Category: News
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UCT’s 35% medical-aid cut for retirees exposes its denials of financial crisis
Marika Sboros writes that UCT gave retirees less than two business days’ notice before announcing plans to cut their medical-aid subsidies by 35%, affecting around 1,800 people (1200 retirees plus their spouses and dependents). The move directly contradicts Council Chair Norman Arendse’s public claims that UCT remains financially healthy despite donor losses linked to its…
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Empathy is a skill: Here’s how to learn it
By Toni Botes While we need to satisfy our most basic needs, such as food, shelter, and Wi-Fi, to exist; it’s a pretty miserable existence without emotional connection. In our increasingly productivity-driven world, many of us are beginning to realise that perhaps human connection is more critical than ever. The foundations of such connection can…
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US tourists outnumber all of BRICS combined — SA’s real friends aren’t who Pretoria says
South Africa’s foreign policy rhetoric and its tourism numbers tell two different stories. New Stats SA data shows nearly 190,000 Americans visited SA in the first half of 2026 — almost double the combined total from Brazil, Russia, India and China, SA’s own BRICS partners. The UK and Germany added further evidence: together with the…
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SA-founded crypto exchange Luno slashes 20% of workforce in major shake-up
Luno, the crypto exchange that started in South Africa and is now owned by Digital Currency Group, is cutting about 20% of its global staff as it restructures around institutional clients rather than volatile retail trading. CEO James Lanigan says automation and operational efficiencies have reduced the resourcing the business needs, freeing it to expand…
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Amazon, Microsoft results show Big Tech’s AI spending spree is far from over
Amazon has lifted its 2026 capital spending forecast to $220 billion, mostly earmarked for AI, while Microsoft’s cloud growth triggered a $450 billion single-day jump in market value, the biggest in stock market history. Alphabet and Meta also raised spending guidance, but investors punished both over unclear returns, with Meta down nearly 8% and Alphabet…
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As Europe burns, insurers warn climate risk is now permanent
Europe’s insurers, reinsurers and brokers say the wildfires tearing through Spain, France, Greece and even the UK aren’t a one-off shock but a long-term shift in the continent’s catastrophe risk. Axa, Allianz and Aon all warn that rising temperatures, now climbing twice as fast as the global average, are driving bigger losses and higher premiums,…
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Lesaka locks in new boss Mazanderani through 2029 — why the fine print matters
Lesaka Technologies, the Nasdaq- and JSE-listed fintech born from the ashes of Net1, has extended Executive Chairman Ali Mazanderani’s tenure through mid-2029 via two newly signed contracts disclosed to the SEC. The filing formalises what markets had long suspected: Mazanderani, who also chairs Teya and has sat on StoneCo’s and Network International’s boards, works at…
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Infantino puts the FIFA ‘Greed Machine’ into overdrive with $20bn proposal
FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to sell a minority stake in a new $20 billion commercial entity to outside investors, dangling $20 million in development funding for each of football’s 211 member associations, including the South African Football Association. UEFA has voted to boycott FIFA tournaments if the plan proceeds, and Britain’s prime minister has…
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Magnus Heystek: Why I didn’t bring one cent back from abroad
Magnus Heystek defends his long-standing recommendation to keep client money offshore, despite the JSE’s standout 2025 (53% vs the S&P 500’s 17%). He argues that the rally was narrow and misleading, driven mainly by gold shares and Naspers/Prosus — with gold alone estimated to account for roughly 40% of the ALSI’s five-year gains despite representing…
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BN Daybreak: Apple earnings; Amazon AWS; RMB housing; Anglo’s SA exit; Tesla China sale
Listen here Today’s BizNews Daybreak covers Apple’s quarterly results, Rivian’s SUV success, and Anthropic’s AI breach, alongside a semiconductor rally driven by Microsoft and Oracle. Football federations oppose FIFA selling World Cup stakes, while Donald Trump claims a Gaza disarmament agreement. Meanwhile, Alec Hogg discusses Anglo American’s South Africa exit, RMB launches a R1bn housing…
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Can you still qualify for the €250,000 Greece Golden Visa?
The Greece Golden Visa remains one of the most attractive and affordable European residency-by-investment programmes. Launched with a minimum €250,000 investment threshold in 2013, it is still possible – even today – to invest into qualifying property at this low threshold. However, it is important to be up to date with current guidelines as significant…
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Cityboy is back: his tip to win big in financial services? Trade your soul
Listen here A former top-ranked City of London stockbroker has written a manual for winning at business, politics and life. There’s just one catch: to follow it, you’d have to think like a psychopath. Geraint Anderson, the man behind the legendary “Cityboy” column, tells BizNews editor Alec Hogg why he built his new book around…
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R1-billion blended finance programme to transform real estate – Alessandro Scalco
Listen here In this interview with Chris Steyn, Alessandro Scalco of RMB Sustainable Finance shares the details of a R1 billion Blended Finance Programme to formalise and scale South Africa’s burgeoning affordable rental market. Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has partnered with INDLU, a property financial technology company that empowers landowners to build, manage, and earn…
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Washington’s blind spot on SA: Punishing a state its own people are already rejecting
This article was first published by The Common Sense The sharp Common Sense editorial below argues that Washington has South Africa exactly backwards. The White House’s Afrikaner refugee policy assumes black South Africans are besieging a white minority, but the real fault line, the piece argues, runs between the ANC state and citizens of all races…
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Study finds over half SA’s workers are gambling, most to pay expenses, debt
Old Mutual’s 2026 Savings and Investment Monitor surveyed just over one and a half thousand working South Africans earning over R8 000 a month. It revealed a widening divide: while higher earners grow more confident and take on more investment risk, lower-income workers face deepening debt distress – using gambling as their coping mechanism. Over…
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BizNews Edge: Anglo says goodbye to SA; Old Mutual’s gambling warning; Microsoft-Meta AI tension
Anglo American just posted the kind of interim numbers investors dream of. But look past the headline and the real story is a 109-year-old Johannesburg company quietly finishing its exit from South Africa, with its head office bound for Vancouver and De Beers set to go for a fraction of what Anglo once paid the…
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The R3.7tn PIC needs independent leadership, not another political appointee: Justice Malala
South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, the $220 billion (about R3.7 trillion) fund managing pensions for 1.2 million civil servants, is now without any executive leadership after a wave of suspensions and resignations, writes Justice Malala. CEO Patrick Dlamini and CIO August van Heerden are suspended, board chair David Masondo has resigned, and Finance Minister Enoch…
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ANC councillor fined R50,000 for forwarding hateful WhatsApp message to groupchat
A Free State High Court ruling has driven home a warning for South African WhatsApp users: forwarding a message can carry the same legal consequences as writing it yourself. ANC councillor Sibongile Tsoleli was ordered to pay R50,000 in damages after sharing messages containing unproven corruption and adultery claims against a fellow councillor, alongside discriminatory…
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Anglo American’s interims confirm the retreat from South Africa
Anglo American’s 2026 interim results to end June, released today, reflected a strong operational performance — underlying EBITDA up 35% to $4 billion, free cash flow up 149%, and the dividend up almost three fold — driven almost entirely by copper. But beneath the good numbers sits a continuing retreat from South Africa: Anglo confirmed…
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The Fermi Paradox: If aliens exist, where is everybody?
R L Drake explores the Fermi Paradox: why, given the Milky Way’s billions of potentially habitable planets and the Drake Equation’s estimate of 12,500 possible civilisations, we’ve detected no signs of extraterrestrial life. The piece surveys leading theories — from cosmic loneliness to self-destructive “great filters” — before concluding true isolation remains scientifically unlikely. By…