Category: News
-
Jasmine Opperman: Ex-SAAF General jailed in the US as an SA agent…
Listen here A former brigadier general in the South African Air Force (SAAF) has been jailed in the United States after she pleaded guilty to one count of acting as an agent of South Africa and one of making a false statement in her security clearance application. In this interview with Chris Steyn, Jasmine Opperman,…
-
BizNews Edge: DA Education Minister Gwarube unpacks what’s next for her and her party
Listen here Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube — DA insider, former party spokesperson and one of the organisation’s most recognisable faces — gives BizNews a candid read on a turbulent week. She pushes back on Dr Frans Cronje’s assessment that education is in a mess, making the case that systemic reform cannot be judged in…
-
From M-Net to Musk: MultiChoice legend bringing Starlink to Southern Africa
Nolo Letele’s move from broadcasting royalty to telecoms trailblazer is a fitting sequel to a career built on cross-border expansion. The man Koos Bekker tasked with growing MultiChoice across Africa in the 1990s is now chairing T-Connect Lesotho, the ISP driving Starlink’s rollout across Southern Africa. It’s a neat symmetry: decades ago Letele extended pay-TV…
-
Fertiliser Tsar’s warning: Why SA farmers should watch this oligarch
South Africa has skin in this game. Oligarch Andrey Melnichenko is the world’s fertiliser king, and one of South Africa’s largest suppliers. Melnichenko’s own company has shipped product through African ports amid sanctions pressure — making local farmers’ input costs hostage to Moscow’s stability. Pretoria’s non-aligned, BRICS-friendly stance on Ukraine has long banked on Russia…
-
Anthea Jeffery: Net zero will de-industrialise SA like Germany and the UK
Dr Anthea Jeffery argues SA is on the verge of repeating Europe’s costly mistake. As new environment minister David Maynier takes office, draft regulations under the 2024 Climate Change Act threaten to impose mandatory carbon budgets, steep fines, and even jail terms for directors at firms emitting above a low 30,000-tonne threshold — potentially forcing…
-
MTN’s Ghana 5G ambitions collide with xenophobia fallout back home
MTN’s Ghana bid lands amid a diplomatic firestorm: Ghana rejected a state visit from President Ramaphosa this month after xenophobic violence in South Africa killed a Ghanaian national and prompted roughly 1,000 Ghanaians to flee home. Anti-MTN sentiment has flared in Ghana whenever such attacks make headlines, with MTN chairman Mcebisi Jonas issuing an unusually…
-
‘Binface’ candidate who could sink Farage — and Musk’s old grudge resurfaces
There’s a South African thread to the story that’s got the UK buzzing: Reform UK’s fortunes have long been entangled with Elon Musk, the Pretoria-born billionaire who once considered bankrolling the party before a public falling-out with Farage over leadership and tactics. Musk’s on-off flirtation with Reform UK exposed the same fragility Count Binface’s candidacy…
-
Nvidia’s trillion-dollar reset: Cheapest since 2019 despite record profits
Nvidia’s stock has shed roughly $1 trillion in value since May, now trading at 18 times forward earnings — cheaper than the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, and even Hershey. The drop isn’t about weakening fundamentals: profit estimates keep rising, and Nvidia still commands 97% of the server GPU market. Instead, capital has rotated toward…
-
BN Daybreak: US-Iran ceasefire collapse; Cronje on SA politics; Ballito mall bomb scare
Listen here Today’s BizNews Daybreak covers escalating US-Iran strikes spiking crude oil and Fed minutes warning of upside inflation risks. Trump permits Ukrainian Patriot missile manufacturing and lifts Syria sanctions, while Apple expands a $30B Broadcom deal and China greenlights Nvidia sales. Locally, Frans Cronje analyses the DA’s John Steenhuisen fallout and Willem Els goes…
-
Director’s Cut: Dr Frans Cronje – Why the DA’s biggest threat isn’t the ANC
