The Recycling Association of South Africa (RASA) has welcomed the Competition Commission’s proactive and decisive intervention in the scrap metal sector.
RASA points out that, on February 13, the commission conducted search-and-seizure operations at the premises of several major scrap metal buying companies as part of its ongoing investigation into alleged coordinated price-fixing of shredded and processed scrap metal.
This action follows a third-party complaint lodged in 2023 and a further complaint initiated by the Competition Commissioner in February.
RASA says it commends the commission for its swift enforcement in this priority industrial intermediary sector.
The association posits that dismantling any alleged buyer-side cartel will help eliminate artificial barriers to entry, foster fair competition and create opportunities for small businesses, informal collectors, waste pickers and firms owned by historically disadvantaged persons to participate meaningfully in the market.
“However, we must condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the alleged conduct of these powerful scrap buyers. This is not mere commercial rivalry – it is outrageous, predatory collusion that has deliberately and systematically suppressed domestic scrap prices for years.
“It is the economic equivalent of a cartel secretly fixing the price of bread: except that instead of robbing ordinary South Africans of their daily staple, these buyers have been robbing hundreds of thousands of the poorest of the poor – informal metal recyclers and waste pickers – of their only source of income and survival.
“These are not abstract statistics. These are mothers, fathers and young people who walk the streets and scour landfills every day to feed their families,” the association says.
“The alleged price-fixing has crushed their earnings, deepened poverty, forced business closures, and driven many into desperation. The harm is real, severe and unforgivable.”
RASA says these raids provide compelling evidence that the market distortions highlighted in its letter to Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau, dated November 20, remain a serious and ongoing concern.
The association explains that the letter urged the immediate suspension of the price preference system (PPS), an independent forensic investigation into its “manipulation since inception”, and the removal of the export tax to restore equilibrium.
RASA says the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s (dtic’s) earlier recommendation to suspend the PPS pending review, combined with this latest enforcement step, demonstrates government’s commitment to evidence-based reform and cross-institutional cooperation.
While enforcement against anticompetitive conduct is crucial, RASA says sustained harm to recyclers, exporters, and the broader value chain – including suppressed domestic prices, business sustainability risks, and devastating job losses among the most vulnerable – persists under the current policy framework.
The association says the raids reinforce that complementary policy adjustments are urgently needed to level the playing field across the entire scrap metal ecosystem.
RASA has, therefore, renewed its call to the Minister, the dtic and the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) to immediately suspend the operation of the PPS for ferrous and nonferrous waste and scrap metal; to institute an independent forensic investigation into the operation and system manipulation of the PPS since its inception; and to remove the export tax to restore market balance and supply-chain functionality.
“The metal recycling sector – which supports more employment than downstream processing alone – stands ready to collaborate constructively with the Competition Commission, dtic and Itac to build a transparent, competitive and sustainable market,” says RASA.
According to StatsSA, a growing pool of underemployed workers and millions more in the potential labour force who remain on the margins of economic activity.
Image: File
South Africa’s official unemployment rate declined by 0.5 percentage points to 31.4% in the three months to December 2025, signalling modest relief in a labour market long under strain.
This pushed the official unemployment rate down from 31.9% in the third quarter, marking the second consecutive quarterly decline from the 33.2% recorded in the second quarter of the year.
Yet beneath the headline improvement lies a deeper challenge: a growing pool of underemployed workers and millions more in the potential labour force who remain on the margins of economic activity.
According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday, the working-age population (15–64 years) reached 42.1 million in the fourth quarter. Of these, 24.9 million were in the labour force — either employed or actively seeking work — while 17.1 million were outside it.
Employment increased by 44,000 to 17.1 million during the quarter, while the number of unemployed people fell sharply by 172,000 to 7.8 million.
However, a closer look reveals that the country’s labour market distress extends far beyond those officially counted as unemployed.
One of the most significant pressure points is time-related underemployment.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said about 700,000 employed South Africans reported that they were working fewer hours than they desired and were available to work more. These individuals are technically employed, yet their labour is underutilised.
“These are people who are saying that they are not working enough hours if they could work a little bit more to deploy their availability to the labor force,” Maluleke said.
“These are people who are saying they wish they could work more time and the time they are working doesn’t give them enough space to utilize their labor availability.”
When combined with the 7.8 million unemployed, the expanded measure of unemployment and time-related underemployment rises to 34.3%.
Even more telling is the size of the potential labour force: those who are not officially unemployed but are marginally attached to the job market.
