Cape Times 2022-05-31

THE AFRICAN Energy Chamber has called for African countries to open their own investigations against the global diversified miner, Glencore plc. Glencore’s two subsidiaries last week pleaded guilty to multiple charges of market manipulation and bribery, including corruption related to the company’s oil operations in Africa and South America. The Energy Chamber yesterday said what Glencore did was illegal, immoral, and completely unacceptable. The chamber said Glencore’s actions also did not reflect the normal business dealings of the oil and gas industry. “And, for the record, the African Energy Chamber has never solicited or accepted a single monetary contribution from Glencore,” tbe organisation said. “What’s more, we strongly believe that Glencore’s dealings in African countries should be closely examined on a local level and African officials who accepted bribes should…

PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS’ (PwC)ending of its contract with Oceana comes at a time of heightened regulatory sensitivity at auditing firms as their roles are increasingly being challenged in high-profile frauds such as Steinhoff and EOH. Oceana, a fishing group facing turbulent governance issues, said yesterday that its external auditors, PwC, had resigned with immediate effect due to a strained relationship and a lack of “objective and transparent communication” between them. The resignation on Friday was just a business day ahead of an Oceana audit committee meeting scheduled with shareholders about PwC’s reappointment. The meeting was scheduled because of the large number of votes (38 percent) against PwC’s reappointment at the AGM on May 5, and in the interests of governance, Oceana said in a statement yesterday. Oceana has faced a range…

WORKFORCE solutions provider Adcorp Holdings would focus on growth in its new financial year to February 2023, including the possibility of acquisitions, chief executive John Wentzel said at the release of the annual results yesterday. A 47 cent dividend was declared for the year to end-February 2022, versus zero in 2021. Total earnings increased sharply to 109.1c per share compared with 35.6c in 2021 – earnings per share from continuing operations increased to 92.8c from only 2.2c in 2021. Operating profit from continuing operations before finance income and finance costs rose 68.6 percent to R199 million. Revenue from continuing operations fell 1.7 percent to R11.5 billion following an exit of unprofitable contracts, negative currency translation and ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa…

SIBANYE-Stillwater, rocked by ongoing strike action at its South African gold mines and sharp criticism from the government over its handling of the labour unrest, said yesterday it would defend itself against a claim suit in the UK High Court over termination of its $1.2 billion (R18.7bn) deal to acquire two Brazilian mines. The two Brazilian properties, the Santa Rita nickel and Serrote copper mines, would have further enhanced Sibanye’s portfolio. Appian Capital, the London-based investment firm, has interests in the two Brazilian mines and has filed a claim against Sibanye’s decision to terminate the deal. The claim worsened Sibanye’s streak of recent troubled stakeholder- relations incidents emanating from the company’s failure to find a speedy solution to strikes dogging its gold mining operations for nearly three months in…

BR’s editor Adri Senekal de Wet interviews Dr Chris Harmse, an economist at CH Economics and lecturer at the School of Commerce at the Stadio Multiversity. Please explain the reason for higher inflation in South Africa (SA)? The main reasons for the higher and expected increase in the inflation rate in SA are due to cost push factors. The three main items in the inflation basket, making up more than 55 percent of the inflation basket, have increased considerably over the last year. They are food and non-alcoholic beverages, making up 17.14 percent of the basket, which have increased by 6 percent year-on-year (y/y) at the end of April 2022, housing utilities (24.5 percent of the basket), increasing by 5 percent, but the sub-index, electricity…

Controversial advocate Malesela Daniel Teffo, representing four of the five men accused of murdering soccer star Senzo Meyiwa, was back in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, yesterday. No questions were asked by the court about his dramatic arrest a month ago inside the court. It was business as usual, but the second leg of the trial kicked off with a Netflix documentary series made following Meyiwa’s death taking centre stage. The defence team, headed by Teffo, vehemently objected to the presence of the Ten10 Films crew inside the court – the bulk of the day was taken up by objec- tions from the defence and prosecution. Both teams met in Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela’s chambers for more than an hour before proceedings started. It later…