Monday, 10 August 2026

South Africa is set to ship 200,000 tons of soybeans to China in November, its second soybean deal with the market, after a record 3.05 million-ton harvest and a 3% tariff drop made exports more viable.

The soybean deal is important but not transformational: China imports 100-110 million tons a year, so South Africa will remain a niche supplier alongside Brazil, Argentina and the US.

New electricity pricing proposals will unbundle municipal bills to show transmission, distribution, generation and administration costs, while capping the losses and theft councils can pass on to paying customers.

Municipal electricity debt to Eskom has ballooned to about R111 billion to R130 billion, with arrears rising by R2 billion to R3 billion a month as revenue collection continues to fail.

Women still do more than twice the unpaid care work of men, and the discussion argued that shared parental leave, workplace childcare and community support are needed so mothers are not carrying the load alone.