Breaking News Today – Thursday 18 December 2025

Business News Today

Post Office Loses Its Small Parcel Monopoly

South African Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has gazetted a directive ending the South African Post Office’s (SAPO) long-standing monopoly on delivering small parcels (under 1kg), removing them from “reserved postal services.” This opens up the market, allowing private couriers full legal access without prior threats of fines or restrictions. For the courier industry, it boosts competition, with big e-commerce growth (a R130bn+ market), and should create better efficiency/reliability for online deliveries. For the SAPO, the move eliminates a protected revenue source amid severe financial woes, pressuring government to either terminate the entity or to modernise and look for, partnerships.

Potentially this may open up the opportunity for privatisation of the struggling state-owned-entity, that will require a complete make-over if it is to compete effectively in the marketplace. The SAPO would require capital for a complete re-build to establish long-term viability but risks short-term strain or potentially closure of the entity that faces massive financial and operational challenges.

Annual CPI in SA lower in November

Annual consumer price inflation dropped marginally to 3,5% in November from 3,6% in October surprising markets that had anticipated an increase. The monthly change in the consumer price index (CPI) was -0,1%. Annual inflation saw a drop in five of the 13 product categories, most notably transport; recreation, sport & culture; and information & communication. Four categories registered no change. Food & non-alcoholic beverages (NAB), restaurants & accommodation services, and alcoholic beverages & tobacco recorded higher rates. Vehicle prices, and specifically used vehicles have seen downward price pressure while fuel price drop assisted in keeping inflation at bay. However some food categories such as meat prices saw an average increase of a hefty 12,2% in the 12 months to November, the highest annual rate since January 2018. Milk and other dairy products & eggs category recorded its sixth successive month of price deflation.

Angolan Railway Refurbishment on Track

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation signed a $553 million loan with a consortium of construction groups yesterday. The loan will be utilised as part of the upgrades and refurbishment of an Angolan railway line, that forms part of the Lobito critical minerals transport corridor.The high-profile U.S.-backed Lobito Corridor, which will connect copper and cobalt mines to the Atlantic coast, is part of Washington’s global push to secure access to strategic metals and its efforts to counter Chinese influence in Africa. Under the deal signed at a ceremony in Washington, the DFC will provide financing to the Lobito Atlantic Railway, a consortium of Portugal’s Mota Engil, commodities trading firm Trafigura and rail firm Vecturis SA.The Development Bank of Southern Africa will contribute another $200 million loan under the terms of the deal, which was initially disclosed last year but has only now been finalised.

Breaking News Shorts: 

• Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next administrator of NASA. The private astronaut and founder of the Shift4 payments processing platform, will now oversee a trimmed-down space agency that Trump has tasked with returning to the moon.
• Online learning platforms Coursera, and Udemy, have announced that they have entered into a merger agreement under which Coursera will combine with Udemy in an all-stock transaction. Based on the closing prices of Coursera and Udemy common stock on December 16, 2025. The implied equity value of the merged entity, will be approximately $2.5 billion.
• British Petroleum (BP) has appointed its first woman Chief Executive, Meg O’Neill who will also be the first woman to run a major global oil firm.The UK based energy group, said its current boss Murray Auchincloss would step down from the position, less than two years after he replaced Bernard Looney
• Zimbabwe has dropped plans to double its gold royalty rate to 10%, a new 2026 budget bill indicated yesterday, following protests by miners and industry groups. The current royalty rate of 5% would continue to apply for gold prices between $1,200 and $5,000 per ounce, according to the revised budget bill, which was approved by Zimbabwe’s lower parliament chamber on Wednesday
• A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against Adobe on behalf of Elizabeth Lyon, an author from Oregon, claims that Adobe used pirated versions of numerous books — including her own — to train the company’s SlimLM program. Adobe states that SlimLM was pre-trained on SlimPajama-627B, a “deduplicated, multi-corpora, open-source dataset”

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar flat today, with the Euro trading against the US dollar at 1.17428 while the Pound is trading at 1.33676 to the US dollar. The Yen is currently trading at 155.83 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR) is currently trading against the dollar at R16.76.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are flat this morning, and are currently trading around $4334.76 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are marginally softer today, with prices currently around $5.3321
• Silver futures prices continue upwards hitting new record highs and up more than 130% year-to-date., and currently trading around $66.433
• Platinum futures continue their upward surge, up over 2.8% this morning, extending a record rally to its highest levels since 2008, and currently trading at $1971.70, While Palladium prices are over 1.4% higher this morning, and currently trading around $1707.50 per ounce.
• Brent crude oil prices are trending upwards today, and currently at $60.15 with WTI trading at $56.45
• Cocoa futures are softer today, and currently trading around $5978.00 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are trending over 2% higher this morning, and are currently trading at around $3.5714 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are trending marginally higher today, and trading at around $86370 per coin currently 
• Ether prices are marginally softer this morning, and are currently trading around $2824.32
• $Trumpcoin are trending lower today, and currently trading around $5.051

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H55 Central African Time) 

Africa News Briefs:

• A centre in South Africa processing applications for the United States refugee program was raided by immigration and law enforcement officers, and seven Kenyan nationals were arrested for working there illegally, South Africa’s Home Affairs Ministry said yesterday. The South African Home Affairs Ministry didn’t immediately say who the Kenyans worked for, but the U.S. government had contracted a Kenya-based company, RSC Africa, to process the refugee applications. according to the U.S. Embassy in South Africa. RSC is operated by Church World Service, a U.S.-based nongovernment organisation offering humanitarian aid and refugee assistance across the world
• According to a report from AP, The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have said they have begun a withdrawal from the city of Uvira in eastern Congo late Wednesday night, according the leader of the rebel group and local authorities.  The leader of the M23, Bertrand Bisimwa, who spoke to The Associated Press said the withdrawal would be complete by this morning. “We said we’re going to withdraw. Our statement is clear. And that’s what we’re doing,” said Bisimwa.
• The Annual WaterCAN Citizen Science Water Testing Week held in South Africa has confirmed that unsafe water is not an isolated rural problem but a widespread national risk affecting communities across all nine provinces in the country. The most alarming results come from drinking-water sources that should be safe at the point of use. Ms Nomsa Daele, Citizen Science and Training Coordinator of WaterCAN commented: “When our community testers, are picking up E.coli in household drinking water in eight municipalities, it is deeply concerning