BizNews Radio

Episodes

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  BN Edge | Prince Mashele on Mashaba, Zille and the deal that could decide Joburg 30.10.2026 34m

  With five days to go before the local government elections, Prince Mashele told Alec Hogg what a good night and a catastrophe would look like for the ANC, and why he expected neither. He was blunt about Herman Mashaba, whose biography he wrote, and set out the offer he believed could tip ActionSA towards the ANC rather than the DA in Johannesburg. He dismissed Gayton McKenzie's kingmaker ambitions, said he was worried about what an MK win would mean for KwaZulu-Natal, and explained why South Africans stay loyal to parties the way they stay loyal to soccer clubs. Then he turned to his own plans: a movement due to launch in Soweto in March, with a leadership line-up he said would not shy away from talking about race.
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  BizNews Ricardo Portfolio: Alec Hogg on Big Tech's AI spending race and the JSE's cash handback 30.10.2026 17m

  Alphabet and Amazon both reported faster growth this week, and Wall Street still wiped roughly half a trillion dollars off Google's parent in a single session, its worst day since listing in 2004. In this Ricardo portfolio update, Alec Hogg explained what had really spooked investors: a cash machine that now needs shareholders' money, and an Amazon spending more on data centres than its business brings in. He set out why the Ricardo portfolio was holding on, the bear case he couldn't dismiss, and the very different picture back home on the JSE, where Reinet kept buying back its own shares and Prosus locked in a payout most investors could collect tax-efficiently by doing nothing at all.
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  BN Edge | SA is living through a regime change: Dr Frans Cronje explains 30.10.2026 36m

  South Africans had lost faith in the old order, Frans Cronje told Alec Hogg, but had not yet found a new one to trust, and Wednesday's vote would not close that gap. The SRF chairman set out the one deal he believed could hold the country together, why he thought voters were already there while the politicians were not, and how the ANC could come back to 55% if it made a choice it had avoided for a decade. He also turned a sceptical eye on the DA's record in Tshwane, Johannesburg and even Cape Town, explained why Helen Zille's Joburg run mattered more for 2029 than for next week, and described a country quietly reorganising itself into enclaves, from illegal miners under Johannesburg's streets to middle-class estates.
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  BN Daybreak: Van Onselen on Joburg; Moeng on Chauke; JSE's 10% risk; Alphabet plunges 30.10.2026 15m

  Victory Research CEO Gareth van Onselen tells Alec Hogg that no poll gives the DA a majority in Johannesburg, but it should be the largest party - and the closer it gets to 40%, the harder it is to justify shutting it out of coalition talks. Solly Moeng says everything points to Bejani Chauke, the former presidential adviser the Madlanga Commission wants answers from, having acted for Ramaphosa, while stressing nothing is proven. Donald MacKay wants fuller JSE disclosure on a case that could cost 10% of turnover. Bonitas on joining a medical aid early. Plus Alphabet's worst day.
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  Solly Moeng on Ramaphosa, his shadowy advisers and a fading legacy 29.10.2026 21m

  In their weekly chat Chris Steyn and political commentator Solly Moeng dissect President Cyril Ramaphosa’s tough week on several fronts: The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry is seeking answers from his very influential former adviser, Dr Bejani Chauke, particularly in relation to WhatsApp chats with a notorious late taxi boss; his close friend and CODESA co-star, US Ambassador Roelf Meyer has been accused of political interference in Apartheid-era prosecutions; and election pollsters predict former President Jacob Zuma’s MKP could be heading for an outright majority KZN in next week’s Local Government Elections (LGEs). “I think that the only way that South Africa and the Presidency of South Africa can be saved, can be rescued, would be for serious political change, for people to go in there and change the system so that nobody ever comes in there with charming English, who wants to be hugged and who can hug you, and then who goes rogue on us and there's nothing we can do about them because the systems protect them,” says Moeng. Meanwhile, the President has resorted to door-to-door campaigning in KZN.
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  Gareth van Onselen on the metro races that could redraw SA politics 29.10.2026 44m

