Table of contents for 2025-06-23 in Cape Times

Famous Brands, Africa’s largest restaurant franchisor, reported a resilient financial performance for the year ended 28 February 2025 in its annual report, despite challenging operating conditions marked by a deteriorating infrastructure environment, and cash-strapped consumers. The group, which owns and franchises major South African food brands such as Steers, Wimpy, Debonairs Pizza, Mugg & Bean, and Fishaways, posted a 3.2% rise in revenue to R8.28 billion, up from R8.02 billion the previous year. Operating profit grew by 12.6% to R914 million, while headline earnings per share climbed to 520 cents, from 465 cents in 2024. CEO Darren Hele credited the group’s performance to disciplined cost containment, brand resilience, and a robust business model. “Our financial results are thanks to strong cost control, the enduring appeal of our brands, and the…

Public service union issues warning regarding more than R500 million at GPAA The Public Service and Commercial Union of South Africa (PSCU) has issued a stark warning regarding the alleged financial mismanagement of pension funds amounting to more than R500 million at the Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA). In a letter to the GPAA CEO Kedibone Madiehe over the weekend, the PSCU requested clarification and remedial measures in response to the troubling findings of the pension administrator’s Internal Audit Report for the 2024/25 financial year. The GPAA is a government component which reports to the Minister of Finance and administers funds and schemes on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), the largest pension fund in Africa. It thus administers the pension affairs of approximately 1.7 million government employees…

Payments of stipends to participants in South Africa’s Labour Activation Programme (LAP) have been delayed due to attempted fraud by some partnering companies, the Department of Employment and Labour said on Friday. The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which administers the LAP, said a recent review identified weaknesses in administrative processes that had created opportunities for fraudulent claims. In response, the UIF is intensifying scrutiny of invoices and attendance records submitted by programme partners to safeguard public funds and restore payment timelines. “We are strengthening internal controls and verifying records more rigorously to improve accuracy and efficiency,” the UIF said in a statement. As part of its corrective measures, the UIF has begun implementing a new electronic system to streamline stipend payments and has hired short-term contractors to assist with the…

The US Federal Reserve keeps interest rates unchanged. As was expected, the US Federal Reserve’s FOMC during its meeting of June 17–18, 2025 has maintained the federal funds rate at 4.25%–4.50%. The FOMC, however, has indicated they will lower its bank rate by another two twenty-five‑basis‑point rate cuts later in 2025, as was released in their report last Wednesday. The abstaining of lowering rates can also be seen as the upside risk over escalating clashes between Israel and Iran. This is the fourth meeting in a row that the FOMC kept its short-term rate unchanged. The nervous and volatile environment due to the President Trump’s s chaotic tariff policies, the Middle East conflicts and other uncertainties in global markets, like the oil price, may led to unfounded signals that any…

An influential traditional chief in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta on Friday demanded that Shell pay $12 billion (R217bn)for environmental pollution before it leaves the region. Bubaraye Dakolo of the Ekpetiama Kingdom appeared before a federal high court in the southern city of Yenagoa demanding reparations for clean-up after decades of environmental damages by Shell, according to a statement by a coalition of civil society groups. Farming and fishing communities in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Nigeria's crude production, have fought years of legal battles over damage from oil spills in the area. UK energy giant Shell is one of the companies accused for decades of causing serious environmental degradation across Nigeria's southern oil- and gas-rich region. The monarch's legal challenge was prompted by Shell's recent divestment of $2.4bn in…

Vunani, the independent black-owned diversified financial services group, for the year ended February 28, 2025 posted a loss of R3.1 million, compared to a profit of R24.2m in 2024 amid a difficult and volatile operating environment owing to sluggish economic growth. Loss per share decreased to 7.1c from earnings per share of 9c the prior year. Headline loss per share decreased to 2.8 cents from headline earnings per share of 7.4c. Despite this the group declared a final dividend of 35 cents up from 9c the prior year. Chairman Lionel Jacobs and CEO Ethan Dube said notwithstanding these challenges, in the latter half of the year, Vunani saw a slight uptick in equity markets, which positively impacted growth in the company's funds undermanagement. "We were encouraged by the lowering of…