“But when we come to outside the labor force, we have what we call the potential labor force, which talks to your discouraged work seekers, those that are not seeking but available, and those that are seeking but not available,” Maluleke said.
This group totalled 4.6 million people in the fourth quarter, an increase of 82,000 from the previous quarter.
Maluleke said within this category are 3.7 million discouraged workseekers — individuals who want employment but have stopped actively looking, often due to repeated rejection or lack of opportunities.
He said a further 855,000 people were available for work but not seeking employment for various reasons, while 42,000 were seeking work but temporarily unavailable, such as students waiting to complete exams.
“Students may sometimes look for employment while they are writing exams. They started looking for employment while they were waiting to write exams. So they knew that they would not be available readily, but once they finished their exams, they would come and be available for employment,” Maluleke said.
When the unemployed are combined with the entire potential labour force, the broader unemployment measure climbs to 42.1%, underscoring the scale of exclusion from productive activity.
The Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA) said employment statistics consistently show an increase toward the end of the year due to temporary work, only to fall again in the first quarter.
Martlé Keyter, MISA CEO, said this pattern does not reflect structural progress.
“The number of discouraged work seekers has increased, meaning more South Africans have stopped looking for work altogether. The youth unemployment rate increased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 43.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025,” Keyter said.
“MISA sees this as a clear sign that the country remains far from resolving its unemployment crisis.”
The most comprehensive measure, labour underutilisation, paints an even starker picture.
This composite indicator includes the unemployed, the potential labour force, and those in time-related underemployment.
Together, Maluleke said, these groups amount to 44.5% of the extended labour force, meaning nearly half of South Africa’s available human capital is either idle or insufficiently engaged.
“When we look at the labor force participation rate as well as the absorption rate, the labor force participation rate is a proportion of those of working age who are either employed or unemployed whereas the absorption rate is the proportion of those in working age that are employed,” Maluleke said.
Encouragingly, all four key indicators — the official unemployment rate, unemployment plus time-related underemployment, unemployment plus potential labour force, and overall labour underutilisation — have been trending downward since the second quarter of 2025.
“The wider the gap between the two lines means that we still face a challenge. Of course, we can see that the gap is starting to move slightly lower than it was previously. It had gone as far as 20 percentage points. Now it’s sitting at 18.7 percentage points difference with the labor force participation rate sitting at 59.3% and the absorption rate sitting at 40.6%.”
Maluleke suggested this signals that the country may be gradually “turning the corner” after a difficult start to the year, when 291,000 jobs were lost in the first quarter.
While the gradual decline in unemployment offers cautious optimism, the expansion of the potential labour force and the scale of underemployment suggest that the recovery remains fragile.
“Much more needs to be done by the government, in particular to further capacitate the frontline public and municipal services that the working class and businesses depend upon, to inject additional stimulus needed to unlock economic growth including expediting the infrastructure investment programme, and to ramp up public employment programmes and relief for the poor and the unemployed,” said Cosatu.
As one of SA’s most influential former miners, Neal Froneman has a unique perspective on how to stimulate economic growth to create jobs. Here’s a sneak peek at what the rainmaker will propose at News24’s On the Record summit in March.
When Neal Froneman speaks at News24’s On the Record Summit in March, he will champion the end of race-based legislation.
To deliver an investor-friendly environment, “South Africa needs to move on from racially based legislation to legislation that is competitive and less bureaucratic,” he says.
“The best performing businesses practice those concepts already. I don’t know that we have to legislate all that and constantly double down and create complexity and friction where it’s not needed,” the self-proclaimed proponent of stakeholder capitalism says of the issue of diversity and inclusivity.
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“Businesses have moved on, and we keep on letting legacy issues cloud our vision,” he says.
In solving the critical twin issues of inequality and poverty, Froneman is fully behind “creating jobs through economic growth. That, in my mind, is the only practical and sustainable solution.”
And, for SA to achieve this goal, we must take decisions that serve the goal of economic growth.
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“You can’t drive a car forward on a torturous road by constantly looking in the rear-view mirror,” he says.
Need public and private talks
Froneman is still one of the world’s most influential gold mining executives despite retiring from Sibanye-Stillwater as CEO last year.
His email signature title now reads “rainmaker – retired”.
A rainmaker is someone who brokers many aggressive deals, generates significant business and secures massive investments. Froneman fits that description to the T – having built a mining empire through a “dizzying merger and acquisition spree”.
