<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="5000" height="3150" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/S6HQ7VEU4ROAHDG56OUF4DYLEI.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585945"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A general view shows a street in Kigali, Rwanda, April 26, 2024. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



KIGALI, Feb 13 (Reuters) &#8211; Rwanda&#8217;s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 6.5% for the second monetary policy meeting in a row, saying that despite a recent pickup in inflation it expected it to remain within its target band.



Annual inflation rose to 7.4% in January, approaching the top of the National Bank of Rwanda&#8217;s 2%-8% target range.



The rise in inflation in recent months was caused by unfavourable weather conditions that meant a delay in the harvest, compared to a bumper harvest a year earlier, Governor John Rwangombwa told a press conference.



The bank has raised its average inflation forecast for 2025 to around 6.5%, up from 5.8%, and sees it at 4.1% in the following year.



&#8220;Though there are slight pressures on inflation, (it) remains within the band, and we are confident that at this rate, 6.5%, we&#8217;ll be able to maintain inflation within the policy band,&#8221; Rwangombwa said.



&#8220;The risk we always highlight is these projections are based on normal weather conditions and normal agriculture performance. But also we see geopolitical tensions, globally, in the region, so this doesn&#8217;t take into consideration any effect from these tensions.&#8221;



The East African country&#8217;s economy was likely to have grown last year more than the 8.3% projected in November, the bank&#8217;s chief economist Thierry Kalisa told reporters.



This year&#8217;s growth was projected at 7% in November, but the bank is currently revising that forecast, Kalisa said.



(Reporting by Philbert Girinema; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Alexander Winning and Ros Russell)

S6HQ7VEU4ROAHDG56OUF4DYLEI

Rwanda central bank holds key rate despite pickup in inflation

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="679" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/H2VQBBJEVJMTZK7RAQSVTQ2MGE.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585860"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A delegate walks past African Union (AU) member states national flags during the opening of the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union at the African Union Headquarters, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia February 17, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



Feb 13 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;African leaders meeting in Ethiopia this weekend are to launch a new push for slavery and colonial reparations, but can expect to be stonewalled by former colonial powers, most of which have ruled out making amends for historical wrongs.



While the issue of reparations has gained momentum worldwide, so has the backlash. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he &#8220;doesn&#8217;t see it (reparations) happening&#8221; and many of Europe&#8217;s leaders have opposed even talking about it.



At the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, leaders plan to shape a &#8220;unified vision&#8221; of what reparations may look like, from financial compensation and formal acknowledgement of past wrongs to policy reforms.



&#8220;Reparations is the hot topic in Addis Ababa,&#8221; the AU&#8217;s economic, social and cultural council, ECOSOCC, wrote on X.



From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by mostly European merchants and sold into slavery.



The debate on reparations needs to address the legacy of colonialism and slavery today, from racism to the economic disparities between Africa and wealthy Western nations, said ECOSOCC, which has been advising member states on the issue.



&#8220;It is increasingly becoming impossible to not acknowledge the damage caused by slavery and colonialism,&#8221; said Zimbabwean lawyer and reparations expert, Alfred Mavedzenge.



The continent&#8217;s debt crisis can be traced back to African nations being saddled with heavy debts upon independence. Climate change can also be linked to colonialism: Africa is responsible for just a fraction of carbon emissions, but its fragile ecosystems have borne the brunt of global warming.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-than-just-compensation">&#8216;MORE THAN JUST COMPENSATION&#8217;</h2>



Much of the debate around reparations, particularly in former colonial powers such as Britain and Portugal, has focused on financial payments but advocates say making amends for the past can take many forms.



&#8220;Reparations are more than just compensation,&#8221; said ECOSOCC&#8217;s head of secretariat William Carew. &#8220;It is about&#8230; ensuring future generations inherit a world that acknowledges their past and propels them towards a brighter future.&#8221;



The AU said in a statement that reparations for Africa could entail land restitution in countries where land was taken from indigenous populations to the return of cultural artefacts.



It also highlighted the need for changes in policies that perpetuate inequalities and for international bodies, such as the United Nations, to hold former colonial powers to account.



&#8220;This might involve diplomatic pressure or legal actions at international courts,&#8221; said the AU.



In 2023, the AU joined forces with the Caribbean community CARICOM to demand reparations. CARICOM has its own reparation plan, which, among other demands, calls for technology transfers and investments to tackle health crises and illiteracy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-right-wing-backlash">RIGHT-WING BACKLASH</h2>



But 30 years since the AU&#8217;s forerunner, the Organisation of African Unity, issued a declaration demanding reparations, there has been little progress.



Jose Maria Neves, president of the African island nation of Cape Verde, has said right-wing populism and its impact on moderate politics has made it difficult to hold a serious debate over the issue.



In Portugal, which enslaved more Africans than any other nation, far-right party Chega proposed charging the president with treason for suggesting there might be a need for reparations.



In Britain, right-wing populist Nigel Farage said Prime Minister Keir Starmer would be &#8220;weak&#8221; if he engaged in talks on the issue. In France, where the far-right is on the rise, President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out reparations, calling for &#8220;reconciliation&#8221; instead.



&#8220;My greatest concern is that there will just be a conversation at this (AU) summit but the resolutions will not be implemented,&#8221; Mavedzenge said.



(Reporting by Catarina Demony in London; Editing by Ros Russell)

H2VQBBJEVJMTZK7RAQSVTQ2MGE

African leaders to push for slavery reparations despite resistance

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek-820x547.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-585827" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek-820x547.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek-135x90.jpeg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek-1536x1025.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dado Ruvic | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING — Chinese businesses are tapping DeepSeek’s newest artificial intelligence model to see how it can improve productivity.



The Chinese AI model took the world by storm in recent weeks after showcasing its reasoning process and claims to undercut rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT on cost — despite U.S. restrictions on Chinese access to the advanced semiconductors needed to develop the tech.



Eight automakers including BYD, at least nine financial securities companies, three state-owned telecommunications operators and smartphone brand Honor are among the many that have rushed in the last week to integrate with DeepSeek. Cloud computing operators Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent and Baidu have all offered ways for clients to access DeepSeek’s latest model.



