Big ambitions are running headlong with weak oversight, and this week's dispatch shows how that mismatch will decide whether policy becomes progress or another headline.
Forensic teams on the trail of a syndicate in the Tembisa hospital looting frenzy hauled luxury cars and high-end artwork at a Sandton home, and hours later, police teams converged at the home of Shadrack Sibiya, seizing devices and prompting him to predict his own imminent arrest.
Thando Maeko's chronicles how the criminal justice system is turning live public hearings, reported diligently by Tara Roos in parliament and Sinesipho Schrieber at the Madlanga, into an enforcement test that will be judged by prosecutorial follow-through.
Those headlines feed public frustration about stewardship of the economy, and opportunistic politics is already circling. Three smaller parties, Bosa, Rise Mzansi and Good Party, have stitched together a tactical alliance, promising swift accountability and a zero-tolerance stance on state capture. But Tom Eaton writes off the merger, calling it a defensive move against irrelevance rather than a credible alternative. Useful for headlines, useless for governance.
Elsewhere in politics, Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk map how tender flows and intermediaries channelled millions into slush funds tied to Julius Malema and senior EFF figures. It's as much a procurement failure as it is a blot on the EFF flag as a trustworthy opposition party.
Meanwhile, Jacob Webster, reporting from the Joburg Mining Indaba, caught Anglo CEO warning that two decades of unfriendly exploration policy cost SA a generation of mines, underlining that permits, rail, and power come before private capital will underwrite new shafts at scale.
Which brings us to the ANC's 10-point industrial plan, which puts the right levers on the table -- preferential power for smelters, freight turnaround, chrome export controls, and a presidential war room to force delivery by 2027, as Thando Maeko reported. Bold intent? Yes. Real delivery risks? Absolutely.
Alan Knott-Craig's, one of our guest op/ed writers this week, 3% revenue-for level 3 BEE shortcut collided with Tiisetso Motsoeneng's and Stuart Theobold's clause-by-clause warnings: big money, workable idea, governance risk. What's more, as Theobold and some of our readers warn, the levy can cripple low-margin companies while rewarding high-margin businesses. So, test it, don't give it away.
Simultaneously, the government is pursuing between $2-$3bn from Afreximbank to capitalise the fund, a move that will reduce immediate reliance on domestic levies, if and when the proposal is adopted, Linda Ensor reported in parliament. The are a few questions around the story, not least how the Afreximbank funding will sit alongside the proposed 3% levy.
Stephen Cranston's profile on Nedbank under CEO Jason Quinn is exactly the kind of editorial expertise you can expect when the Financial Mail is woven into Business Day -- crisp interviews, balance sheet scrutiny, and investor-ready takeaways.
Nedbank is pushing iKhokha to scale township small business volumes, trimming non-core African exposure, and targeting stronger shares in personal loans and car finance. In truth, Nedbank's competitive edge lies in property, car finance and green, not in the township informal sector wave that may. Ikhokha look like ambition ahead of economics.
Gavaza's piece on Optasia planned JSE IP tests investor appetite for AI-driven airtime lending, and sets a benchmark for fintech economics on the local bourse. Optasia's numbers look good on paper; the market will punish messy credit and reward durable platform economics.
Or the founders of Optasia on in line for a huge payout, joining a founder and early investors as the outlook for the sector brightens thanks to the Reserve Bank's overhaul of the payments system. Kabelo Khumalo documents this phenomenon.
As always, this week leaves a single and uncomfortable test of whether big fixes can be married to the work of delivery. Celerate the ambition, but demand the pilots, public scorecards that separate genuine reform from performative headlines.
Until next week. Every story is your business.
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