Pretoria News 2022-05-05

THE AUDITOR-GENERAL (AG) has recommended the strengthening of controls at SAA in a bid to ensure credible financial statements after flagging more than R22 billion in irregular expenditure for the financial year ended March 31, 2018. The office of the AG said yesterday that SAA’s accounting authority and management should take note of the weaknesses highlighted in the 2017/18 audit report, especially in dealing with instability, vacancies, compliance with procurement legislation and basic financial management disciplines. Briefing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), AG deputy business executive Fhumulani Rabonda said the audit outcome of SAA had remained stagnant with a qualified audit opinion with findings of predetermined objectives and compliance with legislation. Rabonda said that SAA’s subsidiary, Mango Airline, regressed to a disclaimer due to lack of evidence…

ESKOM in collaboration with other state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state agencies is bearing down on crime syndicates, also called the cable theft Mafia, that have stolen more than R7 billion worth of copper cables a year as outages and load shedding leave networks vulnerable to attacks. At a briefing yesterday, Eskom acting group head of security advocate Karen Pillay said a multi-disciplinary effort involving Telkom, Transnet, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) as well as the South African Revenue Service had set its sights on the organised elements of the scourge, including tracing the scrap export market transactions. Pillay said: “This is a national crises that has a big impact on the economy. Through the joint efforts, we have integrated strategies to address the phenomenon and are…

SANLAM and global financial services group Allianz SE have reached agreement to create a R33 billion “leading pan-African financial services” joint venture, the groups announced yesterday. Following months of negotiations – Sanlam issued a first cautionary note about the talks in December 2021 – the groups said yesterday that they would create a financial services group with an extensive footprint initially across 29 African countries. Andrew Bahlmann, the chief executive of Deal Leaders International, said the deal had the potential to be a good one for Sanlam shareholders, and while benefits may not materialise overnight, in the long term it could be a big profit generator for Sanlam. “In Africa, everything is about trust. This deal promises Sanlam accelerated ‘trust-building’ through Allianz’s greater scale and local expertise, enabling the…

AYO Technology Solutions (AYO), yesterday, again called on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) to urgently investigate what appeared to be deliberate manipulation of its share price, the listed company said in a statement. On Tuesday, AYO’s share price took a dramatic dip following a suspicious transaction, with an unidentified seller dispersing 100 shares at a value of 3 cents each – well below the market value. AYO said it strongly urged the regulator to investigate who was responsible for what the company considered to be deliberate sabotage, as it was not the first time this had happened. In January 2021, AYO had asked the JSE’s market regulator division to investigate an extraordinary rise of up to 400 percent in its share price. Before…

ROMANIA-focused retail property company MAS Real Estate said yesterday that it had inked a deal to buy 100 percent of its development joint venture PKM Development for €319.7 million (R5.358 billion) as it grows its footprint in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). MAS would purchase PKM’s share capital and shareholder loans of six subsidiaries, which own six commercial retail centres in Romania through two subsidiaries, MAS CEE Management Holdings SRL and MAS Real Estate Finance SRL. PKM Development is the development joint venture (DJV) established in March 2016 by Prime Kapital, PKM Development, MAS and MAS CEE Developments Limited. MAS said yesterday that via the deal it had certain goals to achieve by the end of the 2026 financial year, such as an annual like-for-like net rental…

RISING inflation and a 5 percent increase in excise taxes have hammered the tobacco cigarette business of BAT Zimbabwe, which is now antici- pating an increase in production costs as it weighs the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With consumer spending power in Zimbabwe declining as a result of cost pressures emanating from elevated inflation, BAT Zimbabwe recorded flat tobacco cigarette sales for the quarter period to the end of March. Retailers have recorded a wave of price increases in the past week as the parallel market exchange rate expanded. “The company’s volumes from sale of cigarettes were relatively flat as compared to the same period last year on the backdrop of shrinkage of consumer disposable income,” BAT Zimbabwe chairperson Lovemore Manatsa said yesterday. Tobacco is a major…