<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4032" height="3024" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2SIQMB7RZ5KDFNVECNMIHSHXSA.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585046"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An aerial view of Shaft 11 at Impala Platinum Mine, in Rustenburg, South Africa, November 28, 2023. REUTERS/Shafiek Tassiem/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



Feb 11 (Reuters) &#8211; Impala Platinum  expects its half-year profit to fall by as much as 49% in the six months to December 2024 as low metal prices persist, the South African company said on Tuesday.



Impala, the world&#8217;s second-largest producer of platinum group metals that are used to curb emissions from motor vehicles, said it expects headline earnings to be between 1.65 billion rand and 1.95 billion rand ($89.39 million-$105.65 million) for the six months to December 31, down from 3.26 billion rand previously.



The miner said its income had been affected by lower dollar pricing for its metals as well as the strengthening rand exchange rate, which more than offset the benefit of improved production and sales volumes.



Impala&#8217;s refined output increased by 2% to 1.79 million ounces, while sales rose 5% to 1.77 million ounces in the six months.



Anglo American Platinum, Impala&#8217;s bigger rival, expects its profit for the 2024 financial year to drop by as much as 46% in response to low metal prices and costs associated with restructuring and a demerger from its parent company.



The company will release its half-year financial results on February 27.



($1 = 18.4578 rand)



(Reporting by Nelson Banya; editing by Barbara Lewis)

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Impala Platinum expects deeper profit fall on low platinum prices

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3000" height="2000" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/M6LR22CX2ZL6BF5FULJQBJKP7I.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585028"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The MOODY&#8217;S logo and a decreasing stock graph are seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The triple-A ratings of the World Bank and other top multilateral lenders would be at risk if U.S. President Donald Trump slashed his country&#8217;s support for them, credit rating agency Moody&#8217;s&nbsp;has&nbsp;warned,&nbsp;adding such a move was unlikely.



Last week, Trump signed an Executive Order to review U.S. government support to all international intergovernmental organisations of which it is a member and to withdraw from some United Nations organisations.



&#8220;The US is a key shareholder in a number of rated MDBs (multilateral development banks), hence it would be credit negative if it materially reduced its commitment to them,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said in a report published on Monday.



The U.S. is the single biggest shareholder in the World Bank Group&#8217;s institutions, with a 16.4% share in its largest, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and a 19% stake in International Development Association (IDA) which provides concessional loans and grants to the world&#8217;s poorest countries.



The World Bank declined to comment on the Moody&#8217;s note.



It has an even higher 30% share in the Inter-American Development Bank in Latin America, a 15.6% stake in the Asian Development Bank and 10% in the European Bank of&nbsp;Reconstruction&nbsp;of Development that was set up in the wake of the Cold War.



The Trump-ordered review of Washington&#8217;s support for development banks is due to take roughly six months.



The set-ups of most of the institutions allow for an &#8220;orderly withdrawal&#8221; of a shareholder.



Moody&#8217;s said it was &#8220;unlikely that the U.S. would take drastic steps regarding its participation in key MDBs,&#8221; for several reasons, including the loss of influence over those institutions&#8217; lending policies.



In&nbsp;the World Bank&#8217;s case, the U.S. has paid in capital of around $3.7 billion in the IBRD and has callable capital commitments of $49.2 billion, compared to disbursed and outstanding IBRD loans and guarantees of around $263 billion.



The average maturity of the IBRD&#8217;s loan portfolio is 8.4 years although some loans are for up to 50 years meaning that, &#8220;the US would remain on the hook for IBRD&#8217;s lending portfolio for many years to come,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said.



A withdrawal would also open the door for other countries to fill the void, something unlikely to fit with Trump&#8217;s geopolitical strategy.



&#8220;Those shareholders in particular include China, which has long coveted a larger share in the IBRD, a desire strongly opposed by consecutive U.S. governments,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said.



(Reporting by Marc Jones, additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; editing by Libby George, Toby Chopra and Nick Zieminski)

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Moody’s warns World Bank’s triple-A rating threatened if Trump pulls support

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3984" height="2656" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/7VMZIX5RVNP4HCXIAHIZO4ZVIQ.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584781"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Former South African president Jacob Zuma&#8217;s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party members gather in front of Cape Town Central police station where the MK party opened a treason case against AfriForum &#8211; an Afrikaner-led group, in Cape Town, South Africa, February 10, 2025. REUTERS/Esa Alexander</figcaption></figure>



CAPE TOWN, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The party of South Africa&#8217;s ex-president Jacob Zuma on Monday filed a treason complaint against AfriForum, a group championing the white Afrikaner minority, after Donald Trump attacked the country&#8217;s new law aimed at redistributing white-owned land.



AfriForum has lobbied against the law in U.S. media and political circles, portraying it as part of a wider onslaught against Afrikaners, and Zuma&#8217;s MK party accused it in a criminal complaint of spreading misinformation to influence Trump.



The U.S. president last week signed an executive order cutting financial assistance to South Africa, citing the land expropriation act and Pretoria&#8217;s genocide case against Israel, Washington&#8217;s close ally, at the International Court of Justice.



The Trump administration said Afrikaners, the descendants of predominantly Dutch 17th century settlers, could come to the United States as refugees, lending credence to AfriForum&#8217;s complaint that they are being persecuted, which is disputed by the South African government and most political parties.



The government has defended the land reform law as an attempt to rectify the injustices of the past and has pushed back against what it says is misinformation, pointing out that no expropriations have yet taken place under the law.



White farmers own three quarters of South Africa&#8217;s privately held land, while white people make up 8% of the population.



Trump&#8217;s criticism has exacerbated stark divisions on racial issues that persist in South Africa 30 years after the end of apartheid, partly because of yawning inequality between racial groups.



