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South African key rate lowered at first decision under new inflation target

South Africa's central bank cut its main lending rate by 25 basis points to 6.75% on Thursday at the first meeting since its inflation target was lowered, easing concerns that the new target would prevent it from cutting rates.

The decision by members of the bank's Monetary Policy Committee was unanimous.

"Members agreed there was scope now to make the policy stance less restrictive, in the context of an improved inflation outlook," Governor Lesetja Kganyago told a news conference.

The bank made small downward revisions to its inflation forecasts for 2025 and 2026.

Economists polled by Reuters had been divided on what Thursday's policy decision would be.

Some thought the committee would take a cautious stance given its new 3% inflation target, while others thought there was room for a rate cut with inflation only slightly above target and within a 1-percentage-point "tolerance band" set by the finance minister.

There has been a long list of positive developments since the last monetary policy meeting in September.

South Africa was removed from a "grey list" of countries subject to increased monitoring for illicit money flows, its sovereign credit rating was upgraded by S&P Global and its mid-year budget review was well-received by investors.

Government borrowing costs have fallen and the rand hit its best level since 2023 against the dollar.

"We remain on track to deliver 3% inflation over the medium term," Kganyago said. "The tolerance band ... does not mean we will be indifferent to inflation anywhere between 2% and 4%. We want to be at 3%."

The governor, who had for years advocated for a lower inflation target before last week's formal change, added that the central bank only expected to breach the tolerance band when there are severe shocks.

Given that monetary policy actions have their main effects after 12 to 24 months, people should expect the central bank to hit its target over that time frame, Kganyago added.

NCOP delegates back Mabuyane's push for military action against 'extortionists' in E Cape

Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has requested the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to deal with "deadly extortionists" in the province, a move that a National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegation is endorsing.

Mabuyane has urged action against alleged extortion at large infrastructure projects in the Eastern Cape.

Provincial Whip and leader of the Eastern Cape permanent delegates to the NCOP Mwelo Nonkonyane said it fully supported Mabuyane's initiative to request the deployment of soldiers, describing it as a "necessary and long-overdue" intervention that the delegation will urge President Cyril Ramaphosa to adopt.

"Our province has lagged for too long on infrastructure development. It is not fair on the companies; it is not fair on communities and ordinary South Africans that a few selfish thugs offer nothing and want to benefit from projects," Nonkonyane said.

"…extortionists are not backing down, which begs the question whether arresting them and imprisoning them is adequate action to mitigate their behaviour," he added.

Nonkonyane pointed to the province's infrastructure potential, pointing to the construction of several new road projects and bridges.

"We want to see our communities working and benefitting on these mega-infrastructure projects. Any criminal project intended to hold this work back should be dealt with decisively and without fear or hesitation," he stated.

The delegation is set to visit various infrastructure sites including the Mzimvubu dam, Ludeke dam and Msikaba bridge projects on the Wild Coast, and the Ngquza Memorial Hill project.

Motshekga to act against Navy Chief over 'disingenuous comments'

The Department of Defence and Military Veterans says Minister Angie Motshekga will be taking "appropriate steps" against Navy Chief Vice Admiral Monde Lobese, for what the department termed "unfortunate" statements that cast aspersions at the leadership of government.

Last week, at two events in Tshwane, Lobese cited chronic underfunding of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), which he said impacted the country's navy and weakened South Africa's national security.

He noted South Africa needed to advocate for a stronger, well-resourced defence force.

"…we need to think about what is at stake for not having the navy present at sea.

"So, what I am stressing is that our prolonged absence at sea due to non-availability of serviceable ships and submarines, all because of the outsourcing of our Navy should concern you as fellow South Africans," he stated.

Motshekga regarded Lobese's remarks as "inappropriate, disingenuous and unfortunate", claiming that the SANDF budget was receiving attention in the department and in Parliament.

Lobese went on to question whether decision-makers responsible for defunding the SANDF "may be directly or indirectly influenced by drug cartels, illegal traders, maritime criminals or human traffickers."

"Because it will appear that this consistent underfunding and incapacitating of the South African Navy and the defence force in general is to ensure the success of the operations that undermine our nation, compromise its sovereignty and jeopardise the future of our children," he said.

