Star 2025-11-10

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is expected to deliver a cautiously optimistic Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday, showing stronger revenue collection, contained expenditure growth, and a smaller-than-expected deficit, even as sluggish growth and high debt remain major fiscal challenges. According to Nedbank’s economist, Isaac Matshego, the budget deficit is projected to narrow to 4.4% of GDP in FY2025/26, down from the 4.8% estimated in Budget 2025, thanks to higher-than-anticipated tax revenues and disciplined spending. “Revenue growth has been boosted by robust collections in personal, corporate, and value-added taxes,” Matshego said last week, noting that gross tax revenue could overshoot earlier estimates by R60 billion in FY2025/26 and as much as R200bn over the medium term. Available government finance figures for the fiscal year to date show a modest improvement…

and Enable Capital deals — chair Masondo Public Investment Corporation (PIC) board chairman, David Masondo, has said the new board was reviewing past bad transactions on principle, including appealing the arbitration process in the dispute where it had to pay R400 million to its loanee Acapulco as it defaulted on a loan and the R100m down the drain in an Enable Capital Investment. Masondo, the deputy Minister for Finance whose incumbency in the board is a result of re-enforcing governance processes at the PIC, said the board owned up to the bad deals in the past and was implementing recommendations by the Judge Mpati Commission regarding them but that internally, the entity was revving the exit processes. This is after the PIC has had to pay Acapulco Trade and Invest…

The Prudential Authority (PA) on Friday imposed administrative sanctions and fines on Discovery Bank for failing to timeously report some suspicious transactions and for inadequate staff training. The PA supervises and enforces compliance by banks and other financial institutions with the provisions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FIC Act). “The PA has imposed administrative sanctions on Discovery Bank (DBL) as a result of its non-compliance with certain provisions of the FIC Act, following an inspection conducted on DBL in 2021…” the PA said in a statement on Friday. The administrative sanctions consist of four cautions not to repeat the conduct that led to the non-compliance, and a financial penalty totaling R3 million, of which R1m was conditionally suspended for a period of 36 months from July 9, 2025. These…

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has described Daybreak Foods as a “poster child” for successful business rescue, citing steady operational recovery, improved financial stability, and a well-managed turnaround plan that still retains significant cash reserves. Briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Finance on Friday, the PIC said Daybreak Foods’ business rescue practitioners had made strong progress in stabilising the company, maintaining labour peace, and restoring critical operations such as electricity and IT systems. “Daybreak Foods has become a model of how a well-managed business rescue process should function,” the PIC said. “The business rescue practitioners are reporting positive outcomes both operationally and financially.” Daybreak Foods CEO, Deon Botha, also told MPs that the company still holds R73 million from a R150m cash endowment allocated for the turnaround strategy, adding that “cash…

After roughly two decades of legal warfare, public spectacle, corporate brinkmanship and constitutional detours, the long-running battle between Vodacom and Nkosana Kenneth Makate has finally come to an end in the Please Call Me battle. It is difficult to describe the moment without invoking the ancient parable that has shadowed this saga from the start: the story of a shepherd who stood before a giant armed with nothing but resolve and a sling. In South Africa’s modern corporate arena, Makate has long been cast - fairly or unfairly -as the David to Vodacom’s Goliath, a lone idea-man challenging a telecommunications behemoth with vast legal and financial resources. With the announcement that the parties have reached an out-of-court settlement, the stone has finally landed, and the giant has stopped swinging.…

Many pensioners and investors in South Africa over the last two weeks became nervous and worrisome as share prices on the JSE moved weaker. Pessimistic views of an expectation of a strong and downward correction in equity prices surfaced amongst the public. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon warned this week of a “likely” 10-20% drawdown in equity markets at some point within the next two years, while the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England have both sounded the alarm bells. One almost gets the impression that the old saying of greed of the last ten months is quickly replaced by fears of big losses. Long-term strategies are quickly forgotten as asset prices undergo healthy corrections and adjustments. As uncertainty prevails on the next step for interest rates both…