Africas

Foreign workers in South Africa are yet again facing violence and protests by anti-immigrant groups. They accuse them of residing and working in the country illegally and are demanding that they leave by June 30.

South Africa has seen recurrent waves of anti-immigrant violence in the past decade – often directed at other African nationals.

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the country has become a destination for thousands of workers from neighbouring countries. But many South Africans say the government is not upholding its immigration laws.

So, does South Africa still need foreign workers?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

William Gumede – Associate professor, School of Governance at the University of the Witwatersrand

Lindiwe Zulu – Member of the ANC Committee on International Relations and a former South African minister of social development

Ashraf Essop – Immigration lawyer

Africa’s Payments landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, fueled by advanced technologies and a surge in Cross-Border Trade. With AI and modular financial solutions taking root, African markets are quickly adopting faster, more secure, and seamless Payment experiences. But this shift isn’t just about digitisation—it’s about building a more resilient and inclusive financial ecosystem that empowers both businesses and individuals. 

Embracing Complexity: The Catalyst for Modular Design

Africa’s Payments ecosystem isn’t a single, uniform market—it’s a complex tapestry of 54 countries, each with unique currencies, regulatory standards, and varying financial infrastructures. For corporates and financial institutions, this diversity presents challenges, but it also creates fertile ground for innovation. 

The very intricacies that complicate Cross-Border Payments also encourage creative, technology-driven solutions that are tailored to local needs. This dynamic landscape invites forward-thinking approaches, making Africa a proving ground for Payment innovations with the potential to transform how value moves across the continent and beyond.

Africa’s diverse regulatory landscape demands adaptability in Cross-Border Payments. With each nation enforcing unique licensing, settlement, and risk rules, achieving a unified platform remains a significant challenge. Adding to the complexity is the growing insistence on local data storage to meet data sovereignty requirements, making compliance and technology integration even more intricate.

Instead of allowing regulatory hurdles to impede progress, industry leaders are using these complexities to build more adaptable and resilient systems. They’re advancing modular, “plug-and-play” platforms with strong governance, clear data separation, and flexible hybrid cloud infrastructure. This approach turns obstacles into opportunities for real innovation and growth.

This drive toward modularity has accelerated the adoption of Banking as a Service (BaaS), recasting Payments from a cost center into a strategic growth lever. Where corporates once saw Cross-Border Payment infrastructure as a burdensome expense, BaaS now allows secure, compliant Payment capabilities to be embedded directly into business platforms. 

With a single integration, companies can navigate regulatory complexity, unlocking new revenue streams and harnessing Payment data to refine operations, understand customers, and deliver tailored services. Payments have become more than transactions—they’re a source of insight and innovation, fueling growth and competitive advantage.

AI as a Strategic Accelerator

Artificial Intelligence is transforming Transaction Banking in Africa, acting as a catalyst that enhances human expertise to improve efficiency and transparency. Rather than relying on the traditional first-in, first-out approach, AI now enables financial institutions to sort and route queries by urgency and complexity, streamlining exceptions and prioritising immediate needs. This reduces manual intervention and turnaround times, freeing teams to focus on deeper client relationships and higher-value tasks that improve service quality and satisfaction.

But AI’s impact goes far beyond boosting efficiency—it is transforming security and fraud detection across Africa’s digital Payments. As digital adoption rises, so does financial crime. AI uses real-time, behavior-based analytics to monitor transactions and learn each client’s typical patterns. This allows quick detection of anomalies and proactive fraud prevention, improving accuracy and reducing unnecessary disruptions while safeguarding customer trust.

As financial institutions adopt advanced AI systems, strong governance becomes critical. Without careful oversight, AI models built on limited or skewed data can unintentionally reinforce biases—delaying Payments or impacting service for certain groups. To maintain trust and fairness, banks must ensure they have strong accountability, transparent training of AI models and proactive monitoring so algorithms serve all customers equitably and uphold the highest industry standards.

The Rise of Regional Payment Rails

Intra-African trade is experiencing unprecedented growth. As more businesses look beyond national borders, the demand for fast, accessible, and reliable Payment systems has never been greater. This surge in regional commerce is prompting the development of innovative Payment infrastructures that make Cross-Border transactions more seamless and inclusive.