Underscoring those divisions, the mostly white-led Democratic Alliance (DA) &#8211; top coalition partner in President Cyril Ramaphosa&#8217;s unity government &#8211; said on Monday it had filed a court challenge to the act, calling it unconstitutional.



&#8220;No government in a democratic country should be given such sweeping powers to expropriate property without compensation,&#8221; senior DA politician Helen Zille said in a statement.



Zuma&#8217;s MK party is a populist opposition party that strongly advocates land redistribution and rose quickly to come third in last year&#8217;s general elections, taking significant support away from the ruling African National Congress, which lost its majority.



MK took its complaint against AfriForum to Cape Town&#8217;s central police station, where dozens of supporters wearing the party&#8217;s trademark green military camouflage outfits sang anti-apartheid freedom songs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plotting">&#8216;PLOTTING&#8217;</h2>



&#8220;Treason has been committed, we contend, by them, because they are plotting against our government,&#8221; said John Hlophe, the party&#8217;s parliamentary leader, just after filing the complaint.



&#8220;Based on those lies, those fraudulent misrepresentations, Trump decided to issue an executive order against South Africa,&#8221; he told reporters.



AfriForum&#8217;s CEO Kallie Kriel said the accusation of treason was absurd.



&#8220;It is the duty of civil society &#8230; to put the spotlight on legislation and actions that threaten the welfare of citizens and the country,&#8221; he said in a statement.



A decision on whether to prosecute AfriForum for treason will rest with the National Prosecuting Authority, which acts based on evidence presented by the police.



The ruling ANC last week also blamed AfriForum for Trump&#8217;s actions, though it has not taken legal action against the group.



The expropriation act empowers the government to seize land owned by white farmers, in rare cases without compensation, in order to redistribute it to poor Blacks.



AfriForum rejects the law as an assault on property rights and has been campaigning actively for years in the United States against South African land reform efforts.



(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Estelle Shirbon, Aidan Lewis and Christina Fincher)

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South African party accuses white group of treason over Trump attack

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4595" height="3063" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/TSXEJAVPAZO77C5HSGIMQIYINE.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584746"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Michael Atingi-Ego speaks during the ReutersNEXT Newsmaker event in New York City, New York, U.S., November 9, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



KAMPALA, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Uganda has named Michael Atingi-Ego its central bank governor, President Yoweri Museveni&#8217;s spokesperson said on Monday.



Atingi-Ego previously worked for the central bank in a senior position, then left and returned in 2020 as deputy governor.



He has been the acting head of the bank since the death of long-serving former governor, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, in 2022.



Sandor Walusimbi, President Yoweri Museveni&#8217;s spokesperson, confirmed the appointment of Atingi-Ego.



The bank has appointed Augustus Nuwagaba, an economist at Uganda&#8217;s largest public university, Makerere, as Atingi-Ego&#8217;s deputy, NTV Uganda, Daily Monitor newspaper and Uganda Broadcasting Corporation reported.



(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Aidan Lewis)

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Uganda names new central bank governor, president’s spokesperson says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="5000" height="3334" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/7PQPUDNLRFNEHOE2URISJZW7ZY.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584693"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A view of the Mild Hydrocracking Unit (MHC) at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, Nigeria, July 20, 2024. REUTERS/Marvellous Durowaiye/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LAGOS, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nigeria&#8217;s Dangote Oil refinery, Africa&#8217;s largest, could begin operating at full capacity in 30 days, the head of the refinery said on Monday.



The 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote in Lagos began processing crude into products, including diesel, naphtha and jet fuel, in January last year and started processing petrol in September.



It aims to compete with European refiners when operating at full capacity but had been struggling to secure sufficient crude locally.



Edwin Devakumar, head of the Dangote oil refinery said it was currently operating at 85% capacity and &#8220;we can go 100 percent in 30 days.&#8221;



Last year, the refinery turned to importing crude after it was unable to secure sufficient volumes despite an agreement with the Nigerian government to buy crude in the local naira currency.



It has asked for 550,000 bpd of crude for January-June this year from oil producers in Nigeria, according to the oil regulator, which has also said it would block export permits for oil cargoes from producers who fail to meet their stipulated supply quota to local refineries.



The Dangote Oil Refinery is exploring new markets for its refined products. Founder Aliko Dangote told a group of Nigerian professionals who visited last week that it was sending two cargoes of jet fuel to Saudi Aramco as part of its plans to expand.



&#8220;We are looking at all the markets right now,&#8221; said Devakumar.



(Reporting by Isaac Anyaogu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

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Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery to operate at full capacity in 30 days, executive says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-820x462.png" alt="" class="wp-image-584668" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-820x462.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-300x169.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-160x90.png 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-768x432.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh.png 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The ArcelorMittal steel production plant in Ghent, Belgium, on July 27, 2024.  Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The excitement over artificial intelligence and U.S. President Donald Trump’s perceived friendliness to the stock market buoyed investor sentiment as recently as December. In 2025, it seems those animal spirits have somewhat evaporated.



Any time Trump brings up tariffs, investors have been reacting badly (for good reason). His threat of reciprocal tariffs on Friday — that is, imposing on other countries the same degree of duties that they place on the U.S. — sent stocks tumbling. New tariffs on steel and aluminum, which Trump says he will announce on Monday, are likely to sink stocks further.



Likewise, AI, the engine that drove stocks higher in 2024, seems to present investors with more uncertainty than opportunities this year. DeepSeek’s claim that its training required just a fraction of the billions of dollars that U.S. AI models suck up have thrown Big Tech’s investments — which will amount to more than $300 billion in 2025 — as well as their stock valuation into question.