“This is quite unprecedented,” Wei Sun, principal analyst of artificial intelligence at Counterpoint Research, said in an email Monday. She pointed to the rate of adoption, scale of business integration and breadth of specific industries covered.



“When we have all of these, we know it’s making a big social and economic impact,” she said.



Optimism over artificial intelligence has spread to Chinese stocks. UBS said Wednesday that AI-related Chinese stocks are up by 15% since the start of the year, outperforming the broader MSCI China Index by 9%.



A big factor in the widespread interest is timing. DeepSeek released its latest R1 model on Jan. 20, and news of its low-cost reasoning capabilities prompted a global tech stock sell-off on Jan. 27 — just as millions of urban workers in China were returning to their hometowns to celebrate the eight-day Lunar New Year holiday.



As a result, less developed parts of China gained greater understanding of AI and its impact, a topic previously limited to conversations in China’s largest cities, said Wenhao Zhang, CEO of the Beijing-based consumer marketing consultancy Doodod.



“It’s a major education of the market. This will push the entire ecosystem’s development,” he said Tuesday in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.



Zhang, who studied AI at Tsinghua University, founded Doodod in 2012 to build customer engagement through social media analysis. He said the company —&nbsp;which counts China Merchant’s Bank and Toyota as clients — started looking at DeepSeek’s offerings late last year, and began using it more after the R1 release in late January.



DeepSeek, founded in 2023 out of a quantitative hedge fund, had released a basic version of R1 in November, and a V3 model in December. It launched a smartphone chatbot app in January.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-open-source-local-deployment"><a></a>Open-source local deployment</h2>



Another attractive factor for businesses is that DeepSeek’s models are open-source, allowing individuals and companies to download and customize it.



DeepSeek also advertised drastically lower prices for applications to use its tech versus that of OpenAI. ChatGPT is not officially available in mainland China and requires users to provide an overseas phone number and payment method from a supported country such as the U.S.



DeepSeek changed the perception that AI models only belong to big companies and have high implementation costs, said James Tong, CEO of Movitech, an enterprise software company which says its clients include Danone and China’s State Grid.



He said Movitech started integrating an earlier version of DeepSeek in the fourth quarter of last year, helping boost sales by about 25% from the same period in 2023. The company plans to launch a new DeepSeek-integrated application by the end of March to improve clients’ ability to make decisions, he said.



Many recent videos on Chinese social media have showed off how to run a local version of DeepSeek on Apple’s Mac mini.



Apple Mac mini online sales in China climbed significantly from November to January, versus the same period the year prior,&nbsp;according to data from consultancy WPIC. The electronics-focused JD.com site recorded unit sales of around 20,200 in January, up from nearly 19,400 in December and around 12,250 in November, the data showed.



DeepSeek’s affordability is pressuring more expensive AI models to cut prices, enabling more businesses to adopt the tech, said Chim Lee, senior Asia analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. He added that open-source models allow finance, banking and healthcare businesses — which are&nbsp;subject to stringent data protection rules in China — to develop AI applications locally.



“It is still very early to point to concrete business applications, but a key takeaway is that DeepSeek will accelerate the commoditization of AI,” Lee said.



Beijing is also increasing support. China’s national supercomputing network announced Tuesday that eligible companies and individuals can obtain three free months of DeepSeek access, along with subsidized computing power.



The network is similar to OpenAI’s Trump-backed Stargate project in the U.S. for building AI infrastructure — with the potential for “even faster scaling,” Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law said Wednesday. He is also the author of “The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.” 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-not-centered-on-deepseek"><a></a>Not centered on DeepSeek</h2>



The rush to try out DeepSeek doesn’t mean it will be the only AI provider for Chinese companies. Developers in the U.S. and China are regularly releasing new models.



Movitech also uses Alibaba’s Qwen AI model, Tong said, noting that the market wants the tech that can lower costs and produce results the most, whether it’s OpenAI or DeepSeek.



HangHang AI, which has invested several hundred million yuan to develop AI solutions for companies across 20 industries, uses a range of models, said partner and COO Shu Weibing.



Many people first used “Baidu, then realized it wasn’t as good as Kimi, then it wasn’t as good as [ByteDance’s] Doubao, which also cut prices,” Shu said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. “Now it’s DeepSeek.”



It remains to be seen how much generative AI can boost productivity and profits.



Shu predicts that small businesses and companies that integrate AI&nbsp;with hardware&nbsp;will benefit more than&nbsp;large, consumer-facing internet platforms, whose AI work so far, he said, has focused more on boosting efficiency rather than creating new consumer services.



Despite AI models’ falling prices, “small and medium-sized businesses may still be in a period of wait-and-see” for adopting the tech due to the relatively high cost for a full deployment, including computing power and customization, Mike Fang, senior director analyst at Gartner, said Wednesday in Mandarin translated by CNBC.



But the consulting firm predicts that by 2027, the average price to access a generative AI model will be less than 1% of what it costs now — and that by 2029, 60% of Chinese businesses will have incorporated AI into their primary products and services, forming the top drivers of revenue growth.

108093379-17380715992025-01-28t041731z_1709029148_rc2licannll2_rtrmadp_0_tech-ai-deepseek

Chinese businesses rush to try DeepSeek AI at ‘unprecedented’ scale

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="539" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/YWWKJYXNFNKNXNNTA7PVQVR7QU-1-820x539.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-542871" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/YWWKJYXNFNKNXNNTA7PVQVR7QU-1-820x539.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/YWWKJYXNFNKNXNNTA7PVQVR7QU-1-300x197.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/YWWKJYXNFNKNXNNTA7PVQVR7QU-1-137x90.jpg 137w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/YWWKJYXNFNKNXNNTA7PVQVR7QU-1-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/YWWKJYXNFNKNXNNTA7PVQVR7QU-1.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A logo of the Bank of Namibia is seen at the company&#8217;s headquarters in Windhoek, Namibia, February 24, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



WINDHOEK, Feb 12 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Namibia&#8217;s central bank cut its main interest rate for the fourth straight monetary policy meeting, saying its projections showed inflation would remain well-contained and there was room to support the economy.



The Bank of Namibia reduced its repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.75%, after cutting by the same margin at its previous three policy meetings.



