Table of contents for 2024-02-15 in Cape Times

HEINEKEN’S consolidation of Distell and Namibia Breweries had positively impacted the Dutch global beer brewers net revenue by €887 million (R18.15 billion), or 3.1%, in its 2023 financial year, the results showed yesterday. The approximate R40bn acquisition of Distell and Namibia Breweries had extended the group portfolio and had created a new beverages champion in southern Africa, the Amsterdam-listed brewer said. The group had also exited Russia in the third quarter. Over the past year, Heineken faced pricing to offset unprecedented levels of commodity and energy inflation, which impacted consumer off-take. In the second half, however, pricing moderated and volume trends improved in most of Heineken’s markets. Group revenue for the year increased 4.9% to €36.4bn. Net revenue increased by 5.5% organically, with net revenue per hectolitre up…

CLICKS Group said yesterday that The Body Shop in South Africa would not be affected by issues affecting the UK operations of The Body Shop. The South African business would continue to operate as normal, Clicks Group said in response to a question from Business Report. Employees at The Body Shop can breathe easier after the Clicks announcement amid a moribund South African economy, characterised by high unemployment. Ethical cosmetics retailer The Body Shop in the UK collapsed into administration this week after facing tough competition from newcomers in recent years, including from those also touting ethical credentials. However, The Body Shops’ 199 UK stores and online service would continue to trade, while administrators sought a way forward for the company. Clicks Group has operated The Body Shop in South…

A FEW WEEKS into 2024, South Africa still stands at a crossroads in its energy landscape, facing challenges and opportunities that demand strategic vision and decisive action. We must emphasise the imperative of balancing affordability, access, and sustainability in the context of energy security. South Africa’s commitment to the NetZero directive and its transition towards cleaner, renewable energy sources can be seen as a model for inclusive and sustainable energy development in a developing nation. Energy security: A prerequisite for development Energy security is the linchpin of any nation’s development, and it entails ensuring the availability of energy resources, affordable access to energy services, and sustainability while minimising environmental impacts. The South African Energy Department's Integrated Energy Plan provides a roadmap for the future energy landscape, guiding infrastructure investments and…

THE PET SECTOR in South Africa, valued at about R7 billion by one of the largest retailers in the country, Shoprite, is seeing opportunities mushroom for small businesses. This was the case for Kaylee Barbosa, the CEO of her pet bakery business The Dog Duchess, based in Fourways, Johannesburg. The Dog Duchess provides a range of handcrafted custom cakes, treats and kibble boosters made from natural ingredients. Barbosa says running the business is now her full-time job, after having worked in the classic automotive industry for nine years. On starting her business journey, she told Business Report: “The Dog Duchess began in 2021, inspired by the challenges we faced when our beloved dachshund, Zara, underwent a back operation at a young age. “After her back op, we were…

MTN SOUTH Africa said yesterday that it was making noteworthy strides in its head office solar renewable energy Project at 14th Avenue, in Johannesburg. The company announced the energisation process of its solar renewable energy phase one project. With more than 50% completion, MTN said it had switched on 5 418 solar panels out of the planned 9 000. “This phased approach will inject 700kW into the 14th Avenue micro grid, making the head office 40% less reliant from the municipal grid,” the telecommunications giant said in a statement. “The aim is to inject a total of 1 800kW by the end of February, with the battery storage facility set to be installed by end-March. “This progress builds upon MTN’s groundbreaking move as a standalone Independent…

After a hiatus forced by the Covid-19 pandemic, anticipation is growing as the renowned Cape Town International Jazz Festival prepares to make its highly anticipated return this year. The festival, which has been a cornerstone of South Africa’s cultural landscape for two decades, is not only celebrated for its world-class musical performances but also for its significant economic impact on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Since its inception in 2000, the festival has attracted music enthusiasts from around the globe, drawing top-tier artists, launching stars, and showcasing diverse genres within the jazz spectrum, including the ever- popular and unique Cape Jazz. Over the years, the festival has become synonymous with excellence, earning accolades for its stellar line-ups and electrifying atmosphere. Beyond its cultural significance, the festival has been a…