While the main characters of the stock market remain the same as they were in December, they are steering markets in a different direction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-you-need-to-know-today"><a></a>What you need to know today</h2>



New steel and aluminum tariffs Trump will announce on Monday additional 25% tariffs on all aluminum and steel imports into the U.S., according to comments to reporters on Sunday. Those will come on top of already existing levies. In a separate steel-related development, Trump said on Friday at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that Nippon Steel will invest in U.S. Steel, giving up its attempt to buy it. 



EV price cuts in China amid mixed price signals Consumer prices in China spiked 0.5% in January on an annual basis, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics on Sunday. The figure is higher than the previous month’s 0.1% increase and the 0.4% expected in a Reuters poll. However, producer prices dropped 2.3% in January year on year — the same degree as December and steeper than the 2.1% estimate — for their 28th straight month of declines. Meanwhile, electric car companies in China are offering discounts and interest-free loans to boost sales amid a hotly contested industry and sluggish consumer sentiment in the country.



Uneven report for U.S. labor market The U.S. economy added 143,000 jobs in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls for the month dropped from an upwardly revised 307,000 in December was and below the Dow Jones 169,000 estimate. However, the unemployment rate edged down to 4% from 4.1% the prior month. Average hourly earnings in January were stronger than expected, coming in at 0.5% for the month compared with the 0.3% forecast.



Asian markets rise as U.S. slumps All major U.S. indexes ended last week lower after a losing day on Friday, when the S&amp;P 500 lost 0.95%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.99% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.36%. Stocks retreated after Trump mentioned the possibility of reciprocal tariffs on trade partners. By contrast, Asia-Pacific markets started the week higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added around 1.8%. Singapore’s Straits Times Index hit an all-time high, lifted by shares of Singapore’s largest bank DBS Group Holdings, which jumped 2.6% and touched a new record.



Spending billions on artificial intelligence SoftBank is close to finalizing a $40 billion primary investment in OpenAI at a $260 billion pre-money valuation, sources told CNBC’s David Faber. The cost efficiency of DeepSeek doesn’t seem to deter Big Tech: Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft have announced plans to spend a combined $320 billion on AI and data centers. Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, said on Friday that while DeepSeek is “the best work” he’s seen from China, “there’s no actual new scientific advance.”



[PRO] Inflation in focus this week The consumer and producer price indexes for January, out Wednesday and Thursday respectively, will be especially important to investors. January’s jobs report showed a higher-than-anticipated wage growth and the University of Michigan consumer survey revealed that respondents increased their expectations of the inflation rate a year to 4.3%, a one percentage point jump from January.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-and-finally"><a></a>And finally&#8230;</h2>



The world isn’t close to breaking free from coal — in some countries, demand for it is surging



“Nothing can destroy coal,” U.S. President Donald Trump&nbsp;said at the recent World Economic Forum. Statistics seem to prove him right. U.S. exports of coal&nbsp;have been rising steadily to satisfy growing global demand — which is expected to have breached another high of 8.77 billion tonnes in 2024 and will remain at similar levels until 2027, the&nbsp;International Energy Agency&nbsp;predicted. “The global shift away from coal remains challenging, largely driven by rising demand in Asia, even as Europe and the U.S. see significant declines in coal consumption,” said Dorothy Mei, project manager for Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Mine Tracker.

108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh

Enthusiasm over Trump and AI appears to be waning

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="608" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4ENW2NP2ONNYZIY6XS75LSUUHE.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584630"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A drone view shows the families residing on Meyerskop farm, in Free State province, South Africa, February 6, 2025. REUTERS/Thando Hlophe</figcaption></figure>



FATENG TSE NTSHO, South Africa, (Reuters) &#8211; The township of Fateng Tse Ntsho houses some 7,000 Black South Africans, its huddle of corrugated metal roofs surrounded on all sides by vast tracts of mostly empty grassland owned by prosperous white farmers.



The contrast illustrates the gaping land inequalities that persist more than three decades after the end of white minority rule &#8211; and which an expropriation act President Cyril Ramaphosa signed last month partly seeks to redress.



That law, which allows the government to confiscate land &#8211; in rare cases without compensation &#8211; has reignited racial tensions that have dogged Africa&#8217;s southernmost tip ever since European settlers began arriving nearly four centuries ago.



For nervous owners, it is an assault on property rights, a view shared by U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week wrongly stated that land had already been seized under it when he threatened to cut aid to South Africa. On Saturday, the White House went so far as to offer white farmers resettlement in the United States and &#8220;humanitarian relief.&#8221;



But the expanses of white-owned land in Free State province, dotted with tiny Black settlements like Fateng, illustrate why proponents deem&nbsp;the act&nbsp;necessary.



Fateng&#8217;s local councillor, Malefetsani Mokoena, 51, spends his days mediating disputes between landowners and Black rural folk who live among them. Tall and wiry, he is usually decked out in the red uniform of his party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which wants to nationalise the country&#8217;s gold and platinum mines and seize land from white farmers.



&#8220;Sometimes the white farmers don&#8217;t trust me,&#8221; he told Reuters in the township&#8217;s three-room brick municipal office. &#8220;But when we sit down and negotiate, we can work things out.&#8221;



One white farmer interviewed by Reuters, Danie Bruwer, confirmed that he and Mokoena were on good terms.



If a farmer has a sheep stolen, Mokoena finds the thief to get it back. A Black herder has his cows impounded for trespassing on white-owned land; Mokoena negotiates their release.



And, as with the 15 other farms in his caseload, if what Mokoena calls &#8220;farm dwellers&#8221; &#8211; squatters, legally speaking &#8211; face eviction or restrictions on their rights to graze animals, he finds them legal representation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-this-is-our-home">&#8216;THIS IS OUR HOME&#8217;</h2>



The mostly white-owned farms around here are among the nearly 26 million hectares &#8211; about three quarters of privately-owned land &#8211; still in the hands of whites, who make up 8% of the population. Only 4% of privately-held land is owned by Blacks who are nearly 80% of South Africa&#8217;s 60-million population.