Annual inflation in the Southern African country fell to 3.2% in January from 3.4% in December. The central bank said in a statement on Wednesday that inflation was expected to average 4.0% this year.



Other reasons it gave for lowering the repo rate included the relatively high level of domestic real interest rates and adequate foreign reserves.



The bank forecast 2025 economic growth of 4.0%, higher than last year&#8217;s growth of 3.5%, but it said risks to the economic outlook had grown given global trade restrictions.



&#8220;We need to watch trade wars, &#8230; and see what the impact thereof is on the Namibian economy,&#8221; said Bank of Namibia Governor Johannes !Gawaxab.



Namibia&#8217;s economy is closely tied to that of its neighbour South Africa, and its currency is pegged 1:1 to the rand.



!Gawaxab said relations between South Africa and the United States under President Donald Trump would have a profound impact on Namibia.



Trump last week signed an executive order cutting U.S. financial assistance to South Africa over its land policy and genocide case against Washington&#8217;s ally Israel at the International Court of Justice.



South Africa has defended itself, saying the executive order &#8220;lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa&#8217;s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid&#8221;.



(Reporting by Nyasha Nyaungwa; Writing by Tannur Anders; Editing by Alexander Winning)

YWWKJYXNFNKNXNNTA7PVQVR7QU (1)

Namibia central bank cuts key rate for fourth meeting in a row

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="5000" height="3019" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/H3K4ULF7QBPTZIVJYRLJRCCIP4.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585463"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A logo of Brazil&#8217;s state-run Petrobras oil company is seen at their headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



NEW DELHI, Feb 12 (Reuters) &#8211; Brazil&#8217;s Petrobras wants to buy stakes in African oil assets, mainly in Angola, Namibia and South Africa, to boost its reserves as it expects output to fall after 2030, a senior executive said on Wednesday.



The Brazilian state energy firm is in talks with companies, including existing partners ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies, to buy a share of their African assets, Sylvia dos Anjos, the company&#8217;s director for exploration and production, told Reuters on the sidelines of the India Energy Week conference.



&#8220;In our portfolio, it makes better sense. It is economical. They are our partners in Brazil so it is easy to go anywhere (with them). So it is natural,&#8221; she said.



Petrobras hopes to produce 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2025 and has plans to raise that to 3.1 million bpd by 2029, dos Anjos said.



The company is comfortable with current oil prices as its projects are &#8220;sustainable at a very low price of $45 a barrel&#8221;, she added.



Global benchmark Brent snapped a three-day streak of gains on Wednesday to hover near $77 a barrel, weighed down by higher U.S. crude stockpiles and concern U.S. trade tariffs will hit the global economy.



Last month, Petrobras said that its estimated proven reserves of oil, condensate, and natural gas climbed to 11.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in 2024, up from 10.9 billion boe in 2023.



(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing Florence Tan, Tom Hogue and Barbara Lewis)

H3K4ULF7QBPTZIVJYRLJRCCIP4

Brazil’s Petrobras seeks African oil assets to boost reserves

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk-820x547.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-585412" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk-820x547.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk-135x90.jpeg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron at Station F, during an event on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, France, Feb. 11, 2025. Aurelien Morissard | Via Reuters</figcaption></figure>



PARIS — Music was blaring and people were cheering at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris on Monday as French President Emmanuel Macron declared France is “back in the AI race.”



The bold call comes after Macron touted a 109 billion euro ($112.8 billion) investment in AI in the country. But it also underscores Europe’s desire, led by France, to be a part of the conversation around AI leadership and innovation that has so far been dominated by the U.S. and China.



Last month, America’s $500 billion Stargate announcement made headlines globally, followed by DeepSeek’s AI model, which sent shock waves across financial markets and highlighted China’s ability to keep apace with U.S. innovation.



Europe has long been seen by its critics as a place that has regulated the tech industry too heavily to the detriment of innovation.



Though that image has not entirely been changed, there are some in the technology industry who think Europe is moving in the right direction.



“As a European region, at least, we are starting to see global leaders emerge, and that’s the thing we really need,” Victor Riparbelli, CEO of AI video company Synthesia, told CNBC in an interview on Monday.



There are a number of key companies in Europe, ranging from self-driving technology startup Wayve in the U.K. to OpenAI rival Mistral in France.



“So I think it’s great that we invest more in infrastructure. I don’t think it’s the sole solution to the problem. &#8230; But what I think is really great is that there’s political will to actually do something,” Riparbelli added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fork-in-the-road"><a></a>‘Fork in the road’</h2>



Last year, economist and politician Mario Draghi released a report that urged more investment in the European Union in order to boost competitiveness.



Draghi’s report noted that there are innovative ideas, but startups are “failing to translate innovation into commercialisation, and innovative companies that want to scale up in Europe are hindered at every stage by inconsistent and restrictive regulations.”



Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, told CNBC on Monday that based on his experience at the AI Action Summit, there is tension between Europe at the EU level and the countries within it.



“You can get this sense that there’s almost this fork in the road, maybe even a tension right now between a Europe at the EU level that is looking at a fairly significant, heavier regulatory approach. And then some of the countries, a France, a Germany, a UK, though not technically the EU, certainly European, they’re looking to maybe go in a little bit of a different direction that actually wants to embrace the innovation,” Lehane told CNBC.



He said that previous AI summits hosted by the U.K. and South Korea have focused on the safety around AI, but the Paris edition has a change of tone.



“I think this conference, you’re beginning to see maybe a different definition or consideration, that perhaps the bigger risk right now is missing out on the opportunity,” Lehane added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Europe the ‘referee’</h2>



Still, the image of Europe as a burdensome place for tech regulation has not been shaken.



The EU’s AI Act was the first major law in the world governing artificial intelligence to go into effect in 2024. It has been criticized by companies as well as individual countries such as France which have said that the legislation could stifle innovation.



“One of the metaphors I sometimes use you look at AI as a World Cup football match between the U.S. and China. And if all Europe is trying to do is be the referee, there’s two problems. One, they never win, and two, no one really likes the referee,” Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and an investor at venture capital firm Greylock, told CNBC on Monday.



Christel Heydemann, the CEO of telecommunications firm Orange, told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday that there is too much regulation in Europe.