The Springboks are not for sale to American businessmen, and the country’s leading franchises will be informed of SA Rugby’s negotiations with potential investors. This was the response from the game’s governing body after it emerged that the CEOs of the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers had collectively penned a letter to their counterpart at SA Rugby, Rian Oberholzer, expressing their concerns over a potential equity deal with US firm Ackerley Sports Group (ASG). In a statement yesterday, SA Rugby emphasised that an equity deal cannot be signed off without the approval of the governing body’s provincial unions. “Once a proposed final structure for the new company and its relationship with the existing SA Rugby structure has been finalised, a series of workshops and information sessions will be undertaken to…

SHARKS coach John Plumtree is cagey about which Springboks he will deploy against the Stormers at Kings Park on Saturday (5.05pm kick-off), but the one bone that he threw to the media was the gentleman sitting next to him at Tuesday’s media conference. “Lukhanyo (Am) will be there, but otherwise you will have to wait until Friday when we announce our team. Otherwise, Eben (Etzebeth) has had a small operation on his knee, while Bongi Mbonambi is at last ready to play his first game of the season for us (he was injured early in the World Cup final),” the Kiwi said. Plumtree made it clear at the press conference that he is unamused at having had to pick under-strength Sharks teams since he began his second tenure at the…

Dilemma, as it compels the government to augment the 2023 public sector wage increments THE LABOUR Court’s ruling compelling the South African government to augment the 2023 public sector wage increment with margins agreed during current wage negotiations places Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in a dilemma in next week’s Budget, as he strives to contain government spending and at the same time cushion public sector workers against rising inflation in an election year. Jee-A van der Linde, a senior economist at Oxford Economics Africa, told Business Report in an interview yesterday that “spending pressures remain high” for South Africa. “Given that the economy is weak, further fiscal slippage seems inevitable. Treasury is expected to announce R15 billion in tax measures during the upcoming Budget,” he said. Although the 2023…

CONSUMERS in South Africa are ex- pected to continue struggling this year under the brunt of stubbornly high in- flation, rising cost of borrowing and weak consumer confidence after retail activity plunged in 2023, in spite of sales outperforming expectations in the fourth quarter. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that retail trade sales fell by 1% in 2023 compared with 2022, reflecting a subdued consumer demand environment. The retail sector has been struggling to recover as discretionary spending was halted by persistently high consumer inflation, which was at the upper limit of the SA Reserve Bank’s target range at 6%, forcing interest rates to remain at a 13-year high of 8.25% virtually the whole year. StatsSA’s deputy director for distri- butive trade statistics, Raquel Floris said: “For…

SOUTH Africa’s monthly economic activity stayed the same last month, after improving in December last year, according to the BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index (Beti). The sideways movement for economic activity amid the multiplicity of ongoing challenges BankservAfrica said confirmed that the economy remained in a “muddle-along” mode. Shergeran Naidoo, BankservAfrica’s head of Stakeholder Engagements, said yesterday that the Beti index for January remained unchanged at 133.3 points and improved by only 0.4% on a year-on-year basis. Amid the multiplicity of ongoing challenges, the economy has been unable to gain momentum despite the reprieve provided by the lower stages of load shedding and fuel price cut in January. The higher levels of load shedding experienced in the past week, and under-recovery in fuel prices, furthermore, signalled a bleak start to…

NO STATEMENT could be more apt for the digital age than: “Change is the only constant.” With new and exciting technology emerging by the minute, it can be difficult to keep up. But, by being selective and choosing the mediums that speak directly to your business and your audience, you can capitalise on the trends and ride the wave to business success. These are three of the digital marketing trends to look out for in 2024 for your small or medium enterprise: Video content won’t give up centre stage You would be hard pressed to find any social media user – both abroad and in South Africa – who isn’t aware of the rather sudden rise of video content. There’s no question about it, social media has become less about…

