Star 2022-09-13

THE INDUSTRIAL Development Corporation (IDC) has managed to slash its impairments and write-offs further during the 2021 financial year, even though the persisting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the July 2021 civil unrest wreaked havoc on businesses. The IDC yesterday said that impairments and write-offs stood at R1.7 billion for the financial year ending March 31, 2022 down from R2.2bn and R7.7bn in the previous two financial years, respectively. IDC chief executive TP Nchocho said Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, supply-chain disruptions, and the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gau- teng in 2021 had negatively affected businesses funded by the IDC. However, Nchocho said the state-owned development financier did not go on a massive liquidation of companies and had instead given them a holiday moratorium for repayments until they could get…

ESKOM’S financial troubles will worsen this year as the struggling power utility Eskom has burnt more than R7 billion worth of diesel, more than half of its annual budget, to keep the lights on in just six months. This is an admission made by Eskom chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer yesterday as he warned that the utility had overspent on its open-cycle gas turbines. Oberholzer said they were not proud of the overspending, nor did they have the money to continue financing it. He said Eskom was currently looking at the outlook for the remainder of the year, and over the weekend he had an engagement with the chief financial officer, Calib Cassim, about these fiscal concerns. “We are finalising what the year end forecast will be, but we…

The government and Jagersfontein Developments to assist community effected by the flood PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday addressed Jagersfontein residents in the Free State saying the government was there to support the community and restore livelihoods in the wake of the collapse of part of Jagersfontein Developments’s mine’s tailings dam at the weekend, which led to the loss of life and a flood of water that devastated homes. He said in light of this disaster the government would call on the Mining Council and other non-governmental organisations to come and help support the people of Jagersfontein and help rebuild. The historic mine dam collapsed on Sunday, in the Kopanong Local Muni- cipality in the Free Stated, leading to the death of one person, and the displacement of many others. The cause…

MANUFACTURERS in South Africa are worried that the rising cost of living amidst the ongoing power cuts could eat into households’ discretionary income during the festive season shopping period, as cash strapped consumers battle to to survive. Absa yesterday warned that manufacturers were concerned that reduced consumer disposable income could curb demand in the fourth quarter of the year, the seasonally peak sales period. This comes after the third quarter Absa Manufacturing Survey showed that confidence levels among manufacturers dipped 2 index points to 26 points in the third quarter. The quarterly survey showed that the majority of manufacturers expect business conditions to deteriorate further over the next 12 months on the back of poor global growth. Absa Relationship Banking head of manufacturing sector Justin Schmidt, said high inflation…

THE BEER INDUSTRY hopes it will take another two years to recover from the economic hangover of the Covid-19 pandemic, which did immense damage in terms of sales, jobs and growth, Beer Association of South Africa chief executive Patricia Pillay said yesterday. Speaking yesterday in Cape Town at the launch of a South African Breweries commissioned study done by Oxford Economics on the impact of the beer sector on the economy, she said the pandemic had cost South Africa 30 percent of the craft beer sector, a key malt producer was forced to close, many restaurants and other outlets had closed, and she said she even knew of people who had taken their lives because of the financial strain that the pandemic had put them under. She said…

THE CONSTRUCTION sector increased its value add to the economy by “an impressive” 4.1 percent in real terms in the second quarter compared with the previous quarter, economist Dr Roelof Botha said yesterday. He said this at the release of the Afrimat Construction Index (ACI) yesterday the index is a composite indicator of the level of activity within the building and construction sectors. Botha said the increase was despite events that put additional pressure on economic activity in the second quarter, including the KwaZulu-Natal floods, strikes at major mining companies, weaker precious metals and iron ore prices, high fuel costs, load shedding, rail transport problems and increasing inflation. He said one of the most encouraging features of the index was the positive trend for the volume and the…