<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)

X4YJKMGDZRK23IBRDQASTJVC4Q

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

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4629" height="3099" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/H3WEQN4JI5IRFH4OUNIVSMUKW4.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583609"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A logo is pictured outside a building of the United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland, April 6, 2021. Picture taken April 6, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



GENEVA, Feb 7 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;More than six million people could die from HIV and AIDS in the next four years if U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration pulls its global funding&nbsp;for programmes, the United Nations AIDS agency said on Friday.



Although a waiver was placed on HIV/AIDS programmes in&nbsp;last month&#8217;s&nbsp;U.S. foreign aid funding freeze, many concerns remained about the future of treatment programmes, the deputy executive director of UNAIDS told reporters in Geneva.



&#8220;There is a lot of confusion especially on the community level, how the waiver will be implemented. We&#8217;re seeing a lot of disruption of delivery of treatment services&#8221;, Christine Stegling said.



Trump put hundreds of millions of dollars&#8217; worth of foreign aid donations on hold for 90 days upon taking office on January 20. In the following days, the U.S. State Department issued a waiver on the President&#8217;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) &#8211; the world&#8217;s leading HIV initiative &#8211; for life-saving humanitarian assistance.



While welcoming the waiver, Stegling stressed the situation remains chaotic.



Amid a broader decline of funding, Stegling warned there would be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths if PEPFAR financial support is not re-authorized between 2025 and 2029.



&#8220;That&#8217;s 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths that will occur in future&#8230;Any penny, any cut, any pause, will matter for all of us&#8221; she said, urging U.N. member states to step in.



&#8220;In Ethiopia, we have 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by U.S. assistance. And all of these have been terminated,&#8221; Stegling said.



She highlighted that community clinics were facing the biggest interruption as they are &#8220;entirely dependent&#8221; on U.S. government funding.



She expressed concern that some people may not come forward for treatment, which could in turn increase new HIV infections.



U.S. donations account for the majority of global funding for the U.N. programme that operates in 70 countries, leading global efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.



Trump&#8217;s administration says it is reviewing all foreign-aid programmes to see if they align with his &#8220;America First&#8221; policy.



(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Miranda Murray and Angus MacSwan)

H3WEQN4JI5IRFH4OUNIVSMUKW4

Six million people could die from HIV and AIDS if US funding stops, UN agency warns

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-583564" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Bank of England on 6 Feb. 2025, in London, England. Richard Baker | In Pictures | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India trimmed its repo rate by 25 basis points. A day prior, the Bank of England lowered interest rates by 25 basis points, following the European Central Bank’s cut of the same amount on Jan. 30.



Many economies seem to be settling into a lower-rate environment as policymakers look to boost economic growth. That’s in stark contrast with the U.S. — it’s unclear if the U.S. Federal Reserve would even deliver on its two rate cuts in 2025, forecast in December, given the uncertainties over the economic impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies. Moreover, Trump seems to have backed off from applying pressure on the Fed.



Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the&nbsp;U.S. dollar began strengthening and hit its highest level in more than two years, as measured by the U.S. dollar index. That’s already affected companies such as Amazon, which blamed the currency for weighing down its expected revenue in the current quarter.



The U.S. might have an edge over other economies and stock markets for now, but an edge can cut both ways.



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



India’s first rate cut in nearly five years The Reserve Bank of India cut its repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in a livestreamed address Friday. The move, which was expected by economists, was the first time in nearly five years the central bank has lowered rates. The RBI forecast real economic growth to come in at 6.4% for the current fiscal year, the country’s lowest in four years, and 6.7% for fiscal year 2025-26.



Bank of England trims rates The Bank of England lowered its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.5%, its first cut of the year. All members of the monetary policy committee voted to lower rates, but two out of nine had voted for a larger cut of 50 basis points. Central bank governor Andrew Bailey said he expects more cuts this year. The BOE also halved its growth forecast for the U.K.’s economy in 2025 to 0.75% from 1.5%.



Disappointing guidance from Amazon Amazon shares fell more than 4% after giving disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter, citing difficulties posed by a strong U.S. dollar. It also announced plans to spend $100 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, mostly on artificial intelligence infrastructure. The tech giant beat earnings and revenue expectations for the fourth quarter — and is poised to surpass Walmart as the S&amp;P 500 company with the highest quarterly revenue.



Consecutive gains for S&amp;P 500 On Thursday, the S&amp;P 500 advanced 0.36% for its third consecutive winning day, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.51%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, lost 0.28%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 retreated around 0.6% after the country’s household spending in December unexpectedly jumped on an annual basis, while India’s Nifty 50 was around the flatline after the RBI trimmed interest rates.



Trump’s focusing on yields, not rates The Trump administration is focusing on using fiscal policy to keep the 10-year Treasury yield low and isn’t “calling for the Fed to lower rates,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Wednesday interview with Fox News. That marks a shift from Trump’s original plan to “demand that interest rates drop immediately.”



