Markets Weaken, SABC Faces a Blackout Threat, Black Friday Turns Into a Toilet-Paper War, and Pepkor Shuts Shoe City
The JSE sank further into negative territory on Thursday as big-name counters dragged the market down, overshadowing a handful of resilient sectors.
Beyond the trading screens, the SABC is inching perilously closer to a national broadcast blackout as its financial crisis deepens. Retailers, meanwhile, have turned Black Friday 2025 into an unlikely price war over toilet paper rather than big-ticket electronics. In corporate shake-ups, Pepkor is boarding up all 86 Shoe City stores as it pursues faster-growing opportunities in beauty and personal care.
Markets End the Day Lower
The JSE closed firmly weaker on Thursday, with the All Share Index dropping 1.16% to 110,568, settling near the lower end of its daily range. The selling pressure was broad and steady across major sectors. The Industrial 25 fell 1.51%, with financials leading the downturn at 1.68%. Resources recorded a softer dip of 0.68%, but not enough to offset the wider risk-off sentiment.
Heavyweights Weigh on the JSE
The market’s worst declines came from the big, influential counters. Tech-adjacent shares and industrial names struggled, putting meaningful pressure on the Top 40. Sappi sank 3.87%, MTN weakened sharply, and Naspers tumbled 3.15%, with Prosus not far behind.
Trade activity mirrored the drag: Naspers once again dominated value traded with more than R1.6 billion, followed by AngloGold Ashanti and Prosus, with Sibanye-Stillwater trading the most shares.
There were, in contrast, a few bright spots flashing across the screens. Glencore rose 3.61%, with MAS and SHB Capital also advancing. Retailers Pick n Pay and Boxer delivered some small upside, although the gains were nowhere near enough to counterbalance the broader sell-off.
Sectors Show Pockets of Strength
Even in a downbeat session, a couple of sectors managed to break away from the gloom. Alternative Energy surged 3.3%, Travel & Leisure gained 2.59%, and the Pharmaceuticals and Health Care categories drew modest inflows. Several stocks clocked new 52-week highs, including Nampak, Fortress B, and Choppies.
Rand Steady, Commodities Firmer
The rand was mostly flat, trading at R17.16 per dollar, with only muted movement against the euro and pound.
Commodities offered some support: gold gained 0.55% to $4,182 per ounce, and platinum and palladium extended their upward momentum. Brent crude rallied almost 4% to $63.03, giving some uplift to energy-linked sentiment despite mixed performance from miners.
Global Markets and Crypto Mixed
Global markets were stable rather than optimistic. The Nikkei hovered flat at 50,179, while the European and US market futures showed little direction. Bitcoin stuck above $91,000, but altcoins continued their grind lower, dragging down the rest of the crypto basket.
SABC Blackout Looms as Sentech Bleeds Money
A far more urgent crisis is unfolding in the public broadcasting space. The SABC may have its broadcasting signals cut off as early as the end of December because of money owed to state-owned signal distributor Sentech.
Sentech warned in September already that it is bleeding over R70 million a month to subsidise the SABC — and can’t sustain it beyond year-end.
At a parliamentary briefing in August, Communications Committee chair Khusela Diko already confirmed that the signal distributor simply cannot operate “in its current state” past December unless the billing impasse is resolved.
If Sentech switches off the SABC’s transmitters, it would plunge the public broadcaster — and millions of viewers — into a nationwide blackout, cutting off access to essential news and public information.
SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli has previously warned that a switch-off is a real and immediate risk, blaming “legacy debt” and a public funding model that no longer matches modern viewing habits.
Media Monitoring Africa’s William Bird was blunt: the government’s failure to properly fund public broadcasting has pushed the SABC to the brink.
New SABC Funding Model Still Far Off
The threat of a broadcast blackout comes as both Chabeli and SABC board chair Khathutshelo Ramukumba confirm that the current TV licence system is no longer sustainable.
The idea that most households watch TV on one device — and therefore pay one licence fee — no longer matches reality. Streaming, mobile viewing, and digital platforms have made the model obsolete.
A device-neutral household broadcasting levy, similar to Germany’s Rundfunkbeitrag, has been proposed as a replacement. But the process of designing a sustainable model is dragging.
BMI TechKnowledge, appointed to develop the new funding framework, has already requested — and received — a deadline extension from December 2025 to February 2026.
Even once the report is finalised, multiple steps involving Treasury must follow, meaning real reform is still some distance away. For the SABC, that delay may prove critical.
Toilet Paper Becomes the 2025 Black Friday Battlefield
Retail competition turned absurdly fierce this week as supermarket chains fought for the lowest price on — yes — toilet paper. Woolworths jumped into the fray, offering two 18-roll packs for R200 in-store, reviving a promotion that previously “broke the internet.”
Checkers, Pick n Pay and Spar all hit roughly the same price point, driving savings of up to R75 on certain brands. But the sharpest deals came from Game and Makro, both selling the equivalent of an 18-pack for R89 — the weekend’s unofficial knock-out price.
Toilet paper as a loss-leader isn’t glamorous, but in a strained economy, it works. Retailers are using essentials — loo rolls, maize meal, cooking oil — to pull shoppers through their doors, hoping to make up the loss on higher-margin items.
Black Friday has clearly shifted from tech splurges to basic-needs shopping. Pick n Pay’s own research shows 70% of shoppers now hunt for discounts on groceries rather than luxuries.
Pepkor Shuts Shoe City, Pivots to Beauty
In a major retail shake-up, Pepkor will close all 86 Shoe City stores across South Africa. The chain, founded in 1986, has struggled for years and has become a drag on the group’s speciality division, even as brands like Tekkie Town perform relatively well.
Shoe City posted only 3% like-for-like growth, far behind the division’s 8.3%. A previous R2.7-billion impairment had already signalled persistent structural problems.
Pepkor is now redirecting investment into high-growth areas, especially the booming R68-billion beauty market. Ackermans will launch a full beauty line in 2026, positioning the group to tap into rising demand for affordable personal-care products.
Store closures will inevitably affect staff, though Pepkor says some workers will be absorbed into other brands. For consumers, the disappearance of Shoe City will reshape the lower-priced footwear market, opening new opportunities for rivals.
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