> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.businessbagel.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Roundup — Thursday, 8 October 2026 - URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/the-roundup-thursday-8-october-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-08T04:00:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T04:00:51.000Z - Author: Christian Maidman Today’s edition Too Much Power Presented by[![All Weather](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/allweather-logo.png)](https://allweather.co.za/?ref=businessbagel.com) Good morning, and welcome to your Thursday Roundup. We’ve got a bit of a weird one today. South Africa claims it has too much electricity, Africa is starting its own credit rating agency, and FNB says you can now buy bitcoin through the bank, but you can’t take it anywhere. Let’s get into it. --- MARKETS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/10/markets--58-.png) --- BATTERIES INCLUDED ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/10/Article-SA-electricity.png) ## South Africa keeps paying for power it can’t use, so the minister is buying batteries, not more solar Around midday, South Africa now makes more electricity than its grid can use. Coal stations can’t ramp up and down quickly, so they stay on, and so renewable independent power producers like solar farms are often told to produce less instead. Because of how their contracts work, they still get paid for the power nobody took, and the grid company’s bill for that is heading from R520 million last year to about R2.4 billion this year. On Wednesday in Pretoria, Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa set out his fix: 9,600 megawatts of new capacity, and not a single wind turbine or solar panel in it. **What’s on the shopping list:** - **Batteries.** 4,600 megawatts of them, meant to charge on power that would otherwise be thrown away and release it into the evening peak. - **Gas.** 5,000 megawatts for when the sun and wind fall short. It can’t soak up a surplus, and Ramokgopa admits imported gas brings price and currency risk. - **Wind and solar.** Nothing this round. They wait for a later one, while the farms already built keep getting switched off at lunchtime. Ramokgopa puts the full cost of all that switching off at R49 billion a year, and wants to sell the spare power to neighbours, starting with Zambia. Getting it there takes power lines, and Eskom builds just over half the line it needs each year. [**Read the full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/curtailment-payouts-ramokgopa-batteries-gas/) --- GRADE EXPECTATIONS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/10/Article-ACRA-1.png) ## The African Union has built its own credit rating agency, and still hasn’t said who owns it How cheaply a government borrows depends a lot on its credit rating, and three American firms, Moody’s, S&P and Fitch, control an estimated 95% of that business. African governments have argued for years that those firms judge them too harshly and downgrade them too fast in a crisis, which the firms deny. In response, African leaders backed a home-grown alternative in 2018, and now the African Union has built it: the Africa Credit Rating Agency, based in Port Louis, Mauritius, with its launch scheduled for this evening. The point of it is cheaper money. By the AU’s own count, Africa’s yearly payments on foreign debt went from $61 billion in 2010 to $163 billion in 2024, and in most African countries the interest now costs more than health or education. South Africa put the same worry about borrowing costs on the G20 agenda during its presidency last year. The new agency also wants to grade the 23 African countries the big three don’t rate at all, a gap that keeps them out of international bond markets. Governments are barred from owning it, yet no shareholders, chief executive or board have been named, and nobody has said when its first rating will land. [**Read the full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/african-union-credit-rating-agency-afcra/) --- BAGEL BITE **Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to America?** **A.** Britain **B.** France **C.** Spain --- DOING THE ROUNDS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/10/Article-SA-wheat-harvest.png) **South Africa is heading for its smallest wheat harvest in 8 years.** Farmers planted less this season, and then parts of the Western Cape went months without enough rain. One agricultural economist now expects a harvest of about 1.8 million tonnes, down 5% from last year. Interestingly, every other winter crop grew, with barley, canola and oats all up as farmers planted more. But with less local wheat, South Africa will probably import around 2 million tonnes. Fortunately, though, global supplies remain strong.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/south-africa-wheat-crop-eight-year-low-imports/) **Wall Street's two big indexes closed at record highs on Tuesday, and a handful of tech and chip giants did most of the lifting.** The S&P 500 finished above 7,800 for the first time, with the Nasdaq setting a record of its own and Nvidia, now worth almost $6 trillion, making up more than 8% of the S&P by itself. That is a lot of weight on one company. Give every company in the index an equal say, and that version is still almost 5% below its mid-August high.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/sp500-nasdaq-records-nvidia-chipmakers/) **FNB customers can now buy bitcoin through their bank, with one condition attached: the digital assets never leave.** Through a partnership with the exchange VALR, FNB's share-trading accounts can buy and sell 5 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ethereum, from as little as R10 rand. You can't send them to your own wallet or another exchange, and you can't bring in crypto you already own. FNB puts that down to security and a cautious reading of exchange-control rules.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/fnb-crypto-trading-valr-ringfenced/) **South Africans have had audiobooks on Spotify since February, which put the country in a club of just 22 markets.** Spotify said at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday that the club will cover more than 180 by the end of 2026, including Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia and most of the rest of Africa. For most of the continent, the way in will be Audiobooks Plus, a paid add-on rather than listening hours bundled into Premium. Fun fact: that little add-on already makes Spotify more than 100 million dollars a year.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/spotify-audiobooks-180-markets-africa/) --- WEATHER ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/10/weather--54-.png) --- BAGEL GAMES ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/10/Wordle--58-.png) Have you got what it takes to win today’s Wordle? [**Play here →**](https://puzzel.org/en/wordle/play?p=-P3LyDbz8mD7e1k1VFmR&ref=businessbagel.com) --- THE ANSWER As for the Bagel Bite, the answer is: **B. France** It was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with its internal framework engineered by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame. The statue was built in France, shipped across the Atlantic in hundreds of pieces, and reassembled in New York Harbour. It marked the friendship between the two nations and the ideals of liberty. Today it remains one of the most recognised monuments in the world. --- That’s your Thursday wrapped. Enjoyed it? Forward it on, a friend can subscribe in a click. Written by the Business Bagel crew.