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BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Listen to the latest BusinessLIVE articles from the news desk of Business Day, Financial Mail and the Business Times.

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Daily English South Africa Business News · News
12,931 Episodes
460 – 480

Home affairs services remain limited under lockdown level 2

The department of home affairs will continue to offer only limited services under level 2 of the Covid-19 lockdown, restricting the number of people visiting its offices. “During each lockdown level, we analyse the number of people who normally visit our offices and determine which services we can offer safely…
28 Aug 2020 8AM 3 min

Basa says Covid-19 business relief loans likely to reach R40bn in January

The Banking Association SA (Basa) said on Friday that it expects disbursements to struggling businesses under the R200bn Covid-19 loan guarantee scheme to reach R24.4bn by January 2021. Even the best-case scenario in which the industry lobby group expects loans to total R43bn would not come to close to the…
28 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

DINNER PARTY INTEL: Rocky outcome for Rio Tinto CEO

1. Covid makes comeback Hong Kong researchers have reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, after a 33-year-old man who was first infected in March contracted the virus again while travelling in Europe four months later. There have been other reports of Covid-19 reinfection, but…
28 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

LETTER: SAA returns as politicians perk up

I note that one of the perks of being a member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, which Zandile Gumede will now enjoy while out on bail, is 24 free flights. Now, I presume these are return flights on SAA, perhaps to anywhere. If you add up the numbers of all those…
28 Aug 2020 7AM 1 min

LETTER: Treat them mean and rob them blind

Justice Malala (At Home and Abroad, August 13-19) ( said it all, as did your cover story on Zimbabwe ( in the same edition: African lives in Africa don’t matter. Zimbabwe is an utter basket case. Ruling party Zanu-PF has completely captured every ministry, as well as every strategic resource…
28 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

Closing the digital gender divide in ICT

This year, SA’s Women’s Month falls during one of the most challenging periods in our history – the global Covid-19 pandemic. As we emerge from the lockdown, we find a country facing greater inequality than ever before. However, we have also seen the power of information and communication technology (ICT)…
28 Aug 2020 7AM 5 min

LETTER: Collective responsibility

It is not a far-fetched possibility that cabinet could have reviewed its stance on the ban on alcohol sales in terms of the severity of the circumstances. However, the arrogance and holier-than-thou attitude displayed by SA Breweries, Heineken (, FM editor Rob Rose and former Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson (…
28 Aug 2020 7AM 1 min

BREAKING NEWS: Constitutional Court dismisses Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s Estina appeal bid

The Constitutional Court has dismissed public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s attempt to appeal against the damning judgment that invalidated her report on the Gupta-linked Estina Dairy Project scam. The full court found Mkhwebane’s application for leave to appeal against the scathing rulings given against her by Pretoria high court judge Ronel…
28 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

Iranian musician under house arrest for allowing women to dance in his videos

Amman — Iranian musician Mehdi Rajabian has said he is under house arrest as he awaits trial for working with female dancers and singers, in the country’s latest move to stop female artists performing. Rajabian said he was arrested on August 10 following media reports that his latest project will…
28 Aug 2020 6AM 3 min

World stocks lack direction after US Fed’s lack of guidance

London — Stock markets struggled for direction on Friday as investors worried about a lack of detail in the US Federal Reserve’s policy shift while Japanese markets were roiled as Prime Minister Abe Shinzo resigned for health reasons. The Fed’s widely awaited shift in its policy framework, unveiled on Thursday,…
28 Aug 2020 5AM 3 min

Oil prices fall as downgraded Laura misses refineries

London — Oil prices fell on Friday as storm Laura raced inland past the heart of the US oil industry in Louisiana and Texas without causing any widespread damage to refineries. Brent crude futures for October, set to expire on Friday, had fallen 19c to $44.90 a barrel by 8.15am…
28 Aug 2020 5AM 2 min

Aliko Dangote to build huge oil refinery in Nigeria

Abuja/Johannesburg — On a peninsula east of Lagos, 30,000 workers are employed on a project that holds out the promise of transforming Nigeria’s economic fortunes. It’s here that Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, plans to spend more than his net worth of $13.5bn building one of the world’s biggest oil…
28 Aug 2020 5AM 5 min

S&P hits an all-time high – what does this mean for SA?

We are almost through August – roughly seven months since the seemingly remote tremor in Wuhan resulted in the Covid-19 tsunami that would rip through global equity markets just weeks later. Much like the tragic sequence of events that follows an actual tsunami, the only investors that would escape the…
28 Aug 2020 5AM 11 min

How Trump oversold his economic success

Economies have a stubborn habit of not co-operating with political narratives. At the start of the year, the gaggle of Democrats running for president wanted very badly for “President Trump’s economy” to be failing most Americans. The economic data, and most Americans themselves, said otherwise. Now that the coronavirus has…
28 Aug 2020 5AM 3 min

New Zealand calls in spy agency amid cyber attacks on bourse

Wellington — New Zealand called in its spy agency and activated security crisis plans to help defend the stock exchange from overseas attack, after hackers disrupted the market for a fourth straight day. “We as a government are treating this very seriously,” finance minister Grant Robertson said on Friday, adding…
28 Aug 2020 3AM 4 min

Japan bourse falls on reports Abe set to resign

Tokyo — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the nation’s longest serving premier, is set to resign due to his worsening health, a source close to a ruling party official said on Friday, sparking a slide in Tokyo stock prices and a rise in the yen. “The resignation is a done…
28 Aug 2020 3AM 3 min

Asian markets are mixed after US inflation policy shift

Tokyo/Washington — Longer-dated Treasury yields and the dollar rose in Asia on Friday after the US Federal Reserve shifted its policy framework to place more emphasis on boosting economic growth and less on worries about letting inflation run too high. The 10-year US treasury yield rose to 0.7870%, the highest…
28 Aug 2020 2AM 3 min

Gold edges higher amid rising US Treasury yields

Bengaluru — Gold rose on Friday, having declined more than 1% in the previous session, as persistent concerns over the pandemic-led economic slump boosted the metal’s appeal, though gains were restricted by a jump in US Treasury yields. Spot gold was up 0.4% at $1,936.64/oz by 3.16am GMT. US gold…
28 Aug 2020 1AM 2 min
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