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Fridjhon said the review was driven by finance, not by the local business. He said the South African wine brands in the Heineken group have not performed brilliantly and the wine industry is under pressure. He also said Heineken as a global company faces pressure on sales and on fines it must pay.

Fridjhon said Heineken South Africa needs to do some soul-searching. He said the brands are flagship brands and that is a concern.

He said an overseas buyer might see a sale as a toehold in the South African market. Such a buyer could use it as a springboard into the rest of Africa. Fridjhon spoke to CapeTalk presenter John Maytham.

Distell merged with Heineken in 2023.Share

Godlimpi, the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, spoke on Saturday. He said government is considering tighter import controls to help stabilise the domestic sugar industry.

He said a main concern is to guarantee enough sugarcane to meet possible bioethanol quotas without harming existing supply. He warned that legislative changes could push demand for sugar in fuel blends beyond what local growers can supply.

Godlimpi said milling capacity in areas such as Umfolozi and Zululand appears sufficient. He said an agreement on blend requirements could create significant business opportunities for producers.

He also said existing boundary rates on dollar-based reference prices limit the scope for further increases. He said the sector must cut energy costs and use water better to compete without raising prices.Share

The UK tax authority is looking at the partnership structure of the consulting firm. Partners in such firms are usually taxed as self-employed owners, not as staff. A change in their status would change the tax and contributions due.

The filings describe the inquiry as part of a push on the taxation of senior staff at professional services firms.Share

Senior Middle East diplomats said a threatened escalation of the war between the US and Iran would probably be even more damaging than earlier rounds of the conflict.

Reports said Trump pressed Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to persist with diplomacy. These reports are not confirmed by either government.Share

Tau said the plan is designed to curb widespread infrastructure theft and vandalism. He said it will help the sector tackle core systemic threats.

The local steel industry faces heavy operational pressure. This includes cheap imports, damage to infrastructure and supply chain disruptions.

Tau also spoke about scrap metal. He said: "There’s work that we’re doing with regard to regulations around scrap exports."Share

Tau said unresolved disagreements remain a major concern for regional trade integration. He added that regional integration has still shown progress. Reports said South Africa is in trade disputes with Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria and Mozambique.

Tau said Pretoria takes a constructive, solution-driven approach to resolve the impasses. He said South Africa will also protect its national interests.

Tau said some countries want South Africa to invest in them, not only export to them. In his words: "We’d want to see South Africa as an investor in our countries and not just as an exporter into those countries."Share

Ramokgopa said some observers claim that liberalisation of the industry in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia has failed. He said they link it to high electricity prices in those countries.

He said South Africa is taking a cautious approach to avoid unintended consequences. On reform, Ramokgopa said: "It mustn’t have the unintended consequences of driving up your cost of electricity."

He spoke on the sidelines of the annual forum, which the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation organises in the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal.Share

The all-cash deal values ADT at about $7.6 billion in equity value. ADT's Board of Directors unanimously approved it. After closing, ADT will form the foundation of the smart home security business of Thrive Holdings.

Funds managed by Apollo affiliates are financing the deal. Apollo was ADT's former owner and sold its remaining stake five months ago. The deal is set to close in 1Q27, subject to stockholder and regulatory approvals. The go-shop period ends on 28 November.

Thrive Capital, led by Josh Kushner, formed Thrive Holdings last year. Citi and Goldman Sachs advised ADT, and Evercore advised Thrive. One report said Thrive Holdings plans to bring AI to the business.

ADT said its data and privacy policies will remain unchanged and that no new data sharing will occur. Chairman, President and CEO Jim DeVries said the deal recognises the value built by more than 12,000 employees. ADT will not take questions on its third-quarter 2026 results call because of the deal.Share

The Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation organised the forum. Hodges said development finance institutions could help remove barriers that stop private investors from funding projects. He also said financing must come with technical support and links to buyers if small businesses are to become viable.

Hodges said better risk information could help investors judge risks more accurately. He said this could encourage banks, pension funds and insurers to commit capital. He cited a risk database that shows an average default rate of about 3.5% for private-sector lending in Africa over 30 years. He said recoveries were about 73%.