“So that’s that’s slowing us down, especially when you think about the potential of the European market,” Heydemann said.



She did, however, strike an optimistic tone on Europe’s position on AI.



I don’t think, in the end, it’s a race between U.S. and China. Actually, the president of the European Commission has been very clear, Europe wants to be a continent of AI, and the race is not over yet,” Heydemann added.

108100827-17392963002025-02-11t174938z_1240587498_rc2fscadk7n1_rtrmadp_0_openai-elon-musk

Europe wants to be part of the AI race against China and the U.S. — and shake off its anti-innovation image

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="5000" height="3334" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/W6G6MVOXZ5MAPCA7IMBJFSHWMM.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585151"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">U.S. President Donald Trump holds a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Feb 11 (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s attacks on what he alleges is South Africa&#8217;s mistreatment of its white minority are being met with mockery on social media by some white South Africans poking fun at their own privilege.



Trump said last week that &#8220;certain classes of people&#8221; were being treated &#8220;very badly&#8221; in South Africa, referring to a bill signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa aimed at addressing racial disparities in land ownership.



He then cut aid to South Africa and offered refugee resettlement in the United States to Afrikaners, the descendants of early European settlers, stating they were &#8220;victims of unjust racial discrimination&#8221;.



&#8220;USA, USA, USA!&#8221; comedian Bouwer Bosch chants in a TikTok video as he tells a friend he is moving to the United States.



&#8220;Why did you get refugee status?&#8221; the friend asks.



&#8220;Cause I&#8217;m white, bro!&#8221; he responds, before adding that he will be back to his South African beach house in the summer, to attend a golf tournament and go to AfrikaBurn &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s answer to the Burning Man festival.



In an Instagram video titled &#8220;A day in the life of an oppressed white South African&#8221;, a woman lies yawning in bed.



&#8220;My husband brought me an iced coffee today because the most oppressive thing about this country is actually the sun,&#8221; she says.



South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who is now a key adviser to Trump, has amplified the president&#8217;s attacks on South Africa, writing in a post on his social media platform X last week that the country has &#8220;openly racist ownership laws&#8221;.



In another Instagram video, South African Indian comedian Sed Pillay plays the character of a white Afrikaner farmer applying for asylum in the United States who doesn&#8217;t want to leave behind his Black farm workers.



&#8220;I need to put in a special request: if I could please bring Sipho and Thandeka with me,&#8221; he says.



South Africa&#8217;s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Trump&#8217;s executive order cutting aid &#8220;lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa&#8217;s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid&#8221;.



Three decades after the end of racist apartheid rule, white South Africans, who make up less than 10% of the population, still own most of the country&#8217;s farmland. Land reform policies since the first multi-racial elections in 1994 have never involved the forced seizure of white-owned land.



The mostly white-led Democratic Alliance party, the top coalition partner in Ramaphosa&#8217;s unity government, opposes the recent land bill and has filed a court challenge against it. However the DA also released a statement last week saying it is not true that the act allows land to be seized arbitrarily and that it does require fair compensation.



(Reporting by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Joe Bavier and Frances Kerry)

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Trump’s accusations against South Africa spark ‘white privilege’ self-mockery

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China builds space alliances in Africa as Trump cuts foreign aid

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4032" height="3024" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2SIQMB7RZ5KDFNVECNMIHSHXSA.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585046"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An aerial view of Shaft 11 at Impala Platinum Mine, in Rustenburg, South Africa, November 28, 2023. REUTERS/Shafiek Tassiem/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



Feb 11 (Reuters) &#8211; Impala Platinum  expects its half-year profit to fall by as much as 49% in the six months to December 2024 as low metal prices persist, the South African company said on Tuesday.



Impala, the world&#8217;s second-largest producer of platinum group metals that are used to curb emissions from motor vehicles, said it expects headline earnings to be between 1.65 billion rand and 1.95 billion rand ($89.39 million-$105.65 million) for the six months to December 31, down from 3.26 billion rand previously.



The miner said its income had been affected by lower dollar pricing for its metals as well as the strengthening rand exchange rate, which more than offset the benefit of improved production and sales volumes.



Impala&#8217;s refined output increased by 2% to 1.79 million ounces, while sales rose 5% to 1.77 million ounces in the six months.



Anglo American Platinum, Impala&#8217;s bigger rival, expects its profit for the 2024 financial year to drop by as much as 46% in response to low metal prices and costs associated with restructuring and a demerger from its parent company.



The company will release its half-year financial results on February 27.



($1 = 18.4578 rand)



(Reporting by Nelson Banya; editing by Barbara Lewis)

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Impala Platinum expects deeper profit fall on low platinum prices

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3000" height="2000" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/M6LR22CX2ZL6BF5FULJQBJKP7I.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-585028"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The MOODY&#8217;S logo and a decreasing stock graph are seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The triple-A ratings of the World Bank and other top multilateral lenders would be at risk if U.S. President Donald Trump slashed his country&#8217;s support for them, credit rating agency Moody&#8217;s&nbsp;has&nbsp;warned,&nbsp;adding such a move was unlikely.



Last week, Trump signed an Executive Order to review U.S. government support to all international intergovernmental organisations of which it is a member and to withdraw from some United Nations organisations.



&#8220;The US is a key shareholder in a number of rated MDBs (multilateral development banks), hence it would be credit negative if it materially reduced its commitment to them,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said in a report published on Monday.



The U.S. is the single biggest shareholder in the World Bank Group&#8217;s institutions, with a 16.4% share in its largest, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and a 19% stake in International Development Association (IDA) which provides concessional loans and grants to the world&#8217;s poorest countries.



The World Bank declined to comment on the Moody&#8217;s note.



It has an even higher 30% share in the Inter-American Development Bank in Latin America, a 15.6% stake in the Asian Development Bank and 10% in the European Bank of&nbsp;Reconstruction&nbsp;of Development that was set up in the wake of the Cold War.



The Trump-ordered review of Washington&#8217;s support for development banks is due to take roughly six months.



The set-ups of most of the institutions allow for an &#8220;orderly withdrawal&#8221; of a shareholder.