AN “UNCONSCIOUS claimant” is not entitled to any award for pain and suffering, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled in a groundbreaking judgment regarding general damages. This ruling was made in a case where a mother whose child was born with cerebral palsy was awarded R2.2 million in general on behalf of her child. The child suffered a severe brain injury at birth due to the negligence of doctors at a Gauteng hospital. The child, represented by his mother, was awarded R13.3 million for special damages. This is to make his life a bit easier by acquiring special aids and devices to cope with his needs. The Gauteng MEC appealed against the award of general damages on the basis that the child is in a vegetative state, and therefore,…

BUSINESS leader Sipho Pityana has described the SA Reserve Bank’s (Sarb’s) Prudential Authority (PA) as a rogue institution that places itself above the law. Pityana recently secured a major victory against the PA when it was found that it had unlawfully blocked his appointment to the Absa board. “What was the basis for their objection? They never said I was unfit. The Reserve Bank first indicated they had issues with my nomination by suggesting I may not be a ‘fit and proper person’ — without ever formally asserting that I was implicated in harassment or any misconduct,” Pityana said. “In fact, in all the court papers, they stated that they never asserted I was unfit or unqualified. They never actually said I wasn’t a fit and proper person.” The PA…

THE Western Cape is among the provinces with improved figures in reducing the number of unclaimed bodies at state mortuaries. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi recently disclosed that as at the end of February, 2,858 remained in state mortuaries, translating to a decline from the 3,186 recorded in state mortuaries across the country in August 2024. Motsoaledi also indicated that there were a total of 3,819 pauper burials between April 2024 and April 2025. The minister was responding to a Parliamentary question when he named Limpopo, Kwa-Zulu Natal, North West, Eastern Cape, and the Western Cape as the provinces that have made progress in the management of unclaimed bodies. KwaZulu-Natal recorded 695 uncollected bodies in February, down from 1,527 recorded six months earlier, while the North West reduced the unclaimed…

THE REST OF the Betway Premiership teams better be prepared to eat Mamelodi Sundowns’ dust yet again. How else can they begin to stop the high-flying Brazilians who are clearly of such high quality they can hold their own against the world’s best? Sundowns may have lost 4-3 to Germany’s Borussia Dortmund in their second Group F match at the FIFA Club World Cup currently on the go in the United States, but such was their performance against a much superior opponent there is every reason to foresee them dominating the domestic league yet again. Having won the local championship an eighth time in a row, Sundowns will be the team to beat yet again when the new season kicks off in August. The hope was that they will be…

Concerns about international oil prices and global supply chains surged on Sunday following the United States' military strike on three major nuclear sites in Iran. This move, which has escalated ongoing tensions in the Middle East, comes less than two weeks after Iran and Israel reignited hostilities. Analysts on Sunday warned that the fallout from these attacks could have dire implications for the global economy. In a recent televised address, US President Donald Trump described the airstrikes as a "spectacular military success," proclaiming that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities—located in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan—have been "completely and totally obliterated." Of biggest concern now is that Iran is mulling the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf controlled by Iran, which is…

In the first four months of this year alone, 482 South African businesses shut their doors. It’s a haunting number not only for our economy but for the families in crisis and the employees out of work. What went wrong? The hard truth is that many of these businesses probably thought they were doing everything right. They had loyal customers. They survived hard times before. But yet, this time they didn’t. One of the most dangerous things in business is the belief that you already know your customer, what worked before will work again and experience equals insight. Longevity isn’t the same as relevance. Just because you’ve been in business for ten years doesn’t mean you know what your customers need right now. Often, business owners mistake time served for…

The Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) and civil society groups have raised concern about rising prices of food in South Africa, largely driven by meat, specifically beef, due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) last week showed that food inflation increased to 4.4% in May from 3.3% in April, despite the headline consumer inflation remaining unchanged at 2.8%. Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of Agbiz, acknowledged the acceleration of food price inflation but offered a note of cautious optimism. Sihlobo also noted that other products remained roughly unchanged while others experienced slowing price inflation. “Regarding meat, the key issues that have dominated the headlines are the outbreak of avian influenza in Brazil and its potential impact on domestic poultry supplies and prices. The second concern…

Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom entered the realm of statistics and ultimately destroyed the Office of the National Statistics (ONS) of the United Kingdom. Felix Romer in a 2022 Journal article titled Poverty, Inequality Statistics and Knowledge Politics Under Thatcher demonstrates thus “Academic experts such as Townsend criticised the government for delays and omissions in official reports and for misleading statistical definitions that deliberately lowered the poverty count.” It took fifteen years of hard work from its former colonies to rebuild the UK ONS by Bill McClennan of Australia and Len Cooke of New Zealand who had to cross seas and continents to go and fix ONS. We do not need that history repeating itself in South Africa. It needs to be nipped in the bud.…

The hosts of the most recent UN climate talks are worried international lenders are retreating from their commitments to help boost funding for developing countries' response to global warming. This anxiety has grown as the Trump administration has slashed foreign aid and discouraged US-based development lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from focussing on climate finance. Developing nations, excluding China, will need an estimated $1.3 trillion (R23trl) a year by 2035 in financial assistance to transition to renewable energy and climate-proof their economies from increasing weather extremes. But nowhere near this amount has been committed. At last year's UN COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, rich nations agreed to increase climate finance to $300 billion a year by 2035, an amount decried as woefully inadequate. Azerbaijan and…

Since its launch a year ago, the National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa (NFO) has recovered R328.5 million for consumers who lodged complaints against financial institutions, the organisation announced in a statement on Friday. The NFO is a single, one-stop, dispute resolution service made up of four former longstanding industry ombud schemes: the Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance, the Ombudsman for Long-term Insurance; the Credit Ombud and Ombudsman for Banking Services. Services are provided free of charge. Between March 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024, the NFO handled 35 855 complaints that had been dealt with by its four divisions, Non-life and Life Insurance, Banking and Credit. Reana Steyn, the head Ombud and CEO of the NFO, said, “This recovery of monies has helped individuals and families regain lost financial stability,…

EFF leader Julius Malema says his party will honour the lives of the 10 people killed in a bus accident on their way from the party’s KwaZulu-Natal rally by building their families houses. He said these properties will also be fitted with boreholes to ensure continued water supply. He made the promise when he delivered a keynote address during a mass funeral in Vryheid yesterday. The victims, including Sbongakonke Mathe (17), Ntombi Ndlovu (19), Lungani Mbatha (25), among others were killed last Monday when a bus carrying EFF supporters from Umlazi collided with a long-haul truck, resulting in a catastrophic crash. Malema said the young lives lost were not mere statistics, but they were dreams cut short, representing the potential of a generation that should be shaping South Africa's future.…

First impressions can be deceptive but Kirsty Coventry showed that behind a sunny disposition she will have the mettle to deal with the trickiest of people and situations when she succeeds Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today. Looming large on the horizon of the 41-year-old Zimbabwean - the first woman and African to occupy the post of the most powerful single figure in sport - is US President Donald Trump. With Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Olympics, Trump will feature often on Coventry's agenda. Trump has not been shy in giving public dressing downs to world leaders - notably Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. Judging by Coventry's initial response, after a crushing first-round victory in the presidential election in…

Workers at State-funded poultry producer, Daybreak Foods, have initiated a campaign to secure funding for a business rescue exercise through the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). This comes as they find themselves in a state of limbo since the humanitarian crisis at the company’s farms erupted in early April. The Agricultural Food and Allied Democratic Workers Union (ASADWU) has confirmed the workers' pressing need for financial assistance, highlighting the dire circumstances as they last received their salaries in April. ASADWU secretary general, Sam Dlamini, stressed the urgency of the situation. The coalition of representatives is also appealing for the intervention of the Department of Labour, with hopes that operational activities at farms belonging to Daybreak can be revived while the business rescue process unfolds. "The workers have requested for the release…

