BizNews Radio

At BizNews Conference BNC#8 in Hermanus, Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt delivers a blunt assessment of South Africa’s economy - warning that a bloated state, runaway debt, and failing institutions like Eskom are suffocating growth. While financial markets briefly showed optimism after policy shifts such as a lower inflation target, Roodt argues structural problems remain severe. With civil servant wages consuming a huge share of the economy and government debt racing toward 80% of GDP, he says South Africa risks deeper stagnation unless the state is radically reformed.

For today’s NdB Sunday Show, Chris Steyn invited the Democratic Alliance's Helen Zille and the Patriotic Alliance's Kenny Kunene to debate. Only Zille made the show. She outlined her five commitments over five years should she be elected Joburg’s next Mayor. She also responded to previously reported attacks on her by Kunene, including that she is out of touch with Johannesburg's challenges; that she is a reject of Cape Town, and that she should stay at home and look after her great grandchildren, by saying: “Well, I'm sure I have got a lot more energy than Kenny Kunene because I've been all over Joburg all the time and I never see him… I only see him in the nightlife, in the nightclubs, in all the Instagram posts with the Slay Queens as they call them…He's got a busy life. He's got a busy night life. He's got a busy time running around between his different underworld connections and trying to get people not to contradict his statements. That's a busy life. I have a life focused...on meeting the people of Joburg, listening to the people of Joburg, listening to their solutions for the problems for Joburg and getting a plan together to fix Joburg. So I have a busy life doing that.” Zille also comments on the reasons behind PA Leader Gayton McKenzie’s relentless support for President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Trump administration has launched a second 301 tariff investigation. The probe will look to determine whether certain acts, policies and practices are unreasonable or discriminatory, and burden or restrict US commerce. From BNC#8, Prince Mashele calls for a new black–white political pact to rebuild South Africa, Iraj Abedian argues the West should side with the Iranian people rather than the regime, and John Endres warns that modest economic gains still leave the country stuck in a long-term low-growth trap.

Tonight’s BizNews Briefing starts with Dawie Roodt’s warning that South Africa’s public-sector wage bill is crowding out growth. We then track a market update led by Standard Bank’s strong full-year result, softer numbers from Montauk Renewables and progress funding at Southern Palladium. Donald MacKay argues motorists are effectively paying for SA’s vehicle-industry subsidies through higher prices, before Bloomberg reports escalating Middle East risks after Oman evacuated a key oil terminal and tankers were hit in Iraqi waters.

The great white sharks of False Bay – once so abundant that film crews from around the world came to document them, have all but vanished. Wildlife photographer and conservationist Chris Fallows says we’re looking for blame in the wrong place. In this interview with BizNews Fallows, famous for capturing the world’s first images of breaching great whites at Seal Island – explains why the two orcas, Port and Starboard, who are widely blamed for the sharks’ disappearance, “arrived after the crime scene”. Instead, he points to government sanctioned policies, shark nets demersal shark longline fisheries; and Australia’s appetite for “flake and chips” as the real culprits. These sharks, immortalised in world famous series such as Blue Planet, once attracted more than 100,000 visitors to South African shores every year. Fallows argues they have now been lost through bad management and political infighting. And for those who insist shark nets remain essential in places like KwaZuluNatal, Fallows says modern technology and a different way of thinking offer a far more progressive solution. He also believes there are clear lessons to be learnt from the protection of humpback whales. While humpback numbers have surged under protection. including a world record sighting of 300 whales in a single day, great white sharks, an ecologically vital apex predator, are disappearing from our oceans.