according to Pharmisa. The health department’s Aids drug tender is the biggest by value (R15.5bn), followed by vaccines (R8bn) and the solid dose tender (R7bn) for pills and capsules.

Pharmisa’s analysis shows that local drug makers won more than 70% of the Aids drug tender by value in 2008 but just 24% in 2025, while their share by volume plunged over the period from more than 90% to just 22%. The latest Aids drug tender saw several local firms that had previously supplied the state shut out completely.

For the solid dose tender, the volume awarded to local manufacturers shrank from 55% in 2014 to just 14% in 2026, while their share by value fell from 60% to 15% over the same period.

Nicolau said the sharp drop in the number of items supplied to the state by local drug manufacturers carries risks, as it potentially means the loss of crucial technology. The trend is most acute in the solid dose tender, which saw local pharmaceutical manufacturers win contracts to supply just 42 products in 2026, compared with 152 products in 2014.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, the government expressed its determination to reduce reliance on imported pharmaceuticals, but the data shows the opposite is true, he said.

Pharmisa is particularly concerned by the health department’s adoption of a score for historically disadvantaged individuals (HDI) in the preference points it allocates to bidders, as it has unintentionally excluded JSE-listed companies, said Nicolau.

Listed companies make outsized contributions to the fiscus through corporate tax, VAT and levies, employ thousands of people, and offer superior supply chain resilience due to their scale. Yet the solid dose tender did not allocate preference points to any listed companies or to any other local manufacturers, he said.

The health department scores bids with up to 90 points for price and up to 10 for preference points.

The health department disputed Pharmisa’s charge that local manufacturing is not being considered in public procurement.

“Government continues to pursue a range of measures aimed at strengthening local manufacturing capability while balancing the need to maximise value for money and maintain sustainable access to essential medicines within a constrained fiscal environment,” said department spokesperson Foster Mohale.

While the department recognises the important role played by local pharmaceutical manufacturers in supporting medicine security and contributing to South Africa’s industrial development objectives, its primary responsibility is to ensure patients have uninterrupted access to safe, effective, quality-assured and affordable medicines, he said.

The health department has moved away from using HDI scores to allocate preference points and will in the future use broad-based BEE scores, he said.

In his court papers, Malema alleges that Mchunu has continued to make defamatory remarks against him, directly violating initial court orders that barred him from doing so.

This latest legal move comes just days after the Gauteng High Court, on June 5, found Mchunu guilty of contempt of court for “intentionally and unlawfully” republishing prohibited statements on May 20 and 21. A warrant was issued against him for his arrest and detention in prison for a period of 10 days.

Following the judgment, Mchunu filed a formal public apology to Malema and the high court, retracting his statements to suspend the arrest warrant.

Malema, who accuses Mchunu of again making defamatory statements about him in defiance of the court order, responded by filing a new application on June 8, this time pushing for harsher imprisonment.

The ongoing legal battle centres on several serious allegations Mchunu has made against the EFF leader. These are not being repeated here as they are the subject of the legal proceedings.

The matter is scheduled to be heard in court on June 17.

According to the latest court papers, Mchunu was required to notify Malema’s attorneys in writing by June 8 if he intends to oppose the application. He is also required to file his answering affidavit by June 10.

“If Mr Ngizwe Mchunu does not notify the applicant’s attorney of his notice of intention to oppose the application as set out above, and/or does not file their answering affidavit as set out above, and/or does not appear, whether in person or by representation, at the hearing on the date and at the time aforesaid, an order may be made against the respondent in his absence,” the court papers read.

TimesLIVE

However, greater market opportunity has not necessarily made investing any easier. In fact, it has increased the number of decisions investors are expected to make.

These range from balancing global exposure and market volatility to tax considerations, retirement planning and shifting personal goals, all while navigating a steady stream of market-shifting news, commentary and real-time data.

In this rapidly changing environment, the challenge is no longer simply identifying investment prospects — it’s ensuring that you make consistent, well-judged decisions over time.

This is why advice-led investing is gaining traction.

From product selection to structured portfolio design

Rather than starting with products, this approach begins with a clear understanding of the investor’s financial position, objectives and risk tolerance.

As a result, the focus isn’t on selecting individual investments — it’s on building a structured portfolio that can support those objectives across different market conditions. It’s a more deliberate approach, grounded in planning, discipline and ongoing adjustment.

Research supports the idea that the value of advice goes well beyond product selection.

Global investment manager Vanguard’s work on its Adviser’s Alpha framework aims to quantify the value that professional advisers add to investment outcomes. It estimates that a combination of behavioural coaching, asset allocation, rebalancing, tax-aware implementation and withdrawal planning can contribute a cumulative benefit of about 3% per annum in potential value added.

Investment research firm Morningstar reaches a similar conclusion from a financial planning perspective, finding that better planning decisions can meaningfully improve retirement outcomes.

Together, these research papers point to a broader truth that investors are often best served not by just receiving more information, but rather by having an adviser help them put a disciplined framework in place to guide them in making better decisions over time.

The cost of emotional decisions in complex markets

One of the reasons this type of advice-led investing is becoming more prominent locally is the growing complexity of investment choice.

As more South Africans allocate capital across both domestic and global markets, the risk of fragmented portfolios and inconsistent exposure increases.

Access has expanded, but without a clear framework, portfolios can easily become a collection of disconnected decisions rather than a coherent strategy.

Offshore investing is a good example. South African investors now have relatively broad access to global markets, supported by allowances such as the single discretionary allowance (which was doubled to R2m this year) and foreign investment allowance.

However, cross-border investing introduces additional complexity and considerations, including currency exposure, tax treatment and regulatory compliance. These factors are manageable, but they require coordination within a broader financial plan.

At the same time, long-term financial outcomes remain under pressure.

As investing becomes increasingly accessible to more South Africans, the real long-term success differentiator won’t be access alone. It will be the ability to navigate complexity with clarity and consistency

FNB Wealth and Investments

National Treasury has repeatedly highlighted that a large proportion of South Africans are not on track to retire comfortably.

This is one of the drivers behind recent retirement system reforms that place greater emphasis on approaches that prioritise consistency, appropriate risk-taking and alignment with long-term goals rather than short-term performance.

Of course, investor emotions and behaviours continue to play a significant role in the investment success equation. Even where access and information are available, decision-making is not always easy, or rational.

Investors often struggle with timing decisions, overreact to market movements and underestimate long-term risk.

If left unaddressed, or unmanaged, this type of behaviour can erode returns just as easily as poor asset selection can — in fact, the effect of emotion-driven investment and market timing attempts can be far more negative than just choosing a less than optimal stock.

Bridging the gap between strategy and execution

In response to these dynamics, advice-led investing focuses on process rather than prediction. It starts with understanding the investor’s full financial context, including income, liabilities, future obligations and personal priorities.

From there, a strategic asset allocation approach is established to balance growth, income, liquidity and downside protection. Portfolio construction follows, with diversification across asset classes, geographies and risk factors.

Ongoing management is central to the effectiveness of this advice-led approach. Markets shift, personal circumstances change and portfolios need to adapt without losing sight of the original objective.

Regular review ensures that portfolios remain aligned, while avoiding unnecessary or reactive changes that can undermine long-term performance.

For many investors, the success of advice-led investment often means they are comfortable allowing it to evolve into full discretionary portfolio management — which allows the investment manager full discretion to act on behalf of the client.

This helps bridge the gap between strategy and execution, ensuring that portfolios are managed in line with their intended purpose, rather than being shaped by emotions or short-term reactions.

Discretionary management also introduces a level of discipline that is difficult to maintain in self-directed portfolios. Asset allocation, rebalancing and risk management are applied systematically, supported by ongoing oversight and a clear governance framework.

This allows investors to remain focused on outcomes, while the day-to-day implementation is handled for them in a structured and consistent way.

It is this combination of disciplined process, consistent execution and alignment to client objectives that contributed to FNB Private’s recent recognition in the Euromoney Global Private Banking Awards as the leading discretionary portfolio manager in South Africa.

Awards aside, as investing becomes increasingly accessible to more South Africans, the real long-term success differentiator won’t be access alone. It will be the ability to navigate complexity with clarity and consistency.

Advice-led investing achieves this by focusing on more deliberate, outcomes-based decision-making, where long-term alignment takes priority over short-term reactions.

For investors seeking to build and preserve wealth over time, that level of structure and certainty is incredibly valuable.

This article was sponsored by FNB Wealth and Investments.

BNPL services are still largely absent from formal credit reporting systems such as TransUnion and Experian. As many of these products do not charge interest or upfront fees, they have operated in a regulatory grey area and have not been fully governed. Should the service become visible in the system, the Fintech Association of South Africa (Finasa) said it could affect how consumers are assessed when they apply for credit, even if they are paying their debt on time.

TransUnion said simulated analysis shows that 15%-25% of credit-active consumers could experience score movements if BNPL accounts were introduced into existing credit scoring models without being treated differently from other forms of credit.

The findings form part of TransUnion’s latest white paper examining the growing role of BNPL in South Africa’s credit ecosystem. BNPL allows consumers to split purchases into instalments, typically over a short period, and has become increasingly popular among younger consumers and those earlier in their credit journeys.

TransUnion said the issue is not whether BNPL should be visible in the credit system, but rather how that visibility is introduced and interpreted.

“The question is no longer whether BNPL should become more visible in the credit ecosystem. The question is how that visibility is introduced and whether the system is ready for its consequences,” it said.

Finasa said BNPL providers are co-operating with reporting to credit bureaus but support the regulator’s pause on full implementation because early analysis suggests it could unfairly lower many consumers’ credit scores.

The association emphasised that its members do not oppose regulation but want a careful, evidence-based approach to ensure reporting and any future regulatory framework are appropriate, do not harm consumers or the credit system and are developed collaboratively with stakeholders through ongoing engagement.

According to the report, the simulated score changes are not linked to worsening repayment behaviour. Instead, they are driven by how existing credit scoring models interpret additional information such as credit inquiries, account numbers, balances and utilisation levels.

The report finds that many consumers could experience score reductions at the point they take out a BNPL facility, particularly those in midrange credit score categories that are often most important for lending decisions.

TransUnion said these movements reflect the way models react to new credit information rather than a change in a consumer’s actual creditworthiness.

