Índex per 2023-04-20 a Star

ZEDER, with investments across the agribusiness spectrum, benefited from a better climatic cycle in the year to February 28, but the macro-economic environment in which the group operates remains constrained. However, CEO Johann le Roux said they were well positioned with a stable balance sheet and strong cash resources, despite the uncertainty and volatility of the world markets that was likely to continue in the short to medium term, a trend driven by rising inflation, higher interest rates, risks to energy availability and supply chain constraints. Taking a cautious view and considering the amount of unrestricted cash available, no dividend was declared as part of the year-end results. Le Roux said in a telephone interview that if there were no further portfolio requirements, further special dividends might be considered…

Africa’s most famous and fabulous celebrities are back for the second season of the hit unscripted reality series, Young, Famous & African. The cast of season one had the continent talking and season two is bound to do the same, especially with the new faces. The cat is finally out of the bag that Mzansi’s entertainment darling, Bonang Matheba, has joined the cast. Netflix announced that has she entered the show. And Matheba’s presence ruffles a few feathers this season. Fantana, the Ghanaian-American rapper and all-round superstar quickly makes her mark on the group, and Luis Munana from Namibia, former Big Brother Africa contestant and entrepreneur extraordinaire, bring the heat from the onset. And the baby mamas of sports radio and TV presenter Andile Ncube’s children have also landed roles…

SA accused could be scapegoats while Malawi denies extradition plan Right to Justice, a Johannesburg-based NGO, has called for the State prosecutor and the investigating officer in the Shepherd Bushiri matter to come clean on the real details of the case. Bushiri, a Malawian-born televangelist, was charged with corruption and money laundering in 2018 but fled the country, allegedly with the assistance of the Malawian government. While The Star was investigating possible undue practices by the prosecutor and the investigator involved in the case, the National Prosecuting Authority’s head of communications, Bulelwa Makeke, told The Star that the prosecutor may not be mentioned because “there is a court order whereby the names and identities of the prosecutors who are dealing with the Bushiri-related matters may not be published, nor…

New data indicates that consumers continue to be hard hit by many factors that have increased the cost of living in our country, with basket sizes decreasing by 23.7% year on year. Basket sizes help us make reference to the average amount spent per consumer basket. When we look at basket-size trends, we are able to understand consumers better, by evaluating and monitoring how their money is spent and on which items. This is critically important in a country like South Africa, which is adversely affected by rising unemployment, hunger and poverty. Many increases to operational input costs have resulted in price hikes across production processes, labour, transport and materials for food producers and retailers alike. The inflationary pressure on consumers has continued to rise in line with the input…

The Special Investigating Unit is conducting a probe into alleged looting of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme through the creation of “ghost” students, double-dipping by students and other corruption. The SIU told parliamentarians part of the investigation would focus on overpayments to institutions of higher learning. Students dropped out of universities, but money was still paid to these institutions. The unit said it wanted to get to the bottom of these issues because it did not want the NSFAS to continue losing money. Chief investigations officer at the SIU Leonard Lekgoethe told Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) this week that the cause of some of these problems was that senior staff members at the NSFAS did not exercise their duties responsibly. The investigations will help them identify…

THE Nissan X-Trail has been around for 20 years and, with the launch of the fourth generation, it cements its place as one of their most important product offerings. It has also changed shape from the original boxy SUV lines of the first generation to a more fluid modern Premium Urban Crossover look. It has the same DNA that we drove in the Western Cape on its local launch. Nissan will be offering three variations, starting with the 2.5 Visia CVT, the mid spec 2.5 Acenta CVT and the range-topping Acenta Plus CVT 4x4. All three are powered by the same 2.5-litre normally aspirated petrol engine, delivering 135kW and 244Nm of torque, an increase of 9kW and 11Nm over the outgoing model. As the name suggests, it’s coupled to a…

THE PORSCHE Cayenne has been given a significant makeover for 2023, and it’s far more than just a shot of botox. Although it’s technically part of the third generation, Porsche says the updated model has undergone one of the most extensive upgrades in the company’s history. Think perkier engines, new chassis tech and an overhauled digital cabin. As before, buyers can choose between the regular SUV body style and a coupé variant which features a more aggressively sloping rear roof line. The new models are due to reach SA during the second half of this year. You could argue that the biggest changes have taken place inside the cabin, which gains a new display and control concept, also featuring an optional passenger-side screen. The new cabin architecture focuses on the…