[PRO] IBM outperforms Nvidia Not Nvidia, not Apple and not Amazon — the best-performing stock in the Dow over the past three months has been IBM, which climbed 27%. However, the tech company needs to do more in the field of artificial intelligence for its stock to continue performing well, according to one chief investment officer.



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



 How Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger got caught in Trump’s trade war with China



China has blacklisted the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, which could force the company to shut down stores and manufacturing in the country, in an early repercussion of Trump’s trade war. While China’s Ministry of Commerce began investigating PVH September for allegedly refusing to source cotton from the Xinjiang region, which has become notorious for its Uyghur detention camps, Beijing officially placed the company on its list of “unreliable entities” on Tuesday.

108098965-1738890135390-gettyimages-2197382389-city_bank-10-06-02-2025

Global central banks are lowering rates — the Fed might not be as inclined

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="562" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-820x562.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-579752" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-820x562.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-300x206.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-131x90.jpg 131w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-768x526.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-1536x1053.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2196255677-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA &#8211; JANUARY 27: In this photo illustration, the DeepSeek app is displayed on an iPhone screen on January 27, 2025 in San Anselmo, California. Newly launched Chinese AI app DeepSeek has surged to number one in Apple&#8217;s App Store and has triggered a sell-off of U.S. tech stocks over concerns that Chinese companies&#8217; AI advances could threaten the bottom line of tech giants in the United States and Europe. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



DeepSeek has rattled the U.S.-led AI ecosystem with its latest model, shaving hundreds of billions in chip leader Nvidia’s market cap. While the sector leaders grapple with the fallout, smaller AI companies see an opportunity to scale with the Chinese startup.



Several AI-related firms told CNBC that DeepSeek’s&nbsp;emergence is a “massive” opportunity for them, rather than a threat.&nbsp;



“Developers are very keen to replace OpenAI’s expensive and closed models with open source models like DeepSeek R1&#8230;” said Andrew Feldman, CEO of artificial intelligence chip startup Cerebras Systems.



The company competes with Nvidia’s graphic processing units and offers cloud-based services through its own computing clusters. Feldman said the release of the R1 model generated one of Cerebras’ largest-ever spikes in demand for its services.&nbsp;



“R1 shows that [AI market] growth will not be dominated by a single company — hardware and software moats do not exist for open-source models,” Feldman added.&nbsp;



Open source refers to software in which the source code is made freely available on the web for possible modification and redistribution. DeepSeek’s models are open source, unlike those of competitors such as OpenAI.



DeepSeek also claims its R1 reasoning model rivals the best American tech, despite running at lower costs and being trained without cutting-edge graphic processing units, though industry watchers and competitors have questioned these assertions.



“Like in the PC and internet markets, falling prices help fuel global adoption. The AI market is on a similar secular growth path,” Feldman said.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inference-chips-nbsp"><a></a>Inference chips&nbsp;</h2>



DeepSeek could increase the adoption of new chip technologies by accelerating the AI cycle from the training to “inference” phase, chip start-ups and industry experts said.



Inference refers to the act of using and applying AI to make predictions or decisions based on new information, rather than the building or training of the model.



“To put it simply, AI training is about building a tool, or algorithm, while inference is about actually deploying this tool for use in real applications,” said Phelix Lee, an equity analyst at Morningstar, with a focus on semiconductors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



While Nvidia holds a dominant position in GPUs used for AI training, many competitors see room for expansion in the “inference” segment, where they promise higher efficiency for lower costs.



AI training is very compute-intensive, but inference can work with less powerful chips that are programmed to perform a narrower range of tasks, Lee added.



A number of AI chip startups told CNBC that they were seeing more demand for inference chips and computing as clients adopt and build on DeepSeek’s open source model.&nbsp;



″[DeepSeek] has demonstrated that smaller open models can be trained to be as capable or more capable than larger proprietary models and this can be done at a fraction of the cost,” said Sid Sheth, CEO of AI chip start-up d-Matrix.&nbsp;



“With the broad availability of small capable models, they have catalyzed the age of inference,” he told CNBC, adding that the company has recently seen a surge in interest from global customers looking to speed up their inference plans.&nbsp;



Robert Wachen, co-founder and COO of AI chipmaker Etched, said dozens of companies have reached out to the startup since DeepSeek released its reasoning models.



“Companies are [now] shifting their spend from training clusters to inference clusters,” he said.&nbsp;



“DeepSeek-R1 proved that inference-time compute is now the [state-of-the-art] approach for every major model vendor and thinking isn’t cheap &#8211; we’ll only need more and more compute capacity to scale these models for millions of users.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Jevon’s Paradox&nbsp;</h2>



Analysts and industry experts agree that DeepSeek’s accomplishments are a boost for AI inference and the wider AI chip industry.&nbsp;



“DeepSeek’s performance appears to be based on a series of engineering innovations that significantly reduce inference costs while also improving training cost,” according to a report from Bain &amp; Company.