“Critically, these observed score movements are not driven by deterioration in actual repayment behaviour. They are driven by the mechanics of the model: additional inquiries, more open products, outstanding balances and utilisation signals. In other words, the models are reacting to more visible credit activity, but that does not necessarily mean they are reflecting higher underlying risk.”

The report also finds that BNPL users are generally younger, concentrated in lower- to middle-income groups and are often new to formal credit. About 17% of BNPL users are classified as new-to-credit consumers, while nearly 20% are considered underserved despite having some credit history.

TransUnion’s analysis found no evidence that BNPL users are inherently riskier than other borrowers. In many cases, their arrears performance was comparable to, or better than, non-BNPL consumers across unsecured lending products.

The bureau said BNPL has become increasingly integrated into the broader credit market and is often acting as a gateway into formal credit rather than replacing traditional products. Consumers using BNPL were found to be more likely to open credit cards, retail credit accounts and personal loans in the months that followed.

The report cautions against treating BNPL as if it were the same as traditional revolving credit products such as credit cards. BNPL products are generally short term, transaction based and fixed in repayment structure.

TransUnion said further testing, analysis and industry collaboration is needed before any large-scale implementation of BNPL reporting in the credit ecosystem.

“Visibility without context can improve transparency, but may also lead to unintended distortion if not carefully interpreted.”

The company said the next phase should focus on deeper analysis, controlled testing and alignment among lenders, regulators, BNPL providers and credit bureaus to ensure any future reporting changes support fair consumer outcomes and better lending decisions.

The president is generally unflappable, in the sense that a wet rag doesn’t so much flap as just sort of lie there, but you could see this is a moment of real crisis for the ANC as its crack political thinkers begin to consider the horrible possibility that voters might, in fact, be human beings who want things and not, as the policy documents insist, meat puppets who will keep voting for you forever as long as you give them a free T-shirt twice a decade.

Now, with an important election just five months away, Ramaphosa has turned to the sign that reads “In case of electoral emergency, break glass”. This isn’t the first time, of course: over the years he’s tried it dozens of times, breaking dozens of cognac glasses with his little platinum hammer before angrily asking his advisers why it never seems to solve anything. But this time he’s had it explained to him, and he’s smashed the safety glass and lunged for the big red lever — the one that so many other politicians and billionaires around the world have yanked over so many decades: the one that reads ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

In a speech that sat so firmly on the fence that Ramaphosa’s aides spent the rest of the evening pulling splinters out of his undies and rubbing soothing balm into his inner thighs, the president explained that immigrants should not exploit South Africans; that South Africans should not exploit immigrants; that people who exploited both should stop it, except if they were ANC presidents doing it for political gain, obviously; and that while repeating certain unverified claims about foreigners was acceptable, repeating other unverified claims was definitely not okay.

Of course, a certain amount of balance is admirable in politicians, and on the complex and explosive issue of immigration, one doesn’t want a president who veers into full Maga or Reform UK xenophobia, talking about murderous mobs of dang furners pouring across the border, or who goes the other way, appointing someone like Patricia de Lille to oversee the erection of a border fence made of fairy wings and excuses. What’s that? He already did the second one a couple of years ago? Well, you get the gist.

Still, some of Ramaphosa’s comments surprised and alarmed civic and human rights organisations, particularly when he said the concerns of South Africans “must not be dismissed” when it comes to the “anger about the number of foreign nationals running spaza shops, trading stores and other informal outlets”, apparently agreeing with these citizens’ beliefs that “foreign enterprises are squeezing out South Africans”.

ANC’s job

To some critics Ramaphosa seemed to be pouring petrol on an already crackling fire. Then again, I can understand why the president is upset about South Africans being squeezed out of the economy and made poorer: after all, squeezing South Africans out of the economy and making them poorer is the ANC’s job, a job it’s done magnificently for many years, and given how few jobs the ANC is good at, I can forgive Ramaphosa for clinging to this one.

There were also some questions raised by his promise that South Africa would talk to “our sister countries on the African continent” to help “forge a broader response to migration challenges across our region”. For instance, given that Ramaphosa recently enjoyed a low-key vaycay on Emmerson Mnangagwa’s farm in Zimbabwe, and given that the Zanu-controlled government in Zimbabwe is about to rubber-stamp a constitutional amendment whereby the president will no longer be elected by popular vote but rather by the Zanu-controlled parliament, and given that this guarantees failure and misery in Zimbabwe for many more years, along with a steady and growing stream of migrants heading south to South Africa, what, exactly, does “a broader response” mean?

But perhaps the most important question was raised by Ramaphosa’s inspiring closing statements, as he declared: “We can protect our borders while protecting human dignity. We can enforce our laws while upholding our constitution. We can secure our communities while preserving the values of ubuntu that define us as a people.”

Okay. But if you can do all those things, why don’t you do them?

• Eaton is an Arena Holdings columnist.

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Geopolitical uncertainty is pushing global investors toward the gold, defence and energy transition sectors, as markets position for a prolonged period of energy risk and inflation pressure, according to global investment manager Schroders.

The firm said investors are moving away from trying to predict geopolitical outcomes and instead focus on identifying which countries and sectors are most exposed to shocks such as energy disruption, inflation and currency volatility.

“Generally, investors have very limited edge in predicting geopolitical outcomes,” said Schroders head of emerging market equities Tom Wilson. “Our value-add lies not in predicting the next headline, but in assessing the relative exposure of countries and companies to the conflict and where we can allocate risk.”

Wilson said the prevailing environment is “a prolonged geopolitical shock”, with investors prioritising resilience and relative exposure over scenario-based positioning, adding that the shift is showing up in portfolio allocation.

Gold continues to attract demand as investors seek protection against currency weakness, fiscal uncertainty and broader market volatility, with central bank buying away from traditional reserve assets adding further support.

Defence companies are also seeing increased interest as governments respond to a more divided global security environment, with expectations of sustained or higher military spending across key regions.

Schroders said this is part of a broader move towards security-linked assets, with investors increasingly buying defence and security-related assets as global political tension and divisions become a lasting feature.

Electricity and cleaner energy

Alongside these positions, investors are also increasing exposure to sectors linked to the global shift towards electricity and cleaner energy, “as part of a broader search for assets less exposed to fuel import shocks and energy price volatility”. These include companies involved in renewable power generation such as wind and solar projects, electricity grid infrastructure, battery storage systems and electric transport, including electric vehicles and charging networks.

Schroders said the dollar is also responding to the same shift in investor positioning taking place amid geopolitical uncertainty.

The firm said the Iran conflict could strengthen the dollar in the near term through its effect on energy markets and relative economic exposure. Higher oil prices tend to weigh more heavily on energy-importing economies, increasing demand for the dollar in global transactions and hedging flows.

Wilson said the US is less exposed to this type of shock given its energy self-sufficiency, which may reinforce the dollar’s relative strength compared with other currencies during periods of heightened geopolitical tension.

However, over a longer horizon, Schroders still sees scope for dollar weakness on concern over US fiscal and external imbalances, which could eventually ease financial conditions for emerging markets.

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Chartered accountant and senior business rescue practitioner Sipho Sono has approached the Constitutional Court to stop his removal by a lower court as administrator of the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu).

Sono was summoned to appear before the labour court on Monday to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court, jailed or fined for refusing to step down as administrator of the Cosatu affiliate.

Sono’s office said approaching the apex court was a “normal appeal process”, and would not comment further. Judgment on the matter had been reserved until Friday, it said.

Earlier in 2026 the court ordered his removal and appointed Gerhard Vosloo, whose term started on March 1.

“But to Cosatu’s and Ceppwawu’s shock, Sono didn’t pack his stationery and walk off into the sunset; instead, he appealed the ruling and continued as administrator,” Cosatu national spokesperson Zanele Sabela said.

Ceppwawu has about 50,000 members. It was put under administration by the labour registrar in June 2020, after failing to manage its affairs since 2018. Sabela said the first administrator appointed by the labour registrar was axed after union members expressed dissatisfaction with poor performance.

Sono was brought in as an interim administrator for six months before he was eventually appointed.

“His marching orders couldn’t have been simpler — appoint an experienced facilitator to convene Ceppwawu’s regional and national congresses as per its constitution and ultimately elect a new leadership for the union. For his part, Sono would be required to compile audited financial statements from the year ending 2018 onwards,” Sabela said.

The congresses were to be convened and concluded by September 30 2023, after which the control, management and affairs of the union would be handed over to the new union leadership on expiry of Sono’s term on December 12 2023. “But Sono repeatedly failed to deliver on his mandate, prompting the [labour] registrar to petition the court to have him removed,” Sabela said.

She said the labour registrar was concerned about Sono’s “inability to compile and finalise the union’s audited financial statements. Consequently, audited financial statements for the years ending 2018 [to] 2025 are still outstanding”.

For his part, Sono would be required to compile audited financial statements from the year ending 2018 onwards

Zanele Sabela, Cosatu national spokesperson

“Sono has always maintained there were no funds to compile and finalise the financial statements. However, the labour court found this to be untrue because Ceppwawu Investments had offered him a loan with conditions meant to keep him accountable and transparent,” Sabela said.

“The registrar was also aggrieved by Sono’s failure to manage the union’s funds. A case in point is his refusal to recover union funds his predecessor had helped herself to by accessing Ceppwawu’s bank account, claiming it was monies owed to her from her tenure as administrator. By refusing to recoup the funds, Sono failed to act in the union’s best interests and thereby breached his fiduciary duties.”

In March, the labour appeals court affirmed the January ruling and ordered Sono to vacate his post as Ceppwawu administrator.

“After failing to appoint a facilitator to convene the congresses, not safeguarding the union’s funds, and failing to finalise the audited financial statements, it boggles the mind why Sono was fighting to stay on as Ceppwawu administrator. The one factor he never failed at, however, was paying himself an elaborate fee.”

Sabela said, “Vosloo was appointed by the court in January to replace Sono as Ceppwawu administrator. His term started on March 1 and will expire on December 30 2026.

“As per court order, Vosloo will finalise all outstanding audited financials and convene a national congress to elect national leadership for Ceppwawu, after which he must hand over control of the union to the national leadership.”

