Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week

Afrimat CEO Andries van Heerden joins Bruce to unpack the group’s toughest six months since listing in 2006. Soaring shipping rates, a stronger rand, a mine reaching the end of its life and ferrochrome smelter shutdowns pushed the market darling into a loss, but he argues the way through is clear, even if the timing isn’t. Jurgens Uys, co-founder of Versus Socks, talks about turning R15 000 and a Stellenbosch garage into six million pairs of socks sold in 80 countries, while surviving cash-flow crunches and supply-chain gaps along the way. It’s a masterclass in starting small, staying focused and knowing when to attack. News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman unpacks Sanlam’s R21 billion bid for the rest of Santam, the Competition Commission’s unprecedented bid to unwind Premier Foods’ takeover of Rhodes Food Group, and a new opt-out registry that could curb the nine billion spam calls South Africans get each quarter. And Dion Gouws of Credo in London discusses whether Ray Dalio is right about an AI bubble, why AQR’s Cliff Asness disagrees, and why staying invested in equities still makes sense when markets feel wobbly. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00. 

In this episode, Capitec CEO Graham Lee joins Bruce to unpack another extraordinary set of results from South Africa’s most disruptive bank. With 16.5 million digital clients, a cost to income ratio that has dropped to just 36 cents in the rand and business banking growing at over 50%, Capitec continues to defy every sceptic. Lee explains why the branch network is not a cost but a competitive advantage, what fully banked really means and why he is more heavily weighting negative economic scenarios heading into 2027.

Craig Pitchers, CEO of The Courier Guy, on the last mile problem that has plagued South African logistics for decades and how 3,500 pickup points, lockers and kiosks are finally starting to solve it. With fuel costs at record highs, doorstep delivery is the most expensive way to move a parcel, and the shift to collection points is not just convenient. It is the future of the industry.

Helena Wasserman, editor of News24 Business, on the ports authority finally breaking free from Transnet, Goldfields making a bold half-trillion-rand bid for Australian miner Northern Star to become the world’s second largest gold producer, and the Gautrain getting new operators with fresh promises and French flair.

And Meryl Pick of Old Mutual Investment Group on the seismic knock-on effect of the Dangote Refinery IPO for Nigeria’s currency and MTN investors, and whether stock markets always fall in rate hiking cycles.

Most of us have stopped thinking about payments. You tap your card, tap your phone, and walk out. It just works. But behind that two-second tap is one of the most complex and fast-moving infrastructure systems in the modern economy – and it is changing faster than most businesses realise.

In this standalone episode of Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week, Bruce sits down with Chris Zietsman, executive head of Capitec Payments, to pull back the curtain on what is actually happening when money moves – and what the next three years are going to look like.

Zietsman spent six years at SnapScan, first as CFO and later as CEO, watching South Africa’s payment ecosystem evolve from days of clearing time to card transactions settling in two to three seconds – faster, he notes, than Mexico manages on a good day.

He unpacks the PayShap instant payment rail now enabling real-time bank transfers for as little as 20 cents, why Capitec can onboard a new card machine merchant in five minutes in any branch, and how the cost of card transactions has fallen from 3%-4% decade ago to below 1% today.

But the most compelling part of the conversation is his prediction about where the next competitive battleground lies: Not speed. Not price. Security. As friction disappears, so does the safety net that used to give defrauded consumers time to stop a transaction. The winners in the next three years, he says, will be the players who use AI and behavioural monitoring to protect clients in real time.

You thought you were just tapping your phone. It turns out you were participating in one of the most sophisticated financial systems on Earth.

This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.

To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here.

In this episode, Momentum CEO Jeanette Marais unpacks a standout year, with normalised headline earnings hitting R7 billion ahead of schedule, five business segments crossing R1 billion for the first time, and India emerging as the group’s most exciting long-term growth story after the health insurance joint venture with Aditya Birla Capital turned profitable for the first time in a decade. Eben de Jongh, founder of Skubu, joins Bruce to explain why it is expensive to be poor, and how his refill-based retail concept in Diepsloot is cutting prices by up to 60% through eliminating packaging and buying directly upstream. Four stores in, with a more compact format called Skubu Nyana in development, the model is gaining serious momentum.News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman reflects on Pick'n Pay tapping a former Woolworths executive as its next CEO, Remgro sitting on R22 billion in cash and feeling unusually bullish about South Africa, and Neal Froneman’s serious plans for a Formula One circuit near Malmesbury in the Western Cape. And David Shapiro of Otto 1890 on why AI is now the defensive play in global markets, Nvidia trading at a lower multiple than the S&P 500 despite a R5.5 trillion market cap, and the one thing that keeps him up at night about the sustainability of this market. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00. 

In this episode, Omnia Group CEO Seelan Gobalsamy discusses a record year driven by Africa’s growing food security imperative, with fertiliser demand rising across the continent and a strategy built around becoming the essential input supplier for African farmers. Optasia CEO Salvador Anglada unpacks how the group is making more than a billion credit decisions a month, facilitating $3.5 billion in distributed value in a single half-year, and growing revenue 58% while keeping default rates at 1.3%. Quietly, the fintech has become one of the most significant financial infrastructure companies that most South Africans have never heard of. Gary Booysen of Rand Swiss on what the Reserve Bank rate hold means for SA assets, where he is finding value in a market that has run hard, and why AI infrastructure remains his one constant theme.And News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman on the rand selling off after the rate hold, Woolworths’ new CEO making his first moves, and what a bumper week for financial services results tells us about the broader economy. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00. 

