Inhoudsopgave van 2024-02-05 - Star

It sold properties and shares in the group worth about R15 billion in the course of last week THE SALTZMAN family that founded Dis-Chem Pharmacies have sold properties and shares in the group worth about R15 billion last week. The group said on Friday that an independent professional expert had found its R478.6 million purchase of Columbia Falls, a property company that houses the group’s Midrand distribution centre and head office, from a trust controlled by the Saltzmans, was fair. This sale followed hard on the heels of the sale last week by founder Ivan Saltzman of 50 million shares in Dis-Chem for about R1.42bn, while his son, Saul Satzman, also sold 3 million shares for R87.9m. Dis-Chem is a leading retail pharmacy group in South…

TECH GIANT Prosus said it and other share- holders are looking to sack the billionaire founder of Indian edtech start-up Byju’s as the once high-flying company faces deep financial woes. Indian media reports said the move had the backing of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic venture founded by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. Byju’s, once one of India’s most valuable start-ups, is bleeding money, and has seen auditor Deloitte resign over corporate governance issues. It is embroiled in a legal fight with US lenders over a $1.2 billion (R23bn) loan. The company is being probed by India’s financial investigative agency, has laid off thousands of employees, and has seen its $22bn valuation crash by an estimated 90% over the past year. Prosus said that…

TRANSNET expects to rail 60 million tons (Mt) of coal to Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) this year, Bonginkosi Mabaso, the chief commercial officer at Transnet, told the 19th McCloskey Southern African Coal Conference on Friday. This echoed the promise made by Transnet’s Ali Matola at the 17th McCloskey Southern African Coal Conference in May 2022. Unfortunately, instead of reaching 60 Mt in 2022, RBCT was only able to export 50.4 Mt in 2022 from 58.7 Mt in 2021 and a record 76.5 Mt in 2017. In 2023 RBCT was only able to export 47.2 Mt, the lowest tonnage since 1992. Other delegates were not as optimistic as Mabaso and said they were planning pessimistically on only 49 Mt this year, given the ongoing…

PAN AFRICAN Resources’ management expects headline earnings per share (Heps) and earnings per share (Eps) to increase sharply by between 41% and 51% for the six months to end December 31, the company said in a trading statement on Friday. The strong earnings forecast by the mid-tier African gold producer saw the company’s share price ratchet up 3.01% to R4.45 on Friday morning, a price that brought the gain for the year to 34.4%. The share closed the day at R4.34, up 0.46%. Heps and Eps were expected to be between US 2.14 cents (R0.40) a share and US 2.30c a share, compared to US 1.52c per share for the corresponding reporting period. Pan African’s presen- tation currency is the US dollar and its functional…

JSE-LISTED MC Mining’s shares rose to close a whopping 20% higher at R1.80 on Friday, after it said it had received an “off-market takeover bid” and was in receipt of a bidder’s statement. It warned its shareholders to take no action until it had assessed the offer. MC Mining said it had received a copy of a Bidder's Statement, dated February 2, 2024. “The bidder’s statement relates to an off-market takeover bid by a consortium of joint-bidders for all of the fully paid ordinary shares on issue in the company they do not currently own (takeover offer). “The joint-bidders include Senosi Group Investment Holdings Proprietary Limited (Senosi) and Dendocept Proprietary Limited (Dendocept) and certain other shareholders and associates, who represent, in aggregate, 64.3% of the issued capital in…

Retail giant Pick n Pay has called on customers to return No Name and Eden Crunch peanut butter brands they may have bought at the chain store following the detection of “higher than regulated” levels of Aflatoxin. On Saturday, the retailer announced the recall of its No Name Smooth Peanut Butter and Eden Crunch Peanut Butter. It said the recall was due to the fact that higher than regulated levels of Aflatoxin had been discovered in the products, which might constitute a health risk. “The health and safety of our customers is our priority. “Customers who might have bought these peanut butter products are urged to return them to Pick n Pay for a full refund if any product has an expiry date between now and July 2025.” As per…

