Cape Times 2021-09-06

Philippa Larkin philippa.larkin@inl.co.za Mediclinic International, the private hospital group, is putting action behind its sustainable development strategy and walking the talk after it announced on Friday that its Southern African division had entered a $152 million (R2.17 billion) deal to buy renewable electricity from Energy Exchange of Southern Africa. The group said the goal was to mitigate rising electricity costs and as it works towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030. South Africa has seen a spate of power price hikes amid a moribund economy hit by Covid-19 disruption. Dr Ronnie van der Merwe, the chief executive, said: “All divisions are taking steps to reduce their electricity consumption intensity through the adoption of the ISO 14001:2015 environmental management system. This will lead to improved operational efficiency of technical installations;…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za A SEISMIC judgment by the Mbombela High Court last week declaring it illegal for provincial bookmakers Lottostar and Betting World to place bets on the outcome of the National Lottery was the death knell for regional tourism still recovering from extensive damage brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, industry players have said. The court declared that from a player’s perspective, the experience of placing bets on the outcome of lottery draws through Lottostar and Betting World is almost identical to the experience of playing the National Lottery through Ithuba, which had sought the order, creating unbeneficial competition for the National Lottery, which is obliged to contribute 47 percent of its annual budget to the National Lotteries Distribution Fund (NLDF), while the regional bodies were only…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za A ROW is brewing between the Multi- Choice group and Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Services (Firs) as the pay-per-view conglomerate diplomati- cally insists on regulatory payments already made for its alleged non-compliance with contractual statutes in a standoff that is beginning to chafe on shareholder commitment. The group closed at 12 994 cents on the JSE Friday, after falling up to 7 percent during the day, amid the uncertainty to its response to Firs’s ultimatum for a concessionary R9.9 billion tranche, from MTN, in a statement invoking regulatory clauses. “MultiChoice Nigeria has to deposit with Firs an amount equal to the tax paid by MultiChoice Nigeria in the preceding year of assessment or one half of the disputed tax assessment under appeal, whichever…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO) returned to profitability in its construction and engineering operations in the year to June 30 following reduced losses in Australia, and a rejuvenated performance from the African business. The results, released on Friday, show that the reduced losses in Australia came after the group had provided for substantial losses in the previous reporting period, to reach the physical completion of the Western Roads Upgrade project. So additional losses in the current period primarily represented the cost of attaining commercial acceptance of the project. Management said the results were also lifted by a rejuvenated performance from the African operations which had recovered from the impact of Covid-19 in the latter half of the financial year, increasing in both revenue and profitability. In the UK,…

The BILLIONAIRE tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk, is known for his innovative approach to challenges from electric cars to Mars colonies. However, when speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, Elon Musk voiced his concern with regard to artificial intelligence (AI), which he called humanity’s “biggest existential threat” and “more dangerous than nuclear warheads”. His concern is that as AI gets smarter than humans due to the power- ful capabilities of machine learning, we could lose control over it, which would create a serious threat to the very existence of humanity. AI is currently developing at an exponential rate and once computers become superintelligent, they may be impossible to control. Human brain and AI symbiosis According to Musk, one way to overcome this potential existential crisis and to ensure…

THE QUESTION is, do we have one? Neil De Beer, founder of the United Independent Movement (UIM) believes we do – he calls it “Together We Will”. Adri Senekal De Wet sits down with the straight-talking politician about economics and the current reality that will become the future of South Africa, if we do not find that new playbook. In Neil’s words: As I walked out of the 2017 ANC Nasrec conference, reflecting on the trading of souls that had gone down at this pivotal event, I looked at our new President and saw a fraught future for our country, despite the dappling of optimism at the changing of the guard. We were then already a country in chaos – a broken economy thanks to deeply entrenched corruption spearheaded by…