Hodges said the EIB began working in South Africa in 1994. Its first transaction in the country came in 1995, with the Industrial Development Corporation. He also pointed to the Kulima initiative in Malawi.

Hodges questioned the development finance model: "The question really should be, are we fit to make it relevant for today?"Share

Binance said an initial investigation suggests a compromised laptop of a DevOps engineer may have let an attacker submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions. The company said it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak. It said user funds remained safe.

Tether said it froze over 1.567 billion USDT, and Circle said it froze over 800 million USDC. Binance said it will cover all losses with its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company funds. Co-founder Yi He said the exchange expects to start resuming withdrawals within the next 48 hours.

Glassnode, a blockchain analytics firm, used on-chain data to estimate that about $5.3 billion in assets was drained. Binance did not comment on that figure. Former chief executive Changpeng Zhao said the incident looked like a hack, and Binance promised a full post-mortem after its investigation.Share

Intel reported third-quarter revenue of $16.5 billion, up 21%. Earnings were 52 cents a share. Wall Street had expected 40 cents, according to one report.

Intel's chief financial officer, David Zinsner, said the slowdown in the PC market should last until at least the first half of next year. Intel forecast that the PC market will shrink 10% in 2027 after an expected 12% fall in 2026.

Chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said the data center unit would have done better without a shortage of certain raw materials and the closure of an Israeli factory. Intel's shares had risen more than 150% since January before the drop.Share

Ramokgopa said the range covers the phase in which control of the power grid passes to an independent Transmission System Operator. He spoke on the sidelines of the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation's annual forum in the Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal.

He said South Africa is taking a cautious approach to electricity reform to avoid unintended consequences. Some observers say that liberalisation of the industry in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia failed and led to high electricity prices.

Ramokgopa said the department is working on the matter with the Presidency and the National Treasury.Share

Ramokgopa spoke on the second day of the forum. He said Africa has the mineral and renewable resources for manufacturing but lacks enough electricity infrastructure. He said about 600-million people on the continent have no access to electricity.

The minister said electricity has historically been treated as an instrument for private accumulation rather than the public good. He said the state has a central role to play in using energy to drive development and industrialisation.

Ramokgopa also said high electricity costs make local mineral processing less competitive. He said growing demand from data centres and artificial intelligence gives South Africa a chance to attract investment.Share

Oman's Maritime Security Centre issued a statement on the RITI rescue. The Revolutionary Guards said the three tankers were halted after incidents or mine strikes. They said the ships used an unauthorised route through the strait.

The Guards also said the tankers switched off their navigation and positioning systems. They said the ships tried to leave with the support of the US military, which they called terrorist. One supertanker, which carried two million barrels of oil, stopped after an explosion, the Guards said.

US Central Command chief Brad Cooper said in a video released on Friday that US forces had cleared the main transit routes of Iranian sea mines. He said Washington had helped Gulf countries export more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude through the strait since summer.

The British maritime security agency UKMTO reported that a ship was struck 40 nautical miles (74 kilometres) south of Lavan island. Iran has restricted traffic through the strait since the Middle East war began on 28 February with US-Israeli strikes.Share

Binance said about $3bn of the stolen assets had been frozen so far. Tether froze $1.57bn and Circle froze more than $800m. Binance did not mention the status of the remaining $3.3bn.

Binance said an initial investigation suggested the breach may have started with a hacked laptop belonging to an engineer. Co-founder Yi He said the exchange would cover all hacking losses. Binance said user funds remain safe and that it expects to resume withdrawals in the next 48 hours.

Binance.US and Coinbase said they were not affected. Analysts said the attack could make investors rethink the risks of owning digital assets. Tim Sun, a senior researcher at HashKey Group, said it may further dampen risk appetite.

Bitcoin fell to a six-week low of $76,368 and ether to a two-month low of $2,178. Binance has 335-million registered users worldwide.Share

The JSE All Share index closed at 107,622 points on Friday, down 2.2%. The Top 40 index fell to 99,412, down 2.4%.

