Pretoria News 2022-07-04

ABSA GROUP, which has been bedevilled by persistent executive changes, said on Friday that matters raised at a shareholder engagement meeting last week concerning the remuneration of directors would be reported in the group’s next integrated report. This followed the annual general meeting on June 3, where more than 25 percent of the votes exercised were against the remuneration implementation report. As is typical in these circumstances, a shareholder engagement meeting was held on June 30. Business Report’s request to attend the meeting was turned down as it was not a shareholder. In the 2021 financial year, 15.48 percent of the votes went against the remuneration policy, while the figure was 17.01 percent in 2020. Absa on Friday said shareholders holding about 7 percent of the…

MANUFACTURING production in South Africa is facing a worrying deterioration, with factory activity growing at a slower pace in June due to waning demand and activity during the month. The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined to 52.2 index points in June, from 54.8 points in May, as the new sales orders index moved back into negative terrain. The latest reading pointed to the 11th consecutive month of expansion in manufacturing activity, but at a weaker pace, amid a deterioration in demand and activity during the month. Absa said that the business activity index at 45 points signalled a contraction in output for a third consecutive month, linked to floods in KwaZulu- Natal in April, continuing supply chain issues and power cuts. The KZN floods caused at…

The next Eskom meeting to sit down and hammer out a plan with unions is set for tomorrow South Africa’s energy crisis looks set to continue as the struggling power utility and workers’ unions are yet to sign a wage agreement after a week of devastating blackouts. Eskom continued to implement stage 2 and stage 4 rotational power cuts throughout the weekend, as industrial action continues after wage talks at the Central Bargaining Forum (CBF) on Friday did not conclude. Over the past week, the embattled utility has implemented the worst power cuts – stage 6 – the country has seen in more than two years as maintenance workers downed tools. Workers’ unions and the Eskom management deliberated for almost 12 hours on Friday before Eskom finally made…

JUNE 2022 new vehicle sales were “inspiring” considering the ever-increasing challenges in market conditions, but further strong sales in the next few months looks less promising. National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) data released Friday showed June domestic new vehicle sales increasing 7.6 percent to 41 019 units from 38 131 vehicles sold in June 2021. Export sales also increased 18 percent, to 33 054 units compared to 28 010 vehicles exported in June 2021. “As consumers start to feel the pinch of rising food and fuel prices, with higher interest rates on their cost of living, the spill-over effect of reduced disposable income will result in lower demand for non-essentials.” Stage 6 load shedding would also cost the economy dearly…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are working on a new global reserve currency. “The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked out,” he said at the BRICS business forum. According to the Russian president, the member states are also developing reliable alternative mechanisms for international payments. The group said it was working on setting up a joint payment network to cut reliance on the Western financial system. The BRICS countries have also been boosting the use of local currencies in mutual trade. Previously, Russia had said they would only accept roubles, gold or bitcoin as payment for energy exports to “unfriendly” countries. No dollars…

FOR THE FIRST time since 2019, Eskom has implemented stage six scheduled power cuts – leaving South Africa in the dark, at great cost to the country’s fragile economy and to the inconvenience of its citizens. Whether this is the beginning of the end of a grossly outdated business model and problem-ridden company, is not for me to say. However, what I do know is that the executives of Eskom recently announced that we would experience even more disruptive load shedding in the future. This means that South Africans will have to make provision for their own power generation, just like they often have to make provision for their own security, own health care, own water, own education, own transport, and filling their own potholes and maintaining their own municipal…