Lobese also compared Cabinet's approval of SANDF workforce cuts to "a Defence version" of the closure of the Political Killings Task Team, as revealed by South African Police Service KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

South African consumer inflation quickens to 3.6% y/y in October

South African inflation rose slightly in October, but by less than expected, prompting analysts to predict Thursday's interest rate decision by the central bank was likely to be a close call.

Headline consumer inflation climbed to 3.6% year-on-year from 3.4% in September, staying within the 1 percentage point tolerance band of the central bank's new 3% target announced last week.

Economists polled by Reuters had predicted 3.7%.

A breakdown by Statistics South Africa showed categories like transport and recreation recorded hotter rates in October, but price pressures cooled for others like restaurants and food.

Before Wednesday's data, economists had been split on what the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) would decide at this week's monetary policy meeting.

Fourteen polled by Reuters predicted it would keep its repo rate at 7.00% and 15 forecast a 25 basis point cut.

Independent economist Elize Kruger, one of those who had been in the "hold" camp, said she now expected a cut, while Johannes Khosa said Nedbank was sticking to its prediction for a 25 basis point cut, since inflation appeared relatively calm.

At its last monetary policy meeting in September, the SARB kept its key rate unchanged, saying it needed more time to gauge the effects of earlier easing steps.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it expects to receive the delayed first quarter crime statistics through its pending Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request on November 27, and threatened to release them if Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia does not do so by November 28, as he had promised to Parliament.

Last month, the party submitted a PAIA request to compel the South African Police Service (Saps) and Cachalia to release the delayed first quarter crime statistics.

DA spokesperson on Police Lisa Schickerling said despite repeated promises, there had still been no clarity or accountability from the Ministry or Saps on why the first quarter crime statistics had not been made public.

"Should Cachalia fail to table the full stats publicly the following day (November 28), as he promised, the DA will release the information ourselves," said Schickerling.

She pointed out that with 16 Days of Activism beginning on November 25, the figures must include the full set of gender-based violence (GBV) and child crime statistics that had been withheld for more than a year.

"The country is entering a period dedicated to confronting violence against women and children, yet the very data needed to expose the scale of the crisis remains hidden," she argued.

Leaders from the Group of 20 nations will take decisive action to reform the global financial architecture and make other key decisions at their annual summit this week, despite US President Donald Trump's absence, according to a top official from South Africa, which is hosting the gathering in Johannesburg.

"We believe that the countries that are present here must be able to take a decision and adopt a declaration," Ronald Lamola, South Africa's foreign minister, told the inaugural Bloomberg Africa Business Summit in the city on Tuesday ahead of the meeting of heads of state. "We do not believe the absence of the US should paralyse the G20."

Trump ordered a US boycott of the G20 summit, the first of its kind to be held on the African continent, maintaining his false narrative that White Afrikaner farmers are being subjected to a genocide in South Africa. American officials also stayed away from several preparatory meetings, frustrating attempts by the bloc's other members to forge consensus on a range of issues and draft joint communiques.

"The G20 should send a clear message that the world can move on with or without the US," Lamola said. "We will mark them absent and continue with the business" of the summit, he said.

China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin also won't be attending the leaders' gathering, a further setback to South Africa's bid to set the G20's agenda and persuade it to do more to tackle global inequality, climate change and ballooning African debt.

Formed in the wake of the global financial crisis to bring together the world's biggest advanced and emerging economies, the G20 once served as a key forum for setting and promoting global financial norms. Its cohesion has eroded in recent years, but the gatherings have continued to offer a venue for regular engagement among leaders of the world's largest economies.

Lamola also noted that South Africa had "turned the corner," as evidenced by its recent credit-ratings upgrade from S&P Global Ratings, its removal from the Financial Action Task Force's dirty money watchlist and a cessation in power cuts.

"That does not mean we do not have challenges" such as crime and corruption, he said.

Ramaphosa touts progress as G20 faces boycotts, scepticism

As South Africa hosts the G20 leadership summit this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa has positioned the moment as evidence of national progress. Yet the broader economic picture remains mixed, with many of the country's underlying structural problems persisting despite pockets of improvement.

Ramaphosa's upbeat public messaging has been somewhat undermined by the fact that the leaders from several of the world's leading economies have declined to attend the G20, including US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and Argentinian President Javier Milei. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's attendance also remains uncertain.

The stated reasons for their absence vary, but chief among them is Trump's vocal criticism of the South African government's perpetuation of controversial race-based policies and the Expropriation Act, which enables the State to expropriate citizens' property for nil compensation, among other issues.

