Cape Times 2022-11-14

A NEW REPORT has revealed that South Africa’s public infrastructure is at risk of failure due to a plethora of reasons, including crime, non-payment for services, inadequate management and poor maintenance. The Infrastructure Report Card (IRC) released on Friday rated the overall condition of South Africa’s infrastructure as a D, the lowest rating since the first IRC launched in 2006. The 60-page report by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice) reflects an expert view of the institution’s reporting on the current condition of a broad range of public infrastructure and its impact on public and economic wellbeing. The IRC scorecard, which assessed performance of 32 subsectors of infrastructure, was based on a simple five-point scale ranging from A which means world class to E which means…

SOUTH Africa’s Just Energy Transition Programme (JETP) has been given further boost with a R7.2 billion investment by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to generate an additional 1 200MW of solar and wind energy. This comes after French and German public development banks, AFD and KfW, extended R10.7bn in concessional financing to South Africa to support the country’s efforts to reduce its reliance on coal through a just transition to cleaner energy sources. On Friday the EIB and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) formally agreed EIB financing that will back a new targeted financing programme to unlock €400 million, or R7.2bn, for private sector renewable energy investment across South Africa. The agreement was signed at the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP27, in Sharm El…

TECHNOLOGY group EOH is righting its troubled house after it announced on Friday that not only had it reached a R178 million settlement deal with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), but would proceed with a R600m rights offer. The JSE-listed IT firm has to pay more than 178m, plus interest, for irregular dealings with the department between 2012 and 2017. EOH will pay an initial upfront payment of R65m, which relates to duplicated software licenses, and the remainder of an amount of R112m to be paid over a period of 36 months commencing in January 2023. The new EOH board and management said it had, over the past four years since appointed, taken investigation allegations of corruption and irregularities concerning it…

THE MINING sector faces its own crises worse than load shedding as Transnet’s Northern Corridor in KwaZulu-Natal remained clogged up near Ulundi after a 5 000 ton coal train derailed last week with the entity casting suspicion at the Ulundi Business Forum, which had a dramatic fallout with Transnet over contract demands. Transnet said over the weekend the derailment came after the Ulundi Business Forum was invited to provide a list of all equipment and plant machinery that they are able to deploy to site as well as costings. Transnet had contracted the Ulundi Business Forum for equipment to assist in the derailment recovery and the Forum insisted on direct contracts with Transnet over and above what they have with Industry. “Transnet rejected this demand and the Forum…

FASHION retailer The Foschini Group (TFG) said, despite load shedding in South Africa, which led to a R400 million loss in turnover, it delivered solid interim results. Its shares shed 7.07% to close at R109.62 on the JSE on Friday. In its results for the half-year ended September 30, 2022, released on Friday, TFG chief executive Anthony Thunstrom said: “This in our world translates to approximately R200m in terms of lost profits. Now we’ve dealt with load shedding for some time in South Africa, and our customers have largely adapted to the inconvenience that this causes. “Over the last few weeks of September saw load shedding escalate to levels four, five, and six, which has a far greater impact than load shedding of lower levels. For many of our…

POSITIVE sentiment of robust recovery in global luxury goods sales, such as jewellery, buoyed Richemont to a 12.8% share surge on the JSE. This was after the company reported strong September interim sales volumes and chairperson Johann Rupert said the company was well geared to overcome global economic uncertainties. The company on Friday lifted sales and operating profit from continuing operations to €9.7 billion (R173bn) and €2.7bn, respectively. Shares in the company on the JSE responded positively to this, surging by 12.8% to close Friday’s trade session at R214.30. Market analyst Paul Hawkins said Richemont’s stronger sales provided “further evidence that luxury is a good place to hang out, even in a recession” market. Rupert said although the global economy was poised for volatility, the company had brighter prospects.…