UNDER-PRESSURE David Warner was yesterday spared the axe and included in Australia’s squad for the first two Ashes Tests and the World Test Championship final, while all-rounder Mitchell Marsh earned a recall. Veteran opener Warner is fighting to save his career after a lean run with the bat that had some questioning whether his time was up. But the 36-year-old will head to England as part of a 17-player squad that also includes Josh Inglis as cover for wicketkeeper Alex Carey, and Marcus Harris and Matthew Renshaw as back-up batters. There was no room for batsman Peter Handscomb, who featured on the recent Test tour of India and is currently playing county cricket in England. Chairperson of selectors George Bailey all but confirmed Warner – on his fourth Ashes tour…

LEINSTER are on a 23-match unbeaten run this season across the Champions Cup and URC, but can the Bulls stop the Irish giants in Saturday’s clash at Loftus Versfeld? Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t think so – even for a 4pm kick-off in Pretoria – as the Dubliners boast almost the entire Ireland national team in their squad and are virtually unplayable most days in the URC. But one of those days was of course last year’s semi-final at the RDS Arena, when Jake White’s team pulled off a miracle 27-26 victory after travelling from South Africa. That was against a full-strength Leinster outfit, but on Saturday, the situation is a bit different. The major factor is that the Irish province have left their first-choice players at home to prepare…

StatsSA said food inflation, with transport and education fees, main drivers of rise in CPI CONSUMERS in South Africa could be in for a tough few months ahead as the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) looks set to ramp up its interest-rates hiking cycle in a bid to curb the stubbornly high inflation as food prices rose the highest in 14 years. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the headline consumer price inflation (CPI) rose for the second month in a row in March, which could force the SARB’s hand for another interest rate hike in May. StatsSA yesterday said inflation edged higher to 7.1% year-on-year in March, from 7% in February and 6.9% in January. This was against market expectations of a 6.9% drop, meaning that inflation…

GLOBAL miner Glencore said yesterday that it was willing to consider making improvements to its $23 billion (R419bn) proposal for a merger with Teck Resources if they could meet and talk as the Teck board had refused engagement. Glencore’s shares on the JSE closed -1.09% lower at R111.20 yesterday. In an open letter directed at the Teck shareholders, Glencore CEO Gary Nagle said the miner had never stated that its proposal was “best and final” and that it was not willing to make changes and improvements to its proposal. This comes after Teck Resources unanimously rejected Glencore’s bid for the Canadian miner. Teck said the offer was an unsolicited and opportunistic acquisition proposal from Glencore plc. The miner instead said it wants to continue with its own plan to…

With horror becoming such a popular genre in recent years, especially with the proliferation of content on streaming platforms, film-making companies like Universal Pictures are ensuring they are not left behind. This is evident in the latest release, Renfield, inspired by characters from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula and a sequel to the 1931 movie. And it’s got a stellar cast to boot, with Nicolas Cage, Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez and Shohreh Aghdashloo. At a recent press junket ahead of the film’s release, Cage and Hoult shed light on their characters as well as why they gave the nod to the project. Cage slips into the skin of an overbearing and narcissistic Dracula while Hoult, in the title role as Renfield, cajoles empathy as Dracula’s long- suffering…

JUDGE Ismail Mohamed, who is presiding over the case against sex ring leader accused Gerhard Ackerman, reported in sick yesterday, forcing the judgment against the accused to be deferred until next Monday. Ackerman, who pleaded not guilty, faces more than 740 charges, including child pornography, rape, human trafficking, and attempted murder. He presented himself before the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, yesterday ahead of the judgment. The 56-year-old was also accused of sexually abusing and selling young boys between the ages of 14 and 16 to some of his wealthy clients, who perpetrated the same acts against teenage boys. An uncompromising state prosecutor, advocate Valencia Dube, recently lambasted Ackerman for his role in the sex trafficking ring and spoke frankly about the charges Ackerman was facing, saying the accused should…

A COUPLE have been banned from booking flights on FlySafair after they were reported to have engaged in a sexual act aboard a flight from Gauteng to Durban this week. An online publication reported that a businessman had complained about the couple’s activity. He claimed the woman had her hands in her partner’s pants while the plane waited to take off. The man, who filmed the activity, alleged he could not leave his seat for safety reasons and the couple’s activity, which included kissing and giggling, continued while the aircraft took off. He said as soon as he could leave his seat, he reported the incident to an air hostess. The businessman added that he expected the police to get involved. Speaking to IOL, FlySafair chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon…

