BizNews Radio

Anglo American's interims dazzled - earnings up 35%, free cash flow up nearly 150%, the dividend all but tripled. But BizNews editor Alec Hogg looks past the headline to what Anglo's walking away from: steelmaking coal sold, De Beers going for a tenth of what it paid, and a Teck merger that moves the head office to Vancouver. A 109-year-old Johannesburg company is quietly leaving. He pairs that with Old Mutual's finding that half of working South Africans now gamble - the sharp end of a two-speed nation. Plus ArcelorMittal, Reinet, Woolworths, a post-Fed bond rout, and the great Microsoft-Meta AI tension.

In today's episode, the Fed leaves interest rates unchanged amid a fractured vote and market sell-offs. Locally, four parties are challenging President Ramaphosa's impeachment interdict, while Treasury controversially releases funds to 69 failing municipalities. We also cover Dr. Fauci invoking the Fifth Amendment regarding the Covid-19 response, Zambia's kwacha surging against the rand, and the mixed reality behind Zelensky's meeting with Trump.

Treasury switched off the taps to 69 municipalities for doing nothing about corruption and mismanagement. Today it switched them back on anyway, days before its own deadline. Alec Hogg asks the obvious question nobody in government wants to answer. Plus: why last week's Reserve Bank rate hold is already punishing the rand, a foundation funded by an arms dealer just published a survey putting China ahead of America in young Africans' eyes, and on the JSE it's a tale of two extremes: Valterra Platinum showering shareholders in cash while ArcelorMittal's losses widen by the day. And the machine that prints the world's most advanced chips just found out China isn't waiting around.

In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Political Commentator Solly Moeng, talks about four political parties joining in a Constitutional Court bid to try and overturn President Cyril Ramaposa's impeachment committee interdict; a murder investigation into the death of General Sindile Mfazi, who was investigating an unauthorised undercover operation to cover up wrongdoings at high level; and the assassination of another corruption whistleblower, Emfuleni accountant Martha Rantsofu. “...everything that we see is really just the tip of a huge, massive iceberg. I'm sure there are other bodies, dead bodies all over the place, of people who said: ‘I cannot support this, or I'm going to report this, or this is not the right way to do things’… There's a whole industry that has been set up where you get given two thousand, ten thousand depending on where you're at, to go and pop somebody.” Moeng also comments on the corruption trial of former Defence Minister Nosisive Mapisa-Nqakula; the expose of former IDAC Chief Andrea Johnson’s agenda; the management mayhem at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC); and former President Jacob Zuma’s latest antics.

In today's BizNews Daybreak, SK Hynix posts profit gains while Nvidia’s CEO defends open-weight AI amid safety warnings and new hacking reports. Ford raises its outlook and Visa cuts 2,600 jobs. In South Africa, SAPS data reveals over 99% of gun murders involve unlicensed firearms, while the Phala Phala impeachment battle reaches the Constitutional Court. Plus, analysts preview the US Fed interest rate decision and weigh oil market scenarios from $75 to $150 per barrel.