Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week

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Bestselling author and broadcast legend Bruce Whitfield returns with a bold new News24 podcast. Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week won’t waste your time. Instead, each episode will focus on the one business news story that will change your world. Listeners will also get investment and personal finance advice from top experts, and the inside track on SA’s most successful hustles. Join us every Thursday at 17:00.

  1. 1d ago

    Fertiliser to fintech: Omnia feeds Africa, Optasia banks it

    In this episode, Omnia Group CEO Seelan Gobalsamy discusses a record year driven by Africa’s growing food security imperative, with fertiliser demand rising across the continent and a strategy built around becoming the essential input supplier for African farmers. Optasia CEO Salvador Anglada unpacks how the group is making more than a billion credit decisions a month, facilitating $3.5 billion in distributed value in a single half-year, and growing revenue 58% while keeping default rates at 1.3%. Quietly, the fintech has become one of the most significant financial infrastructure companies that most South Africans have never heard of. Gary Booysen of Rand Swiss on what the Reserve Bank rate hold means for SA assets, where he is finding value in a market that has run hard, and why AI infrastructure remains his one constant theme.And News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman on the rand selling off after the rate hold, Woolworths’ new CEO making his first moves, and what a bumper week for financial services results tells us about the broader economy. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

  2. Sep 10

    FirstRand’s Vilakazi cleans up after R17bn UK hit

    In this episode, FirstRand CEO Mary Vilakazi unpacks results that look worse than they are. Reported earnings fell 5% after an R11.4 billion provision for the UK motor finance scandal, but strip that out and normalised earnings from continuing operations grew 13%, with return on equity at 24%. The UK business is being sold, and FirstRand is placing its next big bet on Optasia, a fintech platform targeting the unbanked across Africa. Andrew Dunn of DNI tells one of South Africa’s most unexpected entrepreneurial stories. Watching bread trucks return idle by midmorning at Premier Foods, he noticed that every outlet buying bread was also selling airtime and SIM cards with no efficient way to restock. That single observation became the foundation for a business now spanning connectivity, devices, eSIMs and fintech, touching millions of South Africans in the informal economy. Chantal Marx of FNB Wealth and Investments on a bumper week of financial services results, why South African insurers and banks keep outperforming a moribund economy, and what Anton Rupert Jr’s elevation at Richemont really signals. And News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman discusses GDP shrinking by 0.2% in the second quarter, the Gauteng office market at 18% vacancy, and why Hyde Park Corner is somehow the best-performing retail asset in the country. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

  3. Sep 3

    Reserve Bank governor talks inflation, Iran and El Niño. And Shoprite brews a Vida deal

    In this episode, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago joins Bruce to unpack what he calls a “polycrisis of overlapping shocks”, from the war in Iran to Ukraine’s attack on Russian wheat infrastructure and the looming El Niño threat to South African food prices. His message: South Africa’s starting point this time is fundamentally stronger than in 2022, and that breathing room is why the Reserve Bank can still take measured rather than aggressive steps on rates. Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht speaks about the acquisition of Vida e Caffè, which adds more than 400 coffee stores to a group already operating in pet, liquor, pharmacy, and fashion adjacencies. Sixty60 added R6.6 billion this year and set a new record just yesterday, and Shoprite and Checkers now sit as the top two retailers in South Africa by sales.News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman analyses Woolworths’ food-first CEO, making clear the retailer’s clothing era is over, TFG’s Australian business dragging results down under, Eskom sitting on R125 billion cash after a R30 billion profit, and Sasol’s share price tripling to nearly R200 on the back of surging refining margins. And Peter Armitage of Anchor Capital examines rising bond yields reshaping asset values globally, why AI has increased his costs without yet cutting them, and why the real AI boom right now is actually a construction boom in disguise. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

  4. Aug 27

    One of these heavyweights runs Africa’s biggest telco. The other began with a bag of nuts 

    In this episode, MTN CEO Ralph Mupita joins Bruce to unpack a strong set of first-half results driven by Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, with R13.9 billion in dividends repatriated. Mupita addresses the R74 billion trademark lawsuit MTN dismisses as frivolous, the Iran investment it cannot exit because of US sanctions, and what it actually takes to operate profitably across 19 contested African markets. Antoine van Heerden of ButtaNutt tells the story of building a plant-based food empire from a student digs in Stellenbosch, from macadamia butter at weekend markets to 1 500 stores nationwide and a 54% investment from PSG Group. Helena Wasserman, editor of News24 Business, on Northam’s audacious move to put itself on the market, an insider trading probe into trades ahead of the Curro delisting, and OR Tambo’s deepening crisis as air traffic controllers are poached abroad, and a Sasol refinery shutdown threatens jet fuel supply. And David Shapiro of Otto 1890, in his 53rd year in markets, on why Nvidia’s blowout results should silence the sceptics, the two-speed US economy, and why the rand may surprise everyone. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

