Table of contents for 2024-06-04 in Cape Times

PRIVATE equity company Brait, partly owned by well known South African businessperson Christo Wiese, saw its price plunge more than 16% on the JSE yesterday after it announced recapita- lisation plans that included a R1.5 billion rights issue. Brait’s share price closed 17.39% lower at 95 cents on the JSE yesterday. Its invest- ments includes 67% of international fitness group Virgin Active, 18% of UK fashion retailer New Look and 38% of local food producer Premier, which listed separately in March last year. Brait’s share price has fallen steadily, by more than 70% over the past 12 months. Independent market analyst Ryk de Klerk said that in general, as he had not looked at Brait, it was not a good time to announce a rights issue, because there…

BUSINESS and civic organisations have called on political parties’ coalition negotiators to be mindful of addressing looming challenges, including policy uncertainty, the need to build business confidence, and efficient administration as the economy is ushered into uncharted territory. This comes as the ruling ANC embarks on negotiations with opposition parties to form a coalition government after losing its parliamentary majority for the first time since demo-cracy, winning 40.18% of the national vote, with the DA coming second at 21.81% and the newly formed MK Party scoring 14.58%. Business organisations yesterday said that the election results were important, as the country had endured significant hardships over the past 15 years due to misgovernance during the State capture years, the Covid-19 pandemic, self-inflicted unrest in July 2021, and several episodes of…

FITCH Ratings analysts yesterday said that muted credit and revenue growth was likely to persist for Standard Bank and Absa up to 2025, owing to a less rosy economic outlook for South Africa, although the regional operations of these lenders are likely to provide some buffer. They have cited stronger return on assets, higher revenue and earnings contributions from the banks’ pan- African subsidiaries. “We expect still muted credit and revenue growth in the banks’ home markets over 2024 to 2025, due to subdued macroeconomic conditions,” said Fitch Ratings in a note on the South African banks yesterday. “The African subsidiaries should continue to boost their parents’ results, helped by still high interest rates in some jurisdictions, supporting wide margins despite likely rate cuts in the second half of 2024…

WHILE the jury is out on whether the hip-hop musical show-stopper at Canva’s recent global showcase was cringeworthy, it certainly got a bunch of industry attention in ways reminiscent of Steve Jobs’s now-legendary unveiling of the first iPhone. Graphic democratisation Accessible online and through mobile apps, Canva has been hailed for headlining the democratisation of graphic design by offering a versatile platform, catering to free and premium subscribers. Users can craft various visual content, spanning presentations, social media posts, posters, videos, logos, website materials and more. Loved (and despised) for its rela- tively user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, Canva has bridged the gap between novices and professionals. It’s a journey initiated by a Filipina University of Western Australian student, Melanie Perkins, and her co-founder and partner, Cliff Obrecht, back in 2007.…

TRANSNET National Ports Authority (TNPA) said yesterday that it had appointed Amulet Group Consortium as the preferred bidder to construct and operate its first 20MW solar photovoltaics plant at the Port of Richards Bay. TNPA said it anticipated that the design and construction of the solar PV plant would start next month and it would be operational by May 31, 2026. Moshe Motlohi, TNPA managing executive for the Eastern Region ports said: “The introduction of a renewable energy solution in the port system will enable the reduction of carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions from coal-generated electricity. It will further provide a cost-effective and reliable energy supply to the port and its users.” The appointment of Amulet Group Consortium followed a request for proposals procurement process, which TNPA embarked on…

New vehicle sales in South Africa plunged by 14.2% year-on-year in May as consumers and business played their final waiting card in search of political stability. Figures released by the Automotive Business Council (Naamsa) yesterday showed the May new vehicle market declined by 6 137 units to 37 105, down from the 43 242 vehicles sold in the same month a year ago. Export sales also recorded a substantial decrease of 5 712 units, or 19.1%, to 24 235 units in May 2024 compared to the 29 947 vehicles exported in May 2023. The depressed result follows the blip of positivity in April as sales went up 2.2% year-on-year, which in turn had followed eight consecutive months of negative growth. Naamsa said the encouraging…

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) has remained mum over the violent scenes which overshadowed the legal matter between the MKP and its founder, Jabulani Khumalo, over ownership of the party at the Electoral Court sitting in the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg. This comes after Khumalo was yesterday attacked by visibly angry MK Party supporters who were outside the court, following the Electoral Court’s hearing regarding the ownership and leadership of the party. Khumalo recently alleged that its now leader Jacob Zuma was “unlawfully” named as the MK leader by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC). This while Zuma has reiterated that Khumalo was only an interim leader and was given orders to register the party on his behalf. The attack on Khumalo comes just two days after its spokesperson, Nhlamulo…