On one white-owned farm, Meyerskop, 57-year-old herder Shadrack Maseko surveyed an expanse of hilly pasture stretching almost to the horizon. He complained of how it had been fenced off a decade ago by a new white owner to prevent cattle owned by Black South Africans grazing on it.



Maseko&#8217;s grandparents had come here in the early 1900s to seek work as farm hands, he told Reuters during a visit with the EFF councilor Mokoena.



The family had been there ever since, he said. His father, who died two years ago, was born here, as was Maseko.



&#8220;This is home,&#8221; he said, and then to illustrate the point: &#8220;Even some of our ancestors are buried here.&#8221;



The farm has changed hands between white farmers several times since Maseko&#8217;s family has lived there, and buyers had previously been happy for them to stay on and work, he said.



But in the past decade he and 14 other families living on Meyerskop have been in a dispute with the latest white owners over grazing rights for their 30-odd cows, details of which were corroborated by six other residents interviewed by Reuters.



In 2019, farm owners the Fonteintjie Trust and trustee Fourie Scheepers sought a court order to force them to sell most of their cows. It argued the animals were badly degrading the land, according to a copy of the application seen by Reuters.



Maseko said Scheepers had proposed another patch of land &#8211; a small area flanked by maize fields that Maseko indicated on a part of the farm &#8211; while the new owners moved their own cows to the old space. Maseko said the new patch was too small.



&#8220;No comment,&#8221; Scheepers replied via text message several times, when asked about the case.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-start-of-a-journey">&#8216;START OF A JOURNEY&#8217;</h2>



For many Black people, disputes like these reflect a legacy of inequality left by the colonial and apartheid eras, when they were dispossessed of their lands and denied property rights.



In 1913, a Native Land Act gave most farmland to whites, mostly Afrikaners of Dutch descent, leaving just 13% to Blacks. Then in 1950 the Afrikaner National Party passed a law removing 3.5 million Black people from their ancestral lands.



Thirty years of ANC government has created a class of super-rich Black businessmen, but done little for the poor majority.



&#8220;The idea (behind the act) is that our freedom was not complete in 1994 because the promise of&#8230;economic emancipation was not fulfilled,&#8221; legal expert Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said.



He noted that the act requires 17 steps before land can be expropriated. But for Kellie Kriel, CEO of Afriforum, a pressure group that represents the interests of the white Afrikaner community, that is not enough of a safeguard.



&#8220;The act creates a valid fear that it opens the road to &#8230; land grabs,&#8221; he said, adding farmers worry that the act&#8217;s guidelines could be abused.



Some white farmers, like Danie Bruwer, are more sanguine.



&#8220;It&#8217;s an emotional thing for the farmers &#8230; but it&#8217;s not so bad. Zero compensation is a last resort,&#8221; he said on his 1,000-hectare farm about 30 km (20 miles) from Fateng.A bigger problem, he said, is that without better support for farmers &#8211; hit hard by climate change, rising costs, corruption and stock theft &#8211; the act may not achieve much.



For Ngcukaitobi, that is not the point.



&#8220;It&#8217;s the start &#8230; not the end of the journey,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A reminder that what (people) fought for, what they went to prison for, what they died for, was not in vain.&#8221;



(Additonal Reporting by Catherine Schenck in Johannesburg Reporting by Tim Cocks, Editing by William Maclean)

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The stark divide that South Africa’s land act seeks to bridge

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="720" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/IUCC463GH5NRJE7FUAD5QJ4DYE.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584385"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo/File Photo </figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Feb 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s offer to rehouse white South Africans as refugees fleeing persecution may not spur quite the rush he anticipates, as even right-wing white lobby groups want to &#8220;tackle the injustices&#8221; of Black majority rule on home soil.



Trump on Friday signed an executive order to cut U.S. aid to South Africa, citing an expropriation act that President Cyril Ramaphosa signed last month aiming to redress land inequalities that stem from South Africa&#8217;s history of white supremacy.



The order provided for resettlement in the U.S. of &#8220;Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination&#8221; as refugees.



Afrikaners are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers, who own most of the country&#8217;s farmland.



&#8220;If you haven&#8217;t got any problems here, why would you want to go,&#8221; said Neville van der Merwe, a 78-year-old pensioner in Bothasig near Cape Town.



&#8220;There hasn&#8217;t been any really bad taking over our land, the people are carrying on like normal and you know, what are you going to do over there?&#8221;



The law seeks to address racial land ownership disparities &#8211; which has left three-quarters of privately owned land in the hands of the white minority &#8211; by making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest.



Ramaphosa has defended the policy.



White people represent 7.2% of South Africa&#8217;s population of 63 million, statistics agency data shows. The data does not breakdown how many are Afrikaner.



South Africa&#8217;s British rulers handed most farmland to whites. In 1950, the Apartheid-era National Party seized 85% of the land, forcing 3.5 million Black people from their homes.



Ramaphosa&#8217;s African National Congress (ANC), the biggest party in the ruling coalition, says Trump is amplifying misinformation propagated by AfriForum, an Afrikaner-led group.



The group, which lobbied Trump&#8217;s previous administration on their cause, said it was not taking up the offer.



&#8220;Emigration only offers an opportunity for Afrikaners who are willing to risk potentially sacrificing their descendants&#8217; cultural identity as Afrikaners. The price for that is simply too high,&#8221; AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said on Saturday.



HOMELAND



Separately, the Solidarity Movement &#8211; which includes AfriForum and Solidarity trade union and said it represents about 600,000 Afrikaner families and 2 million individuals &#8211; expressed commitment to South Africa.