Moving beyond the confines of Domestic Mobile Money networks, Telecom companies are developing Payment rails to enable real-time Payments that cross African borders with ease. This shift is especially transformative for small and medium-sized enterprises, opening fresh opportunities for growth and Cross-Border collaboration. By promoting interoperability and removing costly intermediaries, these regional networks make Payments faster, more affordable, and increasingly accessible.

As these Telecom-driven platforms continue to expand, they are enabling Africa’s Multi-Rail Payments ecosystem. Their ability to foster resilience, scalability, and efficiency is setting the stage for a future where regional Trade is not just possible, but practical for businesses of all sizes. This wave of innovation is redefining the landscape, ensuring that regional Payment Rails support and propel Africa’s economic growth for years to come.

Global Trade Dynamics and the Currency Shift

Africa’s Cross-Border Trade is being reshaped by ongoing US dollar shortages and shifting macroeconomic forces. For import-dependent markets, these scarcities delay settlements, increase transaction costs, and tie up vital working capital. This environment demands new solutions and is pushing businesses to seek more efficient, reliable ways to move value across borders.

Concurrently, the region is experiencing rising Trade flows with Asia, and African businesses are rapidly adopting alternative Payment infrastructures. Platforms like the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and greater use of the Chinese Renminbi offer new settlement options and critical flexibility. This shift reduces reliance on established networks such as Swift, giving companies more robust and diversified Payment infrastructure. As a result, importers and exporters can count on greater predictability, faster settlements, and lower intermediary costs—ultimately accelerating and scaling Cross-Border Trade across Africa.

Orchestrating the Future

Africa’s financial future is emerging as an ecosystem that is intelligent, instant, and seamlessly connected. Thriving in this landscape will require more than just advanced technology. It demands a clear understanding of local realities and global shifts. The leaders will be those who turn Africa’s complexity into intuitive, secure, and streamlined client experiences—setting new standards for growth, resilience, and trust in the continent’s rapidly evolving Payments Sector.

BRITS could soon be able to fly to a destination in Africa with winter highs of 30C, beautiful beaches and beers for 71p.

Air Tanzania has revealed it’s planning to launch direct flights, for the very first time, between the UK and Tanzania next year.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

The airline’s CEO Peter Ulanga announced the flights will operate from London Gatwick to Kilimanjaro International Airport and wants to start the route from July 2027.

Talking to Africa Travel & Tourism Association (ATTA), Peter Ulanga said there be a ‘minimum’ of three flights a week to Tanzania.

Not only that, but he also said they want to run flights to its well-known archipelago as well.

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He added: “We will also run direct flights to Zanzibar, expanding the tourism potential of that destination from the UK, too.”

Currently there are no direct routes to Tanzania or Zanzibar – and historically there haven’t been any from the UK.

Airlines from the UK currently have to stopover at the likes of Nairobi to get there.

The new route would make travel for Brits much easier and reduce flight time that is currently between 11 and 15 hours.

The most popular part of Tanzania for Brits is Zanzibar which lies just of the coast, thanks to its white-sand beaches, winter highs of 30C and pretty resorts.

Despite its luxury feel, Zanzibar is cheap too with meals costing around £3.54 and beer can be from 99p.

Zanzibar has an incredible coastline, some of the best beaches include Nakupenda, Nungwi and Paje which have powder-like sand and are lined with palm trees.

One Sun Writer who visited enjoyed snorkelling, exploring Zanzibar’s capital, Stone Town, and taking a boat trip to Prison Island to see the giant tortoise sanctuary.

Even better news for Brits is that there’s barely any jet lag either as Zanzibar is just two hours ahead of the UK.

One of TUI’s resorts there called Riu Palace Zanzibar can be booked from £2,000pp which is a seven-night, all-inclusive stay including flights.

It has bright and airy rooms, five bars, four restaurants, three swimming pools and a gym.

Zanzibar is getting even more TUI hotels too – last year, it announced it would be expanding across destinations in Africa, including Tanzania.

JAZ Amaluna, an adults-only, five-star resort on the east coast at Uroa Beach, is set to open this year.

TUI described it as having a ‘village vibe’ with tropical gardens, authentic Africa decor and two swimming pools.

Meanwhile on the mainland, Tanzania’s capital is Dodoma and the country as a whole is known for being especially cheap.

According to Wise, Tanzania is even cheaper than Zanzibar with meals start from £1.99, coffee from £1.46, and beer as little as 71p.

Aside from its affordability, lots of the country’s appeal lies in its national parks.

Right next to the airport is Mount Kilimanjaro National Park which is where you’ll find the tallest mountain in Africa.

Tanzania is also home to the Serengeti National Park and a popular activity is to book a safari tour to see the Great Migration of wildebeest and zebras.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has refused to resign over a “cash-in-sofa scandal” that continues to haunt his presidency.

Ramaphosa, who addressed the nation on Monday to declare his intention to remain in his post, is set to face a multi-party impeachment committee, which will investigate allegations that he covered up a 2020 break-in at his private ranch and the theft of more than $500,000, concealing the incident from police and tax authorities.

The committee’s findings could spell his impeachment; however, parliament has not provided a timeframe for the investigation, which has yet to commence.

Analysts say the scandal, which has been dubbed “Farmgate”, has been particularly damaging for a president who rode to power in 2018 on an anticorruption mandate, after the much-criticised presidency of Jacob Zuma. Now, eight years later, the case of the cash found stuffed in a sofa at his game ranch could be what takes Ramaphosa down.

Can the South African president survive? Here is what we know.

What’s the scandal all about?

In February 2020, burglars allegedly broke into Ramaphosa’s luxury private ranch, Phala Phala, in Limpopo province, South Africa, and stole $580,000. The cash was said to have been hidden inside furniture at the farm – hence the “Farmgate” label.

Ramaphosa has been accused of covering up the theft and keeping private efforts to trace the burglars a secret to avoid an investigation into where the money had come from – and why it was hidden in a sofa.

Corruption allegations surfaced when a former head of South Africa’s state security agency walked into a police station in 2022 and accused the president of money laundering in relation to the stolen cash.

Later that year, an independent parliamentary committee found that Ramaphosa “may have committed” serious violations and misconduct. In particular, the panel found he had failed to properly report a theft to police as required under anticorruption laws and “acted in a manner inconsistent with his office”.

At the time, the African National Congress (ANC) had a strong majority in parliament – with 230 seats out of 400. It was therefore able to reject the report and refused to open impeachment proceedings.

But the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) challenged this at the Constitutional Court in Cape Town, which, last week, overturned the government’s rejection of the 2022 parliamentary report and referred it to a multi-party impeachment committee for a full investigation.

What has Ramaphosa said?

Ramaphosa has always denied allegations of corruption and maintains that the stolen cash came from selling buffalo.

Since the constitutional court’s ruling last week, Ramaphosa has been facing renewed calls for his resignation, mostly from opposition leaders. In a televised address on Monday, the president refused to step down.

“While there have been calls in some circles that I should resign, nothing in the Constitutional Court judgement compels me to resign my office,” he said.

“Since a criminal complaint was laid against me in June 2022, I have consistently maintained that I have not stolen public money, committed any crime, nor violated my oath of office,” Ramaphosa said in his address, adding that he has cooperated in all investigations.

The president rejected the 2022 report from the independent panel again, saying: “The complaints against me are based on hearsay allegations. No evidence, let alone sufficient evidence, has been presented to prove that I committed any violation, let alone a serious violation of the Constitution or law, or serious misconduct as set out in the Constitution.”

If the committee does find enough evidence against him, it could direct him to be impeached.

It is unclear how long this will take, however. Ramaphosa has pledged to seek a judicial review of the report’s contents, which, in turn, could delay the investigation of the impeachment committee.

What is the process for impeachment?

If a president is found to have violated the constitution or the law, or is unable to perform the duties of office, South Africa’s National Assembly has the constitutional authority to remove him or her.

Beyond the parliamentary investigation that will now begin into the Farmgate scandal, and which can trigger a vote on impeachment, as well, any member of parliament may introduce a motion seeking the president’s removal. The speaker of the National Assembly would then refer the motion to an independent panel of legal experts to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to proceed.

If this panel decides there is a case against the president, lawmakers must vote on whether to begin impeachment proceedings. After this, a specially constituted impeachment committee is established to carry out a detailed investigation into the allegations. This is separate from the investigation beginning now and could take several months.

Once that committee recommends the removal of the president, parliament holds a final vote to impeach the president. Under Section 89 of the constitution, a two-thirds majority is required – meaning at least 267 lawmakers must vote in favour of removal in the 400-seat National Assembly.

Are there other ways to remove Ramaphosa?

Yes, the South African president can be removed from his job via a no-confidence vote in parliament.

Any member of the assembly can propose the no-confidence motion, and it only requires a simple majority of more than 50 percent.

Ramaphosa would need support from coalition partners to survive a no-confidence vote, however. This has already been proposed by at least two opposition parties in parliament.

Another way could be if his ANC party turns against him, as it did with the last president, Zuma, who came in for years of corruption allegations and was finally forced to resign in 2018.

How strong is Ramaphosa’s position?

Ramaphosa is not only the president of South Africa, but also the leader of its most popular party, the ANC. Nelson Mandela was the ANC’s first Black president after apartheid ended in 1994.

In 2024, the ANC stunningly lost its majority in parliament for the first time following more than three decades in power. Today, the ANC holds 159 of 400 seats in the national assembly, or about 40 percent of seats – and Ramaphosa is governing in a coalition with the Democratic Alliance, which has 87 seats, along with other smaller parties.

But Chris Ogunmodede, an independent analyst of African politics, security, and international affairs, based in Lagos, Nigeria, said Ramaphosa would likely survive any impeachment attempts, “simply because of the arithmetic”.

“His numbers in the parliament virtually guarantee that impeachment will not happen,” Ogunmodede told Al Jazeera.

“It hasn’t been easy, but there is a government that seems to be functional and is showing some signs of reinvigoration,” Ogunmodede added. “There’s a lot of uncertainty on the part of the other coalition parties that suggests that they would much rather be on the side of caution and go with the devil they know, and preserve the government by keeping Ramaphosa in power.”

Despite this, the cash-in-sofa scandal has been damaging, he said.

And, under Ramaphosa, the ANC’s popularity has continued to slide. The party’s national vote share fell from 57.5 percent in the 2019 election to 40.2 percent in the 2024 election, marking its worst performance since the end of apartheid.

The South African economy has shown some signs of improvement, however, and given the Ramaphosa government “something to show for the time that it’s been in power”, said Ogunmodede.

Yet the South African government still faces long-term structural concerns about the economy, the country’s institutions, corruption, crime and other issues, the analyst added.

On the back of underlying anti-incumbency, Ogunmodede said the top court’s ruling on the cash-in-sofa scandal “has resurrected many concerns that South Africans have had about the president and his party, and the political institutions of the country more broadly”.

After successfully launching Nigeria’s only operational oil refinery in 2024, billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote has set his sights on East Africa as the next location for another mega refinery project, according to recent reports.

It comes as African countries are actively seeking ways to make energy more secure, following huge global disruptions amid the US and Israel’s war on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas is shipped.

Dangote, Africa’s richest man, appeared to be one of the winners from this fallout when his newly operational refinery, located in Nigeria’s commercial Lagos State, began selling large volumes of crude oil across the continent as the war on Iran escalated in March and global oil prices soared.

At present, West, South and East Africa rely primarily on importing refined petroleum products from the Middle East, meaning they are highly vulnerable to disruptions there.

Neighbours of Nigeria – Cameroon, Togo, Ghana and even Tanzania, further to the east – are among the countries that have turned to Nigeria as supplies from the Middle East dry up.

By the end of March, the refinery, which has the capacity to produce 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), reported it was also receiving orders from beyond the continent, especially for severely scarce jet fuel as hundreds of flights were cancelled across regions.

Supply from Dangote’s refinery has cushioned the impact of the war in terms of fuel supply for Nigeria and neighbouring countries, analysts say.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, and the $19bn project in Lagos is currently the world’s largest single-train refinery, meaning it employs a single processing line rather than multiple units. But it hit full production capacity in February 2026, the same month the war with Iran started.

Nigeria has no functional state-owned refinery, so Dangote’s refinery is now positioning the country to be a net exporter of jet fuel and diesel.

Here’s why more refining capacity in Africa matters for the continent:

What is Dangote’s plan for an East Africa refinery?

In April, Kenya’s President William Ruto announced that East African countries were in talks to build a joint oil refinery at Tanzania’s Tanga port, which would have a similar capacity to Dangote’s Lagos operation.

“We do not want to be held hostage any more by the Strait of Hormuz,” Ruto said at a Nairobi business event in April, which Dangote was present at.

“We do not want to be held hostage by wars that are started by other people. We have our resources here, and we are saying we are going to use our African resources to industrialise our region.”

In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, however, Dangote said he would prefer to build the new operation in Kenya rather than Tanzania.

“I’m leaning more towards Mombasa because Mombasa has a much larger, deeper port,” the billionaire told the UK newspaper.

“Kenyans consume more. It’s a bigger economy,” he said, adding that “the ball is in the hands of President Ruto … Whatever President Ruto says is what I’ll do.”

He has projected construction costs of between $15bn and $17bn.

But venturing into East Africa, which has a very different commercial landscape from West Africa, could prove a challenge, analyst Dumebi Oluwole of Lagos-based intelligence firm Stears told Al Jazeera.

“Dangote has proven it [his operation] can build at scale,” she said. “The East African test will be whether it can also navigate the political and logistical landscape of a fragmented, multi-country market.”

Why aren’t African countries already producing more oil?

Despite having sizeable crude reserves, African countries only refine about 44 percent of the total oil consumed themselves, with imports making up the rest, according to a 2022 African Union report.

The top producers of refined oil are Algeria, Egypt and South Africa. There are about 21 refineries in North Africa.

Southern Africa has another seven, while West Africa has 14. However, most refineries in the two regions are either not operating or are producing below the capacity they are equipped to.

East Africa’s only existing refinery is in Mombasa, but it stopped operating in 2013 due to a combination of slow government policies and exiting investors, who deemed it commercially unviable as a result.

There is currently no refining capacity at all in East Africa, despite the region having about 4.7 billion barrels of crude reserves, according to the African Union, mainly in Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kenya imported 40 million barrels of petroleum in 2025. It regularly buys oil from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India and Oman, all of which have been hampered by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Nigeria itself is Africa’s biggest net crude producer with a 1.5 million to 1.6 million bpd capacity. The country has not refined meaningfully since 2019.

What difference will local refineries make for African countries?

Exporting most of its crude to then import refined products is expensive and puts Africa on the back foot, analyst Oluwole said.

More oil refined on the continent would mean lower petrol pump prices, lower transport costs, and more energy available for people and businesses, in theory. It would also mean greater access to by-products like fertilisers for farmers, for example, or petrochemicals for manufacturers.

“Dangote has demonstrated that a viable, scalable, intra-African energy supply option is possible – that proof of concept matters enormously,” said Oluwole.

“It reflects a growing continental conviction that Africa can provide for itself, and that this is no longer wishful thinking,” she added.

In Nigeria’s case, Dangote’s refinery is yet to ease pressures, though. Local airlines, for example, have complained about having to pay high prices for jet fuel even with improved local supplies. Analysts say that could be because Nigeria’s government removed fuel subsidies in 2023. Bureaucracy within the state oil company also forced Dangote’s refinery to import crude.

Still, the refinery is contributing to “a more transparent and competitive market”, Oluwole said, adding that results should eventually show.

Other countries are stepping up. Last week, Angola’s $470m Cabinda refinery began supplying domestic as well as foreign markets. The project is owned primarily by the United Kingdom’s Gemcorp Capital and has a capacity of 30,000bpd, with plans to double by the end of 2026.

Dangote’s planned refinery in Kenya, if completed, could also help to reduce East Africa’s reliance on the Middle East.

A separate, government-funded refinery project in Uganda’s Hoima region is also in the works. Authorities expect the project to be able to refine 60,000bpd when it starts operations in 2029. It will be fed by the joint Uganda-Tanzania East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), an ongoing project which will transport crude from Uganda’s Lake Albert to Tanzania’s Tanga Port.

Uganda also plans to produce diesel, jet fuel, kerosene and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

With big plans in place, Oluwole says it’s now left to African governments to create enabling business environments for the private sector.

“Dangote has opened the door,” she said. “The question now is whether African institutions and governments will walk through it.”