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Telkom sees value in holding on to its IT services business BCX, even as such businesses are facing lower spend and tightening margins.

According to Telkom boss Serame Taukobong, BCX’s alignment with the group’s broader digital infrastructure differentiates it from rivals facing the same challenges.

In recent years, margins for legacy IT services have come under pressure due to high costs for labour and hardware and lower spending by corporates. By comparison, platform businesses appear to be doing much better on this score.

Altron’s recent earnings report illustrates this dynamic. For the financial year ended February, Altron’s IT services segment had an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) margin of 5.3% while platforms had a much healthier 41.4%.

Aventis Advisors, which has reviewed more than 6,000 mergers & acquisitions deals in the sector, identifies ebitda margins of 10%–15% as “healthy” for IT services firms.

For BCX, which accounts for a third of Telkom’s revenue, this metric came in at 9.4% for the year to end-March.

“When people say, ‘Well, exit BCX,’ we say, hold on. I don’t want to be that guy … five or six years [down the line] … [and people ask] who was the idiot who sold BCX? Because that is the enabler of our digital ambitions,” said the Telkom group head.

While performing, this business only offers low margins, but Telkom is comfortable with this situation as it creates opportunities to sell higher-margin products and services to customers.

Total revenue declined 7.6% to R11.4bn, mainly due to the shift from legacy voice that carries higher margins.

Yet, Taukobong is upbeat about the unit’s prospects.

“If you look at BCX in its competitive set and peers, the published margins sit in the range of 4%-5%. BCX is sitting at 9%. Why is that? That’s the key thing of the One Telkom approach. The unique differentiator that BCX has is it sits on top of connectivity,” he said in an interview.

Taukobong’s view is that growth in BCX’s IT solutions business can help to drive higher recurring revenue and margins.

“With the connectivity on board, we can then go for the high-connectivity, high-margin IT solutions,” he said, highlighting that across the industry, companies are looking for ways to shift away from the high-cost, low-margin model.

“Where we have our own IP [intellectual property] in cloud, cybersecurity, [and so on] … if it sits on top of a good connectivity proposition, that’s where we can start to extract value. That’s why BCX is sitting at that higher end of the low-margin ecosystem. That’s a big differentiator,” Taukobong said.

Without making these changes, the former MTN Ghana CEO expects the low-margin status quo to remain.

“That’s the nature of that business [and] it will sit there. That’s the mental mind shift we’ve had to do. BCX is not mobile,” he said.

“But also understand the value of BCX,” Taukobong said, making the case that “there’s a high cash conversion rate because the clients do pay. And once we get a nice mix of annuity-type propositions we’ve got far better certainty.

“And if you look at where the spend is coming from. Yes, everyone’s talking AI, but IT and solution spend is still the biggest spend out of the total pie.”

In the period, overall BCX income was helped by 21.1% growth in cybersecurity services reflecting “sustained client demand for advanced threat management, advisory and network protection services”.

As business we must sound the red alert: we are genuinely concerned there is insufficient time to fully mitigate the risks, and so we must plan for the impact and redouble efforts to secure more supply as quickly as possible.

The cliff is not a metaphor. Sasol’s Pande-Temane gas fields in Mozambique, which supply most industrial gas to Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, currently about 167 petajoules per year, will be depleted by 2028. After that, the one certain supply is a small methane-rich gas bridge from Sasol’s Secunda plant, covering the period to about 2030. That leaves a large gap to be filled by other sources. The question is when and with what?

South Africa has been here before. The end to load-shedding has perhaps made everyone breathe too easy and forget our broader energy situation beyond electricity. We need some of that crisis-solving zeal seen around the load-shedding crisis applied here, and we need it now.

That urgency has been absent. The departments of trade, industry & competition and mineral & petroleum resources have, between them, generated years of working groups, task teams and consultations with little to show. The Gas Master Plan, which should be the guiding framework for national gas security, remains incomplete.

The Integrated Energy Plan (IEP), a legal obligation under the National Energy Act, has not been published according to the schedule the law requires. Business has engaged, submitted, briefed and warned, repeatedly and in good faith. What came back was process, not progress. That is a failure, and we name it as such.

The damage is not waiting for 2028. Investment flight is underway now. Companies making long-term capital decisions now, across glass, steel, ceramics, vehicle manufacturing, food & beverages and pulp & paper, face those decisions without any clarity on future gas supply, and some are already choosing to disinvest or defer. Each month of inaction locks in more of that loss, compounding the harm before the cliff even arrives.

When the cliff hits the consequences cascade. Industries that cannot switch fuels face curtailment or closure. Those that can switch to diesel, heavy fuel oil or liquefied petroleum gas will pay more and emit more, other businesses will switch to coal and emit more. Government and industry face an uncomfortable triage: deciding which plants and sectors get priority access to whatever gas remains.

Gas-dependent industries contribute R700bn to the economy annually, sustain 75,000 direct jobs and account for 8% of national GDP, with a six times employment multiplier running through the wider economy. A national crisis, not a sectoral problem.

Some will argue the cliff represents the market working, on the basis that moving away from fossil gas aligns with South Africa’s climate commitments. That argument does not survive scrutiny. Our nationally determined contribution sets a trajectory over 20-25 years; it does not mandate supply shocks.

A supply collapse in 2030 is deindustrialisation, not climate action. Forcing industries onto other fuels, which is what fuel switching means, produces more emissions, not fewer, so the cliff is also bad for the climate. Managing this transition with care and protecting existing industrial users while building alternative supply sits well within our climate framework.

A key cog in future gas demand is gas-to-power, which the energy transition needs to balance the grid. As South Africa phases out baseload coal, intermittent photovoltaic and wind introduce stability challenges that an optimal mix of gas and batteries can address. Developing that capacity requires a strong, certain pipeline of gas supply.

So what needs to change? The Gas Master Plan needs finalising and publishing. Compliance with the duty to publish the IEP each year, a requirement set aside without explanation, is long overdue. Section 34 determinations for gas-to-power need to be issued to create the anchor offtake demand that makes liquefied natural gas (LNG) import infrastructure bankable. Without that demand stack, private capital will not reach financial close on LNG terminals.

Joint frameworks with Mozambique and Namibia need formalising as a state priority, given that Namibia’s piped gas offers a cheaper long-term supply route than LNG, provided the pipeline investment is committed now. A gas aggregator needs formal recognition to consolidate industrial demand and negotiate supply contracts at the scale these projects need. Permitting and licensing delays blocking LNG terminal development at Richards Bay and through the Mozambique corridor need to go.

Engagement from the presidency on regulatory certainty has improved, and we acknowledge those conversations. But a better conversation is not a plan, and a plan without delivery is not a solution. It is time this issue was raised to the apex of government and for the president to lead a gas cliff crisis committee — not a consultative forum, not another ministerial task team, but a presidency-led structure with a mandate, a timeline and the authority to align the departments of electricity, energy, trade and minerals, the National Treasury, Eskom, Transnet and industry, behind a single, sequenced plan that reports to the cabinet and parliament and is held to account on outcomes, not process.

South Africa solved load-shedding when it stopped treating the problem as an energy department matter and started treating it as a national emergency. The gas cliff demands the same shift.

• Mathe is CEO, and Dos Santos head of energy and environment at Business Unity South Africa.

The conversations covered a range of subjects, from threats posed by rising geopolitical tensions to international trade and export diversification opportunities, economic diplomacy, Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) reforms, agricultural finance and structural reforms in the South African economy.

From the outset, the agribusinesses deliberated on the changing trade environment, with a clear view of how to strengthen South Africa’s position as one of the key agricultural exporters at a time when some markets are becoming harder to access and conflicts are disrupting trade. The central theme in all discussions was that the African continent, the EU region, the UK, the Americas and Asia remain South Africa’s key markets, and the country must work for better access to these markets while also deepening access for products that are not yet enjoying preferential or lower tariff access.

Reflecting on the medium- to long-term outlook, there was broad consensus that the Middle East and Asia remain critical strategic regions with the potential to expand access to them for a range of agricultural products. These are the agricultural export growth regions, in addition to the access we enjoy elsewhere. Securing better tariff access to several of these new markets will require South Africa to negotiate bilateral trade agreements with some countries.

This desire for better access to new markets prompted participants in and speakers at the congress to note the need for South Africa to more rigorously align its foreign and trade policies. Fortunately, a word of comfort came from the department of international relations & co-operation that its new economic diplomacy has begun to prioritise trade and investment far more strongly than before.

However, there was recognition that a stronger economic diplomacy strategy alone will not suffice. We need well-equipped people at South Africa’s missions around the world. The country has more than 100 missions globally, which should play a vital role in promoting trade and investment opportunities in South Africa, among other things. This is an area agricultural stakeholders will continue to advance through engagements with the government.

Also prominent in the discussions in Gqeberha was the urgent need to review Sacu, with the end goal of allowing South Africa greater flexibility to engage in bilateral trade agreements. In the current set-up, where South Africa must engage on trade issues collectively with other Sacu members, the country has not moved with the necessary urgency to open new markets. The world is changing, and countries are forming new trade agreements. South Africa risks being left behind if our approach to Sacu is not urgently reviewed.

Trade agreements alone will not be enough to boost exports. We devoted one afternoon to focusing on reforms in the network industries. Improving the efficiency of ports and rail was the key issue that arose from the discussion. The input from the Transnet leadership was that they are open to collaboration with organised agriculture, agribusiness and private sector stakeholders to ensure continued improvement.

Also worth noting was the time devoted to biosecurity, including plant and animal health issues. South Africa has been plagued by foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever, all bringing immense costs to the sector. A discussion of long-term interventions to tackle these issues and improve plant health was part of the agenda.

Overall, the congress’s discussions centred on deepening collaboration between the government, organised agriculture and other social partners to ensure the sector continues to grow.

• Sihlobo is presidential envoy on agriculture and land, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and a senior fellow in Stellenbosch University’s department of agricultural economics.

Almost three quarters of the country’s registered professionals are playing in Europe during the northern hemisphere summer – partly because there are more opportunities than ever before but also, perhaps, because they are recognising that their future careers lie outside heir homeland. More on that later.