  Six days before the vote, four serious pollsters could not agree on who was winning Johannesburg. Gareth van Onselen, whose Victory Research polls have drawn fire from the ANC and ActionSA alike, told Alec Hogg why the metro numbers diverged, why turnout could swing a party by up to five points, and why the real result would only emerge from two weeks of coalition bargaining after 4 November. He set out the test he believed eThekwini would pose for every other metro, the squeeze facing the DA in Cape Town, an idea for running Gauteng's three metros as one, and the ANC strongholds that, if they cracked, would mark a change not seen since 1994. He also had a blunt verdict on Herman Mashaba's claim to Soweto, and a word on the eight weeks his own Joburg tap had run dry.
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  Donald MacKay: Find the JSE guilty - or not - and move on 29.10.2026 10m

  In this interview with Chris Steyn, Donald MacKay, the CEO of XA Global Trade Advisors, describes how anti-competitive behaviour is rewarded when investigations drag on. He was speaking out amid a long wait to find out whether the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) will be hit with a penalty of ten percent of its annual income following a complaint by a secondary stock exchange against the JSE for anti-competitive behaviour. MacKay predicted that should the JSE lose at the tribunal, “it will force a fundamental change in how stock exchanges operate” in South Africa. As to whether the tribunal would hand down specific directives in addition to the possible penalty, MacKays says: “Well, we don't know that. This is why the tribunal has to wrap this up and take a decision now, but it would be implied in all of this that if you're guilty of anti-competitive behaviour, you can't buy your way out of that by paying a fine. You have to stop the anti-competitive behaviour that started all of this in the first place.” Meanwhile, “many” alternative exchanges have “not even survived” while others are “on the verge of closing down”. MacKay adds that the problem has become “severe”. The JSE has categorically denied all the allegations.
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  BN Daybreak: Joburg's make-or-break vote, WSM on a disillusioned electorate, Africa's new drug pact 29.10.2026 14m

  Cy Jacobs has lived in Johannesburg all his life, and he told Alec Hogg he feared the city was close to the point of no return. The 36ONE co-founder explained why he had stepped into the election, why he believed Helen Zille had earned the city's thanks, and why another 50,000 to 100,000 voters could change the outcome. William Saunderson-Meyer said this election felt different, with the country in desperate straits and voters more disillusioned than ever, and he had strong words for anyone planning to spoil their ballot or stay home. And Willem Els brought Chris Steyn some good news: Angola and Uganda had joined South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania in a regional push against drug trafficking, at a time when local labs appeared to be producing far more than the country could use.
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  BN Edge | Musk's empire, passive money and Joburg's future: with Cy Jacobs 28.10.2026 39m

  In June, Cy Jacobs predicted SpaceX would one day buy Tesla. Now that the boards are looking at it, he explained why he still wouldn't buy either, and how passive money may be doing more to hold up Elon Musk's valuations than profits. Then he turned to the city he has lived in all his life. The 36ONE co-founder warned that Joburg was close to the point of no return, said who he thought would win the mayoralty, explained what a change in government could mean for the city's bonds, the rand and house prices, and answered whether he would take a job in a new administration.
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  William Saunderson-Meyer: what voters want and what parties will do | Jaundiced Eye 28.10.2026 32m

  Asked for the ANC's best-case scenario, William Saunderson-Meyer couldn't find one, only least-worst options for a party he said may be in terminal decline. A week before the local government elections, the Jaundiced Eye columnist told Alec Hogg why the neatest deal on paper, an ANC-DA partnership that most voters of both parties say they would accept, may be the one the ANC can't bring itself to sign. He likened ANC power-broking to feudal barons around a king, explained why the feud with MK runs deeper than any rivalry with the DA, and argued MK was likelier to win eThekwini outright than the DA was to take Joburg alone. He also weighed whether Joburg's polls are underselling the DA, whether Tshwane's water crisis will cost ActionSA, why spoiling a ballot this time would be "a complete sacrilege", and why Gayton McKenzie's charm keeps working in the Western Cape.
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  BN Daybreak: Els on Matlala's statement; Transnet and Eskom turning; Summers defends the numbers 28.10.2026 17m

