Cape Times 2024-04-08

KPMG SOUTH Africa said on Friday that its identification and investigation of potential bursary fraud at the auditing and professional services firm was an integral part of the arrest of a former employee, Fidelis Moema. Moema appeared in the Palm Ridge Commercial Crimes Court in Johannesburg last week. KPMG South Africa chief executive Ignatius Sehoole said in a statement on Friday that Moema was dismissed as an employee of KPMG on November 11, 2022, following a disciplinary process related to non-compliance with firm policies. Subsequent to his dismissal, KPMG had identified potential fraud committed by Moema and initiated an internal forensic investigation. It is rare in South Africa for companies to publicly identify and aid in the arrest of employees that have allegedly committed fraud, and most often, these cases…

GRINDROD’s strategic advantage of operating the Mozambican Port and Terminals continues to add value and mitigates the impact of under-performance in the logistics and trade corridor services group’s South African operations, says its chief executive Xolani Mbambo. Grindrod traded robustly in its 2023 financial year in spite of a softening in the post-Covid commodity up-cycle and the impact of northern hemisphere conflicts on the global economy. Headline earnings growth in core operations was up 29% after revenue increased 3% to R23.5 billion. In the company’s annual report, released Friday, Mbambo said that in their Port and Terminals division, the dry bulk terminal operated by Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC) reached record volumes of 12.6 million tons, representing growth of 28% on the prior year. The 2023 performance was…

Acsa is ramping up its traffic development strategy over the next decade after recovery AIRPORTS Company South Africa (Acsa) will be turning its gaze towards India and China, as well as regional markets in Africa, to ramp up its traffic development strategy over the next decade as the domestic market is expected to continue to struggle. Although Acsa has made significant strides to recover, the company admits that domestic air traffic recovery seems to have peaked, despite this market segment not reaching pre-Covid passenger traffic volumes. Acsa expects to return to profitability this year, after narrowing its after-tax loss of R142 million last year. This is a significant improvement on the R1 billion loss posted in the prior year, owing to the implementation of its…

ZIMBABWE’s newly introduced Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency is causing market disruptions and transaction bottlenecks despite central bank assurances that it is backed by gold and foreign currency reserves, amid scepticism that the government will keep money printing limited. A raft of currency reforms and other measures have failed to turn around the Zimbabwean economy for the better in more than 10 years, with hyperinflation worsening, production crippled and the US dollar remaining the preferred unit of exchange. In 2016, Zimbabwe introduced bond notes that were said to be backed by a bond held with Afreximbank before the country reverted back to Zimbabwe dollars in 2019, a year that also saw multiple currencies legalised as legal tender. In 2023, President Emerson Mnangagwa, wobbled by an implosion in the exchange rate…

As South Africa gears up for the start of the 2024 citrus season, the orange industry faces ongoing challenges from European Union (EU) regulations on the false codling moth (FCM). These rules, introduced in 2022, have significantly disrupted South Africa’s orange exports to Europe, traditionally an important market. With another season approaching, it is time to examine the impacts these regulations have had and what they could mean for the coming harvest and exports. The new EU requirements for exporting oranges, mandating cold treatment and additional inspections for FCM, have posed major obstacles for South Africa’s citrus growers. When the rules came into effect in 2022, orange exports to Europe dropped 9% by volume compared to 2021, down to 570 020 tons according to industry estimates. The decline continued…

The IMPORTANCE of the agriculture sector in South Africa, both economi- cally and societally – in terms of en- gendering a more egalitarian society, cannot be over-emphasised and has been argued almost ad nauseam. However, transformation within the sector is far from ideal, albeit with significant recent gains, which remain largely anecdotal. There is widespread agreement that transformation within the South African agriculture, or food system – if one prefers, both to address imbalances created by past policies and generally opening up the sector to be more inclusive and representa- tive of the South Africa population demographics. Unfortunately, there is no consensus as to what constitutes transformation, how to get there and how to know whether we are on the right track or not. This is because there is no…