“In a bullish scenario, ongoing efficiency improvements would lead to cheaper inference, spurring greater AI adoption,” it added.&nbsp;



This pattern explains Jevon’s Paradox, a theory in which cost reductions in a new technology drive increased demand.



Financial services and investment firm Wedbush said in a research note last week that it continues to expect the use of AI across enterprise and retail consumers globally to drive demand.



Speaking to CNBC’s “Fast Money” last week, Sunny Madra, COO at Groq, which develops chips for AI inference, suggested that as the overall demand for AI grows, smaller players will have more room to grow.



“As the world is going to need more tokens [a unit of data that an AI model processes] Nvidia can’t supply enough chips to everyone, so it gives opportunities for us to sell into the market even more aggressively,” Madra said.

Newly Launched Chinese AI App DeepSeek Causes U.S. Tech Stocks To Tumble, Amid Its Rapid Rise To #1 In Apple’s App Store

DeepSeek has rattled large AI players — but smaller chip firms see it as a force multiplier

<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/HACNBSSITZP6VKINH5EEMDGPKI.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583356"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">South African President Cyril Ramaphosa briefs the media on South Africa&#8217;s G20 presidency for 2025 at the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, December 3, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



CAPE TOWN, Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday that his country &#8220;will not be bullied,&#8221; days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would cut off funding to South Africa over a land reform act.



Trump said on Sunday, without citing evidence, that &#8220;South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly,&#8221; alluding to a new law which aims to even racial disparities in land ownership.



Ramaphosa did not mention Trump by name, but spoke of growing geopolitical tensions in his annual state of the nation address.



&#8220;We are witnessing the rise of nationalism, protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause,&#8221; he said.



&#8220;We will stand together as a united nation, and we will speak with one voice in defence of our national interests.&#8221;



South Africa was also criticised this week by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said he would not attend an upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg because &#8220;South Africa is doing very bad things&#8221; such as &#8220;using G20 to promote solidarity, equality, and sustainability.&#8221;



South Africa took over the G20 presidency in December, becoming the first African country to do so, and Ramaphosa has said he would use the opportunity to advance the interests of Africa and the Global South.



South Africa is about seven months into a coalition government that was formed after the African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority in an election last year, forcing it to team up with its biggest rival, the Democratic Alliance.



Ramaphosa said the government would launch a second wave of reforms to try to lift economic growth above 3%, focusing on boosting struggling state companies like power utility Eskom and logistics group Transnet and investing in infrastructure.



The central bank&#8217;s most recent forecast is that Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy will grow 1.8% this year.



(Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Tannur Anders; Additional reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Bhargav Acharya;Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Alexander Winning)

HACNBSSITZP6VKINH5EEMDGPKI

South Africa ‘will not be bullied,’ Ramaphosa says after Trump attack

<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/KEFKFP5ACNOV3K5X7PWY25YYDI.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583260"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Exxaro Resources CEO Dr. Nombasa Tsengwa speaks to Reuters, at the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2024 conference, in Cape Town, South Africa, February 7, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; The CEO of South African coal miner Exxaro Resources, Nombasa Tsengwa, has resigned with immediate effect, the company said on Thursday, two months after she was suspended pending a governance probe.



Long-time finance director Riaan Koppeschaar, who has been acting CEO since December, will continue in the role while the company looks for a permanent replacement, Exxaro said in a statement.



(Reporting by Nelson Banya)

KEFKFP5ACNOV3K5X7PWY25YYDI

South Africa’s Exxaro Resources says CEO Tsengwa has resigned

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="4795" height="3197" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/DT3MRWIAVBNLPG5NKLM5P7HA4Y.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583221"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Laurent Muschel, HERA Director General, and Jean Kaseya, Africa CDC Director General, stand near mpox vaccines as first batches arrive at N&#8217;Djili International Airport in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Justin Makangara/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Africa&#8217;s leading public health official will write to the U.S. Secretary of State on Thursday to highlight how the U.S. aid freeze is threatening the lives of people across the continent and efforts to contain disease outbreaks that could ultimately impact Americans.



Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will raise concerns with Marco Rubio about the impact on patients with diseases like HIV and the risk of an mpox pandemic also fuelled by conflict in eastern Congo, he told Reuters.



&#8220;When I got the information about the pause &#8230;I was alarmed,&#8221; Kaseya said. &#8220;How can we respond to all of the ongoing outbreaks if we don&#8217;t have funding?”



Kaseya wrote to African leaders over the weekend warning that without urgent intervention to plug the financial gaps caused by the U.S. freeze and other governments cutting aid budgets there could be an additional 2-4 million deaths from preventable diseases a year on the continent.



&#8220;This pause will not just affect Africa but also the U.S.,&#8221; he said, warning that disease outbreaks will spread further without fully-funded efforts to stop them.



Conflict was also threatening the health response in parts of Africa, Kaseya added, which he included in both letters.



Fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has impacted the mpox response as well as measles and cholera outbreaks, he said. For example, millions of doses of mpox vaccines, including doses donated by Japan for children, are stuck in Kinshasa because of the security situation in Goma.



&#8220;The U.S. and others don&#8217;t have to forget the lessons of COVID. When you don&#8217;t open your eyes to something ongoing in Africa, we can have a mutation of the virus that will become a pandemic and affect all of us,&#8221; said Kaseya.



The U.S. aid pause and funding freeze means Africa CDC is short around $200 million for its efforts to fight mpox, he said, part of the $1.1 billion originally pledged.



For this and other efforts the aid freeze must be lifted quickly, he said, although he thanked Rubio for the waiver put in place for lifesaving aid and the President&#8217;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Ros Russell)

DT3MRWIAVBNLPG5NKLM5P7HA4Y

Africa’s top health official presses U.S. to resume aid

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3834" height="2402" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/5OMVZV4VZBNBNI3UP6TQZXKT2M.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583183"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A general view shows people walking past the Central Bank of Kenya headquarters building along Haile Selassie avenue in Nairobi, Kenya October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, Feb 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya&#8217;s central bank governor said on Thursday that bank officials did not see much effect on the exchange rate from U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s foreign aid freeze.



In late January, Trump placed a pause on most foreign development assistance pending assessments of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy.



Central Bank Governor Kamau Thugge cited strong remittance inflows among reasons why Kenya&#8217;s foreign exchange reserves were healthy at roughly $9 billion, or more than four months of import cover.



&#8220;We don&#8217;t see much impact on the exchange rate from the freeze on aid. We see our foreign exchange reserves remaining fairly strong, exchange rate stable,&#8221; he told a news conference.



On Wednesday, Finance Minister John Mbadi said Trump&#8217;s move to freeze aid could hit Kenya hard, as it lacks the fiscal space to replace the funding, adding that he hoped the United States would reconsider its decision.



Kenya&#8217;s shilling currency is broadly unchanged year-to-date against the dollar.



It closed 2024 up about 21% after a bond buyback eased concerns that the government could default.



On Wednesday, the central bank cut its main interest rate for the fourth meeting in a row, saying it wanted to do more to support lending and boost economic growth.



The Central Bank Rate was lowered by 50 basis points to 10.75%, in line with the forecast of a Reuters poll of four economists.



(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning, William Maclean)

5OMVZV4VZBNBNI3UP6TQZXKT2M

Kenya central bank sees minimal effect on shilling from Trump aid freeze

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-583160" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019. Aly Song | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING — China has toughened its tone following the Trump administration’s opening salvo of trade tariffs.



“In the face of one-sided acts of bullying, [China] will definitely take necessary measures to firmly protect its own rights and interests,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce Spokesperson He Yongqian told reporters Thursday, according to a CNBC translation.



She added that China would not provoke trade disputes and remained ready to resolve problems through discussions. Beijing’s official commentary previously emphasized the willingness to negotiate.



China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Lin Jian struck conveyed a similar mood on Wednesday.



“China firmly deplores and opposes the move of the U.S. to levy a 10 percent additional tariff on Chinese imports under the pretext of the fentanyl issue,” he said, according to an official English translation. “The measures China has taken are what’s needed for safeguarding our legitimate rights and interests.”



CNBC has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.



The official remarks came just days after the U.S. announced 10% tariffs on Chinese goods, to which the Chinese side on Tuesday retaliated with its own duties of up to 15% on U.S. liquefied natural gas and select products, starting Feb. 10.



The U.S. also halted a so-called de minimis exemption, making it more expensive for Chinese e-commerce merchants to ship products directly to U.S. consumers.



Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He on Thursday urged the U.S. to create a “fair and predictable” environment for cross-border e-commerce.

108086939-17369536122025-01-15t144123z_1142336854_rc2u5cau9h9e_rtrmadp_0_usa-china

China says will protect its own interests in face of U.S. ‘bullying’

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="5000" height="3333" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ZQW3IQWM3JIBJJZB3I5KOZGR4I.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-583114"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks after a tour of a migrant return center and a demonstration of a dog trained to sniff out narcotics, at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, February 5, 2025. Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS</figcaption></figure>



WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend an upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa, the top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday, days after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off funding to the African country.



South Africa will host a meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 group of countries from February 20-21 in Johannesburg. South Africa has the G20 presidency from December 2024 to November 2025.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-it-s-important">WHY IT&#8217;S IMPORTANT</h2>



Trump said on Sunday, without citing evidence, that &#8220;South Africa is confiscating land&#8221; and &#8220;certain classes of people&#8221; were being treated &#8220;very badly&#8221;. He said he would cut funding until the matter was investigated.



President Cyril Ramaphosa defended South Africa&#8217;s land policy after Trump&#8217;s threat, saying the government had not confiscated any land and the policy was aimed at ensuring equitable public access to land.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-quotes">KEY QUOTES</h2>



&#8220;South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality, &amp; sustainability. In other words: DEI and climate change,&#8221; Rubio said in his post on X, without giving details.