Two heroes who are gone but never forgotten, SAPS Sergeant Busisiwe Mjwara, 42, and K9 Leah, have been remembered a year after the April floods when they died while trying to locate missing flood victims. Mjwara had been conducting a search in the Msunduzi River for three victims who had drowned earlier when she got into difficulty and drowned. She was airlifted to a nearby hospital but was declared dead on arrival. According to reports, Leah was attempting to assist Sergeant Mjwara when she also experienced difficulties and drowned. On Monday, Lee Bryant of Durban Metro Police Search and Rescue said: “One year today, we lost two members of our family Busi Mjwara and K9 Leah. We miss you both, you are gone but not forgotten, watch over us. You…

IT’S facelift time for the fifth-generation Renault Clio, which receives a bold new front end and upgraded cabin aimed at keeping it at the sharp end of its dying segment. But why is it getting a facelift so soon? Well, the current model was revealed abroad back in 2019, but due to pandemic-related delays it took until 2022 to reach South Africa. The facelifted Clio – which was revealed internationally this week – is anticipated to reach us by late 2024, Renault SA tells us. Although most of the internals remain as before, the Clio gets a completely redesigned front end that includes a larger grille housing the brand’s new logo as well as slimmer headlights incorporating a new daytime running light signature that runs to the bottom of the…

There’s no doubt that South Africa has some of the most beautiful places to visit in the world and to be able to see them you sometimes have to go off the beaten track. We also tend to think that once you have to take a car onto gravel surfaces to get there, you need a large SUV, bakkie or 4x4 of sorts. That’s certainly not the case every time, and to prove this, Kia arranged a trip into the Karoo behind the wheel of their Seltos where we not only got to see the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) but also traversed some iconic passes and gravel roads. The Seltos has been with us for two years but still proves a popular choice. Climbing behind the wheel of our…

SAFA president Danny Jordaan is banking on his previous involvement on the organising committee of the men’s World Cup to come in handy for South Africa’s bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup. Jordaan initially made a name for himself in global football circles by being part of the teams that put together the World Cups, since 2002. His most notable involvement in the event was being CEO of the 2010 global showpiece on home soil, when Fifa generated 53% more revenue than the 2006 edition in Germany. So after a successful event in 2010, Safa have been targeting the global showpiece – albeit in the women’s game – to return to the South African shores, arguing that they have the required infrastructure. Jordaan, moreover, believes that his track…

THE Delhi Capitals have had a dismal start to the Indian Premier League this season in the absence of South Africa’s Lungi Ngidi and Rilee Rossouw. To the shock of many South Africans, a few Proteas players are yet to play in the IPL this season. Three weeks into the tournament, South African stars such as fast bowler Ngidi and batter Quinton de Kock have not had a go while batter Rossouw has been used incorrectly and sparingly. De Kock is with the Lucknow Super Giants, and for the first time in his career he actually has real competition for the opening spot in the team. The explosive Kyle Mayers has easily been the best option for the opening position alongside captain KL Rahul. And with Proteas players having missed…

RAUBEX Group’s share price leapt 5.38% to close at R27.40 on the JSE yesterday after predicting that headline earnings per share for the year to February 28 would be a “pleasing” 25% and 35% higher than the previous year. The construction, bulk materials handling and mining group said in a trading statement that earnings per share would be between 20% and 30% higher than the previous corresponding period, at between 367.1 cents and 397.7c. Headline earnings per share was expected to be between 371.8c and 401.5c. The directors said the results reflected progress made against the strategy to diversify into Australia, public-private partnerships and mining, which had been successfully executed to date. A main contributor to the earnings growth was the expansion, upgrading and improvement of the Beitbridge border…

RETAIL activity in South Africa has remained subdued as consumers have continued cutting back spending on general household and hardware items as the rising cost of living squeezes out disposable cash. Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday said retail trade sales fell for the third consecutive month in February, decreasing by 0.5% following a 0.8% decrease in January. This third consecutive month of declines in retail activity was worse than market estimates of a 0.3% fall, mainly reflecting hard electricity load shedding and elevated living costs for consumers. StatsSA’s deputy director for distri- butive trade statistics Raquel Floris said general dealers and hardware, paint and glass were the biggest drags on growth. “General dealers recorded a decrease of 1.5% year-on-year. Hardware, paint and glass recorded a decline of 7.7%,” Floris said.…

Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal and other streaming platforms seem to have removed a song generated by AI (artificial intelligence) that features unauthorised clones of Drake and The Weeknd vocals and which has been going viral on social media over the past few days. The song is titled Heart on My Sleeve and the “artist” (who goes by the name ghostwriter) used AI to clone the two artist’s voices for a song in which the two Canadian stars appear to sing about Selena Gomez. There have been several AI songs using clones of popular artists’ voices over the past few weeks, but this is by far the most successful yet. Since its release on Friday, it has garnered millions of streams. According to Music Business Worldwide, on Monday, Universal…

KwaZulu-Natal police have launched a manhunt for two men in connection with an allegedly fraudulent truck sale that took place in May 2021. Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said the police in Port Shepstone are seeking the assistance of community members in locating the suspected fraudsters, whose warrants of arrest were issued by the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court on April 18. Netshiunda said Nzuzo Nkuthalo Njilo and Kwanda Ntshangase are on the police’s wanted list in connection with a case of fraud. He said the two suspects are alleged to have masqueraded as salesmen who pretended to be selling a truck in May 2021. “The unsuspecting buyer went and physically viewed the truck at a dealership in Boksburg and later paid the two a substantial amount of money. “The…

In a bid to raise awareness and funds to end period poverty due to a shortage of sanitary towels, the Imbumba Foundation, the organisers of the Trek4Mandela Mount Kilimanjaro Summit, held a 100-day countdown to this year’s adventure, set for July and August. Former UCT vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng will lead the August edition as part of the Women’s Month team of climbers. Speaking to The Star after the launch of this year’s programme held at JSE offices in Sandton yesterday, Imbumba Foundation founder Richard Mabaso said having two separate summits helped ensure that the country celebrates the legacy of Nelson Mandela in the July edition and continues to highlight the plight of women in the second summit in August – Women’s Month. “Beyond that, over the past 10 years,…

APART from load-shedding concerns, South African buyers are currently steering well clear of electric cars because they are so prohibitively expensive. But things could shift in the right direction later this year when GWM introduces its first EV to South Africa, under the Ora sub-brand. The first product to reach our shores will be the Ora 300, which is badged Funky Cat in most international markets. It’s likely to hit our shores after June this year. Independent Media’s motoring co-ordinator Willem van de Putte got a sneak peak while attending the Shanghai Auto Show on Tuesday, and although local pricing has yet to be confirmed, the GWM representatives said they’re aiming to bring it in beneath the Mini Cooper SE, which is currently SA’s cheapest electric car at R742 102.…

THE ongoing food shortages to feed learners has caused a stir and a public outcry within the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) school sector. The problem of food shortages was apparently caused by the suppliers, who failed to do proper planning before the schools re-opened. This had resulted in non-deliveries to most of the schools, while those that did receive any only got short rations instead of what they were supposed to receive. Some of the food was said to be in a rotten state. Ongoing school feeding scheme shortages within KZN schools has forced thousands of learners to take their lessons on empty stomachs. When the schools re-opened on Wednesday last week, many schools in KZN were met with the shocking news that there were no food deliveries made to schools, and…

THE Premiership has almost reached the end of the season, and the real contenders are being separated at the top and bottom of the standings. Crowned champions for an unprecedented sixth season in a row, only Mamelodi Sundowns’ spot at the top of the log remains uncontested heading to the last five games of the season. Meanwhile, the Caf qualifying – second and third spots – top eight and survival – 14th positions and upwards – are still up for grabs. Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United have been on each other’s necks for the respective Caf qualifying spots in recent weeks. But the latter failed to consolidate their second spot on Tuesday, drawing with Marumo Gallants to move one point and three points clear of Pirates and Chiefs…

FORMER Springbok No 8 Joe van Niekerk said he felt “just absolute joy” after being inducted into French club Toulon’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday. At a glittering ceremony at the Zenith de Toulon arena, Van Niekerk, whose nickname is ‘Big Joe’, was surrounded by the cream of the crop from the club’s all-star team that won three consecutive Champions Cups in 2013, 2014 and 2015, as well as former coaches, administrators and current players. It turned out to be a bit of a South African affair as Van Niekerk – now 42 and running a healing sanctuary and organic farm in Costa Rica – was joined at the function by his girlfriend Cato Vermeulen and teammates Bryan Habana and Bakkies Botha, as well as Cheslin Kolbe, who is currently…