Moody&#8217;s said it was &#8220;unlikely that the U.S. would take drastic steps regarding its participation in key MDBs,&#8221; for several reasons, including the loss of influence over those institutions&#8217; lending policies.



In&nbsp;the World Bank&#8217;s case, the U.S. has paid in capital of around $3.7 billion in the IBRD and has callable capital commitments of $49.2 billion, compared to disbursed and outstanding IBRD loans and guarantees of around $263 billion.



The average maturity of the IBRD&#8217;s loan portfolio is 8.4 years although some loans are for up to 50 years meaning that, &#8220;the US would remain on the hook for IBRD&#8217;s lending portfolio for many years to come,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said.



A withdrawal would also open the door for other countries to fill the void, something unlikely to fit with Trump&#8217;s geopolitical strategy.



&#8220;Those shareholders in particular include China, which has long coveted a larger share in the IBRD, a desire strongly opposed by consecutive U.S. governments,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said.



(Reporting by Marc Jones, additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; editing by Libby George, Toby Chopra and Nick Zieminski)

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Moody’s warns World Bank’s triple-A rating threatened if Trump pulls support

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3984" height="2656" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/7VMZIX5RVNP4HCXIAHIZO4ZVIQ.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584781"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Former South African president Jacob Zuma&#8217;s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party members gather in front of Cape Town Central police station where the MK party opened a treason case against AfriForum &#8211; an Afrikaner-led group, in Cape Town, South Africa, February 10, 2025. REUTERS/Esa Alexander</figcaption></figure>



CAPE TOWN, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The party of South Africa&#8217;s ex-president Jacob Zuma on Monday filed a treason complaint against AfriForum, a group championing the white Afrikaner minority, after Donald Trump attacked the country&#8217;s new law aimed at redistributing white-owned land.



AfriForum has lobbied against the law in U.S. media and political circles, portraying it as part of a wider onslaught against Afrikaners, and Zuma&#8217;s MK party accused it in a criminal complaint of spreading misinformation to influence Trump.



The U.S. president last week signed an executive order cutting financial assistance to South Africa, citing the land expropriation act and Pretoria&#8217;s genocide case against Israel, Washington&#8217;s close ally, at the International Court of Justice.



The Trump administration said Afrikaners, the descendants of predominantly Dutch 17th century settlers, could come to the United States as refugees, lending credence to AfriForum&#8217;s complaint that they are being persecuted, which is disputed by the South African government and most political parties.



The government has defended the land reform law as an attempt to rectify the injustices of the past and has pushed back against what it says is misinformation, pointing out that no expropriations have yet taken place under the law.



White farmers own three quarters of South Africa&#8217;s privately held land, while white people make up 8% of the population.



Trump&#8217;s criticism has exacerbated stark divisions on racial issues that persist in South Africa 30 years after the end of apartheid, partly because of yawning inequality between racial groups.



Underscoring those divisions, the mostly white-led Democratic Alliance (DA) &#8211; top coalition partner in President Cyril Ramaphosa&#8217;s unity government &#8211; said on Monday it had filed a court challenge to the act, calling it unconstitutional.



&#8220;No government in a democratic country should be given such sweeping powers to expropriate property without compensation,&#8221; senior DA politician Helen Zille said in a statement.



Zuma&#8217;s MK party is a populist opposition party that strongly advocates land redistribution and rose quickly to come third in last year&#8217;s general elections, taking significant support away from the ruling African National Congress, which lost its majority.



MK took its complaint against AfriForum to Cape Town&#8217;s central police station, where dozens of supporters wearing the party&#8217;s trademark green military camouflage outfits sang anti-apartheid freedom songs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plotting">&#8216;PLOTTING&#8217;</h2>



&#8220;Treason has been committed, we contend, by them, because they are plotting against our government,&#8221; said John Hlophe, the party&#8217;s parliamentary leader, just after filing the complaint.



&#8220;Based on those lies, those fraudulent misrepresentations, Trump decided to issue an executive order against South Africa,&#8221; he told reporters.



AfriForum&#8217;s CEO Kallie Kriel said the accusation of treason was absurd.



&#8220;It is the duty of civil society &#8230; to put the spotlight on legislation and actions that threaten the welfare of citizens and the country,&#8221; he said in a statement.



A decision on whether to prosecute AfriForum for treason will rest with the National Prosecuting Authority, which acts based on evidence presented by the police.



The ruling ANC last week also blamed AfriForum for Trump&#8217;s actions, though it has not taken legal action against the group.



The expropriation act empowers the government to seize land owned by white farmers, in rare cases without compensation, in order to redistribute it to poor Blacks.



AfriForum rejects the law as an assault on property rights and has been campaigning actively for years in the United States against South African land reform efforts.



(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Estelle Shirbon, Aidan Lewis and Christina Fincher)

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South African party accuses white group of treason over Trump attack

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4595" height="3063" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/TSXEJAVPAZO77C5HSGIMQIYINE.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584746"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Michael Atingi-Ego speaks during the ReutersNEXT Newsmaker event in New York City, New York, U.S., November 9, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



KAMPALA, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Uganda has named Michael Atingi-Ego its central bank governor, President Yoweri Museveni&#8217;s spokesperson said on Monday.



Atingi-Ego previously worked for the central bank in a senior position, then left and returned in 2020 as deputy governor.



He has been the acting head of the bank since the death of long-serving former governor, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, in 2022.



Sandor Walusimbi, President Yoweri Museveni&#8217;s spokesperson, confirmed the appointment of Atingi-Ego.



The bank has appointed Augustus Nuwagaba, an economist at Uganda&#8217;s largest public university, Makerere, as Atingi-Ego&#8217;s deputy, NTV Uganda, Daily Monitor newspaper and Uganda Broadcasting Corporation reported.



(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Aidan Lewis)

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Uganda names new central bank governor, president’s spokesperson says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="5000" height="3334" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/7PQPUDNLRFNEHOE2URISJZW7ZY.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584693"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A view of the Mild Hydrocracking Unit (MHC) at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, Nigeria, July 20, 2024. REUTERS/Marvellous Durowaiye/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LAGOS, Feb 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nigeria&#8217;s Dangote Oil refinery, Africa&#8217;s largest, could begin operating at full capacity in 30 days, the head of the refinery said on Monday.



