Cape Times 2024-07-04

Shoprite Group has introduced an innovative digital solution for its Cash & Carry stores, marking the wholesale brand’s first venture into e-commerce. This comes as the group has upped its e-commerce game as it announced in May that its Checkers Sixty60 was beta testing the new and improved version of its app, enabling customers to shop for more than 10 000 larger Hyper products, with same-day delivery scheduled within a 60-minute time slot. These moves come hot on the heels of Amazon’s launch in South Africa in May, bringing stiff competition to the fast-growing e-commerce retail sector. The largest grocery retail group yesterday said bulk-buying customers could now browse and purchase a wide range of goods at highly competitive prices through a fully automated online shopping system, with free delivery…

South African private sector activity fell in June as output and new orders slipped on uncertainty over the outcome of the May election, a survey showed on Wednesday. The S&P Global South Africa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.2 in June from 50.4 in May. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. South Africans voted in the national elections on May 29, which saw the ANC lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid 30 years ago, creating some uncertainty in financial markets. The ANC opted for a government of national unity with 10 other political parties, and markets spent much of June awaiting the composition of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new Cabinet. “The PMI’s print of 49.2 linked to sharper falls in output and new…

Government officials and senior executives in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and constitutional bodies will from September 1, 2024 have to justify their expenditure on hiring consultants, hosting and attending local and international conferences, as well as travel and subsistence. National Treasury yesterday published the revised cost-containment measures directed to accounting officers in all government departments, constitutional institutions, and public entities as per schedules 2 and 3 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). This comes as the public finances continue to deteriorate, with the national government having spent R2.04 trillion in the 2022/23 financial year, representing a rise of 6.1% from R1.92trln the previous year, with more than half of total expenses allocated to grants paid to other levels of government, institutions, and foreign governments. Treasury said accounting officers and accounting…

Bidvest, which announced yet another offshore acquisition yesterday, plans to sell its bank through a restructuring of its financial services division. The aim was to recycle capital and align the group’s interests in terms of strategy, while setting it up for its next phase of expansion, Bidvest CEO Mpumi Madisa said yesterday. The group announced also that it is acquiring 100% of Canada-based Citron Hygiene from Birch Hill Equity Partners and other investors for an undisclosed sum. Citron serves about 50 000 customer locations from seven branches in Canada, four in the US and 10 in the UK. In March at the release of interim results, Madisa said that the group was on the acquisition trail, this after already spending R3.2 billion on bringing nine new businesses into the fold…

The proposed surcharges for electricity distribution in the City of Joburg and envisaged review of the municipal tariff structure to reflect the cost of supply (CoS) in the open access electricity market are likely to break the back of consumers already overstrained by an underperforming economy. This comes as the R200-a-month surcharge has exposed a chasm in the political leadership in the City of Joburg. The DA in Gauteng yesterday said it had written to the MMC for finance to urgently review or do away with this electricity tariff surcharge and provide clarity on the business surcharge and how it would be utilised to the benefit of residents. A legal wrangle is also in the offing as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has been enjoined by the…

South Africa is in many ways one of the most modern countries in Africa, particularly with respect to electricity access. Yet while its numbers compare favourably with most other African nations (as of 2021, 89.3% of the population had reliable access to electricity, making it the fifth-highest ranking on the continent, according to the World Bank), it shares some of the same core problems as the others: an unreliable energy supply facing a rapidly growing population, an expanding economy and increasing urbanisation. With climate change looming large over any debate about energy, the pressure is on from more economically developed nations for Africa to bypass older energy technologies and jump straight to renewables. As wonderful as that may sound in theory, the key to supplying a growing nation is stability,…