Swiss food and drinks company Nestlé SA is cutting 15% of its workforce in 21 African countries because it says it overestimated the rise of the middle class, the Financial Times reported.

When Wal-Mart Stores spent $2.4bn on a stake in South Africa's Massmart five years ago, the world's biggest retailer said it was buying a gateway to high-growth markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Having recently bedded down an Irish acquisition, Spar Group on Wednesday said it was close to signing a deal to expand into Zambia. Retailers are eyeing additional revenue streams as poor economic growth, household debt and unemployment crimp spending in SA.

The xenophobic violence outbreak in Durban could harm the image of South African big business investing around the continent, said political analyst Prof Somadoda Fikeni.

"Hot products", or small items that can be easily concealed, are the target of shoplifters, whose exploits cost SA’s retailers millions of rand annually.

A big northern suburbs shopping centre has illegally reconnected its electricity and water, and it’s business as usual.

Small business owners in Soweto, and Kagiso on the West Rand, on Monday called on the government to regulate spaza shops to ensure foreign shopowners had no unfair competitive advantage over them by selling expired goods cheaper.

Cybercrime and hacking have become big problems for small business owners, experts say, as SA marked International Data Privacy Day on Wednesday.

Fake R100 notes are circulating Joburg and the Gauteng SAPS is asking the public for help in identifying their source.

A man wielding a pair of scissors stabbed three people in a grocery store in Boston, Bellville, Cape Town, yesterday.