The 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote in Lagos began processing crude into products, including diesel, naphtha and jet fuel, in January last year and started processing petrol in September.



It aims to compete with European refiners when operating at full capacity but had been struggling to secure sufficient crude locally.



Edwin Devakumar, head of the Dangote oil refinery said it was currently operating at 85% capacity and &#8220;we can go 100 percent in 30 days.&#8221;



Last year, the refinery turned to importing crude after it was unable to secure sufficient volumes despite an agreement with the Nigerian government to buy crude in the local naira currency.



It has asked for 550,000 bpd of crude for January-June this year from oil producers in Nigeria, according to the oil regulator, which has also said it would block export permits for oil cargoes from producers who fail to meet their stipulated supply quota to local refineries.



The Dangote Oil Refinery is exploring new markets for its refined products. Founder Aliko Dangote told a group of Nigerian professionals who visited last week that it was sending two cargoes of jet fuel to Saudi Aramco as part of its plans to expand.



&#8220;We are looking at all the markets right now,&#8221; said Devakumar.



(Reporting by Isaac Anyaogu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

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Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery to operate at full capacity in 30 days, executive says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-820x462.png" alt="" class="wp-image-584668" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-820x462.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-300x169.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-160x90.png 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh-768x432.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh.png 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The ArcelorMittal steel production plant in Ghent, Belgium, on July 27, 2024.  Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The excitement over artificial intelligence and U.S. President Donald Trump’s perceived friendliness to the stock market buoyed investor sentiment as recently as December. In 2025, it seems those animal spirits have somewhat evaporated.



Any time Trump brings up tariffs, investors have been reacting badly (for good reason). His threat of reciprocal tariffs on Friday — that is, imposing on other countries the same degree of duties that they place on the U.S. — sent stocks tumbling. New tariffs on steel and aluminum, which Trump says he will announce on Monday, are likely to sink stocks further.



Likewise, AI, the engine that drove stocks higher in 2024, seems to present investors with more uncertainty than opportunities this year. DeepSeek’s claim that its training required just a fraction of the billions of dollars that U.S. AI models suck up have thrown Big Tech’s investments — which will amount to more than $300 billion in 2025 — as well as their stock valuation into question.



While the main characters of the stock market remain the same as they were in December, they are steering markets in a different direction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-you-need-to-know-today"><a></a>What you need to know today</h2>



New steel and aluminum tariffs Trump will announce on Monday additional 25% tariffs on all aluminum and steel imports into the U.S., according to comments to reporters on Sunday. Those will come on top of already existing levies. In a separate steel-related development, Trump said on Friday at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that Nippon Steel will invest in U.S. Steel, giving up its attempt to buy it. 



EV price cuts in China amid mixed price signals Consumer prices in China spiked 0.5% in January on an annual basis, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics on Sunday. The figure is higher than the previous month’s 0.1% increase and the 0.4% expected in a Reuters poll. However, producer prices dropped 2.3% in January year on year — the same degree as December and steeper than the 2.1% estimate — for their 28th straight month of declines. Meanwhile, electric car companies in China are offering discounts and interest-free loans to boost sales amid a hotly contested industry and sluggish consumer sentiment in the country.



Uneven report for U.S. labor market The U.S. economy added 143,000 jobs in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls for the month dropped from an upwardly revised 307,000 in December was and below the Dow Jones 169,000 estimate. However, the unemployment rate edged down to 4% from 4.1% the prior month. Average hourly earnings in January were stronger than expected, coming in at 0.5% for the month compared with the 0.3% forecast.



Asian markets rise as U.S. slumps All major U.S. indexes ended last week lower after a losing day on Friday, when the S&amp;P 500 lost 0.95%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.99% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.36%. Stocks retreated after Trump mentioned the possibility of reciprocal tariffs on trade partners. By contrast, Asia-Pacific markets started the week higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added around 1.8%. Singapore’s Straits Times Index hit an all-time high, lifted by shares of Singapore’s largest bank DBS Group Holdings, which jumped 2.6% and touched a new record.



Spending billions on artificial intelligence SoftBank is close to finalizing a $40 billion primary investment in OpenAI at a $260 billion pre-money valuation, sources told CNBC’s David Faber. The cost efficiency of DeepSeek doesn’t seem to deter Big Tech: Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft have announced plans to spend a combined $320 billion on AI and data centers. Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, said on Friday that while DeepSeek is “the best work” he’s seen from China, “there’s no actual new scientific advance.”



[PRO] Inflation in focus this week The consumer and producer price indexes for January, out Wednesday and Thursday respectively, will be especially important to investors. January’s jobs report showed a higher-than-anticipated wage growth and the University of Michigan consumer survey revealed that respondents increased their expectations of the inflation rate a year to 4.3%, a one percentage point jump from January.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-and-finally"><a></a>And finally&#8230;</h2>



The world isn’t close to breaking free from coal — in some countries, demand for it is surging



“Nothing can destroy coal,” U.S. President Donald Trump&nbsp;said at the recent World Economic Forum. Statistics seem to prove him right. U.S. exports of coal&nbsp;have been rising steadily to satisfy growing global demand — which is expected to have breached another high of 8.77 billion tonnes in 2024 and will remain at similar levels until 2027, the&nbsp;International Energy Agency&nbsp;predicted. “The global shift away from coal remains challenging, largely driven by rising demand in Asia, even as Europe and the U.S. see significant declines in coal consumption,” said Dorothy Mei, project manager for Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Mine Tracker.

108099828-1739169444276-gettyimages-2163265359-raa-arcelorm240727_npbCh

Enthusiasm over Trump and AI appears to be waning

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="608" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/4ENW2NP2ONNYZIY6XS75LSUUHE.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584630"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A drone view shows the families residing on Meyerskop farm, in Free State province, South Africa, February 6, 2025. REUTERS/Thando Hlophe</figcaption></figure>



FATENG TSE NTSHO, South Africa, (Reuters) &#8211; The township of Fateng Tse Ntsho houses some 7,000 Black South Africans, its huddle of corrugated metal roofs surrounded on all sides by vast tracts of mostly empty grassland owned by prosperous white farmers.