South Africa&#8217;s foreign ministry said in response to Rubio&#8217;s post that &#8220;there is no arbitrary dispossession of land / private property. This law is similar to the Eminent domain laws.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-context">CONTEXT</h2>



Trump has complained about South Africa&#8217;s land policy. South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who is close to Trump, also accused South Africa, without evidence, of having &#8220;openly racist ownership laws&#8221;, suggesting white people were the victims.



The question of land ownership is highly politically charged in South Africa due to the legacy of the colonial and apartheid eras when Black people were dispossessed of their lands and denied property rights.



White landowners still possess&nbsp;three-quarters&nbsp;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.



Partly in an effort to redress this imbalance, Ramaphosa signed a law last month allowing the state to expropriate land &#8220;in the public interest&#8221;.



The Trump administration has attempted to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the U.S. government. Rights groups say DEI programs help deal with inequities faced by marginalized groups. Trump calls DEI anti-merit.



(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward in Washington; Additional reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo in Johannesburg; Editing by Sandra Maler, Michael Perry and Saad Sayeed)

ZQW3IQWM3JIBJJZB3I5KOZGR4I

US top diplomat Rubio will not attend G20 meeting in South Africa

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="530" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A-820x530.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-433145" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A-820x530.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A-300x194.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A-139x90.jpg 139w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A-768x497.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A-1536x994.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A general view shows the Central Bank of Kenya headquarters building along Haile Selassie Avenue in Nairobi, Kenya November 28, 2018. REUTERS/Njeri Mwangi/</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, Feb 5 (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya&#8217;s central bank cut its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 10.75% on Wednesday, its monetary policy committee said.



The decision was in line with the forecast of a Reuters poll of four economists.



The central bank also cut banks&#8217; Cash Reserve Ratio by 100 basis points to 3.25% to support a lowering of lending rates, the committee said in a statement.



(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning)

XRWAJLZOAVK3DL2J5JMRWBBQ6A

Kenya central bank cuts main lending rate to 10.75%

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TE3RFSDQENJTFFYC6SW6PIPCBE-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-529685" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TE3RFSDQENJTFFYC6SW6PIPCBE-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TE3RFSDQENJTFFYC6SW6PIPCBE-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TE3RFSDQENJTFFYC6SW6PIPCBE-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TE3RFSDQENJTFFYC6SW6PIPCBE-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TE3RFSDQENJTFFYC6SW6PIPCBE-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TE3RFSDQENJTFFYC6SW6PIPCBE-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters building is seen ahead of the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington, U.S., April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, Feb 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Kenya has already started talks with International Monetary Fund officials to secure a new lending program when the current one expires in April, its finance minister told Reuters on Wednesday.



The East African nation needs continued support from the Washington, D.C.-based lender to keep its economy on track, Finance Minister John Mbadi said in an interview.



Kenya&#8217;s debt-servicing costs have surged due to a borrowing spree over the past decade, while it abandoned a plan to raise revenue via tax hikes last year in the wake of deadly protests.



&#8220;Maybe before the current program comes to a close in April, there should be some indicators whether we are starting a new program and what that new program will entail,&#8221; he said.



A $1.5 billion commercial loan from the United Arab Emirates, at an 8.25% interest rate, was still an option for the government to fund its budget this fiscal year, he said, but they are also considering other sources, including issuing a Eurobond.



&#8220;We have the option of taking that&#8230; or we go to the market which is open now, and with our good and positive credit,&#8221; he said.



The decision by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to freeze foreign aid could hit Kenya hard, as it lacks the fiscal space to replace the funding, Mbadi said, adding that he hoped the United States would reconsider.



&#8220;We don&#8217;t have that fiscal space&#8230; We will have to rearrange the budget and rechannel the domestic resources,&#8221; he said.



(Reporting by Duncan Miriri, editing by Libby George and Hugh Lawson)

FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters building is seen ahead of the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington

Kenya has begun talks with IMF for new lending program, finance minister says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="640" height="427" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/RXHBRIN7LJNSFFFWOTPXXEJNUY-1.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-582810"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The TotalEnergies logo sits on the company&#8217;s headquarter skyscraper in the La Defense business district in Paris, France, March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



PARIS, Feb 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;TotalEnergies&nbsp;TTEF.PA&nbsp;CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Wednesday that financing from the United States for its $20 billion Mozambique LNG project is expected to be approved in coming weeks, with other credit agencies to follow in the months after.



The company is waiting for loan re-approvals from the United States, UK and Dutch export credit agencies before lifting a force majeure on the project that has been in place since 2021.



Speaking to journalists after reporting fourth-quarter earnings, Pouyanne said he expected a prior loan approval to be restored fairly quickly under the Trump administration.



He added that the project completion date would need to be pushed back to 2029-2030, from a previously planned 2027.