He also has a reputation for being blunt, speaking his mind, and being critical of government business policy.
“I’m not one that just criticises,” he says.
I get stuck in and play a constructive role as well.
Currently, he chairs Business Against Crime South Africa and is co-chair of the Joint Initiative on Crime and Corruption with the director-general in the Presidency.
For many of his outspoken views, Froneman says that some have suggested he have these conversations in private with relevant stakeholders.
“We’ve tried for many years to have these private conversations,” he contends.
It doesn’t get the change needed. So you have to talk publicly, you have to talk behind closed doors, and you have to change the direction by being actively involved.
On Day 1 of the News24 summit, Froneman will be part of the panel titled It’s the economy, stupid (or is it?) and will be joined by Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi, CEO of Business Leadership SA Busi Mavuso and Standard Bank’s senior political economist Simon Freemantle.
Post the summit, expect him to “certainly use the links we have to act in the national interest”.
Solutions?
Froneman summarises: “The problem is that to create jobs, we’ve got to grow the economy. To grow the economy, we have to invest. To invest, we’ve got to create an investor-friendly environment.”
At the moment, SA is “not an investment-friendly climate, and it’s because government wants to control everything”.
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He suggests SA start with property‑rights certainty, make labour rules less rigid, show its seriousness on crime by prosecuting high-profile cases and fix municipal delivery so companies aren’t patching potholes. After all, he says, “defunct municipalities become a burden to business”.
Strengthening the domestic front offers certainty and predictability to investors, who then have no hesitation to pump capital into the country.
However, SA’s foreign policy also hinders investment.
“If you think of the world capital markets, they are in the Western world. They are not in the Eastern world,” except maybe for bank debt in China, he says.
One of the biggest sources of capital in the Western world is the US, but SA keeps “poking” them in the eye. Those capital markets have the money, it is available and “our style of business fits those markets. I don’t think Russia’s got money to invest,” he says.
He wants SA to walk the talk and “be truly non-aligned”.
“South Africa could be this bridge between the East and the West, if it just played its cards right. It’s probably one of the only countries in the world that can do that, but we choose to be aligned with the East, even though we say we’re not aligned.”
This then affects the SA economy directly, “because you undermine our ability to borrow money, get investment and grow the economy”.
‘We need to win’
Froneman comes across as less of a ranter and more of a diagnostician with a critical but solution‑oriented lens.
His years as an influential miner, his close ties with business and government leadership – locally and internationally – and his clear-cut analysis offer him a perspective not many have. And he wants to use all that to get results.
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“We need to win. We need to win whatever game we’re going to play, wherever we’re going to play,” he says, evoking the green and gold of the Springboks.
A word on the president, who will deliver the keynote address at News24’s On the Record summit?
“I think the president does listen. I have never found an unreceptive president. He doesn’t want to hear problems. He wants to hear solutions, and he will work with those solutions,” Froneman says.
Cosatu said it is concerned about the notion that public resources should be used to save embattled private companies. It was commenting after news that the embattled Tongaat Hulett is facing possible provisional liquidation.
Image: File.
Trade union federation Cosatu is warning against any “irresponsible” use of public resources to save the embattled Tongaat Hulett which is facing possible provisional liquidation, a move that will have a profound impact on KwaZulu-Natal’s agricultural economy and the sugar sector as a whole.
In a statement, Cosatu in KwaZulu-Natal expressed deep concern over the collapse of the business rescue process at Tongaat Hulett, adding the development poses a serious threat to jobs, the provincial economy, local supply chains, and the livelihoods of workers and communities who depend on the sugar industry.
However Cosatu KZN provincial leader Edwin Mkhize warned against the state rushing in to save the company.
“Cosatu KZN rejects the dangerous narrative that the state must rescue private capital without accountability. It would be criminal and morally indefensible for public funds, generated through the taxes of workers and the poor, to be used to save private companies that have historically enriched shareholders, executives, and monopoly capital, while suppressing wages and deepening poverty. We must save jobs, but with conditions and accountability.
“We are clear: South Africa cannot afford to lose a single job. KwaZulu-Natal, in particular, is already suffering from deep unemployment, poverty, and inequality. The collapse of Tongaat Hulett will worsen this crisis and undermine efforts to rebuild the provincial economy. For this reason, Cosatu KZN supports urgent government intervention to protect jobs, stabilise the sugar sector, and the economy. However, we state unequivocally that any state intervention must come with strict and non-negotiable conditions,” said Mkhize.