There is no blame to be apportioned and, if there is, it is a pointless exercise. The strength of the pound and the euro makes even a modest club contract an attractive proposition ― most pay about R200,000 for a season ― while the English first-class counties are constantly looking to bolster their ranks for three different formats.

While South Africa’s most established international players are attracting fees of £200,000 in The Hundred which starts in six weeks’ time, there are about 15 more being well rewarded for participating in the inaugural Belgian T20 league. That’s right, Belgium has launched its own domestic league with young South Africans such as Tristan Luus, Gideon Peters and the super-exciting Gomolemo Phiri alongside a host of old-timers like Rassie van der Dussen, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Faf du Plessis and even Test captain, Temba Bavuma.

The South Africa A team has spent the past three weeks giving their counterparts, the England Lions, a bloody nose with whopping victories by eight and nine wickets in the four-day games followed by further nine and 10-wicket wins in the first two of three 50-over matches. Lhuan-dre Pretorius (116*) and Rubin Hermann (83*) added 201 for the first wicket at better than a run-a-ball in the second game.

These days young players are far more likely to make career decisions based on business pragmatism.

Jordan Hermann, meanwhile, was hammering an unbeaten 90 for Somerset against Warwickshire in England’s T20 Vitality Blast which also features George Linde, Eathan Bosch, Dian Forrester, Wiaan Mulder, Tristan Stubbs and Keith Dudgeon not forgetting Duan Jansen who is presently the competition’s leading wicket-taker helping unfashionable Gloucestershire to the top of their regional log with five wins from six.

There are also the long-established “exiles” who have become a part of county cricket’s furniture ― Simon Harmer, David Bedingham, Colin Ackermann, Leus du Plooy, Marchant de Lange and Wayne Madsen as well as the 20+ veterans who are still playing having switched national allegiance ― David Wiese, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Andries Gous, Chris Greaves, Brandon McMullen, Curtis Campher and so on.

Finally, there are the dozens of young South Africans who are in the process of doing likewise. Caleb Falconer appears destined to play for England having grown up and played his youth cricket in the Eastern Cape before donning the three Lions in the last under-19 World Cup. The perception that selection criteria is the driving force behind so much migration is outdated. These days young players are far more likely to make career decisions based on business pragmatism.

Apart from attracting some of the world’s best foreign players to South Africa and creating an attractive entertainment package, it was also hoped that the SA20’s mega-budget would provide sufficient incentive for young South Africans to stay and play cricket at home. And it does, but only for the small percentage near the top of the pay pyramid.

The majority of young players in South Africa are not involved in the SA20 and most of those who are earn less than they would playing a season of club cricket for Weybridge in the Surrey Championship. Some club sides up north in Lancashire and Yorkshire can pay even more. That’s the financial reality.

Meanwhile, there is an old adage, well known to sports writers in the world of newspapers: when there are cuts to be made they will be made first to the coverage of sports. In the good times it is a welcome selling point, but in the bad times it is the most easily dispensable.

It is with sadness but an acceptance of the inevitable that this will be the penultimate column from me in this extremely fine but financially challenged publication after almost 20 years on the beat. Next week is a public holiday so we’ll finish off a great run with some highlights from the past two decades.

South Africa’s geography, geology and history have fused into a deep aversion towards integrating into the global economy. The upside from greater integration between South Africa and neighbouring countries is meagre, particularly when it comes to this country’s and the region’s development shortfalls.

Unlike Johannesburg, the geography of the economic capitals of nearly all affluent nations is conducive to international trade. Construction of the Suez Canal undermined Cape Town’s international relevance as a resupply station for ships sailing between Europe and Asia. If the canal were to permanently close tomorrow, South Africa would only benefit marginally, as modern ships can carry adequate provisions, and the city served mostly as a supply depot, not a commercial hub.

Today’s Middle East successes highlight the benefits of countries advancing from excessive reliance on commodity exporting. The United Arab Emirates has demonstrated what commercially astute policymaking can achieve. At the same time, Saudi Arabia shows that growth through adding value is difficult for resource-endowed nations that have spawned pervasive patronage networks.

Geological endowments routinely provoke patronage politics while undermining international competitiveness. Starting in the 1980s, the World Bank went to great lengths to make Ghana a role model success story. Progress was real but sporadic. Then the discovery of a substantial oil deposit in 2007 became a blessing and a curse.

Political voices are quick to denounce capitalism and its inequities. Yet by far the world’s greatest development success story has been China’s rise since the 1980s. Whether labelled as capitalism, or capitalism with Chinese characteristics, or commercial realism, pro-business policies are required to sustain high-volume upliftment.

Given South Africa’s history, it was not surprising that then president Thabo Mbeki sought to lead an African Renaissance. But this was never commercially prudent for South Africa or the region. China’s success reflects its approach of targeting affluent markets while increasing its competitiveness.

AI is seen by many leading economists as threatening primarily older, highly educated workers. As birthrates plunge in most high-income countries and younger workers rapidly embrace AI tools, Africa’s contribution to global births will soon adjust to 40%. Unlocking this region’s potential will require combining pro-business, pro-global integration policies with personal initiative.

As South Africa’s redistribution-focused politics and ultra-elevated youth unemployment suppress initiative, our entry-level service sector jobs, such as those in the restaurant, lodging and ride-hailing sectors, are frequently staffed by foreigners. This was always going to trigger xenophobic tensions.

The economies of Russia and China are complementary: China is great at adding value and Russia has an abundance of natural resources. South Africa’s economy is far less complementary to those of our neighbours. Our core binding constraint — insufficient purchasing power to achieve anything resembling full employment — is also this region’s primary binding constraint.

This region must integrate far more substantially into the global economy by catering to its evolving needs. The region’s leaders would be more inclined to pursue such integration if they weren’t able to benefit richly from patronage funded by exporting commodities.

Post-1994 South Africa should have aspired to be a regional role model and a gateway between Sub-Saharan Africa and the world. Instead, our leaders have entrenched the world’s most severe youth unemployment crisis. This reflects remarkably few of our workers adding value to exports destined for consumer markets with high discretionary purchasing power.

We are nearing 20 years of per capita income stagnation. This traces to policies relying imprudently on domestic consumption — despite most of our households being poor, overindebted or both.

According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s future is inseparable from the future of Africa. Such thinking contrasts sharply with how high-growth countries add value to exports destined for affluent markets. High growth will continue to elude us without sweeping policy reforms.

• Hagedorn is an independent strategy adviser.

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The Turnaround Management Association Southern Africa (TMA-SA) says the business community is bracing itself for a rough 2026 with more entities set to opt for business rescue to stay afloat.

An analysis by the entity of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) showed that business conditions were tough even before the outbreak of the war in the Middle East — with 48 companies having entered business rescue in February, the highest monthly figure on record.

“Our research shows that business rescue is neither quick nor a guaranteed lifeline,” says Stefan Steyn, a director of TMA-SA.

“Successful rescues take an average of 18 months to complete, while companies that ultimately fail spend more than a year in the process before ending in liquidation,” Steyn said.

“That raises important questions about whether some businesses are entering rescue too late or remaining in the process without realistic prospects of recovery.”

All in all, just more than 1,400 companies are currently in business rescue, with the economic hub of Gauteng accounting for about 51% of all new filings.

TMA-SA chair Haroon Laher says South Africa must fundamentally shift how business rescue is perceived.

“Business rescue is not for the ‘terminally ill’. It is a strategic intervention that can create significant social and economic value by preserving jobs, protecting businesses and preventing further losses to creditors and the broader economy.

“Business rescue is not a solution in itself; it creates the framework and time needed for a company to find solutions. The later a company enters rescue, the harder recovery becomes. By the time lenders pull the plug, and the choice is between liquidation and rescue, practitioners are often working against overwhelming pressure.”

One of the companies fighting for dear life is Tongaat Hulett, whose demise will have far-reaching consequences for the sugar industry and the farming community. The South African Post Office is also in business rescue, threatening the livelihoods of more than 3,000 people who work for it.

The business rescue industry is not without its own challenges, with a growing trust deficit within the business rescue ecosystem. The process is often marred by lengthy proceedings, costly legal battles and unclear fee structures.

Laher acknowledged that there was a capability deficit among practitioners.

“There is already an informal reputation system in the market around which practitioners and stakeholders trust to work,” he said. “If practitioners cannot demonstrate capacity, integrity, knowledge and experience, they simply will not be appointed. That tells us that confidence in parts of the industry needs strengthening.”

The Bureau for Economic Research (BER) and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) business confidence index (BCI) fell eight points to 39 in the second quarter, with the deterioration being broad-based across sectors.

But the sharpest pullback came from those most exposed to shifts in household spending, financing conditions and fuel costs.

The interest is hardly surprising given that South Africa ranks fifth in the world for alcohol consumption.

Such a tax increase could rake in billions for the fiscus, which the government badly needs to develop the economy, boost infrastructure and fund social services.

It is a plausible decision to ramp up revenue growth. It is also a significant tool frequently used by many a government to discourage excessive consumption. The simple logic being to reduce consumption by making the product out of reach.

But while logical, this often produces some unintended results.

The harsh reality is that the country faces a substantial burden from alcohol-related harms, including family neglect and significant pressure on healthcare and emergency services.

These costs are borne not only by drinkers but also by families, communities and taxpayers. Brewers must, alongside government and civil society, co-create a solution to a bigger problem that can’t be taxed away.

With the acknowledgement from both sides on the harmful nature of alcohol that is prevalent in South Africa, beer manufacturers have a special responsibility to engage the government on its concerns, which must not start and end with fear-mongering over the illicit economy.

Businesses must, in this regard, offer solutions that are both practical and implementable in building a healthy society at peace with itself.

Though it has a number of positives, such a decision also has numerous and often destructive downsides which, we hope, the government has thoroughly considered. For it has been down that road before — with the health promotion levy on sugary beverages it enacted a few years ago.

It is thus encouraging the inclusive manner in which the National Treasury has approached discussion about its proposal by hosting workshops for both industry players and civil society in the room to air their views.

The industry has warned, as one would expect, that the mooted tax will accelerate the growing threat posed by illicit alcohol, which business claims will in turn undermine both public health objectives and government revenue.

There are merits in this argument, which the government must seriously consider without giving in to public pressure, as the government has a higher calling in protecting the public from harmful practices.