The contrast illustrates the gaping land inequalities that persist more than three decades after the end of white minority rule &#8211; and which an expropriation act President Cyril Ramaphosa signed last month partly seeks to redress.



That law, which allows the government to confiscate land &#8211; in rare cases without compensation &#8211; has reignited racial tensions that have dogged Africa&#8217;s southernmost tip ever since European settlers began arriving nearly four centuries ago.



For nervous owners, it is an assault on property rights, a view shared by U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week wrongly stated that land had already been seized under it when he threatened to cut aid to South Africa. On Saturday, the White House went so far as to offer white farmers resettlement in the United States and &#8220;humanitarian relief.&#8221;



But the expanses of white-owned land in Free State province, dotted with tiny Black settlements like Fateng, illustrate why proponents deem&nbsp;the act&nbsp;necessary.



Fateng&#8217;s local councillor, Malefetsani Mokoena, 51, spends his days mediating disputes between landowners and Black rural folk who live among them. Tall and wiry, he is usually decked out in the red uniform of his party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which wants to nationalise the country&#8217;s gold and platinum mines and seize land from white farmers.



&#8220;Sometimes the white farmers don&#8217;t trust me,&#8221; he told Reuters in the township&#8217;s three-room brick municipal office. &#8220;But when we sit down and negotiate, we can work things out.&#8221;



One white farmer interviewed by Reuters, Danie Bruwer, confirmed that he and Mokoena were on good terms.



If a farmer has a sheep stolen, Mokoena finds the thief to get it back. A Black herder has his cows impounded for trespassing on white-owned land; Mokoena negotiates their release.



And, as with the 15 other farms in his caseload, if what Mokoena calls &#8220;farm dwellers&#8221; &#8211; squatters, legally speaking &#8211; face eviction or restrictions on their rights to graze animals, he finds them legal representation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-this-is-our-home">&#8216;THIS IS OUR HOME&#8217;</h2>



The mostly white-owned farms around here are among the nearly 26 million hectares &#8211; about three quarters of privately-owned land &#8211; still in the hands of whites, who make up 8% of the population. Only 4% of privately-held land is owned by Blacks who are nearly 80% of South Africa&#8217;s 60-million population.



On one white-owned farm, Meyerskop, 57-year-old herder Shadrack Maseko surveyed an expanse of hilly pasture stretching almost to the horizon. He complained of how it had been fenced off a decade ago by a new white owner to prevent cattle owned by Black South Africans grazing on it.



Maseko&#8217;s grandparents had come here in the early 1900s to seek work as farm hands, he told Reuters during a visit with the EFF councilor Mokoena.



The family had been there ever since, he said. His father, who died two years ago, was born here, as was Maseko.



&#8220;This is home,&#8221; he said, and then to illustrate the point: &#8220;Even some of our ancestors are buried here.&#8221;



The farm has changed hands between white farmers several times since Maseko&#8217;s family has lived there, and buyers had previously been happy for them to stay on and work, he said.



But in the past decade he and 14 other families living on Meyerskop have been in a dispute with the latest white owners over grazing rights for their 30-odd cows, details of which were corroborated by six other residents interviewed by Reuters.



In 2019, farm owners the Fonteintjie Trust and trustee Fourie Scheepers sought a court order to force them to sell most of their cows. It argued the animals were badly degrading the land, according to a copy of the application seen by Reuters.



Maseko said Scheepers had proposed another patch of land &#8211; a small area flanked by maize fields that Maseko indicated on a part of the farm &#8211; while the new owners moved their own cows to the old space. Maseko said the new patch was too small.



&#8220;No comment,&#8221; Scheepers replied via text message several times, when asked about the case.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-start-of-a-journey">&#8216;START OF A JOURNEY&#8217;</h2>



For many Black people, disputes like these reflect a legacy of inequality left by the colonial and apartheid eras, when they were dispossessed of their lands and denied property rights.



In 1913, a Native Land Act gave most farmland to whites, mostly Afrikaners of Dutch descent, leaving just 13% to Blacks. Then in 1950 the Afrikaner National Party passed a law removing 3.5 million Black people from their ancestral lands.



Thirty years of ANC government has created a class of super-rich Black businessmen, but done little for the poor majority.



&#8220;The idea (behind the act) is that our freedom was not complete in 1994 because the promise of&#8230;economic emancipation was not fulfilled,&#8221; legal expert Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said.



He noted that the act requires 17 steps before land can be expropriated. But for Kellie Kriel, CEO of Afriforum, a pressure group that represents the interests of the white Afrikaner community, that is not enough of a safeguard.



&#8220;The act creates a valid fear that it opens the road to &#8230; land grabs,&#8221; he said, adding farmers worry that the act&#8217;s guidelines could be abused.



Some white farmers, like Danie Bruwer, are more sanguine.



&#8220;It&#8217;s an emotional thing for the farmers &#8230; but it&#8217;s not so bad. Zero compensation is a last resort,&#8221; he said on his 1,000-hectare farm about 30 km (20 miles) from Fateng.A bigger problem, he said, is that without better support for farmers &#8211; hit hard by climate change, rising costs, corruption and stock theft &#8211; the act may not achieve much.



For Ngcukaitobi, that is not the point.



&#8220;It&#8217;s the start &#8230; not the end of the journey,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A reminder that what (people) fought for, what they went to prison for, what they died for, was not in vain.&#8221;



(Additonal Reporting by Catherine Schenck in Johannesburg Reporting by Tim Cocks, Editing by William Maclean)

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The stark divide that South Africa’s land act seeks to bridge

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="720" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/IUCC463GH5NRJE7FUAD5QJ4DYE.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-584385"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo/File Photo </figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Feb 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s offer to rehouse white South Africans as refugees fleeing persecution may not spur quite the rush he anticipates, as even right-wing white lobby groups want to &#8220;tackle the injustices&#8221; of Black majority rule on home soil.



Trump on Friday signed an executive order to cut U.S. aid to South Africa, citing an expropriation act that President Cyril Ramaphosa signed last month aiming to redress land inequalities that stem from South Africa&#8217;s history of white supremacy.



The order provided for resettlement in the U.S. of &#8220;Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination&#8221; as refugees.



Afrikaners are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers, who own most of the country&#8217;s farmland.



