Cape Times CT-2021-04-09

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa’s ambitious job creation drive spearheaded by President Cyril Ramaphosa has received a $1 billion (R14.5bn) cash injection from the BRICS Bank to help the country fight rising unemployment levels. The New Development Bank (NDB) yesterday approved a $1bn second Covid-19 emergency loan to South Africa in less than a year to support economic recovery. The NDB said the loan would finance the creation of employment opportunities in South Africa, in particular the first phase of the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES). “The loan will finance creation of employment opportunities in South Africa, in particular the first phase of the PES, together with social protection measures for active labour market participants that temporarily lost their jobs, in order to help them remain in the labour market,”…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za PROSUS yesterday made its first direct investment in an online grocer by investing €223 million (R3.85 billion) in a Norwegian e-grocery business. Oda, which has rebranded from Kolonial.no is Norway’s largest online grocery business, which provides thousands of people with same and next-day home deliveries of high-quality groceries, meal-kits, and household items, said it had raised €223m in a funding round led by Prosus and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The online grocery business market is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2027. Prosus said as part of the transaction, Neil Cunha-Gomes, an investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, and Roger Rabalais, a chief financial officer of Food Delivery at Prosus would join Oda’s board. Chief executive of Prosus Food Larry Illg said online grocery represented a large…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za ANGLO American has spun off its South African thermal coal assets into Thungela Resources which will have a primary listing on the JSE and a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange. As part of setting up Thungela into a standalone business, Anglo said it would provide a R2.5 billion initial cash injection and a further contingent capital support until the end of 2022 in the event of thermal coal prices in the rand falling below a certain threshold. The demerger comes amid pressure from investors, climate change activists and regulators for mining houses to limit their exposure to fossil fuels. Anglo chief executive Mark Cutifani said yesterday that Anglo was confident that Thungela would be a responsible steward of its thermal coal assets in South Africa,…

THE MANUFACTURING industry in South Africa continues to struggle to recover from the Covid-19 induced depression as factory output fell more than expected in February. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that manufacturing production remained in contractionary territory as it fell by 2.1 percent in February from a year ago. February followed an upwardly revised 4.2 percent slump in January and was significantly weaker than market expectations of a 0.4 percent fall. StatsSA said output was dragged down largely by declines in petroleum and chemical products, rubber and plastic, decreasing by 8.4 percent. The food and beverages division slid by 0.7 percent in February, much slower than the 6.1 decline in January. Textiles, clothing, leather and footwear grouping experienced a marginal 0.1…

LEARNING is enormously important, since no person is born with the ability to function competently in a society with all the necessary knowledge and skills. In fact, our whole education system is based on this premise. But learning is a tedious process that takes time, repetition, and hard work, whether it is a student trying to master maths or an athlete training for the pole vault. Therefore, neuroscientists have over the years searched for ways of speeding up the learning process or making it more efficient and effective. The Matrix In 1999, the science fiction action film and winner of four Academy Awards, The Matrix, described a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality created by intelligent machines, called the Matrix. In the simulated reality…

Clara Denina and Tanisha Heiberg PRECIOUS metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater is at the centre of deal talks in the gold sector, but it may see its desire to create a South African gold champion thwarted as peers cut exposure to the country. Sibanye chief executive Neal Froneman, 61, last month floated the idea of a merger with Johannesburg-listed AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, arguing consolidation is needed for the country’s gold miners to compete globally. Speculation has mounted that Si- banye, the world’s biggest platinum producer, may bid for one or both of its South Africa-listed peers with some assets potentially being hived off to a third party. Both AngloGold and Gold Fields have shed most of their South African assets to focus on higher returns elsewhere as mining companies…