South Africa is also a nation bedevilled by many social ills, chief among them the sheer abuse of alcohol and the harsh consequences many families pay due to this conduct.

Excessive alcohol consumption is one of the primary drivers of crime in South Africa, deeply linked to contact crimes such as murder, attempted murder, rape and gender-based violence.

Tighter enforcement and notable progress in curbing the surge in illicit alcohol must precede any decision to enact laws that might prop up the black market.

Not to forget the contribution of alcohol to the country’s high vehicle accident rates.

Any policy discussion looking to curb alcohol abuse in the interest of good public health outcomes must be debated in a sober and inclusive manner.

The overarching objective should be to reduce the devastating impact of alcohol abuse in society and keep at bay the illicit trade in alcohol.

The two must not be seen as competing priorities, as this will muddy the waters and frame the debate as public health regulation and enforcement as polar opposites of the national debate. The two are not mutually exclusive.

The government must prove it’s capable and willing to rein in the illicit economy, which, by its very admission, gobbles up R700bn of GDP annually.

Tighter enforcement and notable progress in curbing the surge in illicit alcohol must precede any decision to enact laws that might prop up the black market.

Lessons can be drawn from the demise of British American Tobacco’s business in South Africa, which led to the decision to cease local production following the near takeover of the market by illegal players.

Other jurisdictions overseas have shown that it is possible to implement taxation and other evidence-based alcohol policies while simultaneously strengthening enforcement against illegal products.

This is the sweet spot the government should seek.

With a capital commitment of about R22bn, inclusive of a R2bn dedicated LNG berth, the project is not merely a logistics intervention but a foundational reconfiguration of how energy, infrastructure and industrialisation intersect in the South African context.

At the core of the agreement lies the introduction of large-scale LNG import and regasification capacity estimated at around 3.6-million tonnes per annum once fully operational. The capacity is designed to support up to 3,500MW of gas-to-power generation within the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

This generation potential materially exceeds the 3,000MW allocation identified within South Africa’s broader 6,000MW gas-to-power programme, underlining the extent to which Ngqura could become a major anchor of the country’s transition fuel infrastructure. In a national grid system where supply deficits have become endemic, this quantum of dispatchable capacity is non-trivial.

By comparison, 3,500MW far exceeds the output of several mid-sized Eskom coal-fired stations, including Kriel (3,000MW), Arnot (2,352MW) and Hendrina (1,893MW), but with far greater operational flexibility. Gas-fired plants can be dialled to increase or reduce output in response to shifts in demand or renewable generation, helping to stabilise a grid with growing shares of wind and solar power.

In this sense the Ngqura development is more than an incremental increase in capacity; it represents a meaningful step toward a more resilient and responsive energy system. This role also aligns with South Africa’s stated drive to diversify its energy mix away from an overwhelming dependence on coal.

The Integrated Resource Plan 2019 provides for 14,400MW of new wind capacity, 6,000MW of solar photovoltaic capacity, 2,088MW of storage, and 3,000MW of gas by 2030, reflecting a policy framework in which gas is intended to complement rather than displace the growth of renewables.

In that trajectory, the Ngqura LNG project supports diversification on two levels: it broadens the country’s fuel supply base beyond declining pipeline gas from Mozambique, and it helps create the flexible generation needed to integrate larger shares of wind and solar into the grid. In this sense, LNG infrastructure is not an alternative to renewable expansion but part of the enabling architecture required to make a more diversified and lower-carbon electricity system viable.

The intervention is particularly salient when examined against the impending “gas cliff”, a structural discontinuity in South Africa’s energy supply driven by the decline of gas imports from Mozambique’s Pande and Temane fields. These fields underpin over 85% of South Africa’s gas consumption, supplying about 160 petajoules annually via pipeline infrastructure.

Yet production is expected to taper off sharply between 2026 and 2028, with some projections indicating cessation of supply as early as mid‑2026. The economic implications of this decline are profound. Industrial gas users contribute R300bn-R500bn to the economy and sustain upwards of 70,000 direct and indirect jobs, all of which are jeopardised in the absence of alternative supply sources.

The intervention is particularly salient when examined against the impending ‘gas cliff’, a structural discontinuity in South Africa’s energy supply driven by the decline of gas imports from Mozambique’s Pande and Temane fields. These fields underpin over 85% of South Africa’s gas consumption, supplying about 160 petajoules annually via pipeline infrastructure.

Within this context the Ngqura LNG facility functions as a strategic hedge against systemic disruption. By integrating South Africa into global LNG supply chains, it effectively decouples domestic gas availability from the depletion cycles of regional reserves.

Though exposure to global price volatility creates new risks, a sudden drop in gas supply would be far more damaging, especially for industries such as steel, petrochemicals, ceramics and food processing that depend on gas for energy and industrial feedstock. The LNG terminal thus represents a critical bridging mechanism, cushioning the transition from a pipeline-dependent system to a diversified gas economy.

Beyond energy security, the project’s spatial integration with the Coega SEZ amplifies its developmental significance. Spanning about 9,003 hectares and designed as a cluster-based industrial ecosystem, Coega has already attracted tens of billions of rand in investment and supports thousands of operational and construction jobs.

The introduction of a reliable LNG supply into this ecosystem fundamentally alters its competitive proposition. Energy-intensive industries — particularly smelters, furnaces, and metallurgical operations — are acutely sensitive to energy reliability and input costs. Aluminium smelting, ferrochrome production and steel manufacturing require uninterrupted, high-temperature processes that are prohibitively vulnerable to electricity disruptions and fuel variability.

The co-location of LNG infrastructure with a deep-water port capable of handling large container and bulk vessels, including more than 1-million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually, creates a powerful convergence of energy security and logistics efficiency. This convergence lowers transaction costs across the value chain: raw materials can be imported efficiently, processed using stable energy inputs and exported with minimal logistical friction.

The result is the emergence of a globally competitive industrial node capable of attracting domestic and foreign direct investment. In such a configuration the Ngqura port ceases to function merely as a conduit for trade and instead becomes an integrated energy-industrial platform.

The implications for downstream investment are substantial. Access to regasified LNG enables the establishment of high-temperature industrial applications at scale, from blast furnaces to chemical processing units. It also opens pathways for gas-based industrial innovation, including the potential development of hydrogen derivatives and advanced manufacturing processes.

Critically, the presence of a large and reliable gas supply reduces the risk premium associated with long-term industrial investment in South Africa, thereby improving capital allocation outcomes across sectors.

The project’s employment impact should be assessed in the short and long term. Over its roughly 36-month construction period, it is expected to create more than 500 jobs, followed by 50 permanent positions once operations begin. While these direct jobs are significant, their broader value lies in the economic activity and investment they help unlock.

By anchoring fuel supply for as much as 3,500MW of electricity generation in and around Coega, the project improves the viability of energy-intensive investment that can support additional employment in manufacturing, logistics, maintenance, services and downstream industrial activity. While modest in isolation, the direct job figures therefore understate the broader employment multiplier associated with industrial clustering.

The preservation of tens of thousands of existing jobs threatened by the gas cliff, with the creation of new positions in manufacturing, logistics and services, positions the project as a critical labour market intervention. Moreover, the skills development associated with LNG infrastructure, ranging from cryogenic engineering to advanced port operations, contributes to the deepening of South Africa’s technical capabilities.

From a macroeconomic perspective the Ngqura LNG project embodies a form of infrastructure-led growth strategy aligned with South Africa’s Just Energy Transition objectives. By enabling lower-carbon gas-to-power generation, it supports the decarbonisation of the electricity mix without sacrificing reliability. Simultaneously, it anchors industrial expansion in a manner that leverages existing comparative advantages — namely, access to mineral resources, strategic port infrastructure and established industrial clusters.

The phased implementation, beginning with a floating storage and regasification unit before transitioning to permanent onshore facilities, also introduces a degree of temporal flexibility, allowing gas supply to commence before full project completion.

Yet the project’s long-term success will depend on its capacity to navigate a complex set of uncertainties, including global LNG market dynamics, exchange rate volatility and the evolving trajectory of decarbonisation policy. The anticipated operational date of 2035 underscores the need for policy coherence and regulatory stability over an extended horizon.

The TNPA–Ukwanda LNG agreement has the potential to reanchor South Africa’s energy economy, mitigate the worst effects of the gas cliff, and catalyse a new wave of industrialisation centred on the Eastern Cape. By linking energy security, industrial capability and port infrastructure into a single integrated system, it offers a pathway toward a more resilient, diversified and globally competitive economic future.

• Dr Tshitereke, an honorary professor at Unisa’s Thabo Mbeki School of Public & International Affairs, is chief of staff at the mineral & petroleum resources ministry.

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Mozambique’s drive to develop one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects could create wider opportunities for Southern Africa, with a Standard Bank-backed macroeconomic study saying the development could become a catalyst for a growing LNG, domestic gas and regional gas industry.

The study, prepared by the Pretoria-based consulting firm Conningarth Economists for Standard Bank, assessed the proposed Rovuma LNG project, an 18-million tonne a year development planned for northern Mozambique that aims to commercialise part of the country’s vast offshore gas resources.

According to the report, the project’s vision extends beyond LNG exports and includes the development of domestic and regional gas opportunities as part of a broader industrialisation strategy.

The study says the project could become “a catalyst for a growing Mozambique LNG industry”, with gas being used domestically and regionally to support wider economic development.

Under the study’s long-term vision, Mozambique could ultimately position itself as the world’s fourth-largest LNG supplier after the US, Qatar and Australia.

Mozambique’s development comes as South Africa is positioning gas as part of its electricity planning, with LNG imports emerging as a near-term option to support planned gas-to-power capacity.

On Friday, Eskom signed an agreement with Zululand Energy Terminal for LNG import infrastructure at Richards Bay, in support of its gas-to-power development linked to a 3,000MW expansion plan as per the Integrated Resource Plan 2025.

This is the clearest indication that South Africa’s gas-to-power plans are leaning towards LNG imports as a key input for future generation capacity, given limited domestic gas availability. However, the practical pathways for securing LNG supply are unclear, with details about sourcing arrangements, pricing frameworks and import logistics yet to be defined.