&#8220;We may disagree with the ANC, but we love our country. As in any community, there are individuals who wish to emigrate, but repatriation of Afrikaners as refugees is not a solution for us,&#8221; the Movement said.



Representatives of Orania, an Afrikaner-only enclave in the heart of the country, also rejected Trump&#8217;s offer.



&#8220;Afrikaners do not want to be refugees. We love and are committed to our homeland,&#8221; Orania said.



South Africa&#8217;s land policies since the end of apartheid have never involved forced seizure of white-owned land.



Still, some said they appreciated Trump&#8217;s offer.



&#8220;I think it&#8217;s a very nice gesture from Donald Trump to offer us asylum over there,&#8221; said Werner van Niekerk, 57, a carpenter in Bothasig, without saying whether he would be migrating to America.



Others saw the funny side.



&#8220;Some questions: is there a test to determine your Afrikanership? Must you hold AfriForum membership? &#8230; Will Elon help with some startup cash on the other side? &#8230; Are there bakkies (pick-up trucks) in the U.S.?&#8221;, author Pieter du Toit wrote on X, referring to South African-born billionaire and Trump aide Elon Musk.



(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Catherine Schenck; Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg and Shafiek Tassiem in Cape TownEditing by Tim Cocks and Giles Elgood)

IUCC463GH5NRJE7FUAD5QJ4DYE

‘No thanks’, white South Africans turn down Trump’s immigration offer

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3921" height="2614" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/X4YJKMGDZRK23IBRDQASTJVC4Q.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583990"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">U.S. President Donald Trump holds a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura</figcaption></figure>



WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) &#8211; President Donald Trump signed an executive order to cut U.S. financial assistance to South Africa, the White House said on Friday, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington&#8217;s ally Israel.



The United States allocated nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, the most recent U.S. government data shows.



South Africa&#8217;s foreign ministry said on Saturday the executive order &#8220;lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa&#8217;s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.&#8221;



The White House said Washington will also formulate a plan to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees.



It said U.S. officials will take steps to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.



South Africa&#8217;s foreign ministry said: &#8220;It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.&#8221;



Trump has said, without citing evidence, that &#8220;South Africa is confiscating land&#8221; and that &#8220;certain classes of people&#8221; were treated &#8220;very badly.&#8221;



South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who is close to Trump, has said that white South Africans have been the victims of &#8220;racist ownership laws.&#8221;



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa &#8211; who signed into law a bill last month aimed at making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest &#8211; has defended the policy. He has said the government had not confiscated any land and the policy was aimed at evening out racial disparities in land ownership in the Black-majority nation.



Ramaphosa said South Africa &#8220;will not be bullied.&#8221;



South Africa has a history of colonial conquest and dispossession which pushed the Black majority into crowded urban townships and rural reserves.



The country&#8217;s British imperial masters gave most farmland to whites. In 1950, the Afrikaner National Party passed a law taking 85% of territory for themselves and kicking 3.5 million Black people off their ancestral homelands.



In the 30 years that the African National Congress has been in power, some land restitution has happened under a &#8220;willing buyer, willing seller&#8221; model, but critics have denounced it as painfully slow and accuse white landowners of hoarding.



White landowners still possess three-quarters of South Africa&#8217;s freehold farmland. This contrasts with 4% owned by Black people, who make up 80% of the population compared with about 8% for whites, according to the latest 2017 land audit.



Washington has also complained about the case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, where it accused Israel of genocide over Israel&#8217;s military assault on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.



Israel denies the allegations, saying it acted in self-defense following a deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants.



The White House cited that case as an example of South Africa taking positions against Washington and its allies.



The executive order signed by Trump will address human rights issues in South Africa, the White House said. Trump had threatened to cut off funding for the nation soon after taking office.



(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland in Washington. Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg. Editing by Rosalba O&#8217;Brien, William MallaRrd and Mark Potter)

X4YJKMGDZRK23IBRDQASTJVC4Q

Trump signs order to cut funding for South Africa over land policy, ICJ case

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4629" height="3099" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/H3WEQN4JI5IRFH4OUNIVSMUKW4.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583609"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A logo is pictured outside a building of the United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland, April 6, 2021. Picture taken April 6, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



GENEVA, Feb 7 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;More than six million people could die from HIV and AIDS in the next four years if U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration pulls its global funding&nbsp;for programmes, the United Nations AIDS agency said on Friday.



Although a waiver was placed on HIV/AIDS programmes in&nbsp;last month&#8217;s&nbsp;U.S. foreign aid funding freeze, many concerns remained about the future of treatment programmes, the deputy executive director of UNAIDS told reporters in Geneva.



&#8220;There is a lot of confusion especially on the community level, how the waiver will be implemented. We&#8217;re seeing a lot of disruption of delivery of treatment services&#8221;, Christine Stegling said.



Trump put hundreds of millions of dollars&#8217; worth of foreign aid donations on hold for 90 days upon taking office on January 20. In the following days, the U.S. State Department issued a waiver on the President&#8217;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) &#8211; the world&#8217;s leading HIV initiative &#8211; for life-saving humanitarian assistance.



While welcoming the waiver, Stegling stressed the situation remains chaotic.



Amid a broader decline of funding, Stegling warned there would be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths if PEPFAR financial support is not re-authorized between 2025 and 2029.



&#8220;That&#8217;s 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths that will occur in future&#8230;Any penny, any cut, any pause, will matter for all of us&#8221; she said, urging U.N. member states to step in.



&#8220;In Ethiopia, we have 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by U.S. assistance. And all of these have been terminated,&#8221; Stegling said.



She highlighted that community clinics were facing the biggest interruption as they are &#8220;entirely dependent&#8221; on U.S. government funding.



She expressed concern that some people may not come forward for treatment, which could in turn increase new HIV infections.



