The rand strengthened on Friday to its firmest level since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, but the rally is unlikely to show up on the shelf price of a laptop or a server any time soon. A global shortage of memory and storage chips is doing far more damage to South…
BlockTower, the issuer of the rand-backed stablecoin ZARU, said on Thursday that Luno has listed ZARU/USDT and ZARU/USDC trading pairs on its exchange, putting the rand on a continuous order book against the world’s two largest dollar stablecoins. Three days earlier, national treasury and the South African Reserve Bank published a draft manual that would…
Tether remains the dominant stablecoin in South Africa. (Image created by GenAI) Authorised financial services provider BlockTower’s rand-backed stablecoin ZARU has been listed on Luno Global, in what it says is the first institutional-grade rand stablecoin on a regulated crypto exchange. The listing gives the rand an on-chain secondary market on Luno’s exchange. ZARU, which…
SAMRO ensures composers, authors and publishers are fairly compensated for the use of their musical works. The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) has reaffirmed its core mandate of administering and distributing royalties to music creators, announcing total distribution allocation of R630.2 million for the 2025 financial year. The 2025 distribution marks a 1.3% increase…
The rand weakened on Friday, heading for a second consecutive week of losses as surging energy prices fuelled by conflict in the Middle East rattled global markets and heightened inflation concerns. At 10.05am SAST, the rand traded at R16.94/US$, 0.9% weaker than Thursday’s close. The currency has faced sustained pressure since the US-Israeli war on…
The ongoing RAM shortage, driven by suppliers shifting their production lines to higher-margin high-bandwidth memory used for AI workloads in data centres, is already affecting the smartphone market as the Samsung Galaxy S26 launched at prices slightly higher than its predecessor on Wednesday evening. Speaking to TechCentral in a post-launch interview following the Johannesburg leg…
Canal+ expects to generate more than €400-million (R7.5-billion) in annual earnings “synergies” from its acquisition of MultiChoice Group, underlining the strategic importance of Africa to the French media group’s long-term growth ambitions. In a statement released on Thursday, Canal+ said the combined group is targeting run-rate cost synergies of more than €400-million at earnings before…
The commodity-linked rand strengthened on Monday morning, touching R15.99/US$ thanks to record gold prices, while traders awaited the central bank’s first rate-setting meeting this year. The rand briefly moved stronger than the R16 mark at 10.40am SAST. It then retreated slightly and was last quoted at 11.24am at R16.03/$. These are the currency’s strongest levels…
The rand ended 2025 nearly 13% stronger against the US dollar, marking its biggest annual gain in 16 years as the greenback weakened broadly. The risk-sensitive currency posted its first yearly rise against the dollar since 2019 and its largest increase since 2009, supported by South Africa’s improved fiscal performance, success in containing inflation and…
The rand gained further ground on Monday, supported by higher gold prices as local investors look towards the year’s last bit of economic data for clues on the health of South Africa’s economy. Shortly after 2pm, the currency was trading at R16.78/US$, continuing a firming trend that started in April. The rand is now at…
