These words are the last that will roll off our printing press in 2025. Business Day, like most other newspapers, will take a break from the shelves over the festive period. We’ll be back on the first Wednesday of the new year.
Our digital properties — the BD website, app and social media — will be live throughout the holidays.
However you consume our product, we’d like to thank you for coming along on this journey with us. Our mission is to produce premium, agenda-setting news and analysis on a daily basis. That requires your buy-in, both literally and figuratively. Your patronage enables us to keep our journalism at the highest possible standard.
A strong fourth estate is going to be critical in what is set to be a fractious 2026.
This year’s provocateur-in-chief, American President Donald Trump, proved there is no limit to disruption that can be wrought in under 12 months. It’s prudent to expect similar uncertainty over the following period.
South Africa, like the rest of the world, can expect to contend with punitive tariffs and bullying diplomacy. What exacerbates our situation is the grudge Trump has developed against the nation.
It’s still anyone’s guess whether he truly believes the genocide fable he’s been sold or is wielding it as a tactic — in either case it’s an issue that promises to haunt us for the foreseeable future.
Venezuela has it worse. As we warned in these pages last week, American aggression in the Caribbean is one of the gravest threats facing global stability. The same label remains tagged onto the fragile Gaza ceasefire and the quagmire in Ukraine.
If Trump is to justify the pretences of his ludicrous Fifa Peace Prize, then he will have to produce exponentially better results in his self-appointed role of global deal arbitrator.
Life is no more predictable domestically.
For the first time in our history, we head into the local government elections with the ANC not gripping a national majority.
The party has spent the last year and a half grappling with its own mortality: massaging awkward allegiances, embracing compromise and engaging in the type of introspection that was sorely lacking in the preceding two decades.
Reports of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s potential ousting were almost certainly agenda-fuelled exaggerations. But whether the party can find the co-ordinated front to arrest its decline is another matter entirely.
South Africa itself is at a similar crossroads. The last couple of months have seen a cautious optimism pervade inside and outside the nation. There is a palpable sense that this is a corner turned — albeit with the universally agreed caveat that the state of affairs remains capricious.
But the hard work still lies ahead. The World Inequality Report 2026 released this week confirmed that the country has retained its title as the most unequal on Earth. The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s South African reconciliation barometer at the same time found trust in political leaders is exceptionally low. Afrobarometer recently picked up an alarming willingness to consider rule by the military.
These results should shock us, if not exactly surprise us. Faith in our institutions will continue to plummet if they do not serve the people they represent. “Investor confidence” will not be enough if Joburg’s streets remain filthy or Cape Town becomes unaffordable to most of its residents.
The burden of turning things around falls on all of us, from government and business to the media, civil society and an active citizenry.
For now, however, we hope you’re able to take a deep breath after an eventful year.
All of us at Business Day wish you and yours a restful, thoughtful holiday period.
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