BizNews Radio

In the latest NdB Sunday Show Chris Steyn talks to Lauren Evanthia, the founder of the Organic Humanity Movement (OHM), about former President Jacob Zuma’s reunion with one of the Guptas in India in the presence of a South African diplomat, while South Africa is struggling to find the Guptas and extradite them for State Capture; President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of Dina Pule as a Cabinet Minister a decade after she was removed from Parliament; and the revelations of the secret messages on the phone of Crime Intelligence (CI) boss General Feroz Khan who fought so hard to prevent access to his devices and now he is in hospital fighting for his life after an alleged assassination attempt - just days before he was going to be questioned at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. “... are we just gonna sit here, carry on watching the Madlanga Commission day in and day out and not do anything? Instead of just treating it like a daily soap opera, we should be getting more angry because we are only seeing a small little peek. We're not seeing the full scope of the criminal enterprise that is our government.”

New By-Election data shows the DA outpolling the ANC nationally for the first time. Meanwhile Bloomberg's Mike McGlone explains why crude could fall well below $57 a barrel despite Gulf tensions, KwaZulu-Natal farmer Pete Keen details the mounting cost of the foot and mouth disease crisis, and OpenAI's proposed 5% government stake raises questions about who profits from the AI boom.

Six months ago, KwaZulu-Natal farmer Pete Keene came to BizNews with a warning nobody wanted to hear. His herd was a hundred percent infected with foot and mouth disease, the government's response had a zero percent chance of working, and the law wouldn't even let him reach for a needle and syringe. Today, a lot has changed on paper — the High Court struck down that law, the minister who defended it has been removed — but Pete's message is stark: the fire is still burning, and the real cost, a calving rate that crashed from ninety to thirty percent, won't fully show up until 2032. He never asked for a bailout. He asked to be heard. Also today: Johan Rupert sits on a R100bn cash pile after the cleanest exit in Remgro's history; the DA leads the ANC in by-elections nationally for the first time, then detonates a credibility bomb in the same week; and Business Unity SA walks away from the UIF after six years of being ignored.

Ramaphosa has handed the R300 billion social grants portfolio to Dina Pule - the minister Parliament once fined for persistently lying about a contractor relationship. Forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan meanwhile spent six hours before the commission this week - speaking to Alec Hogg yesterday, he lays out uncomfortable history on General Mkhwanazi that cuts against the whistleblower narrative. Apple is negotiating chips from Chinese firms blacklisted for military ties to Beijing, while SARB governor Kganyago warns inflation expectations are creeping above target heading into July's rate decision.

In this interview with Chris Steyn, Willem Els of the Institute for Security Studies (SS) and Richard Chelin, an independent governance specialist, describe how organised crime syndicates have transitioned from making fake Covid-19 vaccines to flood the South African market with fake pharmaceuticals, particularly lifestyle drugs, like those for weight loss. They also comment on breaking news that a Magistrate has rejected the plea deal of tenderpreneur Cat Matlala. Chellin raised the question whether the plea deal in this highly politicised case could have been rushed, and Els says: “...if you look at the charges that he is facing and you look at the severity of those charges and you look at the deal that's been cut with him, the two don't add up…that was a sentiment also of the judgment by the magistrate….”. As for the mystery surrounding the apparent assassination attempt on Crime Intelligence boss General Feroz Khan just days short of his appearance before the Madlanga Commission, Els adds: “They have to cut this one to the bone because I think it's in the interest of the rule of law in South Africa.”