TymeBank and TFG partnership THE STRATEGIC partnership between TymeBank and TFG (The Foschini Group) has made significant progress since its official launch in January 2023, acquiring 1 million bank account customers in just more than a year. TymeBank’s record customer growth (8.7 million total customers since the launch in 2019) had benefited significantly from TFG’s large-scale retail ecosystem, it said yesterday. Through the TymeBank TFG Money bank account, which can be opened at a kiosk in more than 500 TFG stores nationwide, customers have direct and convenient access to highly affordable transactional banking and the most competitive savings interest rates in the market. TymeBank CEO Coen Jonker said: “This milestone is testament to the success of TymeBank’s partnership model, which has been an integral part of our strategy since…

If YOU lose Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe at the start of a new season, you would expect your scrum to struggle a bit. But that has not been the case for the Stormers, and one of the unsung heroes in that regard has been loosehead prop Sti Sithole. Having made his provincial bow at Western Province, a lack of regular game time saw Sithole – who is from Durban – leave Cape Town and seek greener pastures first at the Southern Kings in the Eastern Cape, and then the Lions in Johannesburg. The former Junior Springbok was then brought back to the Stormers this season after Kitshoff’s move to Ulster, and he has shone in what has been a remarkable effort by the tight five in the scrums. Along…

SA Football Association president Danny Jordaan says they have no intention of releasing coach Hugo Broos after his relentless fight to build Bafana Bafana during his tenure. Bafana achieved the improbable at the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations as they finished as bronze medallists, and received the coveted Fair Play award from CAF. It was an incredible milestone as Bafana were not tipped to even make it past the group stage following lukewarm preparations and personal battles with the governing body. Bafana drew friendly matches they were expected to win before the tournament, while Safa was accused of not fully backing the team with adequate resources. Reports emerged that the association was involved in bonus rows with the players for the friendly games, and was responsible for the late…

THE TOTAL value invested in bitcoin sur- passed $1 trillion (R19trln) yesterday for the first time since November 2021 as inflows to US spot bitcoin exchange traded funds continued to support prices. Bitcoin’s price reached $51902 yesterday, its latest 25- month high and a rise of 4.7% on the day, taking the token’s market cap to $1.017trln according to price platform Coingecko. The all-time high for bitcoin’s market cap was $1.28trln hit in November 2021, according to Coingecko. The world's largest crypto- currency has risen around 20% since the start of February, already set for its biggest monthly rise since October. Investments in bitcoin make up for more than half of the $2.01trln parked in the overall cryptocurrency market which includes ether and other digital coins. Strong inflows to new…

PARLIAMENT’S Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises would not rubber stamp the department’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) commitments to urgently address service delivery shortfalls, particularly on load shedding interventions without the principals being present, especially Electri- city Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) was giving an overview of the performance of the different parastatals and its most immediate response to the performance lethargy of entities including South African Airways (SAA), Transnet, Denel, Safcol and diamond producer Alexkor. Parliamentarians in the Khaya Magaxa-chaired committee preferred to defer the discussions of each State-owned enterprise separately and in the presence of line Ministers as they said issues of load shedding and improv- ing efficiency a the logistics entity, Transnet National Port Authority, were urgent. Through acting Director General…

ENTREPRENEURS are among the craziest creatures on Earth. Frantically enough, they keep believing, even when they cannot see how they’ll sur- vive the arduous path facing them. They hit many roadblocks, have num- erous doubts and eventually either fail or succeed in their venture. Some say that it’s the starting period right up until full failure or closure that determines and builds the entrepreneur. Many of us were glued to the tele- vision for the past month watching the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), which was hosted by the Ivory Coast. During the opening ceremony, I called a few friends to ask if they would be watching this spectacle. Lo and behold, many of them did not know that the Afcon was even happening. I dared them to watch Africa’s…

PAN AFRICAN Resources was well positioned to deliver on its 2024 financial year production guidance of between 180 000 ounces (oz) and 190 000oz of gold, CEO Kobus Loots said in a presentation yesterday. The surface reminer and deep surface gold mining company yesterday released interim results that showed profit well up by 46.7% to $42.4 million (R805m). Earnings per share and headline earnings per share increased by 46.1% to US2.22 cents per share (US1.52c per share). Speaking in a presentation, Loots said gold production for the six months came to 98 458oz (2022: 92 307oz), an increase of 6.7% relative to the six months ended December 31, while they had also benefited from the tailwinds of the rise in the rand gold price…

GOLD MINER DRDGold has reinvested R1 billion of cash generated in the half-year period to the end of December into capital infrastructure, reducing cash and cash equivalents on its books to R1.5bn compared to R2.47bn a year earlier after growing revenue from R2.6bn to R2.9bn. Although production of gold for the interim period under review fell 7% to 2 547 kilograms, the company benefited from an uptick in the rand price of bullion, translating to an increase in revenue generation. DRDGold as a result posted a 15% increase in operating profit to R909.3 million after costs after a 19% surge in all in-sustaining costs to R945 899 per kilogram. The rand gold price received by the company for the period was, however, 22% stronger at…

Art Formes’ inaugural exhibition at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair will focus exclusively on clay, showcasing how this medium is reshaping the landscape of contemporary South African art. The Investec Cape Town Art Fair at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from tomorrow until Sunday, brings the international art world together in Africa, featuring over 100 leading galleries and 500 artists from four continents. Art Formes founder Olivia Barrell said they were delighted to present a selection of new sculptural work from featured artists in their recent publication, Clay Formes: Contemporary Clay from South Africa, including an earth-based installation by sculptor Ledelle Moe and pioneering works in wild clay by interdisciplinary artist Belinda Blignaut. Blignaut is committed to wild hand-dug clay and its capacity to transform embodied experience. She…

Curry paste: 5cm knob fresh ginger, peeled and sliced 4 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped 1 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped 5 cloves garlic, sliced 6 red chillies, deseeded 3cm knob fresh turmeric, peeled and grated, or 1 tsp (5ml) ground turmeric 2 tsp (10ml) ground cumin ½ cup (125ml) desiccated coconut Glug vegetable oil 1kg beef shin, cut into chunks 3 star anise 6 cardamom pods, bruised 4 cloves 1 stick cinnamon 1 can (400g) coconut milk 1 Tbsp (15ml) tamarind paste Juice (30-60ml) of 1-2 limes For serving: Sliced red onion Shards of cucumber Fresh coriander, coconut shavings Strips of red chilli Steamed white rice Grind curry paste ingredients using a pestle and mortar until smooth, or purée in a blender with a splash of water. Toast desiccated…

The sporting industry is normally cut-throat and unforgiving. However, once in a while, it produces great life stories and comebacks. Dane Piedt’s return to the Proteas set-up is one of those great stories, after he claimed a five-wicket haul in the second Test against New Zealand in Hamilton yesterday. Prior to the Test tour of New Zealand, Piedt’s last series was against India away in 2019, where the Proteas lost all three matches. Piedt would go on to take only three wickets on that tour, and was then dropped. Expecting that was his last dance in Proteas whites, the right-arm off-spinner packed his bags and moved to the US. Faced with a Black Caps team that has a number of left-handed top-order batters, a right-arm off-spinner was the best option…

South Africa’s four franchises will return to action in the United Rugby Championship this weekend, and the next few months will be vital for players looking to impress the Springbok coaches in the lead-up to the international season. Double Tests against Ireland and New Zealand await, while an experimental side could feature in the one-off Test against Portugal and a possible friendly match with Wales – which makes it two good Tests for some fresh blood. Independent Newspapers takes a look at the players who have been impressive so far and looking to secure their place in the Bok squad for this year’s Tests. Today we feature tighthead prop, a position the Springboks should look to freshen up over the next few seasons with some new players ... The Incumbent:…