Cape Times 2023-04-28

THUNGELA Resources’ board has opted to maintain a large liquidity buffer in case of further impacts from South Africa’s crumbling rail and power infrastructure. The cash portion came to R5 billion following the R40 per share final dividend declared last month. In addition, the board decided to increase the overall liquidity buffer to R8.2bn through the securing of facilities amounting to R3.2bn, Sango Ntsaluba, chairperson of the thermal coal mining group said in the annual report released yesterday. “Four months into 2023, we are concerned by the challenges that abound, including Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) performance, softening of coal prices and volatility of coal demand worldwide,” he said, adding it was also clear coal prices could not be expected to be as strong this year as they were in 2022,…

Consumer prices could start slowing down in the three months to June after producer price inflation (PPI) in South Africa softened to its lowest in more than one year in March. This comes as consumer price inflation (CPI) in March remained sticky from 7% in February to 7.1% in March, putting food price inflation at a 14-year high of 14.4% year-on-year from 14% in February. Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) on Wednesday said the annual producer price inflation for final manufacturing eased to 10.6% in March, down from 12.2% in February. This was below market forecasts of 10.95%, and was the lowest reading since February 2022. StatsSA said the main contributors to the headline PPI annual inflation rate were coke, petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products; food products, beverages and tobacco…

This would improve its generation capacity and ignite economic growth The SOUTH African mining industry has proposed that Eskom should sell or concession its “old” coal power plants to the private sector in a bid to improve its generation capacity and ignite economic growth. This bold proposal was made by the Minerals Council South Africa to the Standing Committee on Appropriations in Parliament on Wednesday during public hearings on the Eskom Debt Relief Bill. The Minerals Council represents more than 90% of the country’s mining production by value and represents an industry that is both a significant supplier of primary energy for electricity generation, and also a large consumer of electricity. Minerals Council senior economist Bongani Motsa said the private sector would be in a position to recapitalise Eskom’s old…

MOBILE operator MTN was confident in its annual report, released on Wednesday, that it expected to ring in growth this year despite the global geopolitical and economic picture remaining volatile and challenging. The momentum of the economic recovery decelerated in 2022 with global gross domestic product growth slowing to 3.4% from 6% in 2021. Global inflation averaged 8.8% in 2022 from 4.7% in 2021 – the highest in about 25 years. These effects were exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, China’s zero Covid-19 policy as well as exchange rate volatility, which put additional strain on supply chains. The slowdown in sub-Saharan Africa was more moderate with growth of 3.6% down from 4.1% the prior year. Mcebisi Jonas, the chairperson of MTN, said on Wednesday: “MTN will continue to implement proactive…

During the latter months of 2022 the Moti Group of Companies, which encompasses South African and Zimbabwean registered companies, realised that several thousands of it and its employees’ confidential and/or sensitive documents had been leaked to the media and other third parties. This set in motion an investigation which led to criminal charges in South Africa and Zimbabwe being filed against an admitted attorney and former employee of the group, Clinton van Niekerk. Van Niekerk, who was employed by Mazetti Management Services, resigned under suspicious circumstances. Van Niekerk was eventually arrested while boarding a flight at the King Shaka International Airport in Durban in what appears to have been an attempt to flee South Africa in order to avoid prosecution. Subsequent to his arrest, representatives of Van Niekerk launched an…

EFF leader Julius Malema said while there was no contestation that yesterday was Freedom Day, many South Africans had aspirations, asking to what extent they should celebrate the day, without having achieved economic freedom in their lifetime. “1994, on April 27 ushered political freedom. We still need economic freedom for total emancipation of our people,” Malema said when addressing the funeral of EFF member Koketso Mojatau. In a statement, the red berets said the declaration of Freedom Day was premature because the core objectives of the Struggle against colonial dispossession and apartheid had not yet been achieved. “Instead of the democratisation of wealth, the provision of free quality healthcare, education, housing and a corruption-free society, which were the core objectives of the revolution, South Africa is characterised by…