While Mozambique advances plans to develop a large-scale LNG export and domestic gas industry, South Africa’s gas sector has seen uneven progress. Regulatory uncertainty and legal challenges across parts of the value chain have delayed offshore exploration and development projects, with court action halting or slowing activities. This has weakened momentum in bringing domestic resources into production despite confirmed discoveries such as Brulpadda and Luiperd.

Industry stakeholders warn of a policy vacuum in South Africa’s gas sector, citing fragmented policy frameworks and legislative constraints that have slowed investment decisions. Concerns include the effectiveness of existing upstream petroleum legislation in supporting bankable projects, as well as environmental approval processes that have, in some cases, led to legal disputes, delays or project stoppages. This has contributed to slow progress in developing new domestic gas supply ahead of an expected gas shortfall.

Former bar server Helen Kearney was describing for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) the moment at 10.15pm 40 years ago this week that her life changed forever when uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC and SACP, committed what would be one of its most contentious terror attacks.

MK started out in 1961 with acts of zero-casualty sabotage. But apartheid state terrorism by police and military death squads led to a change in tactics towards a “people’s war”, a mass popular insurgency to be instigated and led by its guerrillas. This change was endorsed at the ANC’s Kabwe conference in Zambia in June 1985 to mark the ninth anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising.

The car bombing of the Why Not Restaurant and Magoo’s Bar at the Parade Hotel on Durban’s Marine Parade a year later, on Saturday June 14 1986, killed three white civilian women, Angelique Pattenden, Marchelle Gerard and Julie van der Linde, and wounded at least 69 people. The target had reportedly been selected by Robert McBride’s tiny MK cell because it was a hangout for off-duty personnel from the police’s Security Branch and the military’s Natal Command.

I am recalling the slaughter four decades on to remind us of the importance of the TRC, the legacy of which is under the microscope at the Khampepe commission of inquiry into the seditious conspiracy to scupper prosecutions of apartheid-era perpetrators — on all sides — resulting from its investigations. Also, I am connected to both sides of the Why Not-Magoo’s tragedy.

Like so many victims of colour testifying before her at the TRC, Kearney recounted her grisly experience in detail that still sears: “It was a massive bloodbath with flesh and blood dripping from the walls. I remember seeing half a head ... I remember smelling burning flesh. And dragging people out. There were people walking round in circles, they had splinters of glass, enormous, through their heads, through their backs, they didn’t know what had happened.”

To understand the white-hot anger tempered with ice-cold purpose that had propelled McBride, his sidekick Matthew Lecordier and McBride’s apparently unwitting girlfriend, Greta Apelgren, who drove the getaway car, to commit such an act, one would have to travel to the far side of Durban harbour, to the formerly coloured township that McBride called home.

Austerville is a bare-minimum ghetto in the shadows of the oil refinery’s smokestacks, its naked fields, crumbling old brick houses and storied tenements eerily lit all day and all night by the giant flaming-off of excess gas.

Respiratory complaints caused by the incessant petrochemical soup in the air were common among children; it’s easy to see how such tainted air and soil, deliberately reserved for coloureds, could bring forth an angry young man under the inspiration of his father Derrick, a man so militant that in later life he publicly repudiated the ANC for being too milquetoast.

In contrast, McBride’s mother Doris and his sisters Bronwyn and Gwyneth impressed me as sweet-natured and disarmingly apolitical. Back in 1992, as a journalist, I had made the effort to get to know the family, including their irascible father, because McBride was due to get released from Westville Prison in a quid pro quo for the release of ultra-right “Wit Wolf” terrorist Barend Strydom, who had gunned down six black people and an Indian person at Strijdom Square in Pretoria in November 1988.

Though polar opposites, the two men were both facing execution by Pretoria’s hungry gallows when the sweeping political reforms initiated by then president FW de Klerk saved them from the noose. They were to be the first of 450 political prisoners from across the political spectrum to be released in 1992 in an act of good-faith largesse intended to smooth negotiations towards democracy.

The symbolism of the freeing of equally infamous terrorists who had been such objects of hatred to their political opponents captured the imagination of the world’s press, so on that morning in 1996, they were camped en masse outside Westville Prison awaiting McBride’s release.

Two hours later than promised, a group of liver-uniformed warders walked a tall, gangly guy with tinted glasses, close-cropped woolly hair, and wearing what looked like blue surgical scrubs to the gates. He was book-ended by his wife Paula, a white Lawyers for Human Rights activist whom he had married three years before while on death row, and teddy-bear-like ANC deputy president Walter Sisulu.

The newshounds hopped and flashbulbs flared, but the man at the centre of the storm was ushered quickly into an ANC motorcade, which roared away with him for a private welcome and debriefing. The actual press conference was around noon at the Ecumenical Centre church hall, which had long ties to the ANC-oriented United Democratic Front (UDF).

On the stage were seated a long row of returned exiles, former prisoners and other ANC luminaries, with McBride and Sisulu in the middle. The hall was packed with several hundred ecstatic toyi-toyiing supporters, forcing most of the press corps to grab seats in the banked choir area to the left of the stage. I, however, found myself a seat in the front row.

Then the inevitable happened: those on the stage stood, threw their fists into the air in the black power salute, and started singing Nkosi Sikilel’ i-Afrika, the droning, dirge-like ANC anthem that calls on the deity to bless Africa. As a working journalist, I alone among the hundreds crammed into the hall remained seated; even the foreign press sang in the choir while McBride and Sisulu glowered at me.

Late that afternoon, gruff-mannered Natal Mercury photographer Peter Duffy and I were hanging around outside McBride’s Austerville home. With the shadows lengthening, we at first watched the local schoolgirls playing hopscotch on a grid scratched into the tar with stones, then, bored, asked if we could join in for one round.

Everyone knows it’s a girls’ game, so they flashed us gap-toothed grins and giggled, watching these two grown white men lumber through moves half-remembered from watching our sisters in childhood; and having screwed it up, we retreated to the shade of the tree under which we’d parked our car to wait.

Eventually, McBride was delivered by his comrades to his parental home, and the sisters invited us in. The household was buzzing, but in the McBride lounge were immediate family members only: mother, father, sisters and their kids. They all squeezed onto the couch for a group shot.

McBride himself was distracted, taking congratulatory calls on the landline, the cord stretching out behind him. Finally, the family settled into place and Duffy got his world-exclusive portrait, though the famous former prisoner was staring off out of shot, already wrapped up in his future plans. I got the possibly mistaken impression that he was a bit of a cold fish.

In May 1996, the TRC heard Kearney’s testimony; wanting to illustrate the story, I realised that I had gotten to know the only child of Julie van der Linde, who was decapitated in the blast. Candice van der Linde at that point also worked as a bar server. The Sunday Times’s Durban news editor, Jocelyn Maker, liked my idea for a story about her — so long as fellow journalist Craig Doonan twinned my piece with a story about an ANC couple’s child who had survived one of the military’s cross-border raids.

In the aftermath of the bombing, Candice van der Linde was photographed by the press as an eight-year-old with a blank, incomprehending stare, listlessly fidgeting with a Barbie doll, but she had never before spoken publicly about the murder of her mother. Van der Linde agreed to talk to me, but only because we were friends.

Then 18 years old, she told me she had finally accepted her mother’s loss only two years before: “Now I need to face how she died and why. I don’t want to know all the gory details, but after 10 years of being shielded from the truth, I want to find out what happened. It’s not good to live in the past, but I’ve never properly dealt with it, so I have to go back before I can get on with my life.”

There, in a simple sentence, was the heart of the reason for the TRC’s existence. At the time of the bombing, Van der Linde’s parents were divorced: “The last time I saw my mother,” she told me, her large eyes swimming under thickly arched brows, “was on the Friday when I went to spend the weekend with my father. On the Sunday, I was expecting to go back home, but there was a phone call and I was told that my mother was dead.

“At the funeral, the coffin was closed, probably because she was so badly mutilated, so] I never got a chance to say goodbye. My family took away all photographs of my mother; they were trying to protect me. I understand: how do you tell an eight-year-old that her mother died in a bomb blast?

“But a few weeks later I was given the handbag she’d had with herself that night. There were a few drops of blood on it, and there was glass inside, among her things. Suddenly the violence of the real world hit me in the face.

“I had to grow up real quickly and I had to go through so many things, like puberty, without my mom to lean on. I became a rebel at school; I was uncontrollable and few people seemed to understand why....

“I’ve got my mother’s costume jewellery, and I’ll get her rings when I’m 21. I’ve got a black cocktail dress she made for herself, but I’ll never wear it. I was also given her silver bracelet,” she said, showing me the plain silver band on her left wrist.

“It was so tight she could never get it off and it has scratches all over it, so I believe she was wearing it when she was killed. I used to take it off for school, but now I’ve grown up and it’s too small for me to remove.”

I asked her about her views of McBride, who was by then deputy director of foreign affairs. Taking in a long, shaky breath, Van der Linde steadied her voice and said she supported the bombing survivors’ calls for him to be relieved of his post: “He should continue to be involved in his country but shouldn’t represent it. I don’t hate McBride because I don’t know him; I don’t think I’d even recognise him if I ran into him on the street…

“I was told he was haunted by a picture of my face at my mother’s funeral. If that’s so, it’s just something he must deal with. It is terribly sad that people had to die for our country to get where it is now. My mother was just a pawn in a big chess game.”

In his 2019 biography, written by Bryan Rostron, Robert McBride: The Struggle Continues, the former MK commander’s recollections of the selection of the target for the bombing differ from that of Lecordier: McBride claims he was so emotional on the night that he had let Lecordier select a softer target on his behalf, while Lecordier maintains McBride was determined to bomb the Golden Mile.

Rostron writes that when Lecordier saw the pictures of the aftermath in the Sunday Tribune the next morning, “he wanted to puke”, while for McBride, “it dawned on him what they had truly done”.

But the last words should go to Van der Linde, with whom I have subsequently lost touch: “I’m not political, but I agree with the father of Cornio Smit,” she said, referring to the eight-year-old boy killed with four others in the 1985 Amanzimtoti bombings carried out by MK, which also wounded 61 people.

“He told the Truth Commission last week his son was a hero because he died in a legitimate uprising for freedom by an oppressed people. I feel the same way about my mother.”