He stated that if the government is expected to inject resources into Tongaat Hulett, then the government must not act as a charity for private capital. The state must intervene in a manner that advances public ownership, worker control, and long-term industrial sustainability.
“Cosatu therefore demands that any financial support or intervention from the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) or any state institution must include amongst others that equity ownership by the state and workers in exchange for any public funding.
“We will not allow state resources, money belonging to the people, to be abused to protect the profits of private capital. The time has come for a new economic path where workers and communities are placed at the centre of industrial development, ownership, and decision-making,” he said.
Meanwhile Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said the department has been engaging with industry stakeholders and has been informed that, unless the current funding impasse is urgently resolved, growers will be unable to deliver cane and processing will come to a halt.
The department said the consequences of such an outcome would be severe, affecting approximately 15 500 delivering growers and between 35 000and 40 000 people whose livelihoods depend directly on the supply chain linked to the mills.
“This is not a theoretical risk, it is an immediate economic threat to rural communities,” Steenhuisen said.
“If the mills do not open, farmers cannot harvest, workers cannot earn an income, and entire local economies will stall. The longer uncertainty persists, the greater the damage becomes.”
The department said it is engaging with the relevant departments and financing stakeholders to support a practical solution that preserves production capacity and avoids irreversible losses in the sector.
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Recent claims regarding a R3.8 billion bailout for the South African Post Office (SAPO) have been refuted and slammed as misleading.
South Africa’s largest trade federation, Cosatu, announced that it is seeking urgent engagement with several ministers to address the crises threatening the collapse of the postal service.
The federation intends to meet with the Ministers of Communications and Digital Technologies, Finance, and Employment and Labour to find progressive solutions to safeguard thousands of jobs.
“We are extremely worried about reports that the R3.8 billion committed by the National Treasury has still not been received by SAPO and that only three out of six agreed trenches of payments from the UIF’s Temporary Employee Relief Scheme have been paid,” the union declared.
Cosatu argued that this funding delay makes it impossible for the Post Office to recover and risks the livelihoods of its remaining staff.
“It is very concerning that SAPO’s Business Rescue Practitioner is now said to be considering approaching the courts to liquidate SAPO,” the union noted.
“If true, this would be an absolute calamity for SAPO’s workers and their families, the customers and communities who depend upon its services.”
Cosatu further alleged that the business rescue practitioners have failed to implement a sustainable turnaround plan.
“They’ve been content to close branches and retrench thousands of workers instead, and thus further weakening the ability of SAPO to recover,” the union declared.
“The solution to stabilise and set SAPO as well as the Postbank on the path to sustainability, is not to deny it funds committed to its recovery, nor to apply for its liquidation.”
No Commitment Made to SAPO
Following Cosatu’s demands, the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Economic Development and Trade, Sonja Boshoff, dismissed the federation’s claims as “misleading.”
She clarified that the union is incorrect to suggest the National Treasury is withholding funds that were either promised or approved.
“Repeating such claims risks misleading workers and the public and creates expectations that are not supported by law or fact,” said Boshoff.
She noted that the absence of a viable turnaround plan, coupled with a prolonged business rescue process, has severely weakened SAPO’s financial and operational standing.
Boshoff emphasised that it was her duty to correct misinformation regarding the alleged bailout for an entity over which her committee has oversight.
“All stakeholders are urged to engage responsibly and accurately. Sustainable solutions cannot be built on funding assumptions that were never approved, committed, or appropriated,” she said.
“The National Treasury has been explicit in its engagements with Parliament that there exists no legally binding commitment of R3.8 billion that was ever made to SAPO.”
The R3.8 billion figure reportedly stems from assumptions and proposals within the entity’s business rescue plan rather than official government policy.
Treasury clarified that, by law, public funds can be released only after they are formally appropriated through the budget process, a step that has not occurred for the cited amount.
Both Treasury officials and legal advisers maintain that the National Treasury is under no obligation to transfer the funds.
“This reflects the Minister of Finance’s constitutional responsibility to safeguard the fiscus and ensure that all expenditure complies with legal, fiscal, and governance requirements,” added Boshoff.
According to Boshoff, only short-term relief funding has been provided through departmental mechanisms.
These payments were conditional, time-bound, and subject to strict compliance.
“These measures do not constitute, and were never intended to constitute, a R3.8 billion commitment,” Boshoff concluded.
Pick n Pay’s widening losses are not a unique problem, say analysts, with value legend John Biccard now a big holder of the stock.
