November 29, 2023.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkomfe.

Making headlines: 

Ramaphosa says business committed to building SA, after Ntshavheni's accusation

July unrest 'instigator' Mdumiseni Zuma gets 12-year prison sentence

And, South African food inflation is accelerating again

Ramaphosa says business committed to building SA, after Ntshavheni's accusation

More than a week after Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni accused the private sector of engineering the state’s collapse, President Cyril Ramaphosa said business’ current partnership with government illustrates how committed they are to the country.

Ramaphosa and business issued a joint statement today after Cabinet met with business leaders as part of their initiative to deal with the country’s energy, transport, and logistics, as well as crime and corruption problems.

At a post-Cabinet briefing last week, Ntshavheni was asked about a long-standing probe into rand manipulation that involves 28 banks. She said that "the performance of the economy has been manipulated by [the] private sector, [which] has no interest in the development of this country", adding that the private sector continued to "engineer and do machinations to ensure the government collapses".

Business Unity SA said it hoped Ntshavheni would reconsider her comments and it would "raise it with government through the partnership".

July unrest 'instigator' Mdumiseni Zuma gets 12-year prison sentence

The Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court has sentenced Mdumiseni Zuma to 12 years' imprisonment for instigating the July 2021 civil unrest following the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma.

The 36-year-old father of three, who is not related to the former president, is the first of more than 60 so-called instigators to be convicted and sentenced for the deadly violence that gripped KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.

More than 350 people died across provinces.

At least R50-billion in infrastructure damage was recorded and more than 150 000 thousand jobs were lost.

Police investigations showed that Zuma recorded a video of himself calling on people to loot and burn the Brookside Mall in Pietermaritzburg.

Magistrate Morné Cannon said even though the State did not lead any evidence showing that Zuma had participated in the looting and arson attack on the mall, he had to be held accountable.

South African food inflation is accelerating again

South African food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation continued its renewed acceleration in October, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy has reported, in its latest “Food Inflation Brief”.

After five months of declining food inflation, in September it moved up again, slightly, followed by a noticeable increase in October.

In year-on-year terms, food inflation ran at 8.7% last month, and in month-on-month terms was at 1.5%. This compared with the consumer price index headline inflation figures of 5.9% and 0.9% . Food inflation contributed 1.6 percentage points to the year-on-year CPI headline inflation figure, and 0.3 percentage points to the month-on-month number.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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