A Krugersdorp man approached the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, to fight a woman who wanted to evict him after selling his house without his knowledge. In 1998, Magage William Melwele and his late wife bought a property, which at the time was vacant land. They bought it for R7 000 from Oupa John Mabulala. It was agreed that Melwele would be responsible for the payment of rates and other municipal levies for the property. He would also pay the costs of registration of the transfer, including transfer duty and deposits. The transfer was to be effected after compliance with those obligations, and the parties would sign all documents to register the transfer on request from the nominated conveyancers. There was also an agreement that the purchasers may not,…

LEGENDARY reggae musicians Pressure Busspipe and Dynamq are set to ignite reggae and dancehall passion for their South African music fans, who are expected to flock to the Soweto Theatre next month for their dose of reggae jams. Pressure Busspipe, also known as Delyno Brown, is a reggae musician from Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands, who gained fame working on the Star Lion sound system in the late 1990s, while Dynamq, real name Kennedy Ongele Lorya, is a South Sudanese reggae-dancehall artist, DJ, music producer, founder of Dynamq Sounds International and non-governmental organisation Dynamq Foundation in Juba, South Sudan. The event, being staged by Lioness Productions, takes place on Saturday, March 9, when throngs of dancehall and reggae followers will be treated to an unforgettable night of pulsing rhythms…

It’s all so boringly predictable. As South Africa’s legal team returned from The Hague to a hero’s welcome after delivering their frankly ludicrous case against Israel’s supposed genocide” in Gaza, anyone with even the most cursory understanding of the history of anti-Semitism could let out only a weary, worn-out sigh at the sheer inevitability of it all. There is a cliché that anti-Semitism is “the canary in the coal mine”; that the levels of Jew-hatred are inversely proportional to the “health” of a society at a given time. And the shameful display at The Hague by the ANC’s legal team is only the latest affirmation of this. On an international level, for sure, as the far-left and far-right have finally found common cause, but most apparently here in South Africa.…

SANLAM plans to acquire up to 100% of the shares of Assupol Holdings (Assupol), through a scheme of arrangement, with a fallback offer to Assupol shareholders for a purchase price of around R6.5 billion. The proposed deal will see Assupol become part of Sanlam’s retail mass cluster and together with Sanlam Sky, Safrican and the Capitec JV. Deal Leaders International chief executive Andrew Bahlmann said, given the compatibility of the two companies, this deal offered “considerable value”. He said Assupol’s market capitalisation on the Cape Town Stock Exchange was around R4.94bn at February 1, 2024, but on June 30, 2023, the date of the last audited financial statements, Assupol’s net assets value was R5.39bn, with the embedded value, the more common valuation measure of insurance companies, at R7.07bn,…

SHELL Downstream South Africa has announced the appointment of Aluwani Museisi as Country Chairperson for South Africa. Museisi succeeds Hloniphizwe Mtolo, who served Shell South Africa over the past nine years, the company said in a statement on Friday. “We would like to thank Mr Mtolo for his considerable contributions to Shell South Africa, and we wish him well in his future endeavours,” it said. Museisi until recently led the Corporate Relations function for Shell in South Africa, where he was responsible for Communications, Gov- ernment Relations, Social Investment, Trans- formation and External Relations teams. His background includes significant roles in both the government and private sectors. “I am honoured to accept the responsibility of leading an exceptional team, making a difference and deepening our external and internal partnerships. “I…

ON JANUARY 31, 2024, South Africa exported its first shipment of goods to Ghana under the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA). It was very exciting. The president and his ministers, wearing traffic cop fluorescent vests and hard hats, looked ready to load the containers themselves on to the MSC Floriana VI. Inside the containers were refrigerators and home appliances (it’s not true that these were being exported because they are electrical appliances, and we have no electricity). There was also some mining equipment. This was being done under the Guided Trade Initiative, which allows countries to get a feel for the AfCFTA export experience by sending small quantities of goods between the signatory states. This is an important agreement for Africa, because the continent hardly trades with itself.…

South Africa has gone through a painful decade of unbridled state capture and corruption that has become tragically endemic not only across the state but also in the private sector. While corruption and other forms of criminality have always been a feature of humanity, its explosion in recent years in South Africa has come at a heavy cost to workers, pensioners, the economy, state and society at large. Once world-class State-owned enterprises (SOEs), such as Eskom, Transnet, Metrorail, Denel, the SABC, SAA, SA Post Office and Postbank among others have been plunged into varying stages of existential crises. Countless municipalities too have experienced this pandemic. Workers at these once proud institutions pay the price in not being paid, their third-party deductions being stolen by the employer and losing their jobs.…

