Star 2025-08-25

South Africa is currently facing a concerning spike in meat prices, primarily attributed to the ongoing outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), according to agricultural associations monitoring the situation closely. The latest report from Statistics South Africa revealed a troubling rise in consumer food price inflation, which reached an 18-month high of 5.5% in July, up from 4.7% in June. Dewald Olivier, CEO of Red Meat Industry Services, noted that the recent increase in red meat prices has been largely influenced by the FMD outbreak, which has disrupted supply chains and prompted concerns over meat availability. As of July, a total of 270 FMD outbreaks had been reported across five provinces and 249 outbreaks of these remained unresolved while 21 had undergone resolution. “From an industry perspective, the main…

Transnet has announced the formation of a leasing company to facilitate the refurbishment of its rolling stock, welcoming the entrance of 11 new private sector operators onto its rail network. This comes after Transport Minister Barbara Creecy on Friday announced that she has approved the selection of new train operating companies, a major milestone in South Africa’s rail reform programme. Michelle Phillips, CEO of Transnet, confirmed these developments over the weekend, illustrating a determined response to alleviate a significant shortfall of 90 million tons in freight capacity expected by the latter half of next year. The new train operating companies (TOCs) are poised for operation within a timeframe that varies from the second half of 2026 to as late as 2028, reflecting a broader ambition to ramp up freight rail…

Finance Minister says MTBPS will be tabled on November 12, to set expenditure framework Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has warned that the rising levels of unemployment and muted economic growth in South Africa were posing challenges to the fiscus ahead of November's Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS). This comes as the official unemployment rate in South Africa rose to its highest in one year from 32.9% in the first quarter to 33.2% in the second quarter as the jobless population surged by 140 000 in the three months to June, resulting in a total of 8.4 million individuals seeking work. Godongwana on Friday announced that the MTBPS will be tabled on 12 November, setting the agenda for the three-year medium-term expenditure framework after protracted efforts to table the National Budget…

In the 1980s, ANC leaders in Lusaka envisioned a South Africa where economic justice would dismantle apartheid’s structural legacy. The 1985 Kabwe Conference called for radical redistribution to empower the black majority, denied ownership, skills and capital under apartheid. Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment, introduced in 2003, was meant to fulfil this promise. Yet in 2025, the vision falters. White households still earn five times more than black households, and South Africa’s Gini coefficient stands at 0.63, among the highest in the world. Despite three decades of black-led governance, state institutions such as the Department of Trade,Industry and Competition, the National Empowerment Fund and the BBBEE Commission have failed to shift structural inequality in a meaningful way. Legacy white-owned companies exploit BBBEE’s opaque metrics to achieve Level 1 or 2 status…

As part of the global logistics and business community, I see every day how decisions made by G20 economies influence opportunity across sectors. These choices shape whether people, especially women can access credit, find decent work, and rely on social safety nets during challenges times. With South Africa chairing the G20 for the first time, we have an opportunity to turn aspirations around gender equality and inclusive growth into a sustained action. That said, the global picture shows how much work remains. Only 17% of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are currently on track to be achieved by 2030, and over a third show little or no progress. Goal 5, focused on gender equality, continues to face significant barriers. As economic pressures mount and governments navigate rising debt and…

Unathi Kamlana, Commissioner of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), has called for a renewed commitment to market integrity as South Africa grapples with significant economic challenges. Speaking at the opening of the South African Institute of Financial Markets Summit on Friday, Kamlana said that market integrity was crucial during the challenging global economic times that South Africa is facing. Kamlana underscored that the current global economic climate remains fraught with uncertainty, capturing the complex interplay of trade relations and geopolitical tensions. “The IMF’s latest economic outlook report, published in July, describes a world where growth is still positive, but uneven and subject to significant downside risks. Geopolitical tensions are elevated, and trade frictions are beginning to reshape the way economies relate to each other.” While new United States tariffs…