In this episode, FirstRand CEO Mary Vilakazi unpacks results that look worse than they are. Reported earnings fell 5% after an R11.4 billion provision for the UK motor finance scandal, but strip that out and normalised earnings from continuing operations grew 13%, with return on equity at 24%. The UK business is being sold, and FirstRand is placing its next big bet on Optasia, a fintech platform targeting the unbanked across Africa. Andrew Dunn of DNI tells one of South Africa’s most unexpected entrepreneurial stories. Watching bread trucks return idle by midmorning at Premier Foods, he noticed that every outlet buying bread was also selling airtime and SIM cards with no efficient way to restock. That single observation became the foundation for a business now spanning connectivity, devices, eSIMs and fintech, touching millions of South Africans in the informal economy. Chantal Marx of FNB Wealth and Investments on a bumper week of financial services results, why South African insurers and banks keep outperforming a moribund economy, and what Anton Rupert Jr’s elevation at Richemont really signals. And News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman discusses GDP shrinking by 0.2% in the second quarter, the Gauteng office market at 18% vacancy, and why Hyde Park Corner is somehow the best-performing retail asset in the country. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00. 

In this episode, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago joins Bruce to unpack what he calls a “polycrisis of overlapping shocks”, from the war in Iran to Ukraine’s attack on Russian wheat infrastructure and the looming El Niño threat to South African food prices. His message: South Africa’s starting point this time is fundamentally stronger than in 2022, and that breathing room is why the Reserve Bank can still take measured rather than aggressive steps on rates. Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht speaks about the acquisition of Vida e Caffè, which adds more than 400 coffee stores to a group already operating in pet, liquor, pharmacy, and fashion adjacencies. Sixty60 added R6.6 billion this year and set a new record just yesterday, and Shoprite and Checkers now sit as the top two retailers in South Africa by sales.News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman analyses Woolworths’ food-first CEO, making clear the retailer’s clothing era is over, TFG’s Australian business dragging results down under, Eskom sitting on R125 billion cash after a R30 billion profit, and Sasol’s share price tripling to nearly R200 on the back of surging refining margins. And Peter Armitage of Anchor Capital examines rising bond yields reshaping asset values globally, why AI has increased his costs without yet cutting them, and why the real AI boom right now is actually a construction boom in disguise. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00. 

In this episode, MTN CEO Ralph Mupita joins Bruce to unpack a strong set of first-half results driven by Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, with R13.9 billion in dividends repatriated. Mupita addresses the R74 billion trademark lawsuit MTN dismisses as frivolous, the Iran investment it cannot exit because of US sanctions, and what it actually takes to operate profitably across 19 contested African markets. Antoine van Heerden of ButtaNutt tells the story of building a plant-based food empire from a student digs in Stellenbosch, from macadamia butter at weekend markets to 1 500 stores nationwide and a 54% investment from PSG Group. Helena Wasserman, editor of News24 Business, on Northam’s audacious move to put itself on the market, an insider trading probe into trades ahead of the Curro delisting, and OR Tambo’s deepening crisis as air traffic controllers are poached abroad, and a Sasol refinery shutdown threatens jet fuel supply. And David Shapiro of Otto 1890, in his 53rd year in markets, on why Nvidia’s blowout results should silence the sceptics, the two-speed US economy, and why the rand may surprise everyone. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00. 

In this episode, DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius explains how the company extracts 1.93 grams of gold per tonne of mine-dump material, and why, at $4 000 an ounce, that amounts to R4.2 billion in profit, while simultaneously cleaning up Soweto’s dust problem and reversing a century-long environmental legacy. Bruce McMurray of Jockey South Africa speaks on keeping a 150-year-old underwear brand relevant, why more than 95% of its products are still made locally through a 75-year manufacturing partnership, and what e-commerce is forcing the factory to rethink.News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman discusses the SPAR board chair quitting under pressure from revolting independent retailers, the US debt approaching $40 trillion, and food price inflation at its lowest in 16 years. And Graeme Korner of Korner Perspective explores why the JSE has been a damp squib in 2026, why precious metals are finding their mojo again, and why he thinks the US bond market intervention is a dangerous gamble. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00. 

In this episode, ENS head of forensics practice Steven Powell goes behind the scenes of asset forfeiture, using the Tembisa Hospital scandal to explain what actually happens after the cameras leave and the Lamborghinis have been seized, and why South Africa’s ability to secure convictions amid a Financial Action Task Force review matters more than most people realise. Neil Swart of the Belly Restaurant Group joins Bruce to talk about Buri, the new Cape Town concept built entirely around the boerie roll. Gary Booysen of Rand Swiss speaks on Anthropic’s potential $2 trillion IPO and the Goldman Sachs warning about $1.3 trillion in AI infrastructure commitments quietly sitting off-balance-sheet. And Helena Wasserman reviews gold at a 10-week high, Shoprite’s Sixty60 growing to a third the size of Pick n Pay, and the court ruling that cleared business mogul Patrice Motsepe of a R3 billion claim, just as 37% of South Africans say they want him as their next president. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.