MK Party shatters long-held false narratives about Jacob Zuma Many political observers have reacted with both “shock and awe” to the astounding performance of the Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) in one of South Africa’s most contested elections. Indeed, to borrow from US military jargon, the MK Party’s performance is nothing short of operation “desert storm” or “decapitation”. Never has a ruling party suffered such a humiliating and crushing defeat. Since taking over as President of the country, Ramaphosa, ANC has experienced a cataclysmic decline from 62% to 40% of electoral support. However, this feigned bewilderment by the media fraternity at the MK Party’s performance is a self-created crisis. The bewilderment arises from the fact that many political observers and political players bought into their political misconceptions, blatant lies, and deliberately…

The fast-approaching June 22 Test between the Springboks and Wales in London could see Eben Etzebeth captaining the side and Malcolm Marx returning from the knee injury that cut short his World Cup. We will likely see a new halfback pairing in Faf de Klerk at scrumhalf and Siya Masuku at No 10. The back-up to this combination will depend on how quickly the Sharks’ scrumhalf pair of Jaden Hendrikse and Grant Williams recover from injuries and whether coach Erasmus wants to give Sanele Nohamba a shot at flyhalf and/or No 9. The friendly falls outside of the international window and that means this game is about Erasmus testing his depth ahead of the huge series against Ireland and the crunch Rugby Championship clashes with the All Blacks. Despite not…

Aryna Sabalenka powered into a seventh consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final at the French Open yesterday with an impressive 6-2 6-3 victory over American 22nd seed Emma Navarro. Two-time Australian Open champion Sabalenka belted 36 winners past an overmatched Navarro to avenge her defeat by the 23-year-old at Indian Wells in March. Second seed Sabalenka, a semi-finalist in Paris last year, will take on France’s Varvara Gracheva or 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia for a place in the last four. “It sounds crazy to me, to be honest, and I’m super-happy that I was able to bring this consistency on the Grand Slams,“ said Sabalenka. “That’s really amazing. I just, yeah, it’s motivating me a lot to keep pushing myself a lot and to see where is the limit.” Sabalenka has…

SHELL South Africa is considering its next moves regarding continued investment in offshore exploration for oil after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) yesterday dismissed its appeal against an earlier court ruling that set aside exploration rights and renewals for oil and gas exploration off the Wild Coast. The SCA ruling came after the Makhanda High Court had ruled that exploration rights awarded to Shell were unlawful as communities near the affected areas had not been properly notified and consulted. Shell was appealing against this ruling, with the SCA dismissing the appeal in a judgment delivered yesterday. “The appeal is dismissed with costs, including those of two counsel to be paid jointly and severally by the appellants,” ruled the SCA. It also said renewal rights for Shell had been “suspended…

MANUFACTURING activity in South Africa plunged to a four-month low in May as sentiment returned to contractionary territory, in spite of another month of no load shedding. The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released yesterday, fell below 50 points in May, dropping significantly to 43.8 points from 54 points in April, the lowest reading in four months. This decline signalled a renewed deterioration in the country’s manufacturing sector, primarily driven by a significant drop in demand, and uncertainties related to last week’s general election. The PMI, which is conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) and sponsored by Absa, showed the manufacturing’s weakness was broad-based. The business activity index declined to 38.1 points in May from 57.2 points in April, the second lowest…

ABSA’S Homeowners Sentiment Index lifted unexpectedly in the first quarter, this at a time when many other property indicators are still well down, because the weak economy and high interest rates have blunted demand. Overall sentiment among respondents surveyed by Absa climbed 4% from the final quarter of 2023, to 82%, and by 9% when compared with a year ago, as optimism began to re-emerge, Nondumiso Ncapai, Absa Home Loans managing executive, said in a statement yesterday. This is in contrast to other data indicators, with, for instance, the latest Rode’s Report finding that nominal house prices grew only 0.8% over January and February compared to the same period in 2023, which implied that prices continued to fall significantly in real terms. Rode’s forecast nominal house prices to grow slower…

AMD YESTERDAY announced its new artificial intelligence chips for everything from cutting-edge data centres to advanced laptops, ramping up its challenge to the runaway market leader, Nvidia. Demand has exploded in the past two years for the specialised processors that help develop, train and run AI applications such as ChatGPT. AMD has emerged as one of Nvidia’s most serious contenders and CEO Lisa Su said the firm’s next-generation processors will rival the top offerings from competitors. “AI is our number one priority, and we’re at the beginning of an incredibly exciting time for the industry as AI transforms virtually every business, improves our quality of life, and reshapes every part of the computing market,” Su said in a keynote speech at Computex, Taiwan’s premier tech-expo. She also announced that AMD…