  Security analyst Willem Els tells Chris Steyn that the collapsed plea deal behind Cat Matlala's unsigned 25-page statement, which throws former deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and former police minister Bheki Cele under the bus, hands investigators a money trail even if it can no longer be used in evidence. Alec Hogg tells the BizNews Premium community what stood out from his Enoch Godongwana interview: Transnet's private rail lines, Eskom's turn, and the push to fix South Africa's exploration record. Pick n Pay's Sean Summers hits back at talk of slowing momentum. Plus Boeing's worst day in 18 months.
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  Mchunu’s R2,7m legal bill, CR’s inaction, Sibiya’s secrets & Zuma’s spies v/s the EFF… 27.10.2026 22m

  In this interview with Chris Steyn, Willem Els of the Security Initiative for Africa (SIA), comments on the R2,7-million legal bill racked up by special leave Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s continued failure to sack him. “He was supposed to be the saviour of the ANC and gather a lot of support in the province (KZN). And I think that is one of the reasons why it’s very difficult for the president to let him go.” With former President Jacob Zuma’s MKP predicted to triumph in the upcoming LGEs in KZN, Els describes how Zuma used intelligence apparatus to further his political ends during his tenure - amid current court revelations that he even had State Security Agents (SSA) agents infiltrate and spy on EFF leadership. As for allegations in an affidavit by tenderpreneur Cat Matlala of payments to former Deputy National Commissioner General Shadrack Sibiya, Els says: “That just tells you how valuable General Sibiya was for the syndicates...I think his legal woes and his problems have only started.” Lastly, Els shares good news in the fight against drug trafficking. “It is very interesting that a lot of these seizures …happened after the Madlanga Commission started to expose the political protection and also the operational protection of these syndicates.”
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  BN Daybreak: Summers on a stretched consumer; Joburg whistleblower; Africa's moon shot; Wall St 27.10.2026 14m

  Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers tells Alec Hogg the consumer is stretched by fuel, electricity and rent, and defends pushing break-even to 2029: you cannot wish for profit first and sales second. He has closed almost 200 stores in three years while the main rival opened 800. City Power whistleblower Stephanus Fourie tells Chris Steyn Johannesburg is practically bankrupt, questions where two bailouts are going, and says nothing changes until looters are jailed and their assets recovered. Dr Carla Mitchell on Africa's first moon mission, delivered for under half a million dollars. Plus Anthropic's IPO filing lifts Wall Street.
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  BN Edge | CEO Sean Summers: Pick n Pay's long road back from the brink 26.10.2026 31m

  Three years ago, Sean Summers said, the talk at South African braais was whether Pick n Pay would survive at all. On results day, with the supermarket business still losing R516 million in six months and break-even pushed out to 2029, he told Alec Hogg why he wasn't in a hurry. He explained how the five-month stand-off with SACCAWU ended in a deal rather than retrenchments, what he said finally brought "seriousness into the room", and why he believed Pick n Pay was now outgrowing rivals that have opened hundreds more stores. He also took on the hard questions: whether being CEO of Pick n Pay and chair of Boxer is a conflict, why the market values the group at less than its Boxer stake, and what Spencer Sonn inherits when he arrives in February. His message to investors was blunt: it's not if, but when.
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  Joburg whistleblower: Looters should be charged with terrorism 26.10.2026 26m

  In this interview with Chris Steyn, City of Johannesburg whistleblower Stephanus Fourie warns that a new administration will not be able to root out entrenched mismanagement and corruption without drastic action. “Unless you catch the criminals and you lock them up and you take back everything that they've taken from the ratepayers, nothing will change.” Fourie believes that any person who steals from the government should be found guilty of terrorism, sent to prison without a term, given hard labour to earn back money to refund the taxpayer, and get released only “once every cent that you stole has been recovered”. Meanwhile, Fourie takes viewers behind the scenes at City Power where he was fired after he discovered “that there were anomalies that were non-consistent with the MFMA (the Municipal Financing Management Act)...And the biggest one was that they wanted to outsource sourcing. And not only outsource sourcing, the whole warehouse.” He has been reinstated following a court order, but City Power is still resisting his return. “One of the senior managers made a comment to say if he kept his mouth shut - referring to me - he would have been back at work…In front of witnesses.”
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  Africa’s first Moon mission is South African-led, and local expertise slashed the cost 26.10.2026 16m

