Daily news from the Business Bagel desk — the markets, money and company stories shaping South Africa, reported fast and kept clear.
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Forecasters have confirmed a severe El Niño will coincide with the 2026-27 planting season, but a record 17.25-million-tonne maize crop and unusually moist soils give South Africa a rare buffer against the coming drought.
Parliament is taking public submissions until 21 August on the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, which would force big operators to share unused spectrum and open their networks to smaller rivals.
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Stats SA's two-decade review of municipal finances shows council debt rising faster than revenue, with 17 municipalities owing more than they own ahead of November's local elections.
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The Chinese brand has taken over the Pretoria plant Nissan ran for nearly 60 years, keeping all 692 workers and pledging hundreds of millions of dollars to build cars locally.
Optasia's shares had their best day since listing after the mobile-lending group told investors its revenue could jump as much as 60%.
Anthropic has unveiled a research tool for scientists and, more surprisingly, plans to develop drugs of its own for diseases big pharma overlooks.
Spotify has told Kalshi and Polymarket to drop its logo after users faked streams to rig prediction-market bets on its charts.
Prosus has launched ToqanClaw, a free tool that lets small businesses build their own apps, but it still hasn't cracked how to make money from it.
The local unit traded around R16.23 to the dollar on Friday and the Top-40 rose 1.1%, as a tepid American jobs report pushed back bets on a near-term Fed rate hike.
The S&P Global PMI rose to 50.5 in June, nudging past the line between growth and contraction as inflation eased — but business optimism sank to a near-five-year low.
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The retailer’s asap! app gains an AI assistant that builds a basket from a voice note, a photo or a scribbled shopping list — with a full rollout from 6 July.
The 84-year-old billionaire's Titan Premier Investments has taken a R350 million position in alternative credit provider Preference Capital, its latest 2026 deployment.