The U.S. Export-Import Bank had previously agreed a $4.7 billion loan for the project but it needs to be re-approved, after construction on the project was frozen in 2021 due to violent unrest in the northern Cabo Delgado region near the project site — before any disbursements were made.



Pouyanne said that Britain, which has pledged around $800 million to $1 billion, is looking to see if it has a legal right to exit, but noted it had already signed a contract on the financing.



&#8220;I am waiting to see how they will explain it to us,&#8221; he said.



(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet and America Hernandez. Writing by Dominique Patton; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

RXHBRIN7LJNSFFFWOTPXXEJNUY

TotalEnergies CEO says US financing for Mozambique LNG project expected in coming weeks

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="720" height="471" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SA-INFLATION.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-524647"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Shoppers look for items as they shop at an outlet of retailer Checkers in Sandton City mall, in Sandton, South Africa, August 28, 2024. REUTERS/Lelethu Madikane </figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Feb 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;South African private sector activity contracted sharply in January as output fell due to lower sales, a survey showed on Wednesday.



The S&amp;P Global South Africa Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index (PMI) fell to 47.4 in January from 49.9 in December, its lowest since July 2021. A reading above 50 shows growth.



&#8220;New orders dropped solidly, leading to a marked cutback in output, with weakness especially observed among service sector businesses,&#8221; said David Owen, senior economist at S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence.



The findings suggest companies struggled to win back customers at the start of the year, which could affect growth in the first quarter, Owen said.



Despite the downturn, the survey showed domestic supply chains improved, with some respondents suggesting that the drop-off in demand provided vendors with additional capacity and eased bottlenecks.



(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Christina Fincher)

SA INFLATION

South Africa business activity contracts again in January, PMI shows

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IQMT7SFA2RNQLAQHUEOA2VEMMQ-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-423556" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IQMT7SFA2RNQLAQHUEOA2VEMMQ-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IQMT7SFA2RNQLAQHUEOA2VEMMQ-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IQMT7SFA2RNQLAQHUEOA2VEMMQ-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IQMT7SFA2RNQLAQHUEOA2VEMMQ-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IQMT7SFA2RNQLAQHUEOA2VEMMQ-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IQMT7SFA2RNQLAQHUEOA2VEMMQ-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Illustration photo shows a two-rand coin above a South African flag April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Feb 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;South Africa&#8217;s rand firmed against a weaker dollar early on Wednesday, as investors awaited President Cyril Ramaphosa&#8217;s national address on Thursday and closely watched developments between the U.S. and China.



At 0752 GMT, the rand traded at 18.6125 against the U.S. dollar, about 0.3% stronger than its previous close.



The dollar&nbsp;=USD&nbsp;last traded about 0.3% weaker against a basket of currencies after China retaliated to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Trump.



Ramaphosa will on Thursday deliver the annual State of the Nation Address (SONA), the first under his coalition government. Investors will pay particular attention to comments on reforms and fiscal discipline.



&#8220;Rand sentiment hinges on SONA and U.S.-China trade war developments. Stronger messaging on reforms and fiscal discipline could support South African assets,&#8221; said Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE.



&#8220;Investors remain cautious, with global trade tensions keeping risk appetite subdued,&#8221; Cilliers added.



On the stock market, the Top-40 index last traded up about 0.4%.



South Africa&#8217;s benchmark 2030 government bond was firmer in early deals, with the yield down 4.5 basis points to 9.04%.



(Reporting by Tannur Anders and Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Christina Fincher)

Illustration photo of South African rand

South African rand firms ahead of president’s address

<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/QMAGGFXUKRJORFR6IGW2BMBO3E.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-582706"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Errol Musk, father of Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Langebaan, Western Cape, South Africa February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Esa Alexander </figcaption></figure>



LANGEBAAN, South Africa, (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s president needed to call Elon Musk on Monday evening.



The billionaire had publicly accused his post-apartheid government of anti-white racism, and now Musk&#8217;s ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, said he would cut more than $400 million in funding to the country.



So Bejani Chauke, an adviser to Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, called Musk&#8217;s father, Errol, a 78-year-old engineer who lives in a luxury double-storey coastal villa&nbsp;a two-hour&nbsp;drive from Cape Town, Musk senior said.



&#8220;I was asked if I can arrange a quick talk between Ramaphosa and Elon last night &#8230; so I did and then they spoke a few minutes later,&#8221; Errol Musk told Reuters at his home in Langebaan, a&nbsp;mostly white&nbsp;enclave looking onto a lagoon fed by the Atlantic Ocean where he keeps a Bentley and a&nbsp;Rolls-Royce.



He briefly showed an exchange of WhatsApp messages between himself and Chauke that&nbsp;backed&nbsp;up his account. Chauke did not respond to questions by Reuters about his role in contacting Musk&#8217;s father. Ramaphosa&#8217;s office confirmed the phone conversation with Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, in a post on the tycoon&#8217;s X social media platform.



