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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, has announced that Abebe Aemro Selassie will retire as director of the IMF’s African Department (AFR) on May 1, bringing to a close a distinguished 32-year career at the Fund. Selassie has led the African Department since 2016, a period marked by exceptional economic and geopolitical challenges for sub-Saharan Africa. Under his leadership, the IMF significantly scaled up its engagement with 45 countries in the region as demand for financial support surged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, debt vulnerabilities and shifting global trade dynamics. “Abe has guided the department through a period of profound change and challenge,” Georgieva said, noting that AFR’s work during this time helped reinforce the IMF’s role as a trusted partner to African member countries. She…

WeBuyCars has ditched Dekra Automotive for vehicle condition reports, replacing it with its own subsidiary, Inspectify, in an attempt to provide clearer, more accurate information to customers. This move comes just a month after the automotive retail giant was hit with a R6 million settlement with the National Consumer Commission, following complaints that its sales agreements were unclear or in breach of the Consumer Protection Act. There also appear to have been complaints from consumers over the quality and accuracy of vehicle condition reports, with some buyers stating that previous Dekra reports were difficult to understand. The company's Head of Strategy, Willem Kloppers, told IOL that Inspectify was created to improve transparency and consistency in vehicle inspections, giving customers clearer, more understandable information about the cars they are considering. "WeBuyCars…

South Africa’s manufacturing sector lost momentum in November 2025, with production contracting year-on-year and month-on-month as structural pressures and weakening demand weighed heavily on key industries, according to data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday. Manufacturing production declined by 1.0% in November compared with the same month in 2024, while seasonally adjusted output fell by 1.1% compared with October. The month-on-month decline followed a 1.0% increase in October and a 0.3% rise in September, signalling a sharp reversal in recent gains. Stats SA said the largest negative contributions to annual production came from the wood and wood products, paper, publishing and printing division, which contracted by 7.9%. This was followed by basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery, which fell by 2.5%, while…

S&P Global reports that December saw the strongest downturn in operating conditions South Africa’s manufacturing sector closed out 2025 on an exceptionally weak footing, with business activity contracting sharply as demand dried up and firms cut back on inventories and employment, according to the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data released on Thursday. The Absa PMI fell by a further 1.5 points to 40.5 in December 2025, moving even deeper into contractionary territory and marking its lowest reading since 2020. The index remains well below the 50-point threshold that separates expansion from contraction, underscoring the severity of the downturn in manufacturing activity as the year came to an end. The bleak Absa PMI reading followed the release of the S&P Global South Africa PMI earlier in the week, which also…

When South Africa hosts a global platform like the G20, the temptation is to treat it as a moment — a diplomatic success, a media milestone, a week of global attention. That would be a costly mistake. The real value of hosting the G20 did not lie in the summit itself, but in what comes after: the legacy we deliberately design, institutionalise, and activate. South Africa has been here before. The 2010 FIFA World Cup demonstrated that global events can be catalytic — not only for infrastructure delivery, but for confidence, reputation, and long-term positioning. The question now is whether we have the strategic discipline to move from hosting to harvesting the goodwill we created at the G20 Global Leaders’ Summit. The G20 as a Strategic Inflection Point The recent…

Global cooperation is proving more resilient than expected despite deepening geopolitical tensions, but it is increasingly fragmented and falling short of what is required to address mounting economic, security and environmental risks. This is according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Cooperation Barometer 2026, which was released on Thursday ahead of the WEF's 2026 Annual Meetings in Davos later this month. The Barometer, now in its third year and developed in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, shows that while overall levels of global cooperation have remained broadly unchanged in recent years, the form of cooperation is shifting. According to WEF, traditional multilateral mechanisms are under strain, giving way to smaller, more agile coalitions of countries and, in some cases, private-sector players that are stepping in to fill gaps left…