ECONOMISTS have warned that fiscal slippage in South Africa could accelerate further as the National Budget deficit is forecast to worsen more than previously expected at the end of the 2023/24 financial year while the government borrowing escalates. Finance Minister Enoch Godon-gwana will table the National Budget later this month amid deteriorating tax revenues, rising expenditure demands, weak economic growth and policy uncertainty. The 2023 February Budget projected gross debt at 72.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) for this 2023/24 fiscal year, which was then pushed up to an estimate of 74.7% of GDP in the November medium-term budget. The 2023/24 budget deficit, which occurs when expenditures exceed revenue, was revised weaker, at -4.9% of GDP in November compared to -4% of GDP in February, further evidence of fiscal slippage,…

IF YOU think Kwenzo Ngcobo was incredible in The Wife, you will be blown away by his performance in the new Netflix series, Soon Comes Night. Ngcobo is cast in the lead role as Alex Shabane, a former MK soldier turned heist king. The riveting six-part crime drama is set against South Africa’s tumultuous landscape, circa 1990. Ngcobo shared: “It was a very interesting role and, at some point, it felt a bit too much. But I really enjoyed it. I’ve learnt so much from playing Alex Shabane and having to do research on MK soldiers and going back to our fathers’ times. I had so much fun.” He said preparing for the role was difficult. “At first it was based on the real-life character and then they changed it…

WHILE on a voter registration campaign trail on Saturday, President Cyril Ramaphosa interacted with ordinary South Africans in Soweto, encouraging them to register in their numbers to vote for the ANC. Ramaphosa was in the company of Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji and other ANC officials during his door-to-door voter registration campaign where he urged voters to ensure an ANC victory in the upcoming general elections. “There is no other party that we’re going to go with. Today, we’re educated because of the ANC. We’ll go ahead with the ANC. The people have raised a number of issues. We are really privileged to have the premier and the leader of the ANCYL and we have been interacting with the people in their homes and in…

THE new national minimum wage (NMW) of R27.58 with effect from March 1 this year, up from R25.42, announced by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi on Friday, has attracted a mixed reaction from labour and employer groupings. The NMW will come into effect at the beginning of next month and now includes farm and domestic workers previously excluded since 2022. It comes against the backdrop of high youth unemployment and inequality that the World Economic Forum says is stunting South Africa’s gross domestic product per capita. Onyi Nwaneri, a spokesperson for youth development organisation Tikka Africa, told Business Report yesterday that the NMW had brought “mixed feelings” across the South African economy. “What we see in terms of unemployment is not good regarding youth unemployment with unintended…

The South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr) conducted an underwater ultrasound on a pregnant thorntail stingray. Saambr spokesperson Ann Kunz said it was an exciting day last week when Saambr veterinarian Dr Francois Lampen joined his colleagues, Dr Justin Hart and Dr Ryan Daly, in the Open Ocean Exhibit at uShaka Marine World armed with an underwater ultrasound machine. “It was the very first time that we had been able to carry out an ultrasound on any of our fish, sharks and rays while they went about their day in their exhibit oblivious to the fact that a medical examination was taking place,” Kunz said. “We knew that one of the thorntail rays was pregnant as we could see her ‘bump’, but we were unsure exactly how far…

auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has denied that she delayed the release of the financial statements of the Ekurhuleni metro for 2022/23 after claims by top officials on the matter. But Ekurhuleni MMC for finance Nkululeko Dunga, who is also the EFF’s Gauteng chairperson, has pointed a finger at the A-G’s office saying it failed to submit the report with audited financial statements. Maluleke has described as misleading statements that the delay was on her part. Her office said it completed its work on time. “The A-G confirms that it has completed the metro’s audit on time, however the municipality’s management has raised a dispute with the national audit office regarding their audit outcome for the 2022/23 financial year, which caused the delay in tabling the report. The matter is…