Wierzycka told shareholders in her biannual letter that AI has been the primary theme for markets over the past six months, fuelling an about 6.9% return from the JSE top 40 index and driving R8bn in market appreciation for the firm’s portfolio.

The adoption of AI tools across many industries, the looming initial public listings of large language model owners OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, and the technology firms that have emerged as financial backers of AI innovation have all stirred a frenzy of tech stock buying which Wierzycka said now overshadows geopolitical market drivers in the group’s outlook.

“The AI investment theme has dwarfed any concerns about the economic impact of political disruption,” her letter reads.

Heady ideas around the explosion of AI’s capability and integration have seen global stock markets, particularly the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, soaring over the past year.

As established tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon invest billions into their own data centre builds and launch aggressive AI-adoption programmes, investors anticipating an AI popularity surge have steadily increased their stakes in the companies, which now make up nearly a third of the S&P 500 index.

Meanwhile, tightening supply of data centre hardware has boosted Asian giants which dominate the supply of memory chips, such as Samsung and SK Hynix, more than doubling the size of South Korea’s stock market since the end of last year.

In South Africa, the growing focus on AI by Naspers subsidiary Tencent means investors are benefitting from China’s push to become a dominant player in the global AI race through exposure to the JSE-listed tech giant and its subsidiary Prosus.

Naspers is the second largest listing in the JSE’s top 40 index, which is tracked by Sygnia’s most popular fund.

Wierzycka has placed AI at the centre of her growth plans since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022 by releasing a suite of AI funds that package global technology and AI exposure for South African investors into rand-denominated funds.

Soon after ChatGPT’s release, Sygnia was marketing itself as the first asset manager to launch a tech and AI-focused actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF). Earlier this year, it went a step further by launching a specialised venture capital fund specifically for local AI startups.

The company, South Africa’s second-largest multimanager asset management group, reported a stellar interim performance for the six months to end-March, with headline earnings per share jumping 22% to 138.1c.

It boasted an after-tax profit of R216m, up 25%, even as operating expenses rose by 21.6% (attributed to increased investment in staff and technology), as revenue rose by 24.3% to R616m.

The group declared a total dividend of 122c for the first half of the financial year, about 25% higher than in the same period last year.

Shares in the group climbed as much as 3.7% on the release of the results to their highest level since February this year at R33.50 — less than R3 short of the record high they achieved in December.

In the past five years, Sygnia shares have gained just shy of 75% as the firm grew its assets under management and administration from R251bn to over R460bn.

The outlook for AI is not all rosy. Wierzycka’s letter to shareholders also notes some well-trodden concerns about the threat AI poses to job markets.

“We will likely soon learn that strong GDP growth, fuelled by infrastructure spending, can co-exist with rising unemployment,” she said.

But South Africa, said Wierzycka, is no more vulnerable to the threat of AI than the world’s largest economy. She has previously emphasised that AI will affect only white-collar jobs, unlike recent innovations in manufacturing robotics and other sectors.

“From initially being a target of US wrath, South Africa has become an observer. Perhaps that is the best place for us to be.”

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The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is contemplating imposing price increase caps on gas in a bid to shield industrial users who contribute as much as R500bn to the economy annually from excessive price hikes from the dominant supplier, Sasol.

The country is navigating its way from an imminent gas cliff as Mozambican natural gas reserves supplying the market are expected to be depleted by mid-2030.

Sasol in November said it had made significant progress in the development of a methane-rich gas (MRG) supply solution aimed at ensuring continuity of gas supply to the South African market beyond June 2028.

This followed the technical feasibility of supplying MRG from its Secunda operations to external customers for a limited bridging period from July 2028 to June 2030.

MRG differs from natural gas in a key respect. Sasol is the sole producer, sole supplier and regulated trader, all within a vertically integrated group. This situation presents several risks that Nersa now has to grapple with.

Nersa is now reviewing the methodology it uses to determine prices charged to consumers and the possibility of a transition price escalation cap to protect affordability is on the cards.

“The methodology should address the risk of excessive price increases during the transition from natural gas to MRG, particularly given the significant economic role of industrial gas users, who represent 70,000 direct jobs and contribute an estimated R300bn–500bn annually to the economy,” the discussion document reads.

“Sudden, large price increases could have severe economic impacts, even if such increases are cost-justified. To manage this risk, the methodology could include an annual price escalation cap for the MRG transition period (July 2028 to June 2030).

“For example, if any approved MRG maximum price would result in more than a specified percentage increase (such as 20%–25% year on year) over the last approved natural gas maximum price, this would trigger a mandatory consultation process.”

Sasol is effectively the sole primary supplier of gas to the South African market. The depleting reserves from Mozambique have seen South Africa enter a period of structural change.

Declining supply from Mozambique, combined with the anticipated introduction of bridging fuel, MRG and the longer-term transition to LNG-based supply, is expected to alter the cost structure, risk profile and pricing dynamics of gas provision, Nersa warned.

The regulators’ discussion document said the pricing of MRG raises potential market power considerations, more so when the acquisition cost is determined through intragroup arrangements.

“To ensure robust cost verification, the methodology should require that any MRG acquisition cost submitted to Nersa be accompanied by an independently audited marginal cost of diversion,” the document reads.

“This means the actual cost Sasol South Africa incurs to redirect MRG from internal use to external supply (including foregone chemical and liquid fuels output plus incremental modification costs), rather than a fully allocated cost based on internal accounting conventions.”

The watchdog said the methodology it seeks after public consultation must ensure that the cost component of the price reflects the underlying economics of gas procurement in the South African market.

However, a key complexity arises in the case of vertically integrated firms, most notably Sasol, where the acquisition cost may reflect an internal transfer price rather than an arm’s-length transaction.

Nersa said this creates a structural risk of double recovery and it may have to look beyond internal transfer prices to the underlying production economics to prevent this.

“This risk is particularly significant in the South African context, where Sasol occupies a dominant position across both gas supply and infrastructure. As a result, the integrity of the cost of gas component depends heavily on the extent to which intragroup transactions are subject to effective regulatory scrutiny.”

When it announced it was progressing with the MRG solution, Sasol flagged that the successful implementation of the MRG solution was subject to approval of its maximum gas price application by Nersa.

It said at the time its application would reflect the cost of acquiring MRG from Sasol South Africa, the producer, and would be determined in accordance with Nersa’s pricing methodology.

The group, worth R150bn on the JSE, said on Monday that it was still studying the contents of Nersa’s discussion documents and their implications for its business.

“The regulatory framework applicable to gas pricing requires the regulator to balance the interests of all stakeholders in the gas market,” the company said.

“Accordingly, Sasol supports mechanisms that aim to balance affordability for customers with the interests of gas suppliers required to ensure sustainable gas supply.”

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Dateline: June 4 2032

In a move that has shocked entrepreneurs and microenterprises, the European parliament has voted to outlaw automated machinery and AI-powered tools in private hands. Only licensed and regulated use will be permitted.

The first ban came into effect against 3D printers capable of making firearms and parts, with the justification that it was necessary for “safety and security”. But now it has been extended to include all kinds of printers and robots that can produce consumer goods and services for the mass market.

“We can’t have you repairing your neighbour’s car in exchange for baked goods,” said Hans Dortmuller, head of the EU’s collective commerce and trade metrology ministry. “You must go to the service station and supermarket or the whole economy will be at risk.”

These moves are symptomatic of the new problems facing the abundance society, where robotics and cheap electricity have made traditional labour almost redundant. Everyone knows it’s cheaper (and more convenient) to buy an Autobake robot and make your own bread at home rather than buy fresh bread from the store. And with most people working two to three days a week, everyone has plenty of time for DIY or cottage industry.

The Maker Movement and Right to Repair lobby are up in arms over the proposed laws. “It’s preposterous,” said Jacques Revanoir, “making it legal for me to fix my own phone but illegal to print batteries for the whole town. It’s just like saying you can generate a movie for your own enjoyment but not for your online subscribers and followers.”

It’s a harsh truth, but the abundance promised by advanced robotics and almost free energy has spawned a two-tier economy, with huge corporations in control of major brands and home industries and garage entrepreneurs delivering customised products to their local communities.

The bureaucrats want these new regulations to reverse declining tax revenues, but the unintended consequence will be to stifle innovation and promote social unrest. Perhaps it’s time to accept that they’ve lost control and let the free market be truly free? / First published in Mindbullets June 4 2026.

The curse of abundance

Free energy spawns hordes of wetbots and kills off big brands

Dateline: July 12 2033

“We’re closing up shop. Wetbots made us broke.” The production chief of iRobot consumer products grins ruefully. “Luckily we’ve still got our military contracts!”

Since open source, peer production of printed solar panels has made electric power almost zero cost, robots have taken over agriculture, mining and most manufacturing. With no jobs, but plenty of creative spirit, the “maker” movement has spawned millions of backyard factories, churning out low volume, low-cost 3D printed products for anyone and everyone.

Hipster geeks have, quite disparagingly, called these one-man factories “wetbots” ― humans doing the work of a robot. Multifabbers for the home or garage, capable of printing in plastics, metals and electronics all at the same time, completely revolutionised the manufacturing process, even replicating themselves. Bioprinters have done the same for food and organic goods such as leather. The Internet of Things made us far more productive in every business.

But the ultimate leveller was energy, because all of these machines need power. Cheap solar substrates and the sharing of surplus energy ― called the “energy internet” ― sealed the deal for networks of individuals to produce whatever they need at almost zero cost other than their spare time.

Now even robot companies such as iRobot are at risk in this new paradigm. Profits from innovation evaporate in the face of competition from the wetbot network. Brands lose their value. Is this the end of capitalism as we know it? /First published in Mindbullets July 9 2014.

• Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. The Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, and challenge and stimulate strategic thinking.

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Multinational packaging and paper group Mondi is looking for trade protection from South Africa’s authorities as cheap office paper imports flood the market, eating into its revenue in the country where it was founded 60 years ago.

Mondi Rotatrim, which has just undergone a brand refreshing exercise, is one of South Africa’s most recognised premium office paper brands.

It is this market position that the England-headquartered Mondi is looking to get protection for via an antidumping tariff. Sappi has come out in support of Mondi’s application to South African authorities.