U.S. donations account for the majority of global funding for the U.N. programme that operates in 70 countries, leading global efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.



Trump&#8217;s administration says it is reviewing all foreign-aid programmes to see if they align with his &#8220;America First&#8221; policy.



(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Miranda Murray and Angus MacSwan)

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Six million people could die from HIV and AIDS if US funding stops, UN agency warns

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-583564" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Bank of England on 6 Feb. 2025, in London, England. Richard Baker | In Pictures | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India trimmed its repo rate by 25 basis points. A day prior, the Bank of England lowered interest rates by 25 basis points, following the European Central Bank’s cut of the same amount on Jan. 30.



Many economies seem to be settling into a lower-rate environment as policymakers look to boost economic growth. That’s in stark contrast with the U.S. — it’s unclear if the U.S. Federal Reserve would even deliver on its two rate cuts in 2025, forecast in December, given the uncertainties over the economic impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies. Moreover, Trump seems to have backed off from applying pressure on the Fed.



Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the&nbsp;U.S. dollar began strengthening and hit its highest level in more than two years, as measured by the U.S. dollar index. That’s already affected companies such as Amazon, which blamed the currency for weighing down its expected revenue in the current quarter.



The U.S. might have an edge over other economies and stock markets for now, but an edge can cut both ways.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-you-need-to-know-today"><a></a>What you need to know today</h2>



India’s first rate cut in nearly five years The Reserve Bank of India cut its repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in a livestreamed address Friday. The move, which was expected by economists, was the first time in nearly five years the central bank has lowered rates. The RBI forecast real economic growth to come in at 6.4% for the current fiscal year, the country’s lowest in four years, and 6.7% for fiscal year 2025-26.



Bank of England trims rates The Bank of England lowered its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.5%, its first cut of the year. All members of the monetary policy committee voted to lower rates, but two out of nine had voted for a larger cut of 50 basis points. Central bank governor Andrew Bailey said he expects more cuts this year. The BOE also halved its growth forecast for the U.K.’s economy in 2025 to 0.75% from 1.5%.



Disappointing guidance from Amazon Amazon shares fell more than 4% after giving disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter, citing difficulties posed by a strong U.S. dollar. It also announced plans to spend $100 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, mostly on artificial intelligence infrastructure. The tech giant beat earnings and revenue expectations for the fourth quarter — and is poised to surpass Walmart as the S&amp;P 500 company with the highest quarterly revenue.



Consecutive gains for S&amp;P 500 On Thursday, the S&amp;P 500 advanced 0.36% for its third consecutive winning day, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.51%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, lost 0.28%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 retreated around 0.6% after the country’s household spending in December unexpectedly jumped on an annual basis, while India’s Nifty 50 was around the flatline after the RBI trimmed interest rates.



Trump’s focusing on yields, not rates The Trump administration is focusing on using fiscal policy to keep the 10-year Treasury yield low and isn’t “calling for the Fed to lower rates,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Wednesday interview with Fox News. That marks a shift from Trump’s original plan to “demand that interest rates drop immediately.”



[PRO] IBM outperforms Nvidia Not Nvidia, not Apple and not Amazon — the best-performing stock in the Dow over the past three months has been IBM, which climbed 27%. However, the tech company needs to do more in the field of artificial intelligence for its stock to continue performing well, according to one chief investment officer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-and-finally"><a></a>And finally&#8230;</h2>



 How Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger got caught in Trump’s trade war with China



China has blacklisted the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, which could force the company to shut down stores and manufacturing in the country, in an early repercussion of Trump’s trade war. While China’s Ministry of Commerce began investigating PVH September for allegedly refusing to source cotton from the Xinjiang region, which has become notorious for its Uyghur detention camps, Beijing officially placed the company on its list of “unreliable entities” on Tuesday.

108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025

Global central banks are lowering rates — the Fed might not be as inclined

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="562" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-820x562.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-579752" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-820x562.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-300x206.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-131x90.jpg 131w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-768x526.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-1536x1053.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA &#8211; JANUARY 27: In this photo illustration, the DeepSeek app is displayed on an iPhone screen on January 27, 2025 in San Anselmo, California. Newly launched Chinese AI app DeepSeek has surged to number one in Apple&#8217;s App Store and has triggered a sell-off of U.S. tech stocks over concerns that Chinese companies&#8217; AI advances could threaten the bottom line of tech giants in the United States and Europe. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



DeepSeek has rattled the U.S.-led AI ecosystem with its latest model, shaving hundreds of billions in chip leader Nvidia’s market cap. While the sector leaders grapple with the fallout, smaller AI companies see an opportunity to scale with the Chinese startup.



Several AI-related firms told CNBC that DeepSeek’s&nbsp;emergence is a “massive” opportunity for them, rather than a threat.&nbsp;



“Developers are very keen to replace OpenAI’s expensive and closed models with open source models like DeepSeek R1&#8230;” said Andrew Feldman, CEO of artificial intelligence chip startup Cerebras Systems.



The company competes with Nvidia’s graphic processing units and offers cloud-based services through its own computing clusters. Feldman said the release of the R1 model generated one of Cerebras’ largest-ever spikes in demand for its services.&nbsp;



“R1 shows that [AI market] growth will not be dominated by a single company — hardware and software moats do not exist for open-source models,” Feldman added.&nbsp;



Open source refers to software in which the source code is made freely available on the web for possible modification and redistribution. DeepSeek’s models are open source, unlike those of competitors such as OpenAI.



DeepSeek also claims its R1 reasoning model rivals the best American tech, despite running at lower costs and being trained without cutting-edge graphic processing units, though industry watchers and competitors have questioned these assertions.