SIRIUS Real Estate, the JSE-listed owner of business and industrial parks in Germany and the UK, reported its 10th year of higher dividends yesterday with a 6.5% uplift in the annual payout for the year to March, to 6.05 euro cents per share. The owner and operator of the parks that provide conventional space and flexible workspace in Germany and the UK, said yesterday its operating platform continues to drive rental and funds from operations (FFO) growth. FFO increased 7.9% to €110.2 million and adjusted pre-tax profit increased 14.6% to €110m. There was 7.2% like-for-like rent roll growth to €188.7m driven by strong organic growth and occupier demand in Germany and the UK. “Sirius has delivered another strong operational performance driving FFO, valuation and dividend growth in what represents…

The Constitutional Court yesterday issued directives on the EFF’s bid to challenge Parliament’s December 2022 decision to not adopt the Section 89 panel report on the Phala Phala scandal. The apex court wants the arguments by July 26. The EFF maintains that Parliament acted irrationally by “blocking” a further probe against President Cyril Ramaphosa. According to documents, the EFF is the applicant going against the first respondent, the Speaker of the National Assembly (former speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula), the second respondent, the National Assembly, and the third respondent, Ramaphosa, while the fourth respondent is the political parties represented in the National Assembly. And according to Constitutional Court registrar Sibusiso Mapossa, the Chief Justice has issued a comprehensive set of directives detailing what is required to pursue the matter. This comes as…

As the tenure of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) vice-chancellor and principal Francis Petersen draws to a close, another institution has opened its doors for him to lead it. After being at the helm of UFS for nearly a decade, Petersen will step down as vice-chancellor on September 30. He has occupied the office since his appointment in 2017 and had been reappointed in the position by the council for a second 5-year term as from March 2022. Petersen will be the University of Pretoria’s (UP) new vice-chancellor and principal effective from October 1. UFS council chairperson David Noko lauded the professor’s tenure, stating that it was characterised by remarkable leadership and the council has great appreciation for the work he has done as well as for the…

Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has lauded the Border Management Authority (BMA) for its work following the detection of a group of Bangladeshi nationals who arrived in Johannesburg without proper documentation. BMA immigration officials intercepted a group of 10 Bangladeshi nationals who arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on Saturday on a Qatar Airways flight. Some of these travellers did not have the proper documentation to enter South Africa. According to a statement by Acsa, five of the passengers were refused entry as four presented fake visas purportedly issued by the South African High Commission in New Delhi, India, and one had a fake visa supposedly issued by the Department of Home Affairs. “Of the other five, one traveller had a valid permanent residence permit, three had valid relative visas…

REVENGE will be furthest from the minds of Bafana Bafana when they run out against Nigeria’s Super Eagles in a 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier on Friday at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, the host country’s capital. Ahead of Friday’s clash, South African footie fans will be reminded of the last time these traditional rivals met. The SA v Nigeria antagonism has run deep ever since Mzansi was readmitted to international football in the early nineties. At the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in February, the Super Eagles defeated the 1996 champions Bafana Bafana 4-2 on penalties to reach the final. Friday will be a good time for the South Africans to avenge that defeat. However, national team coach Hugo Broos said at yesterday’s presser in Dobsonville, Soweto, that the…

Nicola Mawson FINANCIAL markets remained stoic with the rand fairly stable yesterday as investors weighed prospects of a business-friendly coalition following the historic general elections, which saw the ruling ANC losing its parliamentary majority for the first time since the 1994 democratic elections. After four consecutive days of declines, the JSE all share index opened more than 1% higher yesterday, trading above the 77 600 point level, buoyed by financials, investment, healthcare groups and telecoms stocks. The index closed yesterday at 77 746 points, up 1.36% Even though the rand had weakened back towards the R19 mark to the US dollar as coalition dynamics spooked investors last week, the domestic currency saw some nascent strength on the ANC’s stance to coalitions and pulled back 0.5% to R18.51/$1…

THE FINANCIAL technology (fintech) sector is rapidly transforming the financial landscape globally, and South Africa is no exception. The emergence of fintech start-ups has introduced innovative solutions that challenge traditional financial institutions, offering consumers and businesses more efficient, accessible and cost-effective financial services. This disruption is particularly evident in three areas: mobile payments, wealth management and crowdfunding. In each, fintech’s impact is reshaping the way financial services are delivered and consumed. Mobile payments are one of the most significant fintech innovations in South Africa, driven by the high penetration of cellphones and the need for accessible financial services. Companies like SnapScan, Zapper, and Yoco are leading the charge, providing easy-to-use mobile payment solutions that enable consumers to make transactions quickly and securely using their smartphones. These solutions are particularly beneficial…