  For more than 13 years, Dr Carla Mitchell has chased a dream she once believed belonged to Americans and NASA. Now she is leading Africa’s first space exploration mission to the moon in 2029. Africa2Moon will ride on China’s Chang’e 8 lander and deploy three 30 centimetre antennas, fondly known as BALLS, to pick up low frequency radio waves that our atmosphere blocks from Earth. A mission that should have cost more than $100 million is now expected to cost less than half a million dollars, because South African companies and universities took on the production at no cost and more than 30 scientists and engineers volunteered their time over a decade. Dr Mitchell, the mission director and Africa programme manager at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, told BizNews how it came together, and why she believes Africa is ready to lead in space exploration. – Linda van Tilburg
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  BN Daybreak: Sussman's unprecedented poll; mini-budget growth gap; Mpolase on cartel rule; Lesaka 26.10.2026 16m

  Analyst Wayne Sussman tells Chris Steyn something unprecedented has happened: across all six metros polled by eNCA MarkData, the ANC has not come out on top once, with Tshwane putting the DA just under 34% against the ANC's 25%. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tells Alec Hogg his target is 3% growth, not the 1.2% now forecast, and points to environmental and mining rules holding the country back. Political analyst Mzo Mpolase says a cartel was already running the country. Plus Lesaka's Ali Mazanderani on what a R5,000 loan costs, and Donald MacKay on 40-month tariff probes.
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  NdB Sunday Show | Mzo Mpolase: How low can SA go? 25.10.2026 27m

  In today's NdB Sunday Show with Chris Steyn, Political Analyst Mzo Mpolase slams President Cyril Ramaphosa's latest utterance on the looming loss of AGOA. "You're running a country here, you're not running some ANC ideological office. This is the fate of the economy, the fate of many jobs, which you promise every time. So to hear this, it's almost as if … how low can we go as a country that our president will basically do running commentary of something that they stand right in a position where they can change. And then he speaks as if it's God's will that it will be this way…all it needed was decisions from you, political will from you, and a sense of diplomacy and a sense of understanding what our national interest is." Mpolase says South Africa needs a "never-again" moment. Dissecting testimony before the Madlanga Commission, he says: "When you look at some of the individuals that have thus far been implicated or are having court cases now, you do feel that there is perhaps a hand behind these individuals…the almost strategic targeting of provincial, local government, by entities…there has to be some power behind it orchestrating all of this." Mpolase also looks at the future of coalition rule.
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  BN Edge | Mini-budget unpacked, with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana 25.10.2026 20m

  Two days after telling Parliament that South Africa had emerged from the fiscal wilderness, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana gave up part of his weekend to explain what that did and didn't mean. He conceded the tax burden had reached levels no finance minister should be comfortable with, and that growth of 1.2% was a long way from where he wanted it. His answer was not more tax, but cleaner spending and a hard look at the rules he said had stopped gas explorers in South Africa before they struck in Namibia, and left mining exploration far behind Canada and Australia. He also defended sending more money to failing municipalities, signalled a rethink on crypto, and set the record straight on his clash with the Reserve Bank governor.
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  Wayne Sussman: ANC set to lose 500 councillors in KZN alone… | The Electoral Roadshow 25.10.2026 37m

  In the latest Electoral Road Show with Chris Steyn and analyst Wayne Sussman, he shares the eNCA-MarkData Local Government Elections Survey results for eThekwini and Tshwane. It shows that former President Jacob Zuma's MKP is polling at 48% and heading for an outright majority in eThekwini with the ANC way below at 14,5% while the DA came in at 25,2%. "The ANC is on track across KwaZulu-Natal, not just eThekwini, to lose about five hundred councillors on election day…This is going to be a devastating result." Sussman adds that having reviewed the six major metropolitan areas in South Africa, "not once has the African National Congress been the leading party in our polls… this is absolutely unprecedented." Another unprecedented result is that now "the DA is bigger in Johannesburg than in Tshwane". In Tshwane, the poll has the DA in the lead at 33,9% to the ANC's 24,9%. Listen to Sussman unpack these latest poll results in detail and give an election preview with six Metros surveyed.