Contacted by Reuters, Ramaphosa&#8217;s spokesperson declined to comment on how the conversation with Elon Musk came about or on its content, only saying: &#8220;Errol Musk is a private citizen, his views are his personal views.&#8221;



Elon Musk did not reply to multiple requests for comment from Reuters.



The trigger for the sudden flurry of backdoor diplomacy was a post on Sunday by Trump who said &#8211; without citing evidence &#8211; that &#8220;South Africa is confiscating land&#8221; and &#8220;certain classes of people&#8221; were being treated &#8220;very badly&#8221;.



He added that he would cut off funding to the country in response, prompting a nearly 2% slide in South Africa&#8217;s rand in early trading on Monday, and a fall in stocks and government bonds. The cost of insuring South African debt against default rose to its highest since early August.



Trump was referring to a bill signed into law by Ramaphosa last month with the aim of addressing racial disparities in land ownership that have persisted in South Africa since apartheid ended 30 years ago &#8212; a target of public criticism by Elon Musk and many white farmers.



The law allows the state to expropriate land &#8220;in the public interest&#8221;, in some cases without compensating the owner. South Africa had previously set a target for the government to transfer 30% of farmland to Black hands that has been repeatedly pushed&nbsp;back. As&nbsp;of 2018, only 8% had been transferred, according to a government survey of title deeds.



White landowners possess three quarters of South Africa&#8217;s freehold farmland, compared with 4% for Black landowners, according to the most recent state audit. Black people make up about 80% of South Africa&#8217;s total population, while about 8% are white.



Ramaphosa responded to Trump&#8217;s comments on Monday, saying the government had not confiscated any land and he looked forward to engaging with Trump to foster a better understanding of a policy designed to ensure equitable public access to land.



Trump&#8217;s attack was echoed by backer Elon Musk, who addressed Ramaphosa in a post on X on Monday accusing South Africa of having &#8220;openly racist ownership laws.&#8221;



Errol Musk, an engineer who said he works in property development and for his son&#8217;s U.S. satellite company Starlink, said Trump would be right to cut funding to South Africa.



He said he did not know if his son had exerted influence over Trump on the issue, but did not think that was necessary as he said Washington was right to scrutinise how U.S. funding was being used abroad.



&#8220;He (Elon) would point out things about South Africa, but the Americans themselves are not stupid &#8230; Everyone wants money from them, that is what it boils down to,&#8221; he said.



&#8220;I would like to know why American taxpayers have to pay nearly $500 million a year for treatment for South African HIV sufferers. Why?&#8221;



Washington committed $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, of which $315 million was for HIV/AIDS. Ramaphosa said U.S. funding accounted for 17% of South Africa&#8217;s programme to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, which disproportionately affects poor and Black people.



&#8220;I can only imagine that Elon would have said (to Ramaphosa) &#8216;we want to help you but you have to quit this war on white people in South Africa&#8217;,&#8221; said Musk senior.



&#8220;I&#8217;d imagine he&#8217;d be saying &#8216;do you want Zimbabwe here?&#8217;,&#8221; he said.



Violent seizures of white-owned farms instigated by late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in the 2000s prompted an exodus of thousands of white farmers. Their departure was widely seen as having been a disaster for the country&#8217;s agriculture and wider economy. Reuters could not establish if Zimbabwe arose in Elon Musk&#8217;s conversation with Ramaphosa.



South Africa&#8217;s land reform policies since the end of apartheid in 1994 have never involved the forced seizure of white-owned land.



(Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Sisipho Skweyiya; Additional reporting by Alexander Winning, Bhargav Acharya, Tannur Anders, Sfundo Parakozov and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo in Johannesburg; Editing by Estelle Shirbon, Silvia Aloisi and Lisa Shumaker)

QMAGGFXUKRJORFR6IGW2BMBO3E

Musk’s dad says he arranged son’s call with South African leader

<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/SJQO2OZKNVN5PJDPJPMPHI2LVU.avif" alt="" class="wp-image-582446"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Members of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) ride on a pickup truck as they secure the evacuation of non-essential UN staff, following the fight between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), in Goma, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, January 25, 2025. REUTERS/Arlette Bashiz</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, Feb 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Uganda has deployed more than 1,000 extra soldiers into east Congo in the last week near an area where the Kinshasa government is fighting M23 rebels, four diplomatic and U.N. sources said, heightening fears of a regional escalation.



Residents said they were moving towards the conflict zone.



The Rwandan-backed M23 recently captured regional capital Goma in an anarchic and mineral-rich part of Democratic Republic of Congo where wars in 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 drew in outside nations and killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease.



The extra Ugandan deployment north of Goma would raise its numbers there &#8211; officially to back Congo President Felix Tshisekedi&#8217;s army against another rebel force &#8211; to about 4,000-5,000, according to U.N. sources.



Rwanda also has troops operating in east Congo.



Uganda has been helping Congo fight the Islamist Allied Defence Forces since 2021, and the new deployment of between 1,000-2,000 troops was under that auspice in a push called Operation Shujaa, the sources said.



