BizNews Radio

Freedom Front Plus leader Corné Mulder gives BizNews the clearest outside read yet on the Democratic Alliance's implosion — tracing the Steenhuisen saga back to Trump's first executive order, the Oval Office "dim the lights" meeting, and a coalition built without a negotiated platform. Mulder explains why he feels sorry for his old rival, draws a hard line between DA and FF Plus values ahead of the local government elections, and warns of "bad actors on the periphery" who want South Africa's economy to fail. Plus: ABSA shares drop 8% despite calm guidance, and Tony Leon hits back at Steenhuisen's claims that his firm pulled strings behind the scenes.

South Africa is not only dealing with a National Shutdown this week, but also with a couple of political hand grenades. In his latest chat to Chris Steyn, political commentator Solly Moeng his gives take on the alleged assassination attempt on Crime Intelligence (CI) boss General Feroz Khan just days before he was due at the Madlanga Commission, which heard testimony today that allies of the General had offered MKP MP Vusi Shongwe a R10-million bribe to back off pursuing testimony from him; as well as bombshell allegations from embittered former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen. “...Who owns the truth? Do political leaders and other office bearers take decisions because they really came to a point of being informed that this was good for South Africa, or are they doing it because somebody else is paying somebody else to convince them that's the way to go?” Moeng also comments on breaking news of violence erupting between marchers and residents in Yeoville amid relative calm on National Shut Down day.

Author Rian Malan fires off a pointed open letter to Helen Zille on the anti-migrant marches sweeping South Africa, while a former DA leader breaks ranks on his own party just months before the 2026 municipal elections.

Also today: oil jumps as Iran moves on the Strait of Hormuz, Tesla rallies on a Full Self-Driving rollout, and a whistleblower pushes for criminal accountability over corporate silencing.

Rian Malan is the author of My Traitor's Heart — a bestseller translated into 11 languages, still in print decades after publication, and a book that drew praise from V.S. Naipaul, John le Carré and the New York Times as one of the most important works ever written about South Africa. In short, he is the real thing, one of the finest non-fiction writers our country has produced. And for me, easily the greatest living SA writer. Commissioning Malan at rates that reflect his stature is beyond what BizNews can fund from its operating budget. The economics of modern media — collapsing CPMs, platform aggregation, subscription fatigue — make it impossible. But a BizNews community member has changed that. Their donation has seeded a commissioning fund dedicated to sourcing the very best South African writing and research for our readers: work we could not otherwise afford. This is not charity. It is an investment in the journalism South Africa needs — fearless, deeply reported, written with the skill that makes it stick. If this piece moves you, consider joining the fund. Write to me via alec@biznews.com. Not to cover salaries or overheads, but to put more Rian Malans in front of more South Africans. And for the rest of the tribe, enjoy. - Alec Hogg

Today's BizNews Edge covers three stories that cut to the heart of South African business and politics. John Steenhuisen has broken publicly with the DA, naming Geordin Hill-Lewis and Tony Leon in allegations that threaten serious damage to the party just months before the 2026 municipals. Prosus, once a byword for discount and drift, has delivered full-year results that show a genuine turnaround — every regional ecosystem now profitable, Takealot breaking even for the first time, and a buyback programme outpacing Meta and Apple. And then the story Alec Hogg has been building toward for months: Malcolm King, the invisible man behind the Steinhoff fraud, found dead in a Cotswolds village — poisoned by a Romanian sex worker — before justice could reach him. The Reserve Bank reckoning rolls on. This one is worth your full attention.