News24 The Lead

Navigating the GNU, VAT, ZAR and Trump's tariffs with Carol Paton

Loading player...
The South African economy faces potentially volatile times with the Trump Administration's tariffs on one side of the scale and a 1 May VAT hike on the other. "Everyone is feeling the pinch; even the US markets are feeling the pinch," says News24 writer-at-large Carol Paton. The rand has been edging closely to the R 20 per US dollar mark as the sweeping tariffs take effect globally this week. "At this point, we are in a very bad place," adds Paton. SA's among sixty nations being slapped with hefty tariffs - the US has imposed 31% on the region. "You and I can do very little when these geopolitical forces are acting on the world." Later, The Lead host, Graeme Raubenheimer, looks into the findings of the forensic report into the George building collapse. And finally, the SABC insists Afrikaans news bulletins are here to stay after a weekend no-show. You can now mail your views, news, and voice notes to thelead@24.com. New episodes drop Monday through Thursday on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 19:00.
9 Apr English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Is Ramaphosa wasting his time with Trump? With Pieter du Toit

Youth unemployment, crumbling municipal infrastructure, persistent power cuts and escalating crime levels remain South Africa’s reality. Yet President Cyril Ramaphosa finds himself increasingly pulled into global conflict scenarios. In the aftermath of Ramaphosa labelling the first group of “Afrikaner refugees” leaving for the US on Sunday as “cowards” and “colonialists”,…
15 May 24 min

NAMPO farmers tell Nick Wilson they’re staying

President Cyril Ramaphosa described the first group of so-called “Afrikaner refugees”, who took up the US Trump Administration’s invitation to resettle in the states as “cowards” who’ll soon return to South Africa. The president surprised many South African farmers attending this week’s NAMPO agriculture expo in Bothaville in the Free…
14 May 17 min

'I am an Afrikaner', with Adriaan Basson

Whatever you’d like to call them; the “49ers”, the “Amerikaners”, the “Afrikaner refugees”, they’ve officially discarded Madiba’s Rainbow Flag for Eisenhower’s Stars and Stripes. Their departure, facilitated by the Trump administration, has generated intense debate over the Afrikaners’ place in this world. But for News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson, two things have…
13 May 29 min

The first ‘Amerikaners’ leave SA, with Alex Mitchley

The annals of SA/US relations are at a watershed. They’ll historically show that in early May 2025, after a run of public holidays celebrating South Africa’s hard-fought transition to democracy, the first group of Afrikaners took up the Trump Administration’s offer to relocate to the United States as official “refugees”. And they…
12 May 21 min
All episodes