In a region of complex and often-shifting alliances, U.N. experts say Uganda has also backed the ethnic Tutsi-led M23, which is the latest in a string of Rwanda-backed rebellions to take up arms in the name of Congo&#8217;s Tutsis.



Residents in the town of Butembo told Reuters they had seen columns of Ugandan soldiers heading south towards the front line with the M23 since the weekend.



Ugandan army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye denied a major new deployment, saying its forces had changed their &#8220;posture to offensive defence&#8221;, without giving further details.



Congo&#8217;s Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya did not respond when asked if more troops had arrived, but stressed the priority of Ugandan soldiers in the area was to fight the ADF though combat against M23 and Rwandan soldiers was also possible.



&#8220;There&#8217;s still a lot of suspicion about Uganda, a lot of suspicion about what&#8217;s generally happening with the M23,&#8221; he told Reuters.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-uganda-s-surge">UGANDA&#8217;S &#8216;SURGE&#8217;</h2>



Corneille Nangaa, head of the Alliance Fleuve Congo, an umbrella organisation that includes the M23 fighters, told Reuters that Uganda provided no support but nor did he expect hostility.



Uganda denies U.N. reports that it has helped train some M23 fighters and given the group a rear base to move men and arms.



Having seized much of North Kivu province, M23 rebels have been consolidating their hold on Goma and moving on Bukavu, a town some 200 km (125 miles) to the south. After meeting resistance from Congolese and Burundian forces, they have said they do not plan to take the city.



Uganda and Rwanda have both entered east Congo in the past in the name of protecting their borders but faced accusations of looting natural resources, especially gold.



Zobel Behalal, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime think tank, said eastern Congo is as important for Uganda&#8217;s economy as it is for Rwanda&#8217;s, and the country would do what it needed to protect its interests.



&#8220;The surge is preparation for this,&#8221; he said, referring to Uganda&#8217;s efforts to ensure that it managed any spreading conflict so that it continued to benefit from wealth and trade over their shared border.



Uganda has been helping Tshisekedi&#8217;s army hunt down the Islamic State-allied ADF which originated in Uganda but has been based in Congo since the late 1990s. Ground and air attacks have disrupted ADF operations and forced them to flee strongholds.



Adding to concerns over Uganda&#8217;s potentially ambiguous position, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the influential son of Uganda&#8217;s president and head of the military, has been publicly supportive of Rwanda&#8217;s President Paul Kagame and his government.



In 2022, he referred to M23 as &#8220;brothers of ours&#8221; fighting for the rights of Tutsis in Congo.



(Reporting by David Lewis in Nairobi, Sonia Rolley in Paris, Elias Biryabarema in Kampala, Ange Kasongo in Kinshasa;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

featured

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

Six million people could die from HIV and AIDS if US funding stops, UN agency warns

Global central banks are lowering rates — the Fed might not be as inclined

DeepSeek has rattled large AI players — but smaller chip firms see it as a force multiplier

South Africa ‘will not be bullied,’ Ramaphosa says after Trump attack

South Africa’s Exxaro Resources says CEO Tsengwa has resigned

Africa’s top health official presses U.S. to resume aid

Kenya central bank sees minimal effect on shilling from Trump aid freeze

China says will protect its own interests in face of U.S. ‘bullying’

US top diplomat Rubio will not attend G20 meeting in South Africa

Kenya central bank cuts main lending rate to 10.75%

Kenya has begun talks with IMF for new lending program, finance minister says

TotalEnergies CEO says US financing for Mozambique LNG project expected in coming weeks

South Africa business activity contracts again in January, PMI shows

South African rand firms ahead of president’s address

Musk’s dad says he arranged son’s call with South African leader

Uganda sends 1,000 more soldiers to east Congo near M23 conflict, sources say

News Tips

Advertise With Us

featured

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

Six million people could die from HIV and AIDS if US funding stops, UN agency warns

Global central banks are lowering rates — the Fed might not be as inclined

DeepSeek has rattled large AI players — but smaller chip firms see it as a force multiplier

South Africa ‘will not be bullied,’ Ramaphosa says after Trump attack

South Africa’s Exxaro Resources says CEO Tsengwa has resigned

Africa’s top health official presses U.S. to resume aid

Kenya central bank sees minimal effect on shilling from Trump aid freeze

China says will protect its own interests in face of U.S. ‘bullying’

US top diplomat Rubio will not attend G20 meeting in South Africa

Kenya central bank cuts main lending rate to 10.75%

Kenya has begun talks with IMF for new lending program, finance minister says

TotalEnergies CEO says US financing for Mozambique LNG project expected in coming weeks

South Africa business activity contracts again in January, PMI shows

South African rand firms ahead of president’s address

Musk’s dad says he arranged son’s call with South African leader

Uganda sends 1,000 more soldiers to east Congo near M23 conflict, sources say

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters