Business
S’Africa Union Rejects Eskom Pay Offer
South Africa’s biggest union said on Tuesday it had rejected the latest wage offer by state-owned power utility Eskom.
It said it would pursue talks for now before considering a strike that could disrupt the World Cup.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which represents about half of the 32,000 workers at the utility, toned down its strike threats this week on the advice of a mediator.
The NUM said it would give Eskom until Thursday to come up with a better deal than the eight per cent pay increase offered.
“We are negotiating in good faith, but we have totally rejected that offer,” said Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman of the NUM, which last week warned that its members could down tools.
“We are giving Eskom up to Thursday to come up with a good offer; we have not reached a stage of strike action yet,” he said.
A strike is unlikely to hamper electricity supply to stadiums which have standby diesel generators, but there is a concern that the action may interrupt electricity supplies and anger millions watching matches on television.
The biggest worry is the effect a stoppage may have on the economy, especially manufacturers and mining companies in the world’s top platinum and fourth largest gold producer.
A prolonged strike could halt mining operations, and this may affect metal production and prices.
The NUM and two other unions, which in total represent more than two-thirds of the utility’s staff, want a pay rise of more than three times the inflation rate of 4.8 per cent.
Should the strike go ahead, the other unions have said they may join in.
Economists have accused unions of trying to hold state entities to ransom by using the World Cup to squeeze pay increases far above inflation, possibly damaging the economy as it emerges from its first recession in 17 years.
Eskom has said any work stoppage would be illegal because the utility is classified by the state as an essential service, but should a strike go ahead, it will implement contingency measures to minimise the impact.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