  5. Aug 20

    Jozi’s gold rush isn’t done. Plus: Jockey turns 150

    In this episode, DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius explains how the company extracts 1.93 grams of gold per tonne of mine-dump material, and why, at $4 000 an ounce, that amounts to R4.2 billion in profit, while simultaneously cleaning up Soweto’s dust problem and reversing a century-long environmental legacy. Bruce McMurray of Jockey South Africa speaks on keeping a 150-year-old underwear brand relevant, why more than 95% of its products are still made locally through a 75-year manufacturing partnership, and what e-commerce is forcing the factory to rethink.News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman discusses the SPAR board chair quitting under pressure from revolting independent retailers, the US debt approaching $40 trillion, and food price inflation at its lowest in 16 years. And Graeme Korner of Korner Perspective explores why the JSE has been a damp squib in 2026, why precious metals are finding their mojo again, and why he thinks the US bond market intervention is a dangerous gamble. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

  6. Aug 13

    Boerie gets a glowup – and where do seized Lambos go? 

    In this episode, ENS head of forensics practice Steven Powell goes behind the scenes of asset forfeiture, using the Tembisa Hospital scandal to explain what actually happens after the cameras leave and the Lamborghinis have been seized, and why South Africa’s ability to secure convictions amid a Financial Action Task Force review matters more than most people realise. Neil Swart of the Belly Restaurant Group joins Bruce to talk about Buri, the new Cape Town concept built entirely around the boerie roll. Gary Booysen of Rand Swiss speaks on Anthropic’s potential $2 trillion IPO and the Goldman Sachs warning about $1.3 trillion in AI infrastructure commitments quietly sitting off-balance-sheet. And Helena Wasserman reviews gold at a 10-week high, Shoprite’s Sixty60 growing to a third the size of Pick n Pay, and the court ruling that cleared business mogul Patrice Motsepe of a R3 billion claim, just as 37% of South Africans say they want him as their next president. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

  7. Aug 6

    The SA EdTech that beat Silicon Valley. Plus: Nedbank’s quiet comeback

    In this episode, Nedbank CEO Jason Quinn unpacks flat headline earnings that hide 12% underlying growth, explains the NCBA acquisition in Kenya and what it means for Nedbank’s African ambitions, and reads a South African banking landscape as being disrupted from every direction. Nick Miller of Teach Me 2 and Coachbit tells the story of building a tutoring platform from a UCT engineering dorm to TIME’s global EdTech list, via a Silicon Valley startup that lost to TikTok and taught him everything about digital addiction. Helena Wasserman discusses Glencore’s Iran war windfall, Sasol’s remarkable 75% share price surge and South Africa’s strange new problem of a grid producing too much solar power during the day. And Jean Pierre Verster of Protea Capital Management addresses why Pick'n Pay is still loss-making and tracking behind its own recovery targets, plus the AI memory stock crash that wiped 40% off some of the sector’s biggest names in a single month. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec.To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here.Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

  8. Jul 30

    Is Woolworths quietly becoming an Edgars? Plus: The man reimagining Cape Town’s CBD

    In this episode, Murray Clark, co-founder and CEO of Neighbourgood, talks about The Acre at Golden Acre, converting Cape Town’s iconic 27-floor CBD office block into 417 apartments with flexible leases, co-working spaces and shared amenities. It’s a bold bet on city centre living and adaptive reuse done right.News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman unpacks a results-heavy week: Woolworths holding premium pricing as sales slow, Boxer growing but disappointing the market, Canal+ celebrating its best subscription month in a decade, and Anglo American preparing to let De Beers go for cheap. Meryl Pick of Old Mutual digs into whether Woolworths is quietly becoming an Edgars in its clothing division, and what a food-first CEO signals about the group’s future direction. And, Sean Coleman of the South African Bookmakers Association discusses the R50 billion leaving South Africa’s shores through unregulated gambling platforms every year, why prediction markets are the fastest-growing frontier of that problem, and what happens if nobody acts. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.

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Bestselling author and broadcast legend Bruce Whitfield returns with a bold new News24 podcast. Bruce Whitfield’s Business Week won’t waste your time. Instead, each episode will focus on the one business news story that will change your world. Listeners will also get investment and personal finance advice from top experts, and the inside track on SA’s most successful hustles. Join us every Thursday at 17:00.

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