Cape Times 2021-11-11

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za VODACOM yesterday unveiled a proposed R41 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Vodafone Egypt from parent company Vodafone Group, which is seeking to simplify the management of its African footprint. Once completed the transaction will see Vodacom trimming its dividend policy. Vodafone said yesterday it had agreed to transfer its 55 percent shareholding in Vodafone Egypt to its sub-Saharan subsidiary Vodacom to simplify the management of its African business and further strengthen the delivery of connectivity and financial services on the continent. Vodafone has been focused on placing its African assets under the control of Vodacom and in 2017 completed the transfer of its 35 percent in Kenyan mobile network Safaricom to Vodacom. Vodacom told investors the acquisition would be funded by issuing…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa’s biggest mobile operator Vodacom and investment holding company Remgro are combining their fibre businesses in a boost for the local network. Vodacom said yesterday that it would acquire a strategic stake in Community Investment Ventures Holdings’ (CIVH) fibre assets, which is 57 percent owned by Remgro. CIVH operates electronic communications infrastructure through its subsidiaries Vumatel, South Africa’s leading fibre network provider, and Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), which operates a national metro fibre network spanning 13 000km. Vodacom told investors it would hold a co-controlling 30 percent equity interest in a newly formed InfraCo entity into which all of the material assets currently owned by DFA and Vumatel would be transferred in addition to certain Vodacom-owned fibre assets. The telecommunications company said it…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za POWER utility Eskom, currently putting on a charm offensive due to its shoddy performance in keeping the lights on, is battling behind the scenes with R125 billion in debt interest payments and meagre government subventions for operations, the auditor-general’s audit into the parastatal revealed yesterday. The auditor-general, in reports by SizweNtsalubaGobodo, in collaboration with Grant Thorn- ton, revealed that the largest problems with Eskom’s paper trail were hidden in documents that the utility would or could not supply to its auditors, dating back to legacy contracts from the 2017/18 financial year as well as current contracts. Grant Thornton partner Siyakhula Vilakazi told Parliament’s portfolio committee on public finances that samples obtained by auditors from Eskom’s paper trail revealed a systematic overhang of procurement processes, both from…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE NATIONAL Treasury has noted, but rejected a number of industry stakeholder comments on the proposal to increase excise duties for tobacco and alcohol to a rate of 8 percent in a bid to raise R1.8 billion revenue for the fiscus. Briefing parliament yesterday, Treasury said it had received written comments from 76 contributors on the 2021 Draft Tax Bills which, among others, give effect to increases of the excise duties on alcohol and tobacco products as proposed in the February Budget. The excise hike has placed the excise incidence on the cigarette’s most popular price category (MPPC) at 45 percent compared to the Treasury's targeted excise burden of 40 percent of the retail price of the most popular brand. Treasury uses Peter…

Given Majola given.majola@inl.co.za AS FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana delivers his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), the SA Canegrowers has called on him to scrap the Health Promotion Levy, or sugar tax, to ensure that the sector’s masterplan succeeds. SA Canegrowers chairperson Andrew Russell said Godongwana would be delivering his MTPBS in the context of record levels of unemployment in the country. “His address also comes six days before the one-year anniversary of the Sugar Industry Value Chain Masterplan. “If the government is serious about ensuring the long-term sustainability of the sector and protecting the one million livelihoods it supports, it must do away with the job-killing sugar tax,” Russell said. The sugar tax was introduced in 2018 with the aim of reducing obesity in the country. However, SA Canegrowers…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE GOVERNMENT has decided to forge ahead with its plans to create a new centralised entity that will manage its shareholding in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in a bid to stop the rot. The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) yesterday told Parliament that it would be presenting a Draft SOE Shareholder Management Bill by the end of the 2021/22 financial year. The centralised shareholder management model from the bill – meant to address the lack of overarching SOE legislation – was first mooted in September. It aims to ensure a standardised governance, financial management and operational performance framework for all SOEs to curb runaway fruitless and irregular expenditure. Currently SOEs fall under various government departments, and this has led to devastating consequences such as fragmentation, duplication, overlapping of…