"While the G20 takes place amid higher geopolitical tensions than we would have liked, South African hosts have managed this as well as could be expected. The Trump administration has said it will not send a delegation.

"This is unfortunate, particularly as the US will be chairing the G20 next year. But it also provides a stark illustration to the political leaders who will be attending of why we need to act to protect the rules-based trading system that is key to international prosperity," Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busisiwe Mavuso commented in her latest weekly newsletter, published on November 17.

Meanwhile, the US has made it clear that it would oppose any statement beyond the chair's statement, marking the first time since the G20's inception in 2008 that a consensus leaders' declaration will not be issued.

Running parallel to the G20 was the B20 - the business forum for engaging with the G20, which kicked off in March - which BLSA and Business Unity South Africa had jointly chaired. Since then, eight task teams, each headed by a senior South African business leader, had developed detailed recommendations to feed into the G20 process, Mavuso explained.

She noted that the B20 had developed 30 recommendations across the task teams. These covered areas such as digital transformation, employment, education, improving the global trade environment, infrastructure finance and debt management, among others.

Mavuso said the recommendations focused on transitioning to clean energy, agricultural innovation and industrial growth in Africa, while several addressed disruptions to trade which had been particularly damaging to South Africa - especially the diplomatic fallout with the US, which had led to Ramaphosa advocating for new trade and investment deals for Africa, as well as climate-responsive trade.

As the G20 leadership summit launches this week, Ramaphosa has touted recent economic data as evidence of South Africa's emerging recovery, such as Statistics South Africa's report of a slight decline in the official unemployment rate to 31.9% in the third quarter, down from 33.2% previously. About 250 000 additional people were recorded as employed, with construction accounting for about 130 000 of these jobs.

While any improvement is welcome, South Africa's unemployment rate remains among the highest globally and the gains come off an extremely low base after years of stagnation and job losses.

Meanwhile, the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), delivered by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on November 12, projected another primary budget surplus, attributed to higher revenue collection and restrained spending, excluding debt servicing costs.

"We have a government that has regained control of the nation's finances and turned the trajectory toward sustainable, growth-supporting fiscal management. The MTBPS last week showed continued fiscal...

G20 Summit: Our doors are open to the US - Lamola

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said on Monday that South Africa's doors are still open if the US decides it wants to participate in the G20 Leaders' Summit.

Lamola provided an update on the preparations for G20 Leaders' Summit scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday, and confirmed that activities are on track, with numerous heads of State and government from G20 member countries and invited guest countries confirmed for participation.

"In total, 42 countries are confirmed for participation at various levels. This includes twenty G20 members, excluding the US, 16 guest countries and 6 countries representing Regional Economic Communities in Africa, the Caribbean and East Asia," he said.

Lamola said the Presidency has started negotiations of the South African Declaration.

Last week sherpas virtually began negotiations on the declaration and began in-person negotiations on Sunday, at the 4th Sherpa meeting which is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump said that no US official would attend the gathering over widely discredited claims that white people are being persecuted in South Africa.

"We have done everything possible to encourage robust engagements to allow the negotiations to happen in an open fair platform, even with the US when they raised concerns we did our best to accommodate them and they did come back in to some of the meetings, at some point it was indicated that they will be fully participants and including at the Leaders' Summit that they will be represented at the Vice President level.

"But they have now decided out of their own volution and not being push out of the G20 by South Africa," noted Lamola.

He said South Africa is ready to continue with the meeting.

"Our doors remain open for them if they want to participate at the Leaders' level of the Summit, because they are not expelled, they decided on their own.

"…we are ready to continue with the meeting, with those that are present to negotiate and come out with outcomes of the declaration," he stated.

South Africa is optimistic that with those present, a consensus can be built for the leader's summit to adopt a declaration.

Lamola pointed out that the G20 Members commended South Africa on the "exceptional success" achieved in hosting the different G20 work streams since assumption of G20 Presidency.

South Africa viewed the diversity of the G20 nations as a strength rather than a source of division and has preserved the unity of the Group in pursuit of its priorities, he said.

Meanwhile, Lamola said government thanked City of Johannesburg and Gauteng Province residents for their "patience" relating to the disruptions over the G20 preparations.

"…more efforts are also being made to minimise disruptions as far as possible, especially on our roads in and around the venues and relevant ports of entry.

