Tag: SouthAfrica

Small and Media Enterprises (SMEs) are regularly rejected for funding, even when their businesses are profitable, because the system was not designed with their business reality in mind. SMEs contribute around 40% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 60% of employment. Yet they face the SME funding gap, which is estimated at R350 billion. There is no shortage of funding in the system.

The National Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) updated statement on the Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations has moved South Africa’s crypto regulation debate into a more practical phase. Just as importantly, Treasury and SARB have clarified that the draft regulations are not intended to criminalise the possession of crypto assets or apply retrospectively.

South Africa should carefully assess how short-term instalment products are interpreted before Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) data shapes access to mainstream credit. The country could risk turning BNPL into a product that shuts people out of mainstream credit rather than helping them into it. This could happen if BNPL data enters credit-scoring systems that were never designed to interpret this type of product fairly.

Artificial intelligence has constantly been written about for the past three years. The hype, the digital transformation it promises, the productivity gains, and the threat to jobs, particularly in professional services, and finance, specifically. It is a topical and sometimes divisive subject.

Lidia Rauch was born at the crossroads of South Africa’s past and present. She is the granddaughter of one of apartheid’s longest-serving ministers, Fanie Botha. She grew up in a world built for her comfort, yet she chose to reckon with its cost. Her story moves between privilege and pain, from a childhood marked by fracture to a career inside the machinery of government.

Personal problems rarely stay at home. In modern workplaces, financial pressure, emotional stress, family responsibilities and health concerns often spill into performance, morale and team dynamics. As a result, employers must balance operational demands with empathy, fairness and legal compliance.

As Stats SA's latest labour market data shows graduate unemployment climbing, we argue that the ability to keep learning has become South Africa's most valuable workplace skill. South Africa's latest labour data raises an uncomfortable question. If even graduates are struggling to find work, is a qualification on its own still enough to build a career on?

The Middle East conflict continues to destabilise an already volatile global economy. It is driving energy price shocks, inflationary pressure and heightened uncertainty for developing economies, particularly those exposed to energy and currency volatility. In South Africa, economic shockwaves continue to drive up fuel prices, strain energy systems and push the cost of living beyond reach.

The five-year lock-in period on South Africa's Section 12J hospitality investments is over. Across the country, investors who entered these vehicles for the generous upfront tax deduction are now facing a far more sobering reality. Hospitality investors face distressed assets, a near-absent secondary market and a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liability that is calculated not on their actual return, but on every Rand they receive at exit.

South Africa’s migration anger may be less about borders than personal debt, rising costs and a shared household finance crisis. Every Africa Month, South Africa marks the African Union’s 63-year-old dream of shared sovereignty, shared prosperity and a borderless continent built together. Africa Day fell on 25 May. The flags went up. The speeches were made.