Star 2025-09-26

Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, said yesterday that the government will announce next week an agreement on the amount of electricity needed to resuscitate ferrochrome smelters in the country after Eskom’s stable performance made it possible to leave “megawatts on the floor”. This is a move aimed at reviving operations and saving thousands of jobs in the embattled sector. The intervention follows an urgent call by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), after several smelter operators, including Glencore, issued Section 189 notices to retrench workers, citing unsustainably high electricity costs. Ramokgopa said behind-the-scenes negotiations with industry and labour had now reached consensus on the additional megawatts to be allocated to smelters. “The intervention is over and above the framework approved by Nersa on the negotiated…

South Africa’s consumer confidence took another knock in the third quarter of 2025, with the FNB/Bureau for Economic Research (BER) Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) falling from -10 to -13, sparking renewed concern about the outlook for household spending and economic growth. Although still above the exceptionally weak first-quarter reading of -20, when a host of negative shocks hit sentiment, the Q3 figure remains well below the relatively upbeat levels recorded in the second half of 2024. Since 1994, the average CCI has stood at -1, highlighting how deeply negative current sentiment is. The deterioration was driven mainly by a sharp fall in confidence among middle-income households, which dropped from -7 to -16. Both the household finances and economic outlook sub-indices weakened, slipping from 9 to 3 and from -18 to…

South Africa and the US are edging closer to formal negotiations on a reciprocal trade agreement, following weeks of intensive engagements aimed at resolving long-standing tariff disputes and strengthening bilateral economic ties. Speaking at the South Africa-US Trade and Investment Executive Dialogue in Washington on Wednesday night, Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau underscored the importance of the US as the country’s second-largest global trading partner, while South Africa remains the second-largest African destination for US exports. “This underscores the critical importance of our bilateral relationship, both as a platform for two-way trade and as a gateway into the broader African market,” Tau said. However, he cautioned that challenges persist, particularly the proposed 30% tariff on selected South African exports, along with existing Section 232 tariffs on steel…

South Africans celebrate Heritage Day as a moment of pride in our languages, rituals, music, cuisine, and sacred sites. But there is a tougher economic truth we cannot ignore: our arts, heritage, and creative industries remain underperforming assets. Globally, culture is big business. The creative economy already generates $2.25 trillion (about R38 trillion) annually and accounts for nearly 30 million jobs worldwide, according to Unesco. Yet South Africa’s creative industries contribute just under 3% of GDP – far behind their potential. The question for policymakers, investors, and business leaders this Heritage Day is simple: how do we unlock the value of our cultural wealth and convert it into revenue, jobs, and competitive brand power? Lessons from Global Case Studies n South Korea’s K-wave (Hallyu): In the early 2000s, South Korea…

The aviation sector in South Africa presents unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurial development, with Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) positioned at the epicentre of this transformation. ACSA achieved a notable improvement in all of its financial metrics, most notably reporting increases in both revenue and earnings, signaling a robust recovery and expansion in the aviation retail sector. This analysis examines the strategic value that ACSA’s retail programme brings to aspirant entrepreneurs, exploring both the quantitative scale of opportunities and the qualitative benefits for small business development within South Africa’s premier aviation infrastructure. ACSA’s Retail Infrastructure: Scale and Scope ACSA operates nine of South Africa’s airports, creating an extensive network of retail opportunities across the country's most strategic transport hubs. The company's retail portfolio represents a significant component of its commercial operations,…

South Africa’s annual producer price inflation (PPI) for final manufactured goods quickened to 2.1% in August, up from 1.5% in July, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported yesterday. The PPI rose 0.3% on a monthly basis, marking a period of rising inflationary pressures, particularly driven by key sectors such as food products and beverages. Stats SA said the biggest boost to the headline figure came from food, beverages and tobacco products, which grew 4.3% year-on-year, contributing 1.3 percentage points to overall inflation. Monthly increases were mainly driven by food, beverages and tobacco, coke, petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastics, and metals, machinery and computing equipment. The PPI for intermediate manufactured goods climbed to 6.5% y/y in August from 6.4% in July, with basic and fabricated metals providing the largest push. Month-on-month,…