The rand was little changed at R16.61 to the US dollar. Gold was at $3,885 an ounce, down 3.6%. Brent crude was at $112.33 a barrel, down 2.2%.Share

The authors also interviewed nine officials, advisers, researchers and civil society specialists. They say both countries lack reliable data, funding and skilled staff, and that women often hold lower-paid, non-technical jobs. They propose a Gender-Transformative Industrial Policy framework that asks what blocks women, what is overlooked, who shapes the rules and whether policies work together. The working paper is not peer-reviewed, and the authors describe their own findings.Share

The Treasury responded to public comments on the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement. Civil society groups had claimed that it is cutting the number of grant beneficiaries to save money. The Treasury dismissed this.

Busi Mothlabedi, a Deputy Director in the Budget Office at the Treasury, said people are not being excluded on purpose. In her words: "We are just making sure that we are granting people that should be getting grants according to the Act."

Civil society groups want the old-age pension raised to R3,000 a month. The Treasury put the cost of the increase for the older persons grant at R30.2 billion. It put the cost of the proposed increase for the child support grant at R42.5 billion.Share

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced the temporary relief in the mid-term budget. Treasury said the cut is the most immediate way to reduce financial stress on struggling households. It made the comments while responding to public views on the budget.

In December, the relief on petrol will be R1 and on diesel R1.50. The fuel levy part of the petrol price is R4.29 per litre.

Chris Axelson, head of taxation at National Treasury, defended the decision. He said: "When prices are going up, this was the one mechanism that can have the most direct impact to provide relief to households and businesses." He also said the relief dampens inflation when prices rise.

Treasury said the effect of scrapping the fuel levy can only be known once government changes the fuel price structure. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has yet to announce the November fuel prices.Share

The report says freight logistics reform is bearing fruit. It links the reform to operational improvements and a return to profitability at Transnet. Transnet announced a R4.6 billion profit for the year ended 31 March 2026 in September, after a net loss of R1.9 billion the year before.

The report says significant momentum was built on restructuring state-owned enterprises. It says key decisions were taken on the vertical separation of Eskom and Transnet. It also says continued reform has strengthened South Africa's resilience to external shocks and renewed confidence in the growth trajectory.

The report says progress remains uneven in some areas. It adds: "These reforms will be the most important drivers of investment in the medium term, laying the basis for higher growth and job creation". The findings are the report's own description and are not independently verified.

Operation Vulindlela is a joint initiative of the National Treasury and the Presidency. It aims to speed up structural reforms.Share

Tau said government is confident the US will respond favourably to the offers South Africa made in talks. He said two rounds of talks between senior officials made substantial progress on the issues. Tau said, "We are ready, whatever the decision."

If US concerns remain, South Africa will have 60 days to address them before any suspension could take effect, Tau said. A suspension could be full or partial.

Tau gave figures on trade ties. Bilateral trade between South Africa and the US was $28.8 billion in 2025. About 600 American companies operate in South Africa and support 134 600 jobs, and US companies made investment commitments of more than $5 billion in the last year.

South Africa supplies 12 of the 50 minerals the US considers critical. Under AGOA, more than 1 800 products have duty-free access to the US market. More than 5 000 products are eligible under the Generalised System of Preferences.Share

The cuts follow temporary fuel levy relief announced last week: R3 a litre on diesel and R1.50 a litre on petrol. Without that relief, wholesale diesel would rise by an estimated R1.32 to R1.42 per litre. Petrol would rise by more than a rand per litre.

The estimates do not yet include a possible rise in the slate levy, which is now 87.66c per litre. The Slate Fund refunds fuel importers and had a negative balance of R10.5 billion at the end of August. Reports said the levy may need to rise for another month, which would cut into the relief.

Oil prices and the rand also weigh on the outlook. Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe will announce the final adjustments.

Fuel prices have risen sharply since December 2025: around R8 a litre for 95-octane petrol and more than R12 per litre for diesel. Petrol reached a record R30.25 per litre in Gauteng and R29.38 at the coast.Share

The claim about China comes from the mining company. It says the embargo stops it from using mapping technology in its exploration work.

Bill Gates backs the company. The request for help went to Washington.Share