WHEN Google launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) products at their annual event (Google IO 2023), it was clear to me then that at some point they would threaten the publishing industry. What I’ve always feared about Google AI products was confirmed during the latest annual (Google I/O 2024) event. One of those latest AI products is AI Overviews. They are a new search feature that provides users with AI-generated answers to certain queries. And they appear above all other search results. AI Overviews work very differently from chatbots and other LLM (large language models) products that people may have tried out. They’re not simply generating an output based on training data. While AI Overviews are powered by a customised language model, the model is integrated with Google’s core web-ranking systems and…

HEADLINE earnings per share (Heps) in Mahube Infrastructure soared to 95.68 cents in the year to end February 2024, an uplift from the 53.68c headline loss per share the company recorded in the prior year. The company also received divi- dends amounting to R50.1 million compared to R18m during the period under review. Mahube is equity invested in wind farms and three solar photovoltaic farms that have collective power generation capacity of about 400MW. Some of the company’s renew- able energy assets were licensed under South Africa’s Bid Window Round 1 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme in South Africa. One project was licensed during Bid Window Round 2, with each asset generating and selling electricity to power utility Eskom under a 20-year power purchase…

SA Taxi, a division of JSE-listed Transaction Capital, dodged a bullet yesterday after the Kungwini Amalgamated Workers Union (Kawu) held in abeyance until next Wednesday a disruptive strike that could have hit the taxi commuter transport and security sectors hard as workers pressed demands for acceptable working conditions and union representation. The strike was averted yesterday at midday after workers, who were picketing at the SA Taxi headquarters in Midrand, presented a memorandum of demands following the failure of engagements between the company and the union since October last year. This is after negotiations were left unresolved. Kawu's national co-ordinator, Khumbulani Moyo, spoke to Business Report before the petition was delivered to SA Taxi yesterday. “The gates are closed here in Midrand and our members are also picketing at De…

Videos of a possible “landspout” in Tongaat on the KwaZulu-Natal, North Coast that caused extensive damage, have surfaced on social media. IPSS Medical Rescue said their teams have been dispatched to the area following devastating infrastructural damage. Spokesperson Dylan Meyrick said their teams were on the ground and said an update would be provided. Earlier yesterday, the SA Weather Service issued a Level 4 weather warning for heavy rainfall and possible flooding in the province. Lehlohonolo Thobela, a meteorologist and weather forecaster at the weather service, yesterday warned of severe thunderstorms in the central and western parts of the province. “The SA Weather Service have issued a Level 2 warning for severe thunderstorms (in) the central and the western parts of KZN,” Thobela said. “We currently have an upper-air, cut-off…

If THE Blitzboks continue on this losing trend, they can wave goodbye to any aspirations of playing at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris. After another disappointing performance at the SVNS Grand Final in Madrid this past weekend, some serious introspection is needed from the South African Sevens side. They won one game the entire weekend and finished sixth in what should have been a tournament where they could build momentum for the repechage event later this month. Instead, the team is left with more questions than answers over their readiness to secure a ticket to the Games when they play in Monaco from June 21 to 23. They are set to face the likes of Great Britain, Tonga, Canada and Spain in the repechage for the one spot left…

Sri Lanka: 77 all out Nortje 4-7, Rabada 2-21, Maharaj 2-22, Baartman 1-9, Mendis 19 South Africa: 80-4 De Kock 20, Klaasen 19*, Hasaranga 2-17 South Africa win by six wickets The International Cricket Council tries it damnedest to differentiate the T20 World Cup from the often overly glorified Indian Premier League. The strategy relies on promoting the global event as one which showcases a much higher level of class and skill. Well, they have certainly made a point here at the newly-constructed Nassau County International Cricket Ground in New York by serving up a surface much more bowler-friendly than the highways routinely seen at the IPL. Whether it is the smartest way of attracting a new audience in the uncharted waters of the US remains to be…

It was only a month ago that Benetton beat a full-strength Sharks team in Durban and it took an almighty effort from the Bulls to do the same thing last week, so there is zero chance of the Italians being underestimated in this week’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final in Pretoria. The Sharks were not good enough to beat the Italian champions and Bulls wing Canan Moodie says they understand that they are in for a big fight in the URC play-off. Last week, the Bulls had to wait until the dying minutes before they nailed the bonus-point try and won the SA Shield, while securing the runners-up spot in the overall standings heading into the knockout stages of the URC. It took a double-try whammy from super sub Akker van…