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BRATTISH: Active moves by President Donald Trump to exclude South Africa from the G20 gathering in Miami might not rank at the top of recent outrageous actions by the US leader, including his vulgar gesture to an auto worker who heckled him during a plant visit. However, viewed alongside his brattish letter to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, blaming Norway for his failure to receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, it is suggestive of yet more brutishness to come, especially if such bullying continues to be tolerated.
BRATTISH
30th January 2026 By: Darlene Creamer
PRESSURE COOKER: The list of trouble spots around the globe that carry the potential for dragging the world into war is growing. Worryingly, this also comes at a time when the international and institutional guardrails that were put in place with the specific purpose of preventing wars are being severely weakened.
PRESSURE COOKER:
23rd January 2026 By: Darlene Creamer
TO-DO LIST
TO-DO LIST
16th January 2026 By: Darlene Creamer
GETTING OLD: The shadow created by the ‘flood the zone’ strategy implemented when President Donald Trump took office in late January extended across the world and was highly unsettling, especially on the trade front. However, as 2025 comes to an end, there are signs that the world is tiring of the hyperbole, distraction and tantrums. Perhaps the pushback in relation to Trump’s unilateral and unbalanced ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine and Russia will be the start of a more assertive diplomatic response in 2026.
GETTING OLD
12th December 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
CONFIDENCE BOOST: The success of the G20 against the backdrop of well-founded scepticism about whether a decaying Johannesburg could pull off its host-city status was not only a relief but also a confidence booster. Put together with the impressive performances of our national cricket, football and rugby teams, 2025 is ending with something of a bang rather than the whimpers that have characterised far too many recent years.
CONFIDENCE BOOST
5th December 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
BLUE LIES
BLUE LIES
28th November 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
SCRAP CONTINUES: The fight over South Africa’s scrap metal policy is set to continue. Following a review, the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa, or Itac, made only modest changes, lowering the discount to be offered to domestic ferrous scrap consumers from 30% to 25%. The seller is still responsible for delivery costs and the 20% export tax remains. Both metal recyclers and ArcelorMittal South Africa have objected and are demanding another review.
SCRAP CONTINUES
21st November 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
WEAK LINK: The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is being called upon to make some increasingly complex regulatory calls as the country steadily shifts towards a more open and competitive industry structure. There is growing concern, however, about Nersa’s capacity to make decisions that will be supportive of the transition. Recent court cases and settlements have brought to the fore the problems at the regulator and have also highlighted the urgent need for its capabilities and its capacity to be beefed up.
WEAK LINK
14th November 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
THE B WORD: The world economy is on a roller-coaster ride that includes sharp and unpredictable tariff twists, gut-dropping geopolitical dips and violent turns. Yet the stock markets have floated above the fray, buoyed by optimism over the effect Artificial Intelligence could have on productivity and innovation. More recently, though, the word “bubble” has entered the vocabulary, as some commentators warn of a correction and others of a possible crash.
THE B WORD
7th November 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
RED CARPET TREATMENT: There are definite signs across Johannesburg that the struggling city aims to put its best foot forward when hosting the G20 Leaders’ Summit, and related meetings, during November. Most of the spring cleaning is linked to the city’s main corridors, with some serious road maintenance under way. The picture will quickly change, however, should any world leader stray from those carefully manicured routes and into Joburg’s potholed, waterless and traffic-light-defective suburbs and townships.
RED CARPET TREATMENT
31st October 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
UNDER PRESSURE: The pressures faced by the South African steel industry have been well documented throughout the year. The lack of domestic demand growth, coupled with rising electricity and logistics costs, continues to eat into margins. However, the industry is also at the centre of trade-war hostilities, where tariffs are the order of the day. In the process, surplus steel is seeking new markets and there are reports that imports into South Africa are surging. There are no good solutions, but government intervention is looking increasingly likely.
UNDER PRESSURE
24th October 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
WRECKING BALL
WRECKING BALL
17th October 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
DODGING & WEAVING: The final countdown to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in South Africa is truly under way. What should have been something of a crowning moment for the country – the first African nation to host the event – has instead been a hard slog. Besides having to navigate what are truly hazardous geopolitical roads, Joburg’s infrastructure backlogs and general decay have also raised questions about the wisdom of having selected it as host city.
DODGING & WEAVING
10th October 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
MIND BLOWING: The subconscious mind is that part of one’s awareness that influences thoughts, feelings, and actions without one being fully conscious of that influence. It’s not entirely clear whether it was that or some form of reverse psychology that prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also ANC president, to extol the relative management virtues of DA-run municipalities in his dressing down last month of thousands of ANC councillors.
MIND BLOWING
3rd October 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
DRIP FED: The water crisis being experienced in many parts of South Africa, including in metropolitan areas of Gauteng, has replaced loadshedding as the biggest problem and source of anxiety for residents. But it’s not only the lack of water that is the problem, it’s also a communications crisis. Rand Water’s communication is simply abysmal, leaving councils to drip-feed residents with information. There are no early-warning systems in place and when the taps run dry, so does the flow of information.
DRIP FED
26th September 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
BOARD FALLOUT: Developments at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, or #Necsa, have been explosive of late. Disquiet, disagreements and even legal action over the way remuneration policies had been implemented by the CEO led to mass resignations that left the board inquorate. There is also a worrying allegation that the financial position may have been misrepresented.
BOARD FALLOUT
19th September 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
SHOCKING: When the latest round of electricity tariffs were announced earlier this year, Eskom immediately raised questions about whether the methodology had been applied correctly. Once the reasons were published, the utility approached the courts for a review, claiming errors by the regulator, or Nersa, which has been on the wrong side of several legal rulings, acknowledged error and subsequently reached a R54-billion settlement, for which consumers will now pay.
SHOCKING
12th September 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
ON TRACK: Significant progress has been made in opening the Transnet rail network to private train operating companies (TOCs). Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has announced that 11 TOCs that applied earlier in the year to operate routes on Transnet’s rail network have met the requirements to do so and will now enter into contract negotiations to enable them to begin operating multiple routes (see also page 32).
ON TRACK
5th September 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
PERILOUS RIDE
PERILOUS RIDE
29th August 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
SURGERY VS CONVENTION
SURGERY VS CONVENTION
22nd August 2025 By: Darlene Creamer
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