Saying Pick n Pay is in a bad place is not revolutionary,” Richard Cheesman, fund manager at Urquhart Partners, tells Currency. But for investors, it still stings.
Take this week’s profit warning, in which the retailer warned investors to brace for a full-year headline loss that will be at least 20% worse than a year ago. It was enough of a surprise to slice off a 10th of Pick n Pay’s market cap.
Disturbingly, Pick n Pay Clothing, usually a high performer for the brand, is struggling: like-for-like sales shrank 6.8% in the second half of the 48-week period monitored in the update.
The big question for investors is whether Pick n Pay – under the dogged turnaround efforts of Sean Summers since 2023 – is failing to flay the demons of its own making, or whether the entire retail sector is in far worse shape than anyone thought.
“This is a two-pot hangover,” says Cheesman, referring to the windfall that retailers enjoyed in 2024 when savers were first allowed to withdraw a chunk of money from their pension funds.
Two-pot hangover
“Now it’s out of the base you’re seeing the impact. I don’t think Pick n Pay blew up their clothing business in the last six months – and I think you’ve seen the same kind of numbers with Mr Price and TFG,” he says.
It’s clear that much of the damage took place in the second half of the group’s financial year, with Black Friday – unaided by the two-post boost of 2024 – clearly not delivering the goods. Until the end of August, for example, the growth in Pick n Pay’s clothing business had been 7.5% year on year.
“Across the South African and international retail landscapes, clothing retail broadly is under pressure,” says Umthombo Wealth’s Alexander Duys.
But, he adds, Pick n Pay’s trading update is “a disappointing outcome for investors and a reminder of the difficult task management faces in driving a turnaround amid weak economic conditions”.
Intriguingly, value investing guru John Biccard has taken a large punt on Pick n Pay; the retailer makes up a roughly 5% share in his value fund, and he believes it’s not a Pick n Pay problem but “a market problem”.
“If you’re the weakest player in retail, and there’s a slowdown, you’re going to feel it the most,” the Ninety One portfolio manager tells Currency.
Though the slowdown in growth for Pick n Pay clothing is still concerning, as “they’ve been growing so much quicker than everyone else for years”, Biccard points to the fact that Truworths, Foschini and other clothing retailers are equally taking strain from the sluggish economy.
Overall sales have decreased 3.6% for Truworths in the half-year ended December 2025, driven by a 5.8% fall in cash sales. Its headline earnings per share are down 8% for the full year.
Foschini barely grew, with like-for-like sales rising only 1.2% in the third quarter of its 2026 financial year.
The Shein factor
And then there’s the relentless onslaught from online fast-fashion stores Shein and Temu. “Their rapid rise has reshaped competitive dynamics in the apparel sector, especially in the lower-price fashion segment where local physical retailers like Pick n Pay compete,” says Duys.
According to a 2025 report by the Localisation Support Fund, Shein and Temu collectively achieved R7.3bn in sales in 2024, accounting for 3.6% of the South African retail market and 37% of total online retail sales.
“This rapid growth has come at a notable cost to the local economy,” the fund says, with an estimated R960m lost in local manufacturing sales.
Even Shoprite, “the leader in the sector [which] always does the best, had a significant slowdown over the past two months”, notes Biccard.
Still worth a punt?
Luckily for Pick n Pay, Boxer, in which it maintains a 65.6% stake, is still doing well. The discount retailer grew sales 11.9% in total for the 48 weeks to February 1, and 3.9% on a like-for-like basis.
The difference in performance means that Pick n Pay’s 65.6% stake in Boxer is worth R21bn, while its own market cap is just R16bn.
“When the market value of a business is -R5bn, it basically means that, in perpetuity, Pick n Pay is going to lose money,” says Biccard.
Says Cheesman: “The market is valuing the core Pick n Pay business at less than zero.”
So, should investors throw in the towel? On the contrary, argues Biccard.
“It’s terrible right now, but that’s actually when you buy,” he says. “You have to say: ‘Is there a chance things will get better?’”
Both Cheesman and Biccard are relatively optimistic of a slight upturn in growth, from 1% closer to 2%. Petrol prices are going down, inflation is settling and interest rate cuts will help with consumer debt.
“I lean slightly optimistic here. Pick n Pay is finally taking the tough steps, closing underperforming stores and tackling its cost base,” Cheesman says.
In any case, Pick n Pay has at least two years of cash runway to turn things around, Biccard notes. “I have no doubt that it will go down some more, but then we will just buy some more.”
