Cape Times CT-2021-04-14

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za INDUSTRIAL buyers of refined sugar say there has been no production of the condiment in the market since the beginning of this month. The Association of Southern Africa Sugar Importers (Asasi) chairperson and Super Syrups founder Chris Engelbrecht told Business Report this week that Tongaat Hulett confirmed on March 26 to Super Syrups that it could draw on their quota, but was told on March 31 that Tongaat’s mills were being shut down for a few weeks and the first supply would be available only on May 1. “Now they have confirmed it won’t be before the end of May. It is already too late for us to import what we need to make up for the delay,” said Engelbrecht. He said Ilovo, RCL and Gledhow did…

Astral Foods said yesterday that it has been granted a court order by the Pretoria High Court against the national government and Treasury in relation to non-delivery of basic services in the Lekwa Municipality in Standerton. The integrated poultry producer has been at loggerheads with the municipality since 2018, where disintegrating infrastructure in the municipality has led to severe basic supply interruptions to its operations. Astral decided to take extraordinary steps in launching legal proceedings against the provincial and national government to hold them accountable for the failures in municipal service delivery. In terms of Monday’s order, the national government would now intervene. | Sandile Mchunu…

IN AN EFFORT to have no packaging waste in landfills, Woolworths has announced that 50 stores will switch to being plastic-free by the end of April. The retailer said it already had a plastic-free store in Malmesbury and the next store will be opened in Rustenburg. The retailer will no longer sell single-use plastic bags. The retailer said while it encouraged customers to bring and use reusable bags, they would also sell a recycled bag manufactured locally. The bag retails at R6.49. In 2018, Woolworths said it had been making “positive changes” in its stores by using less packaging, less plastic material in packaging, and ensuring that all their packaging is recyclable. Woolworths’ head of foods: technology, food safety and sustainability, Latiefa Behardien, said: “These additional 52 stores based mainly…

DINEO fAKU dineo.faku@inl.co.za PRECIOUS metals and minerals once gain came through for the beleaguered mining industry as output surged and was expected to lift even further in the medium term. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that production improved with export values growing 5.6 percent month-on-month in February to R53.5 billion. Analysts said that the output was 33.6 percent higher than the comparable period last year, suggesting that external conditions had become favourable in line with the global economic growth recovery. StatsSA said production in the sector rose 0.8 percent year-on-year in February, ahead of expectations as iron ore output surged. The statistics agency said that iron ore, the main ingredient in the production of stainless steel, was the largest contributor to the output with 65.7 percent growth,…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za ESKOM is set to offload its controversial multimillion-rand residential development project in Mpumalanga before the end of September as part of raising more than R2 billion in capital. The power utility said yesterday that it would finalise the sale of Die Wilge Flats near the Kusile power station during the first half of the current financial year. It would also sell its Lephalale stands near the Medupi power station in Limpopo to raise more money. Meanwhile, Eskom said it would implement stage 2 load shedding yesterday due to a shortage of generation capacity. Yesterday, the struggling power utility said it had raised R76.1 million from the disposal of two high-rise office buildings in Kimberley and Johannesburg as part of its strategy to sell non-core immovable…

AUDITOR-General Tsakani Maluleke has officially declared the SA Post Office to be commercially insolvent. Reports emerged yesterday that Maluleke conferred the struggling post office to a growing list of collapsing parastatals with irregular expenditure of over R200 million, as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure exceeding R26m. Maluleke allegedly said that there was no evidence that officials behind the irregularities had been held to account. She was said to have been constrained by the post office’s “poor status of the accounting record” and grossly inadequate internal controls with no proper record keeping to ensure that complete, relevant, and accurate information was accessible and available. In January, former chief executive Mark Barnes accused the government of interfering with the institutions’ turnaround strategy, which had led to financial difficulties at the…