The prospects of Mondi, worth R71bn on the JSE, to secure a hefty antidumping tariff look good after a preliminary investigation by the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) found imports of office paper were taking market share from domestic producers.

To this end, Itac is considering invoking emergency provisions of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to effect tariffs that shield the local industry from demise.

“The applicant [Mondi] alleged and submitted prima facie evidence indicating that it is experiencing serious injury in the form of a decline in sales, net profit, output, market share and employment during the period of surge from January 1 2023 to December 31 2024,” Itac said.

“Furthermore, an analysis of the period of investigation from January 1 2023 to December 31 2025 indicates that the applicant has experienced serious injury in the form of declines in sales, output, net profit, market share, capacity utilisation and employment.

“On this basis, the commission found that prima facie evidence was submitted to indicate that the Sacu [Southern African Customs Union] industry was experiencing serious injury that could be causally linked to the recent, sudden, serious and significant surge in imports of the subject products.”

Itac will not invite interested parties to weigh in on the matter before it arrives at a final determination, a process that is likely to end with antidumping duties slapped on imports of office paper.

The broader South African office supplies market rakes in billions of rand annually with paper supplies taking the lion’s share of revenue.

However, like other paper-based industries, it is facing an evolving, digital landscape, eating into profits.

Mondi’s argument is that persistent global overcapacity has redirected surplus production into open markets, including South Africa, and that the country’s tariff bindings and market-access commitments under the WTO framework have enabled increased imports amid heightened competitive pressure.

Mondi also argued that South Africa’s commitments under WTO agreements, which saw it bound to its tariffs on printing and writing paper products at reduced ceiling levels of 20%, limited the country’s ability to adjust tariffs in response to unforeseen import surges.

In a separate matter, Sappi has also asked the South African government to impose a 5% tariff on imports of newsprint, in rolls or sheets, arguing that without this protection, the local print industry runs the risk of extinction.

Manufactured using virgin wood fibre, Sappi newsprint is a preferred grade among local newspaper printers. It has the required strength and runnability for demanding cold- and heat-set converting used in the manufacture of newspapers and advertising inserts.

South Africa’s print industry has been battered by a migration to digital platforms and rising costs of print, which has seen numerous magazines and newspapers shut down or move online.

Sappi South Africa vice-president sales and marketing Gareth Cloete said the group feels it is important to support Mondi’s application.

“Sappi continues to promote and support fair trade practices and policies which will protect South Africa’s industrial base and importantly, the associated jobs throughout the value chain,” Cloete said.

“We believe it is critical that private sector businesses engage with policymakers to not simply seek short-term protection but build understanding for the importance of robust trade policies that will ensure South Africa remains competitive ― both locally and abroad.”

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South Africa is facing similar economic constraints to much of the developing world presented by larger economies. Smaller economies should exercise multilateral solidarity to mitigate these impacts.

This is according to Guillermo Ortiz, G30 treasurer and former governor of the Bank of Mexico, the country’s central bank, who was responding to last week’s inaugural Tito Mboweni lecture in Cape Town.

The lecture was delivered by the former president of the Deutsche Bundesbank Axel Weber.

The lecture came as protectionist trade policies such as tariffs from the Global North, mounting US debt, reliance on exports by China and failure to draw infrastructure capital by EU countries have made liquidity markets tighter for developing economies.

Asked what he attributes South Africa’s relatively low growth to, Ortiz said structural challenges make it harder for emerging economies to access capital to develop catalytic infrastructure, and the Global North’s challenges intensify these liquidity constraints.

“Usually, [this] applies, obviously, to … many emerging markets, [including] Latin America, [which are] also on a stagnant growth path for quite a long time. And obviously, we have structural constraints,” Ortiz said.

“It’s the job of the politicians to find their way around these structural constraints … to achieve the desired objectives. In this case, economic growth gets us out of this sense of stagnation [and] seeks more equality or less inequality [among economies].”

Weber’s lecture comes while geopolitical tensions and trade protectionism have worsened a dire situation for South Africa, characterised by GDP growth battling to breach 1%, unemployment at 32.7%, and gross fixed capital formation that consistently fail to breach 15% of GDP.

The lecture honoured Mboweni, a seasoned politician who was also democratic South Africa’s first labour minister, the first black Reserve Bank governor and a former finance minister. He passed away in 2024. Ortiz said Mboweni excelled at convincing leaders in the Global South to take their fate into their own hands.

During his presentation, Weber said a report that he co-authored for the G7 economies warns that the global economy is once again threatened by deep structural imbalances, excessive current account surpluses and deficits, weak investments, industrial overcapacity, high debt levels and declining international solidarity.

“We argue in our report that imbalances fuel trade tensions, that financial instability helps to push protectionist pressures and that geopolitical fragmentation is a threat that is real for the global economy,” Weber said.

The lecture came while the US has been at the centre of two of the sharpest global inflationary pressures, not least of which is its ongoing war with Iran and a raft of unilateral tariffs imposed on economies worldwide, including strategic geopolitical allies and trade partners.

Weber said his report for the G7 advocates for a co-ordinated multilateral response rather than unilateral trade wars or economic coercion.

“Our recommendations include stronger international policy co-ordination, increased domestic demand in surplus countries, fiscal consolidation in deficit countries, renewed productivity investments, strengthened IMF surveillance and reforms of the global governance when it comes to trade.”

Ortiz said Weber’s lecture gave a vigorous diagnosis that corrects the imbalances in the global economy between mounting US debt, export reliance by China and the inability to draw fresh capital by the EU.

“Global imbalances are obviously macroeconomic in nature, rooted in savings and investment differentials across many economies, not in trade policy. The current retreat into tariff centrism is using the wrong instruments for the job, and the consequences are being felt acutely across the globe and in our countries like South Africa and Latin America.”

Jacob Frankel, former governor of the Bank of Israel, called to mind an African proverb that Mboweni would tell him, which he repurposed for the theme of the lecture that night.

“The story says when elephants fight, the grass suffers. When elephants make love, the grass summons. Too bad for the grass. Well, Tito refused to accept this verdict. He said: ‘If I am grass, I’m either going to become an elephant or I’m going to be resilient.’”

Frankel said large countries are introducing many of the shocks to the global economy, while smaller countries bear the consequences. He said smaller economies should “take care of their own destiny” and increase their resilience.

Several parallels can be drawn between Rand Water and Eskom, not least of which is negligence resulting from decades of unsound policy, uninformed strategy and underinvestment (“Government moving to fix SA’s deepening water crisis, says Ramaphosa”, May 15). For both utilities protracted periods of no maintenance, rehabilitation and capacity expansion have led to outsized and nonlinear effects that bear such long and variable lags that it becomes difficult to link cause and effect.

In the case of Rand Water conflicting explanations are continuously provided, and even though they are plausible and can co-exist, the root cause should be discerned. On the one hand, system unreliability is attributed to excess demand, which should, however, have been anticipated.

On the other hand, system failures are blamed as if they are acts of nature. In a period when dams are overflowing it is difficult to understand why water production capacity cannot fulfil demand or why the distribution network cannot deliver satisfactory flows. The proliferation of leakages and sewage spills further clarifies the argument.

These failures, whether hydraulic, engineering or operational, clearly indicate poor decision-making and resource allocation. If not addressed proactively or timely, breakdowns will only become more complex, complicated and costly to rectify, resulting in a perpetual crisis modus operandi, since these problems cannot be addressed overnight. The resulting disruption to socioeconomic activity is inestimable.

Rand Water is fast approaching the catastrophe Eskom faced and is still recovering from. There was always an unwillingness to identify, recognise and tackle the underlying issues, either due to apathy or poor understanding, until Andre de Ruyter exposed the controversial truth at a time the country had fallen to its knees.

The only reason Eskom is turning around is the government woke up to reality and is providing the required backing, oversight and resources. It would be dangerous to wait until water and sanitation services sink to the level Eskom did. In densely populated urban areas with high-rise buildings that have no alternative water sources and sanitation services, the disaster of going without water for prolonged periods can be devastating.

The belief that these gigantic, inherited systems can go on indefinitely without deliberate intervention is an unfortunate but pervasive feature of people’s mindsets. The government should appreciate the fragility of these utilities and ensure good governance is provided.

In the absence of legitimacy, rule of law, transparency and accountability it is possible to appoint unsuitable executives not only in terms of competence but also integrity. As a result, poor forecasting, inadequate planning, resource misallocation, problem misdiagnosis, wrong remedial measures, insufficient controls and suboptimal operational schedules can result, among other shortcomings.

These challenges are not unique to Eskom and Rand Water but are common across all state-owned enterprises. Utilities particularly deserve special attention not only because they provide basic services, but also due to their tendency to exist as natural monopolies.

Stephen Nyende-Byakika

Silverton

Promises and pledges from leaders ring hollow

Addressing parliament in his presidency budget debate, President Cyril Ramaphosa said corruption will not be tolerated, adding that those who abuse public resources betray the constitution (“Ramaphosa dismisses ‘political theatre’, prioritises economy”, June 4).

The big problem is that no-one believes the president anymore. Not a single word he says. He is the ultimate Hollow Man. He once said Eskom blackouts would be a “thing of the past” and that any ANC-elected politician charged with corruption would be required to “step aside”. He also said he had no idea how over R8m in undocumented and undeclared dollar bank notes found their way into his sofa cushions.

The trouble is Ramaphosa claims and promises and pledges things all the time. He showed us all exactly who he is at Marikana. We should have believed him then.

Mark Lowe

Durban

ANC has ignored all US conditions for trade talks

Your editorial opinion refers (“Tau must take business into his confidence on US negotiations”, June 8).

The ANC is not negotiating with the US. It has ignored the four conditions the Americans laid down as the key to start negotiations, these being that the ANC regime legislate against the singing of the “Kill the Boer” song, treat farm murders as priority crimes, remove BEE ― which has nearly killed off productivity in South Africa ― and remove expropriation without compensation from the statute books.

These are all clear and constructive requirements. The ANC has ignored it all, with President Cyril Ramaphosa particularly against BEE being removed. He must believe black South Africans are really stupid to require protection from an 8% minority of the population.

So, the African Growth & Opportunity Act? Dead in the water.

Andrea Robertson

Via Business Day online

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