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Daily English South Africa Business News · News
12,931 Episodes
888 – 908

José Filomeno dos Santos jailed for five years

A court in Luanda has sentenced the son of former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos to five years in prison over a $500m corruption case, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reports. José Filomeno dos Santos, the former head of Angola's $5bn sovereign wealth fund, was found guilty, along with…
16 Aug 2020 3PM 1 min

SA’s cement foundation should not be allowed to collapse

Attractive is not a word that springs to mind when thinking about concrete. Dull, heavy, grey, boring and ugly are more likely descriptors. Yet concrete has been foundational to human society for centuries. Cement can be found in Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian and ancient Greek architecture. Even today, the magnificent dome…
16 Aug 2020 2PM 5 min

Benefits can outweigh drawbacks in new workplace reality

The Covid-19 pandemic has modernised thinking about the workplace. The notion that “work” is something you do and not a place you go to is a major mindshift that is setting in. In his book Maverick, Ricardo Semler describes an unusual workplace that, in 1993, was far ahead of its…
16 Aug 2020 2PM 5 min

Eskom warns load-shedding may return this week

Eskom says the power supply will be severely constrained this week due to the unavailability of eight generation units and delays in its maintenance programme. While some of the units that have broken down will be returned to service on Sunday evening and Monday “the system is expected to remain…
16 Aug 2020 2PM 1 min

Russia offers military support to Belarusian leader Lukashenko

Minsk — Russia said on Sunday it had told Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko it was ready to offer military assistance if necessary as demonstrators held one of the biggest protests yet against Lukashenko’s contested re-election. The protest in Minsk attracted tens of thousands of people, despite the deaths of at…
16 Aug 2020 1PM 4 min

TELITA SNYCKERS: With the ban lifted, what’s next for dirty tobacco?

It’s taken 141 days, but from tomorrow, the tobacco ban will finally be lifted. Unfortunately, it may well be too little, too late. The fact is, illicit cigarettes are likely to dominate the local landscape in the foreseeable future. What does the lifting of the ban mean for the balance…
16 Aug 2020 1PM 5 min

PODCAST | The outlook for the African legal environment with Andrew Skipper

Click here ( to listen to the podcast. Podcast host Desné Masie welcomes Andrew Skipper, head of Africa at Hogan Lovells and a senior partner in the corporate practice of the firm, on African Business podcasts. ( In this episode, Skipper sets out the pertinent issues for investors and entrepreneurs…
16 Aug 2020 1PM 1 min

EDITORIAL: Easing lockdown brings relief — now it’s up to us

President Cyril Ramaphosa certainly took his time to confirm last week’s reports that South Africans will be able to, legally, enjoy a drink at a bar, travel between provinces and puff on a cigarette. But the decision — in which he juggled downward trends in confirmed Covid-19 cases, hospital admissions…
16 Aug 2020 12PM 3 min

Easing the state of disaster may lift the lid on community protests

Since March, material conditions have worsened significantly for most of the population. SA is well known for its protests, and in normal circumstances one might expect heightened conflict. Yet in practice most protests have been prohibited under state of disaster regulations and senior politicians have warned that marches spread coronavirus…
16 Aug 2020 12PM 7 min

A rebel with a feminist cause — Diana Russell

Diana Russell: November 6 1938 — July 28 2020. Recent years have seen an increase in protest, marches and public outcry about the scourge of violence against women. Social media groups are prolific and an abundance of non-profit organisations support victims, educate potential perpetrators and lobby for policy changes. In…
16 Aug 2020 11AM 5 min

CHINA DAILY: US will violate rules by labelling Hong Kong goods as made in China

The government of the Hong Kong special administrative region is considering taking action under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) after the US issued a notice saying Hong Kong-made products imported to the US will have to carry “Made in China” labels from September 25. A Hong Kong…
16 Aug 2020 11AM 2 min

THULI MADONSELA: Law and the economy through a social justice lens

Renowned Scottish economist Adam Smith once said, “Justice ... is the main pillar that upholds the whole edifice. If it is removed, the great, the immense fabric of human society ... must in a moment crumble into atoms.” The edifice Smith spoke about was an orderly, peaceful society. It is…
16 Aug 2020 11AM 8 min

Strikes loom as public-sector wage dispute set to drag on

It is highly unlikely that the dispute over the implementation of wage increases for 1.3-million public-sector workers will be resolved before the next round of wage negotiations start later in 2020, setting the scene for aggressive talks that could be accompanied by strikes. Frikkie de Bruin, general secretary of the…
16 Aug 2020 10AM 4 min

SA looks set to remain only option for tackling Zimbabwe crisis

Harare — President Cyril Ramaphosa’s three envoys have come back into the picture as the only possible mediators to Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis after it emerged that the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) is unlikely to discuss the troubled country at its heads of state summit on Monday. The…
16 Aug 2020 10AM 3 min

Adapting is the name of the game in a topsy-turvy time

At the end of 2020 SA’s economy is likely to experience shrinkage five times greater than that experienced a decade ago during the global financial crisis. Global trade is also expected to decline by a fifth, severely curtailing our exports, with inbound tourism being severely hamstrung. During the second quarter…
16 Aug 2020 10AM 5 min

How workplace democracy can undo many of apartheid’s ills

SA’s apartheid-era corporate model, which has been unchanged in the democratic dispensation, is one of the main reasons for conflict, poor productivity and violence in the country’s labour market since 1994. Whether in mining, agriculture or retail, the model has been based on low wages, migrant labour, minimal skills transfer…
16 Aug 2020 2AM 7 min

Heat makes workers and entire economies less productive

New York — It’s hot out. Cue the headlines showing yet another temperature record above the Arctic Circle, fires deep in the Amazon, and more intense floods and droughts anywhere in between. Also look for the self-described rational sceptics, the eco-pragmatists, and other hyphenated attention-seekers pointing out how, yes, it’s…
16 Aug 2020 2AM 3 min

Has the pandemic changed US political conventions forever?

Washington — The US political convention, a presidential campaign ritual dating to the 1830s, is being re-invented on the fly after being short-circuited by the coronavirus pandemic — much like the campaign itself. Here is a look at how the Democrat and Republican conventions will be different this year —…
16 Aug 2020 2AM 4 min

READ IN FULL: Cyril Ramaphosa’s full address on lockdown level 2

My fellow South Africans, It has been five months since we declared a national state of disaster to combat to the coronavirus pandemic. As I said then, and as I repeat now, never before in the history of our democracy has our country been confronted with such a severe threat…
15 Aug 2020 3PM 14 min
888 – 908