MOTORISTS will be happy to know that traffic jams at the R21 and Nellmapius Drive intersection during load shedding will be a thing of the past. Hollard Insure has partnered with the City of Tshwane and other stakeholders to connect the traffic lights at the intersection to the backup power provided by the Route 21 Office Park. The partnership was borne out of the City’s adopt-a-light initiative that encourages businesses and communities to work with the municipality to help keep the lights on. Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink said: “Through this adopt-a-traffic light initiative, the Route 21 Office Park has ensured that the traffic lights stay on throughout the day, even during load shedding.” The City and Hollard Insure launched the initiative to power up traffic lights at major traffic intersections…

The estate or inheritance left behind by a wealthy individual can become highly contested among family members if there was no will that clearly states which person gets what. However, when those whose wills are iron tight leave their wealth to the most unexpected individual, it becomes even bigger news. One Chinese family found out the hard way as a rich pensioner, worth R52 million, reportedly named her pets as the recipients of her wealth while her children did not get a cent. The South China Morning Post reported that the woman, who is from Shanghai, signed her original will a few years ago, leaving money and property to her three children. But she had since changed her mind regarding the inheritance because her children reportedly stopped visiting her…

SOUTH Africa has erupted in joyous celebrations following Bafana Bafana’s thrilling victory over Cape Verde in the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday. Squad captain Ronwen Williams was among those applauded when he made the fourth save that sent the team to the Afcon semi-finals. Celebrities, political parties and fans have thrown their support behind the team as it prepares for its semi-final clash with Nigeria on Wednesday. Siv Ngesi, Dr Musa Mthombeni, Mmusi Maimane, Cassper Nyovest, Fikile Mbalula and other personalities have been consistent in their support for the team at the tournament. Nyovest said Williams had written his name in the history books. “Tonight, you wrote your name in the history books and in our hearts!!! Legend!! First time in 15 years!!! We are going to the…

LARGE South African textiles manufac- turers are struggling against imports while competition from non-compliant factories are also eating into their market-share. Non-compliant textile manufacturers have been problematic for the industry, especially in rural and peri- urban areas, where unfair labour practices and poor remuneration have become the order of the day, according to recent findings. The Southern African Textile and Workers’ Union (Sactwu) said last week that big South African clothing and apparel retailers should shoulder the blame for the “deplorable and terrible working conditions” in the country’s textiles industry. Now, some large textile producers have called for an investiga- tion into the industry to root out operators flouting labour and health standards. Ajit Valjee, a director for JMV Textiles, told Business Report in an interview: “There are most definitely…

REGULATION was killing mining in South Africa, Peter Major, a director a Mining at Modern Corporate Solutions, told the 19th McCloskey Southern African Coal Conference on Friday. “Regulation is like a nuclear fallout and it is killing mining in South Africa. I have been in the business for the past 42 years and unless things change we will follow the path of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia that took a thriving mining industry in the 1960s to the brink of extinction in the early 1990s. “Once the politicians stepped out of the way and lifted the restrictions, then the mining industry revived and we could see something similar happening here if regulations are eased,” Major said. He shared a slide that showed the abstract of a…

Azwi Mboyi’s protestations keep unleashing important lessons. When I was the Statistician-General, Azwi served in human resources. He was, and I am sure still is, a well-mannered official like many of us, with neat hair, a clean-shaven-face and softly spoken. Something unprocedural had happened with his promotion, and I objected to approving it. There have been moments when I have exercised the option of refusal. But I would go further and say to the staff member, go ahead and take this matter up so that it gets adjudicated by a neutral authority, because I realise you are not satisfied. No staff member would really be satisfied with being denied a promotion. But for some reason they would feel uneasy to do so. Obviously because there would be a power…

VODACOM Group increased revenue by a whopping 26.8% to R38.9 billion in the quarter to December 31, boosted by the acquisition of Vodafone Egypt. Group service revenue growth, including Vodafone Egypt on a pro-forma basis, was 8.8%, at the higher- end of the group medium-term target, the group said in a trading update on Friday. Customers across the group, including Safaricom, reached 200 million for the first time with more than 75 million of the customers using a financial service. Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said in a statement: “During the third quarter Vodacom Group celebrated a number of key milestones including Vodacom Mozambique’s 20-year anniversary, the trial of 5G in the DRC and the announcement of Project Kuiper, a collaboration with Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite…

