April 13, 2026.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines:

New DA leader committed to coalition, will meet Ramaphosa

Ramaphosa says local investment dominates as economic momentum builds

And, Pope Leo, in Algeria, blasts 'neocolonial' conflicts after Trump criticism

Newly-elected Democratic Alliance party leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said he was committed to making the governing coalition work and was due to meet President Cyril Ramaphosa tomorrow.

Cape Town Mayor Hill-Lewis was elected head of the pro-business DA at a party conference over the weekend.

The DA is the second-biggest party in the "Government of National Unity" coalition formed in 2024, when Ramaphosa's African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority in an election.

Hill-Lewis told reporters today that he thought the coalition government was "the best chance that South Africa's had in probably 25 years ... to get [the] country on a better path of higher growth and more jobs and proper reform".

He described his upcoming appointment with Ramaphosa as a "get-to-know-you meeting".

Hot off the success of R890-billion in investment pledges made at the South Africa Investment Conference last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa noted today that most of the pledges were made by local firms, which he says signals to international investors that the South African economy is stable and strengthening.

South Africa’s new target seeks R3-trillion in new investments over the next five years, which Ramaphosa said was called “unrealistic” by some.

With global uncertainty and increasing competitiveness, Ramaphosa expressed confidence that the pledges made at the conference reflected renewed confidence in South Africa’s economy, particularly after years of stagnant growth, State capture and electricity instability.

In addition to investment drives, government is also looking to new markets and seeking to strengthen existing trade relations with one-on-one engagements.

Ramaphosa noted “valuable engagement” with US companies in South Africa, as well as an upcoming meeting with Spanish companies.

Pope Leo blasted violations of international law by "neocolonial" world powers in a forceful speech today during an Africa tour, hours after US President Donald Trump's direct attack on the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church.

Leo is travelling to Africa "as a witness to the peace and hope that the world so ardently desires," he told political leaders in Algeria, his first stop on a whirlwind four-nation trip.

"The future belongs (to) those who do not allow themselves to be blinded by power or wealth," the first US pope said.

He said Africa knows all too well that people and organisations that dominate others destroy the world.

Leo, originally from Chicago, did not single out specific countries for criticism, but he has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war in recent weeks and decried the "madness of war" in a peace appeal on Saturday.

Trump, in an apparent response to the pope's statements about the conflict and the White House's hard-line immigration policies, said yesterday that Leo was "terrible", in remarks that drew immediate rebuke from US believers.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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