Today's edition
Dead Air
Good morning. Today's news reads like one long waiting room: football fans waiting on a broadcast deal, Wall Street waiting on a jobs number, MacBook buyers waiting on stock that keeps slipping into next month, and the country waiting to hear whether a mining windfall can earn back its credit score. Patience, it turns out, is this morning's real currency. Let's get into it.
MARKETS
GAME OFF
The Premiership Kicked Off. The SABC Couldn't Show It.
South African football fans who settled in for the new Betway Premiership season on Saturday found blank screens on the SABC. The public broadcaster, the free-to-air home of local football, couldn't show a single opening fixture: not a technical glitch, but a broadcast deal that hadn't closed in time. The sticking point is its negotiation with Canal+, the French group that now owns MultiChoice and DStv. The SABC says talks are progressing and hopes to start screening matches from 15 August, and it did lock in a separate free-to-air deal for the 2026 MTN8 cup. But with both broadcasters short of cash, this rights fight carries a familiar sting.
The state of play:
- The SABC couldn't broadcast any of Saturday's opening Betway Premiership fixtures after its sub-licensing deal with Canal+ missed the deadline.
- It aims to start screening matches from 15 August, and has already secured a separate free-to-air deal for the 2026 MTN8 cup.
- Money is tight on both sides: Canal+ shut Showmax after sinking over R5bn into it, DStv has shed about a third of its subscribers to roughly 14 million, and the SABC now faces a forecast R41.3m loss.
For now the blackout covers only opening weekend and both sides say a deal is close, so free-to-air fans will be watching the negotiating table as closely as the pitch.
PAY DIRT
A Mining Windfall Has Goldman Betting on Another SA Ratings Upgrade
South Africa's public finances just delivered a rare bit of good news. Company tax is flowing in faster than the budget expected, up about 5.5% to R385 billion on a semi-annual basis and driven largely by a boom in mining exports. That beat has caught Goldman Sachs' eye: economist Andrew Matheny now expects both Moody's and S&P to lift the country's credit score within a year, helped by a better-than-forecast primary budget surplus.
It's a bank's forecast, not a done deal, but for a country long used to downgrades, even a hopeful call makes a change of pace.
BAGEL BITE
Which non primate has fingerprints remarkably similar to human fingerprints?
A. Wombat
B. Koala
C. Kangaroo
DOING THE ROUNDS
Your driving licence is about to last twice as long. Cabinet has approved doubling the validity of ordinary car and motorcycle licences from five years to ten, covering Codes A, A1, B and EB. Heavy vehicles stay on five years and professional permits on two. The catch: it still has to clear public comment and legal scrutiny, so keep renewing as normal for now. Full story →
The AI boom is about to make your next laptop pricier. A global memory-chip shortage nicknamed 'RAMaggedon' has pushed PC and phone memory prices up five to six times in a year, as makers pivot to the high-bandwidth memory that AI needs. It has already delayed Apple's MacBook Air into late August, and carmakers warn new-car prices could be next. Full story →
Capitec conquered consumers. Now it wants your business. With headline earnings up 23% to R16.8 billion and 26 million clients, CEO Graham Lee is eyeing an 'excitingly low' share of business banking, just 5%, as the bank's biggest growth opportunity of the next three years. More than four million small businesses, he reckons, are still underserved. Full story →
Wall Street is bracing for a make-or-break week. Friday's US jobs report (forecast: about 83,000 new jobs and 4.3% unemployment) lands with the Fed hard to read after three policymakers dissented in favour of a hike. Over a quarter of the S&P 500 reports earnings too, and SpaceX files its first results since going public, all with shares sitting near record highs. Full story →
WEATHER
BAGEL GAMES
Have you got what it takes to win today’s Wordle? Play here →
THE ANSWER
As for the Bagel Bite, the answer is: B. Koala
Koala paws contain detailed skin ridges that form arches, loops and whorls similar to patterns found in human fingerprints. Researchers using ink prints and scanning electron microscopes found that these ridges closely resemble human fingerprints in size, density and microscopic detail. Koalas are marsupials and are not closely related to humans or other primates, making the similarity especially unusual. Scientists believe the ridges may assist with gripping and climbing, although their exact purpose has not been conclusively proven. Koalas also have rough paw pads, sharp claws and two opposable fingers on each front paw that press against the other three, helping them grip branches securely while climbing and feeding.
That's your Tuesday sorted. Enjoyed it? Forward it on — a friend can subscribe in a click. Written by the Business Bagel crew.