Before the government spends R700 million on a(nother) national dialogue, it is reasonable to ask what the dialogue promises to deliver, is this worth more than R700 million and what are the chances the stated objectives will be achieved. Dr Oyama Mabandla, a member of the national dialogue preparatory task team, asks us to give the national dialogue a chance, reminding us that “[t]he national dialogue is an attempt to reinvigorate and fix a dangerously adrift democracy. It will involve the entire populace, instead of the self-selecting and incestuous elites, who have been producing one after another failed plan, while the rest of us have been spectators.” But of course it won't involve the entire populace and the outcome will be a big report that no one reads. How can…

One of the silent tragedies facing thousands of working-class families and homeowners are bank repossessions and auctions of their cars and homes. This is a moment of unbelievable pain that countless workers drowning in debt fear and one that they and their families will never recover from. A cursory read of the National Credit Regulator (NCR)’s reports reveal the shocking levels of debt most consumers find themselves in. These are in the most instance because they have to support spouses who’ve lost jobs, unemployed relatives, cover education fees for their and their siblings’ children, haven’t received an increase, and are struggling to cope with the rising costs of living. As workers borrow money to cope these often come at exorbitant interest rates. Eventually many are borrowing simply to pay…

Kumba Iron Ore on Friday announced a planned leadership transition, with chief financial officer (CFO) Bothwell Mazarura set to step down at the end of the year after nearly eight years with the Anglo American unit. Mazarura, who was appointed CFO and executive director in September 2017, will leave the position on December 31, 2025. He will continue to serve during his six-month notice period to ensure a smooth handover, the company said in a statement. Mazarura will also step down from his roles on the Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee and the Strategy and Investment Committee. “It has been a privilege to serve as CFO of Kumba,” Mazarura said. “The journey has been filled with immense pride in what we have achieved together. While I will leave Kumba later…

The name Sandra Oh immediately conjures up images of the iconic Dr Cristina Yang from Grey’s Anatomy. Her razor-sharp wit, unflinching confidence and the unforgettable “twisted sisterhood” she shared with Meredith Grey became the gold standard for friendship goals. For many, Yang wasn’t just a character; she was a phenomenon one we’re still chasing in our own lives. But Oh is far more than just Yang. And once again, she’s proving she’s a force to be reckoned with, both on and off-screen. This time, Oh isn’t scrubbing in to save lives in a fictional operating room. She’s stepping into the spotlight as a “doctor for real” – well, honorary doctor, but who’s counting? Oh was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College, joining the Class of 2025 as their…

As the chill of winter settles in, our thoughts often turn to the solace of hearty food. When I think of “comfort food”, my mind immediately drifts to one-pot or one-dish meals that conjure images of cozy evenings spent indoors. These meals, such as soups, stews, and casseroles, embrace the essence of comfort, making them perfect for keeping warm during the colder months. One-pot meals are not only a delightful culinary experience but also a celebration of convenience. They boast an array of benefits: from saving time in the kitchen to reducing the load of dishes awaiting the dishwasher’s embrace. Furthermore, these dishes allow flavours to meld beautifully as they simmer together, creating a symphony of tastes in every bite. With minimal ingredients required, one-pot meals also represent an economical…

MURDER accused Bulelani Yosana has failed to convince the Western Cape that the State’s case against him has considerably weakened after a Section 204 witness recanted on their statement. Yosana is currently awaiting trial alongside accused hitman James Easton for the contract murder of Bloekombos teacher and ANC activist Vuyo Dana. A trial date is yet to be set for the matter. After a previous unsuccessful attempt, Yosana, a former police officer and ANC branch secretary, filed a new bail bid appeal with the High Court, citing the recanted statement, that a trial date remains unset, and that his bank account is about to be closed for non-compliance with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act. Dana was shot and killed at his home in February 2022 while on his way to…

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri is mesmerised by wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant's audacious batting display in the first innings of the opening Test against England and lauded his consistency at No. 5. India vice-captain slammed his seventh Test ton and third in England, the best by any visiting wicketkeeper. He now holds the record for most Test hundreds as a wicketkeeper for India, going past MS Dhoni's tally of six. "First, he's outrageous. I saw that on the first day as well. And I liked what I saw. Because he's different from the rest. He plays on his own terms. At times, he'll play the numbers game. At times, he'll just do what his mind says. That's Rishabh Pant for me," Shastri said in a video shared by the BCCI.…