Editor’s pick
South African phones took 17.47 billion unwanted calls in six months
Truecaller's half-year estimate is up 25.2% on last year, and the opt-out list meant to stop the calls is taking sign-ups but still has no start date.
Policy
Regulation, the budget, tax and the policy decisions that move South African business.
Editor’s pick
SARS just opened its new tax-certainty deal to far more companies
After industry called the original bar unrealistic, the taxman cut the entry threshold for its new upfront pricing deals from R50bn to R10bn.
Icasa staff walk out as the telecoms regulator says it can't afford more
Nehawu members downed tools over a 4.5% increase the union rejected — but Icasa says a budget deficit leaves no room to move, and promises services will run as normal.
The plan to police crypto at the border, and why VALR says it backfires
Treasury and the Reserve Bank want cross-border crypto routed through approved channels; the country's biggest exchange warns it will push the money out of sight.
Your peanut butter could get a 20% import tax, and the regulator is watching prices
South Africa's trade regulator wants to lift the import duty on peanut butter to 20% to protect local makers, while warning shops not to use it as cover for price hikes.
Editor’s pick
South Africa's driving licences are about to last twice as long
Cabinet has approved doubling the validity of ordinary licences to ten years, but the familiar five-year renewal still applies until the law catches up.
South Africa Wants to Know Why It's So Hard to Buy Into a Franchise
The Competition Commission has opened a sweeping inquiry into the R1-trillion sector behind KFC, Spar and Pick n Pay, asking whether the deck is stacked against the small players trying to get in.
South Africa's gas-import plan hangs on one overdue call
A banker says naming the winners of the country's first gas-power auction is the decision that will make or break its plan to import natural gas.
Editor’s pick
South Africans now gamble a fifth of the economy, and the damage is mounting
New reporting by GroundUp and data group The Outlier shows online betting has exploded past R1 trillion a year, while calls to the gambling helpline have jumped more than fifteenfold.
France just became the first EU country to log its teenagers off
A new law bars under-15s from social media from September and kicks phones out of high schools, and the rest of Europe is watching.
Editor’s pick
Home Affairs Would Rather Vet the Company Than the Person
South Africa's work visa system now asks employers to sit a scored test, and only those clearing 80 out of 100 get their foreign hires waved through.
Big story
One entrepreneur's plan to let firms buy their way to a BEE score
Alan Knott-Craig wants companies to pay 3% of revenue for automatic empowerment credentials. Not everyone calls it a levy.