April 10, 2025.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Trent Roebeck.

Making headlines:

US-Africa trade pact looks bleak but talks due by July, Tau says

Government denies deployment of SANDF at GBV protest in Matatiele

And, Current global volatility may spark stronger intra-African trade

US-Africa trade pact looks bleak but talks due by July, Tau says

African nations and the US will hold talks in June or July on a trade pact that provides duty-free access to the world’s largest economy, South African Trade Minister Parks Tau said, adding it will be hard to salvage the arrangement that tariffs superseded last week.

He said it will be difficult to save the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is due to expire in September. The continent’s trade ministers are meeting in Democratic Republic of the Congo next week to discuss a collective way forward, he said.

US President Donald Trump’s April 2 tariffs on most countries take precedence over the concessions offered by the 25-year-old pact that benefitted many of the poorest African nations.

Tau said South African officials are also holding talks with other countries to find alternative markets.

Government denies deployment of SANDF at GBV protest in Matatiele

Government has denied accusations that South African National Defence Force soldiers were deployed to Matatiele, in the Eastern Cape, this week, where protestors demanded justice following the alleged rape of a seven-year-old child.

On Tuesday the Economic Freedom Fighters and ActionSA called for transparency on the alleged presence of soldiers at the march.

The EFF and ActionSA said any deployment would have been unconstitutional as no notice was given to Parliament, as is required by law.

Government said the SANDF noted with concern reports and allegations of a so-called ‘deployment’ in Matatiele to monitor a community march against gender-based violence.

The SANDF stated that there has been no such deployment and that SANDF members are currently in the area solely for border safeguarding duties.

Current global volatility may spark stronger intra-African trade

As Africa navigates the outcomes of key elections in 2024 and 2025, as well as geopolitical realignments on the back of US President Donald Trump’s re-election, some caution over Africa’s credit outlook and ability to service debt is well placed.

That said, African borrowers are showing signs of resilience that could bode well for mitigating these risks, says specialist intelligence advisory Pangea-Risk in its latest outlook publication focused on Africa’s credit outlook amid political change globally.

Under Trump’s revived “America First” doctrine, US trade will likely become a tool of coercive diplomacy – offering capital, market access and infrastructure development opportunities to compliant States.

Yet, those willing to adjust to new trade dynamics will gain liquidity lifelines, either through the US or its counterparts.

In turn, elections across Africa present credit inflection risks. Where transitions expose fiscal misreporting or trigger populist divergence from International Monetary Fund terms, sovereign downgrades and market exclusion are likely to follow.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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