Frans Cronje delivers a hard-hitting assessment of the Democratic Alliance’s internal turmoil, John Steenhuisen’s dramatic fall from grace, and what it means for South Africa’s political future. He argues the DA’s biggest challenge is proving it can govern better than the ANC, warns that voter confidence is slipping, and explains why Helen Zille’s Johannesburg ambitions…
-
Willem Els – Failed food court bomb attack could have killed and maimed many
Listen here Chilling details have emerged of a recent failed bomb attack in the packed Food Court of the Ballito Junction Regional Mall. The device was placed by a 15-year-old radicalised teen intent on committing mass killing, but it failed to explode. The FBI alerted The Hawks, but the bomb had already been placed. The…
-
BizNews Edge: Dr Frans Cronje on what the Steenhuisen interview really cost the DA
Listen here Dr Frans Cronje joins Alec Hogg for a wide-ranging catch-up that reframes the week’s political noise into something more useful: a structural theory of why the DA is stuck and what it actually has to do next. His regime change argument is sharp — South Africans have lost confidence in the ANC, but…
-
SA’s youth non-voting problem may be turning a corner ahead of November’s local elections
South African youth have historically skipped elections — 90% of 18-19 year-olds didn’t register for 2021’s local polls, citing disillusionment, inaccessible voting stations, and a belief that parties ignore their concerns. Sara Gon, in this piece for The Daily Friend, argues the deeper cause is low voter literacy: many don’t grasp that voting is the…
-
Katzenellenbogen: Hill-Lewis’s “second transition” – opportunity, but no easy path to power
Geordin Hill-Lewis used his first major policy address to frame South African politics as entering a “second transition” — the end of ANC one-party dominance since the 2024 GNU. He argues this widens space for the DA but breeds volatility: factionalism, vigilante groups like Operation Dudula, and a weakening state authority. Political analyst Jonathan Katzenellenbogen…
-
Cathy Buckle – Zimbabweans’ exodus from SA: “We are no longer wanted here.”
A Zimbabwean writer’s letter describes a devastating reversal: South Africa, long a refuge from Mugabe-then-Mnangagwa-era repression, food shortages and joblessness, has turned hostile as protesters — echoing Operation Dudula-style anti-migrant campaigns — attack documented and undocumented African migrants alike. Over 29,000 Zimbabweans were deported or self-repatriated in May-June 2026 alone, cutting remittances that total roughly…
-
SpaceX decoded: The $2-trillion bet riding on one man’s shoulders
We are proud to publish this exceptional SpaceX research report from David Coutts-Trotter — chartered accountant, former CEO of Sun International, and a valued member of the BizNews tribe. Retail investors are routinely priced out of research this rigorous, while researchers charge handsomely for it, and in SA that means restricting distribution to large institutional…
-
SA retirement savers are quietly (unwittingly?) riding the AI bond wave — and its risks
South Africans may feel distant from Wall Street’s AI bond binge, but many are exposed to it without realising it. Since 2022, Regulation 28 has allowed pension funds to push offshore allocations toward 45%, and multi-managed funds have increasingly chased AI-linked returns abroad, given thin domestic opportunities. That means retirement savings sit inside the same…
-
Part 2: Suburbia’s broken promise – Life in the shadow of the American dream
A.M. Homes peels back the polished façade of the American suburb to reveal a world shaped by isolation, performance, and quiet unease. From identical houses to inherited beliefs, her fiction explores how the promise of the American Dream concealed deeper psychological and social fractures. As private lives collide with political upheaval, Homes asks unsettling questions…
-
BN Daybreak: US strikes on Iran lift oil; NATO deals, SA auto subsidy; Farage quits
Listen here In today’s episode, we cover the surge in oil prices following US airstrikes on Iran. We also review $50 billion in new defense deals from the NATO summit in Turkey. Locally, experts unpack the DA’s internal credibility crisis and controversial cabinet appointments, alongside the reality of South Africa’s R40 billion automotive subsidy program…