Cape Times 2021-10-22

Philippa Larkin philippa.larkin@inl.co.za JSE-LISTED diversified chemicals company Omnia Holdings, which said yesterday that it had sold a majority stake in Umongo Petroleum for R1 billion, is now “actively pursuing” acquisitions in mining and agriculture to add to its war chest as well as considering a possible “special dividend” to shareholders or a share buyback at the end of the financial year. Omnia and minority shareholder Autumn Storm Investment had negotiated the deal in a transaction, which will see Orkila South Africa, a subsidiary of Azeli, a global service provider in the speciality chemical and food ingredients industry, secure a 90 percent share in Umongo. Omnia, together with Autumn Storm, would retain a 10 percent shareholding, which was subject to a two-year option agreement. Seelan Gobalsamy, the chief…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za KUMBA Iron Ore was the latest company yesterday to flag concerns about Transnet’s rail and port challenges, which knocked its production guidance lower. Petrochemicals company Sasol also said yesterday it was facing logistical challenges in transporting export coal due to Transnet Freight and Rail. Chrome and platinum group metals producer, Tharisa Minerals, said last week the South African inland logistics issues had led to longer supply chains and thus increased pricing for products. Yesterday, Kumba said it expected full year production and sales to be at the lower end of its guidance due to Transnet’s rail and port logistics performing below planned levels. Kumba, a unit of Anglo American, said it would limit production in the months ahead and to finish the year at the low…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za THE PROLONGED metals and engneering sector strike, which has cost the economy more than R600 million, has ended after the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) yesterday announced it would accept a 6.6 percent incremental wage hike over three years from employer organisation the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) General secretary Irvin Jim of Numsa, South Africa’s biggest metalworkers union, said employers, the National Employers Association of South Africa (Neasa) and the Consoli- dated Employers Organisation had to quickly accede to the new wages that would give workers R52.52 per hour in the first year, R55.67 in the second year and R59.01 in year three. Seifsa chief executive Lucio Trentini said the industry had lost more than R600m…

Samkelo Mtshali samkelo.thulasizwe@inl.co.za AS political parties jostle for votes ahead of the November 1 local government elections, parties in eThekwini yesterday interacted with some homeless citizens of the city on issues plaguing those living on the streets. Some of the pressing problems facing homeless people in the city, as indicated in the National Homeless Manifesto presented to some of the leaders of the ANC, DA, IFP and Action SA in the city, were shelter, access to health care, access to sanitation and ablution, equal treatment by local law and security forces, and increasing economic opportunities. The meeting was held at the Denis Hurley Centre. Mxolisi Johannes Mavimbela, a representative of the homeless who delivered the manifesto, said that the majority of homeless people wanted to get off the streets by…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za ACTIONSA has asked the full bench of the Electoral Court to postpone the upcoming local government election - where it is contesting in several wards - or force the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to include its party’s full name on the ballot paper ahead of the November 1 polls. This was the collective view submitted by the party in its court application before the full bench of the Electoral Court sitting in Joburg yesterday, in which it is contesting the IEC’s decision not to include the name ActionSA in their draft ballot paper ahead of the elections. ActionSA, through its national chairperson Michael Beaumont, lodged the court application after failed attempts to persuade the IEC to include the full name ’ActionSA’ in the spot allocated for…

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za FORMER president Jacob Zuma yesterday officially opened two cases of prosecutorial misconduct against advocate Billy Downer SC, one of the most senior prosecutors within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Should Zuma be successful in his quest to get Downer hauled over the coals for allegedly leaking classified information about his arms deal corruption trial and medical records, the prosecutor could be slapped with a fine or serve 15 years behind bars. Yesterday, a smiling Zuma personally went to the Pietermaritzburg police station to lay the charges. Accompanied by his bodyguards, daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla and the spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi, Zuma spent almost an hour dealing with the processes of laying criminal charges in one of the rooms within the police station in the…