"We have seen how hosting a major event of this magnitude can be a catalyst for higher levels of service delivery and look forward to sustaining and expanding the improvements we have seen," he pointed out.

Lamola noted fears that some of the service delivery initiatives will be discontinued after the G20.

"I say look at electricity, we were told prior to the last elections that the sustained period without loadshedding prior to the last local government elections was because of elections, today were a year and some few months after elections and without loadshedding, I believe the G20 has served as a catalyst for to turn the corner on service delivery in the city of Joburg and across the country," he stated.

He also noted the preparations for the G20 Social Summit, which he said are going well.

He said 5 000 people are expected to attend the Summit, a three-day event, at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.

Lamola said it is government's firm belief that the outcomes of the South African Summit will be ambitious and leave a legacy for the cause of the Af...

AG holds municipal accounting officer personally responsible for case of financial mismanagement

Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke on Friday issued the first certificate of debt (CoD) when North West Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality accounting officer Allan Losaba was held to be personally liable for financial loss of more that R4-million.

This is the first time the AG has issued a CoD since the Public Audit Act gave her the powers when it was amended in April 2019.

This CoD follows Losaba's failure to recover financial losses from overpayments for water tankering services.

"The CoD amounts to R R4 616 074.66, together with interest applicable to the period between 30 days after this certificate has been served and the date of full payment of the debt due," Maluleke said.

The municipality extended a service provider's contract multiple times for drought relief and water and sanitation services, during which overclaiming on kilometres and working hours were identified, leading to significant financial losses.

Maluleke said her office identified a material irregularity (MI) during audits, which included non-compliance and potential financial loss.

Maluleke pointed out that Losaba was notified and given opportunities to address the MI but failed to implement necessary actions or recover losses, which led to Maluleke issuing the CoD.

She noted that that Losaba initially responded to the MI notification and made several commitments to address the MI, and the assessment of the audit team was that appropriate action was being taken in the first year.

"However, the commitments were not implemented, and recommendations for the recovery of the financial losses were included in the 2020-21 audit report. The accounting officer still failed to implement the recommendations, which led to the issuing of the remedial action in terms of section 5A(2) of the PAA, 2004, for the accounting officer to recover the financial losses. Notwithstanding the issuing of the remedial action, the accounting officer still failed to recover the financial losses," Maluleke explained.

The mayor is responsible for recovering the amount specified in the CoD and must report progress regularly to the Auditor-General.

Maluleke emphasised the importance of accountability and the need for swift action from accounting officers to prevent the use of remedial powers.

She highlighted that her office remained committed to enforcing these powers to ensure good governance and financial management in the public sector.

Home Affairs confirms Palestinian travellers did not apply for asylum

Minister of Home Affairs Dr Leon Schreiber confirmed on Friday that none of the 153 travellers from Palestine applied from asylum.

On Thursday, a chartered flight arrived in Johannesburg with 153 Palestinian travellers with no departure stamps in some of their passports, no return tickets for some or addresses for their accommodation in South Africa.

Holders of ordinary Palestinian passports have 90 days of visa-exempt access to South Africa, subject to security and verification procedures.

But because of the discrepancies in this case, the Border Management Authority (BMA) could not allow the Palestinian passengers entry right away, as further verifications had to be undertaken.

Schreiber noted that government interacted with the Palestinian embassy and other role-players, in which it was established that the absence of stamps, return tickets and accommodation addresses did not indicate that the travellers wished to apply for asylum.

"While these processes were unfolding, vulnerable members of the travelling company were disembarked onto airconditioned busses," he explained.

Once it was confirmed that the travellers would be provided with accommodation and care during their visit, Schreiber presented the new fact set to the BMA Commissioner for consideration, including on humanitarian grounds.

"Once satisfied that the absence of certain elements from their itinerary would not leave them destitute in South Africa in the absence of any asylum claims, the travellers were granted entry into South Africa on the standard 90-day visa exemption, subject to compliance with the standard conditions," he explained.

He noted that by the time that entry was granted, 23 members of the group had already taken flights to other destinations.

Meanwhile the department said it noted social media reports by the Palestinian embassy, indicating that "the travel of these 153 Palestinians was arranged by an unregistered and misleading organization that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza, deceived families, collected money from them, and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner".

Schreiber said this entity later attempted to disown any responsibility once complications arose.

He highlighted that his department would continue to work with the Palestinian embassy and the South African security cluster to probe these claims.