“Like in the PC and internet markets, falling prices help fuel global adoption. The AI market is on a similar secular growth path,” Feldman said.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inference-chips-nbsp"><a></a>Inference chips&nbsp;</h2>



DeepSeek could increase the adoption of new chip technologies by accelerating the AI cycle from the training to “inference” phase, chip start-ups and industry experts said.



Inference refers to the act of using and applying AI to make predictions or decisions based on new information, rather than the building or training of the model.



“To put it simply, AI training is about building a tool, or algorithm, while inference is about actually deploying this tool for use in real applications,” said Phelix Lee, an equity analyst at Morningstar, with a focus on semiconductors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



While Nvidia holds a dominant position in GPUs used for AI training, many competitors see room for expansion in the “inference” segment, where they promise higher efficiency for lower costs.



AI training is very compute-intensive, but inference can work with less powerful chips that are programmed to perform a narrower range of tasks, Lee added.



A number of AI chip startups told CNBC that they were seeing more demand for inference chips and computing as clients adopt and build on DeepSeek’s open source model.&nbsp;



″[DeepSeek] has demonstrated that smaller open models can be trained to be as capable or more capable than larger proprietary models and this can be done at a fraction of the cost,” said Sid Sheth, CEO of AI chip start-up d-Matrix.&nbsp;



“With the broad availability of small capable models, they have catalyzed the age of inference,” he told CNBC, adding that the company has recently seen a surge in interest from global customers looking to speed up their inference plans.&nbsp;



Robert Wachen, co-founder and COO of AI chipmaker Etched, said dozens of companies have reached out to the startup since DeepSeek released its reasoning models.



“Companies are [now] shifting their spend from training clusters to inference clusters,” he said.&nbsp;



“DeepSeek-R1 proved that inference-time compute is now the [state-of-the-art] approach for every major model vendor and thinking isn’t cheap &#8211; we’ll only need more and more compute capacity to scale these models for millions of users.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Jevon’s Paradox&nbsp;</h2>



Analysts and industry experts agree that DeepSeek’s accomplishments are a boost for AI inference and the wider AI chip industry.&nbsp;



“DeepSeek’s performance appears to be based on a series of engineering innovations that significantly reduce inference costs while also improving training cost,” according to a report from Bain &amp; Company.



“In a bullish scenario, ongoing efficiency improvements would lead to cheaper inference, spurring greater AI adoption,” it added.&nbsp;



This pattern explains Jevon’s Paradox, a theory in which cost reductions in a new technology drive increased demand.



Financial services and investment firm Wedbush said in a research note last week that it continues to expect the use of AI across enterprise and retail consumers globally to drive demand.



Speaking to CNBC’s “Fast Money” last week, Sunny Madra, COO at Groq, which develops chips for AI inference, suggested that as the overall demand for AI grows, smaller players will have more room to grow.



“As the world is going to need more tokens [a unit of data that an AI model processes] Nvidia can’t supply enough chips to everyone, so it gives opportunities for us to sell into the market even more aggressively,” Madra said.

Newly Launched Chinese AI App DeepSeek Causes U.S. Tech Stocks To Tumble, Amid Its Rapid Rise To #1 In Apple’s App Store

DeepSeek has rattled large AI players — but smaller chip firms see it as a force multiplier

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="720" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/HACNBSSITZP6VKINH5EEMDGPKI.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583356"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">South African President Cyril Ramaphosa briefs the media on South Africa&#8217;s G20 presidency for 2025 at the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, December 3, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



CAPE TOWN, Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday that his country &#8220;will not be bullied,&#8221; days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would cut off funding to South Africa over a land reform act.



Trump said on Sunday, without citing evidence, that &#8220;South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly,&#8221; alluding to a new law which aims to even racial disparities in land ownership.



Ramaphosa did not mention Trump by name, but spoke of growing geopolitical tensions in his annual state of the nation address.



&#8220;We are witnessing the rise of nationalism, protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause,&#8221; he said.



&#8220;We will stand together as a united nation, and we will speak with one voice in defence of our national interests.&#8221;



South Africa was also criticised this week by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said he would not attend an upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg because &#8220;South Africa is doing very bad things&#8221; such as &#8220;using G20 to promote solidarity, equality, and sustainability.&#8221;



South Africa took over the G20 presidency in December, becoming the first African country to do so, and Ramaphosa has said he would use the opportunity to advance the interests of Africa and the Global South.



South Africa is about seven months into a coalition government that was formed after the African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority in an election last year, forcing it to team up with its biggest rival, the Democratic Alliance.



Ramaphosa said the government would launch a second wave of reforms to try to lift economic growth above 3%, focusing on boosting struggling state companies like power utility Eskom and logistics group Transnet and investing in infrastructure.



The central bank&#8217;s most recent forecast is that Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy will grow 1.8% this year.



(Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Tannur Anders; Additional reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Bhargav Acharya;Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Alexander Winning)

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South Africa ‘will not be bullied,’ Ramaphosa says after Trump attack

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="5000" height="3334" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/KEFKFP5ACNOV3K5X7PWY25YYDI.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583260"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Exxaro Resources CEO Dr. Nombasa Tsengwa speaks to Reuters, at the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2024 conference, in Cape Town, South Africa, February 7, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; The CEO of South African coal miner Exxaro Resources, Nombasa Tsengwa, has resigned with immediate effect, the company said on Thursday, two months after she was suspended pending a governance probe.



Long-time finance director Riaan Koppeschaar, who has been acting CEO since December, will continue in the role while the company looks for a permanent replacement, Exxaro said in a statement.



