BizNews Radio

Alec Hogg opens with a thesis from Merrill Lynch veteran Dr. Duarte de Silva: South Africa's abandoned gold mines and tailings dumps — written off at $300–$800/oz — are generating margins above $3,000 per ounce at today's prices. The Witwatersrand Basin still holds as much gold as has ever been extracted from it. Yet exploration spend has collapsed 95% from its 2006 peak. On the JSE: Wesizwe Platinum surges 90% as its year-long trading suspension lifts; Pan African drifts lower despite a sound Australian acquisition; Fortress Real Estate impresses on logistics; Alexander Forbes delivers flat earnings on strong revenue; and Bell Equipment executes a textbook CEO handover. Globally: the ECB raises rates, Belfast burns, and OpenAI flags Chinese disinformation targeting US data centres.

In the latest Electoral Road Show with Chris Steyn, Elections Analyst Wayne Sussman describes how Gayton MacKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance (PA) is continuing to march onwards and upwards “weakening” both the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape. In the latest by-election, the PA won 53% of the vote in Malmesbury Wesbank. “This used to be the safest DA municipality in the country. And in 2024, the Patriotic Alliance burst through that wall by winning the seat off the DA.” Sussman also comments on GOOD and Rise Mzansi joining forces behind mayoral hopeful Brett Herron; the ANC’s elevation of Dada Morero to intervention convener for Gauteng’s troubled municipalities; the late President Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla eyeing a mayoral chain in the Eastern Cape; and Buffalo City Mayor Princess Faku coming under fire for taking officials on overseas trips to China and Germany while the municipality is struggling financially. “Next week we have two Buffalo City by-elections…It'll be interesting to see whether this issue, this debacle, hurts the ANC because both of the seats are ANC seats.”

In today's BizNews Daybreak: Oil spikes after the US military launched retaliatory strikes on Iran, pushing May US inflation to a three-year high of 4.2%.

Meanwhile, Oracle shares dipped 6% over cloud capex fears, Bill Gates testified on Capitol Hill regarding Jeffrey Epstein, and SpaceX's historic IPO drew $250 billion in institutional demand.

Locally, explosive leaked chats reveal top South African cops threatening activist Yusuf Abramjee, gun owners fight the Firearms Control Amendment bill, and Spar SA shares surprisingly rose despite obliterated profits.

Fears of an agenda to disarm private citizens are growing along with jaw-dropping allegations of criminal activity by top cops. In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Jonathan Deal, the founder of Safe Citizen, warns that the public is not properly and fully informed on public safety, and takes viewers through the implications of proposed changes to firearms ownership and training regulations for ordinary citizens, as well as for the private security industry. “...for many South Africans, a lawfully-owned firearm, either in their own hands or in the hands of the security industry, is actually their mainstay of security, particularly in the absence of the ability of the State to look after them. I can't understand why a government that itself is beleaguered on so many levels in the South African Police Service would go and meddle and fiddle with things where the public at least have some measure of protection, even if they're providing it themselves.” Meanwhile, he expresses grave concern about more and more allegations of criminal activity involving top police officers emerging at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. “Certainly, it appears that the government has lost control of this critical environment. Personally, my view is that…that our police service has become politicised. It is used as a political football.”

A top South African cop, Major General Feroz Khan of Crime Intelligence, and a tobacco kingpin, Mohamed Sayed, plotted to “f….up well known anti-crime activist and Tax Justice SA Founder, Yusuf Abramjee. In this interview with Chris Steyn, Abramjee details a litany of shocking revelations in a 750-page bundle released by the Madlanga Commission. Abramjee vows not to be silenced. “General Khan has been subpoenaed to appear before the commission on the 1st of July. And I'm sure that he will come clean. He has to come clean because we cannot allow this lawlessness. We cannot allow this collusion. We cannot allow this intimidation to continue….You cannot be a policeman and a criminal.” Abramjee points out how revelations at the Madlanga Commission again show how rotten the criminal justice system is, but warns: “I believe it's only the tip of the iceberg. We have a major problem within the police service and also other arms of the criminal justice system. And we need to make sure that the recommendations and the suggestions coming out of the Madlanga Commission are implemented.”