THE RAND ENDED the week on a positive footing in spite of the dollar surging to a seven-week high after the US economy posted more than expected job number for January. The domestic currency on Friday rose 0.6% to R18.89 against the US dollar after starting the week at R18.80 to the greenback on Monday, and strengthening to a two-week high of R18.58/$1 on Thursday. This was in spite of the US dollar rising the highest in seven weeks as traders scaled back expectations of rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) prompted by a stronger-than-expected US jobs report for January. The US economy added 353 000 jobs last month, following an upwardly revised 333 000 rise in December, far exceeding the market expectations of a 180…

Season two of the reality show The Mommy Club will be making it’s highly anticipated return this month. The new season introduces two new cast members who will be bringing the fabulosity, class, glamour and wealth that viewers love to see: Nozipho Ntshangase and Jabulile Sande. The new faces are set to join returning cast members Her Majesty, Mrs Mops, Nunurai and Ratile. Nozipho is an energetic, forward and enthusiastic Zulu wife and mother of eight children. The social butterfly is a real globe trotter and a clear member of the “passport gang”. Over the years, Nozipho has been approached to join several reality shows but declined because they were not the right fit for her and her family. “I watched the first season of The Mommy Club and I…

RETIRED Constitutional Court judge Zak Yacoob is returning to the apex court, but when quizzed about his new role yesterday, he directed all queries to the Office of the Chief Justice and the Department of Justice. Yacoob has been dogged by controversy in recent years. A vocal critic of former president Jacob Zuma, he admitted his own bias against Zuma in a radio interview in 2016, when asked whether he would head the commission of inquiry into state capture. Yesterday he told The Mercury, sister newspaper of The Star, that he had not confirmed his appointment to work at the Constitutional Court with anyone. “If I was appointed by the Chief Justice and the Department of Justice to do work, then it is not for me to talk and it…

EFF Leader Julius Malema has told EFF supporters and the people of ward 71, Shall Cross in Chatsworth, KwaZulu-Natal, that the party will not stop the R350 SRD grants but will go a step further and give more according to one’s qualifications. Malema, who was leading a voter registration campaign in Durban on Saturday, told the media that KZN is important as it has a big voters roll. He told party supporters in Durban that the ANC had lied to voters that should the ANC lose power, they will not get their social grants. This comes after a recent utterance by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was quoted as saying the grants will end if the governing party loses power. “If EFF gets into power, it is going to take over…

RISE Mzansi has praised South Africans for taking the daring step of registering to vote at the weekend, which the party believes shows that they are ready to use the national and provincial elections to elect the new leaders they deserve. On the first day of the last voter registration weekend, party supporters, volunteers, organisers, and leaders went out into communities to encourage unregistered voters to register and erroneously registered people to attend their local voting station to rectify their information. The party said everything was smooth sailing. “We commend the IEC for opening 99% of 23 303 voting stations on time … the current state of play bodes well for free, fair, and transparent elections.” The party said 27 million people are on the voters roll; about 13 million…

A police officer, who was living with his girlfriend in his marital home, was forced to share half of the house and his pension fund with his ex-wife during a divorce settlement in the Limpopo High Court. The former couple got married in community of property in 1992 and had four children. Their relationship collapsed and the wife moved out of their marital home in 2014. Shortly after moving out, a pregnant woman moved into the home. In November 2016, she instituted divorce proceedings and wanted the husband to pay R3 000 maintenance for their last born and she further demanded half of his pension fund and the division of their joint estate. She testified that in 2016, she resigned as a teacher and received a payout of more…

For years, we have been vilified and criminalised from afar by various Western governments, political leaders and movements and their hired agents. Hamas is this … Hamas is that … Hamas did this … Hamas did that. For decades, we have been subject to non-stop verbal attacks, lies and disinformation which has sought to re-craft us from a national liberation movement and the elected representative of the people of Gaza into “terrorists” who care not for Palestine and its needs and independence, but the chase of personal fame and benefit. Once again, in the recently concluded two-day hearing brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), not on our behalf, but that of international law and justice, Israel spent its entire defence relying on rampant hearsay,…