&#8220;If you haven&#8217;t got any problems here, why would you want to go,&#8221; said Neville van der Merwe, a 78-year-old pensioner in Bothasig near Cape Town.



&#8220;There hasn&#8217;t been any really bad taking over our land, the people are carrying on like normal and you know, what are you going to do over there?&#8221;



The law seeks to address racial land ownership disparities &#8211; which has left three-quarters of privately owned land in the hands of the white minority &#8211; by making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest.



Ramaphosa has defended the policy.



White people represent 7.2% of South Africa&#8217;s population of 63 million, statistics agency data shows. The data does not breakdown how many are Afrikaner.



South Africa&#8217;s British rulers handed most farmland to whites. In 1950, the Apartheid-era National Party seized 85% of the land, forcing 3.5 million Black people from their homes.



Ramaphosa&#8217;s African National Congress (ANC), the biggest party in the ruling coalition, says Trump is amplifying misinformation propagated by AfriForum, an Afrikaner-led group.



The group, which lobbied Trump&#8217;s previous administration on their cause, said it was not taking up the offer.



&#8220;Emigration only offers an opportunity for Afrikaners who are willing to risk potentially sacrificing their descendants&#8217; cultural identity as Afrikaners. The price for that is simply too high,&#8221; AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said on Saturday.



HOMELAND



Separately, the Solidarity Movement &#8211; which includes AfriForum and Solidarity trade union and said it represents about 600,000 Afrikaner families and 2 million individuals &#8211; expressed commitment to South Africa.



&#8220;We may disagree with the ANC, but we love our country. As in any community, there are individuals who wish to emigrate, but repatriation of Afrikaners as refugees is not a solution for us,&#8221; the Movement said.



Representatives of Orania, an Afrikaner-only enclave in the heart of the country, also rejected Trump&#8217;s offer.



&#8220;Afrikaners do not want to be refugees. We love and are committed to our homeland,&#8221; Orania said.



South Africa&#8217;s land policies since the end of apartheid have never involved forced seizure of white-owned land.



Still, some said they appreciated Trump&#8217;s offer.



&#8220;I think it&#8217;s a very nice gesture from Donald Trump to offer us asylum over there,&#8221; said Werner van Niekerk, 57, a carpenter in Bothasig, without saying whether he would be migrating to America.



Others saw the funny side.



&#8220;Some questions: is there a test to determine your Afrikanership? Must you hold AfriForum membership? &#8230; Will Elon help with some startup cash on the other side? &#8230; Are there bakkies (pick-up trucks) in the U.S.?&#8221;, author Pieter du Toit wrote on X, referring to South African-born billionaire and Trump aide Elon Musk.



(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Catherine Schenck; Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg and Shafiek Tassiem in Cape TownEditing by Tim Cocks and Giles Elgood)

IUCC463GH5NRJE7FUAD5QJ4DYE

‘No thanks’, white South Africans turn down Trump’s immigration offer

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3921" height="2614" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/X4YJKMGDZRK23IBRDQASTJVC4Q.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583990"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">U.S. President Donald Trump holds a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura</figcaption></figure>



WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) &#8211; President Donald Trump signed an executive order to cut U.S. financial assistance to South Africa, the White House said on Friday, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington&#8217;s ally Israel.



The United States allocated nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, the most recent U.S. government data shows.



South Africa&#8217;s foreign ministry said on Saturday the executive order &#8220;lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa&#8217;s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.&#8221;



The White House said Washington will also formulate a plan to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees.



It said U.S. officials will take steps to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.



South Africa&#8217;s foreign ministry said: &#8220;It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.&#8221;



Trump has said, without citing evidence, that &#8220;South Africa is confiscating land&#8221; and that &#8220;certain classes of people&#8221; were treated &#8220;very badly.&#8221;



South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who is close to Trump, has said that white South Africans have been the victims of &#8220;racist ownership laws.&#8221;



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa &#8211; who signed into law a bill last month aimed at making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest &#8211; has defended the policy. He has said the government had not confiscated any land and the policy was aimed at evening out racial disparities in land ownership in the Black-majority nation.



Ramaphosa said South Africa &#8220;will not be bullied.&#8221;



South Africa has a history of colonial conquest and dispossession which pushed the Black majority into crowded urban townships and rural reserves.



The country&#8217;s British imperial masters gave most farmland to whites. In 1950, the Afrikaner National Party passed a law taking 85% of territory for themselves and kicking 3.5 million Black people off their ancestral homelands.



In the 30 years that the African National Congress has been in power, some land restitution has happened under a &#8220;willing buyer, willing seller&#8221; model, but critics have denounced it as painfully slow and accuse white landowners of hoarding.



White landowners still possess three-quarters of South Africa&#8217;s freehold farmland. This contrasts with 4% owned by Black people, who make up 80% of the population compared with about 8% for whites, according to the latest 2017 land audit.



Washington has also complained about the case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, where it accused Israel of genocide over Israel&#8217;s military assault on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.



Israel denies the allegations, saying it acted in self-defense following a deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants.



The White House cited that case as an example of South Africa taking positions against Washington and its allies.



The executive order signed by Trump will address human rights issues in South Africa, the White House said. Trump had threatened to cut off funding for the nation soon after taking office.



(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland in Washington. Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg. Editing by Rosalba O&#8217;Brien, William MallaRrd and Mark Potter)

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Rwanda central bank holds key rate despite pickup in inflation

African leaders to push for slavery reparations despite resistance

Chinese businesses rush to try DeepSeek AI at ‘unprecedented’ scale

Namibia central bank cuts key rate for fourth meeting in a row

Brazil’s Petrobras seeks African oil assets to boost reserves

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Trump’s accusations against South Africa spark ‘white privilege’ self-mockery

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Moody’s warns World Bank’s triple-A rating threatened if Trump pulls support

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Uganda names new central bank governor, president’s spokesperson says

Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery to operate at full capacity in 30 days, executive says

Enthusiasm over Trump and AI appears to be waning

The stark divide that South Africa’s land act seeks to bridge

‘No thanks’, white South Africans turn down Trump’s immigration offer

Trump signs order to cut funding for South Africa over land policy, ICJ case

News Tips

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