November 15, 2024.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines:

Families gather at mine shaft where hundreds are feared underground

Poll shows Reserve Bank to cut rates to 7.75%

And, South Africa says China could assume climate lead if US exits

Families gather at mine shaft where hundreds are feared underground

Desperate family members of illegal miners believed to number in the hundreds waited outside a disused mine shaft in South Africa today in the hope of their loved ones emerging from the hole in the ground.

The miners are in a standoff with police, who have blocked their supplies of food and water and are trying to force them out to arrest them for illegally entering the abandoned mine in search of leftover gold.

More than 1 000 illegal miners have already resurfaced in recent weeks as the police have cracked down, and at least one dead body has been brought up.

It was unclear if those remaining in the mine in Stilfontein, in the North West province, were unwilling or unable to get out of the shaft, which descends vertically for more than 2 km underground.

Police and community members stood around the rocky entrance, where a pulley had been set up to hoist men out.

Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Wednesday the government would not send help for criminals but instead would "smoke them out".

Poll shows Reserve Bank to cut rates to 7.75%

The South African Reserve Bank will cut its repo rate next week as slowing inflation continues to make way for a series of cuts through the middle of next year, spurring growth to almost 2%, a Reuters poll suggested today.

All but two of 22 economists surveyed in the past week said the South African Reserve Bank would cut rates by 25 basis points to 7.75% at its November 21 meeting. Two expected a 50 basis points cut.

The repo rate is expected to fall again by 50 basis points in either one move or cumulatively in January and March, followed by a 25 basis points cut at the May meeting to reach 7.00%.

South Africa says China could assume climate lead if US exits

China has an opportunity to lead the global fight against climate change with the US set to tamp down its commitments following the election of Donald Trump as president, South Africa’s environment minister said.

The world’s biggest emitter has faced scathing criticism from the US and developed European nations for not pulling its weight when it comes to stumping up climate finance to help poorer nations adapt to a warming world. China has contended that as a developing nation it’s not responsible for the build up of gases from industrial activities over the last three centuries.

South Africa’s Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Dion George says that’s the big debate that is going on and that if China is going to be the superpower it needs to show some leadership.

Nations are currently debating how to tackle climate change at COP29 in Azerbaijan in the wake of this year’s hurricanes, floods and droughts — which devastated communities in the US, Europe and Africa.

Developing nations are demanding annual climate finance of $1.3-trillion, a big step up from the $100-billion developed countries committed to in 2009 but have only recently met.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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