(Reporting by Nelson Banya)

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South Africa’s Exxaro Resources says CEO Tsengwa has resigned

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4795" height="3197" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/DT3MRWIAVBNLPG5NKLM5P7HA4Y.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583221"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Laurent Muschel, HERA Director General, and Jean Kaseya, Africa CDC Director General, stand near mpox vaccines as first batches arrive at N&#8217;Djili International Airport in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Justin Makangara/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Africa&#8217;s leading public health official will write to the U.S. Secretary of State on Thursday to highlight how the U.S. aid freeze is threatening the lives of people across the continent and efforts to contain disease outbreaks that could ultimately impact Americans.



Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will raise concerns with Marco Rubio about the impact on patients with diseases like HIV and the risk of an mpox pandemic also fuelled by conflict in eastern Congo, he told Reuters.



&#8220;When I got the information about the pause &#8230;I was alarmed,&#8221; Kaseya said. &#8220;How can we respond to all of the ongoing outbreaks if we don&#8217;t have funding?”



Kaseya wrote to African leaders over the weekend warning that without urgent intervention to plug the financial gaps caused by the U.S. freeze and other governments cutting aid budgets there could be an additional 2-4 million deaths from preventable diseases a year on the continent.



&#8220;This pause will not just affect Africa but also the U.S.,&#8221; he said, warning that disease outbreaks will spread further without fully-funded efforts to stop them.



Conflict was also threatening the health response in parts of Africa, Kaseya added, which he included in both letters.



Fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has impacted the mpox response as well as measles and cholera outbreaks, he said. For example, millions of doses of mpox vaccines, including doses donated by Japan for children, are stuck in Kinshasa because of the security situation in Goma.



&#8220;The U.S. and others don&#8217;t have to forget the lessons of COVID. When you don&#8217;t open your eyes to something ongoing in Africa, we can have a mutation of the virus that will become a pandemic and affect all of us,&#8221; said Kaseya.



The U.S. aid pause and funding freeze means Africa CDC is short around $200 million for its efforts to fight mpox, he said, part of the $1.1 billion originally pledged.



For this and other efforts the aid freeze must be lifted quickly, he said, although he thanked Rubio for the waiver put in place for lifesaving aid and the President&#8217;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Ros Russell)

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Africa’s top health official presses U.S. to resume aid

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3834" height="2402" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/5OMVZV4VZBNBNI3UP6TQZXKT2M.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583183"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A general view shows people walking past the Central Bank of Kenya headquarters building along Haile Selassie avenue in Nairobi, Kenya October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya&#8217;s central bank governor said on Thursday that bank officials did not see much effect on the exchange rate from U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s foreign aid freeze.



In late January, Trump placed a pause on most foreign development assistance pending assessments of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy.



Central Bank Governor Kamau Thugge cited strong remittance inflows among reasons why Kenya&#8217;s foreign exchange reserves were healthy at roughly $9 billion, or more than four months of import cover.



&#8220;We don&#8217;t see much impact on the exchange rate from the freeze on aid. We see our foreign exchange reserves remaining fairly strong, exchange rate stable,&#8221; he told a news conference.



On Wednesday, Finance Minister John Mbadi said Trump&#8217;s move to freeze aid could hit Kenya hard, as it lacks the fiscal space to replace the funding, adding that he hoped the United States would reconsider its decision.



Kenya&#8217;s shilling currency is broadly unchanged year-to-date against the dollar.



It closed 2024 up about 21% after a bond buyback eased concerns that the government could default.



On Wednesday, the central bank cut its main interest rate for the fourth meeting in a row, saying it wanted to do more to support lending and boost economic growth.



The Central Bank Rate was lowered by 50 basis points to 10.75%, in line with the forecast of a Reuters poll of four economists.



(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning, William Maclean)

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Kenya central bank sees minimal effect on shilling from Trump aid freeze

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-583160" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019. Aly Song | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING — China has toughened its tone following the Trump administration’s opening salvo of trade tariffs.



“In the face of one-sided acts of bullying, [China] will definitely take necessary measures to firmly protect its own rights and interests,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce Spokesperson He Yongqian told reporters Thursday, according to a CNBC translation.



She added that China would not provoke trade disputes and remained ready to resolve problems through discussions. Beijing’s official commentary previously emphasized the willingness to negotiate.



China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Lin Jian struck conveyed a similar mood on Wednesday.



“China firmly deplores and opposes the move of the U.S. to levy a 10 percent additional tariff on Chinese imports under the pretext of the fentanyl issue,” he said, according to an official English translation. “The measures China has taken are what’s needed for safeguarding our legitimate rights and interests.”



CNBC has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.



The official remarks came just days after the U.S. announced 10% tariffs on Chinese goods, to which the Chinese side on Tuesday retaliated with its own duties of up to 15% on U.S. liquefied natural gas and select products, starting Feb. 10.



The U.S. also halted a so-called de minimis exemption, making it more expensive for Chinese e-commerce merchants to ship products directly to U.S. consumers.



Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He on Thursday urged the U.S. to create a “fair and predictable” environment for cross-border e-commerce.

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Impala Platinum expects deeper profit fall on low platinum prices

Moody’s warns World Bank’s triple-A rating threatened if Trump pulls support

South African party accuses white group of treason over Trump attack

Uganda names new central bank governor, president’s spokesperson says

Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery to operate at full capacity in 30 days, executive says

Enthusiasm over Trump and AI appears to be waning

The stark divide that South Africa’s land act seeks to bridge

‘No thanks’, white South Africans turn down Trump’s immigration offer

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Six million people could die from HIV and AIDS if US funding stops, UN agency warns

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DeepSeek has rattled large AI players — but smaller chip firms see it as a force multiplier

South Africa ‘will not be bullied,’ Ramaphosa says after Trump attack

South Africa’s Exxaro Resources says CEO Tsengwa has resigned

Africa’s top health official presses U.S. to resume aid

Kenya central bank sees minimal effect on shilling from Trump aid freeze

China says will protect its own interests in face of U.S. ‘bullying’

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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