Cape Times 2024-01-24

WOOLWORTHS Holdings’ sales im- proved in the past few months of a 26 week trading period to December 24, following weak sales in Australia through most of the period and trading in South Africa that was impacted by load shedding. Stronger festive season spending by consumers was also reflected yesterday in data from BankservAfrica, which showed that the total in-store card spend for December was R112.5 billion, up 13% from the R100bn the previous year. Total shopping volumes increased 2% year-on-year, the BankServAfrica data showed. The highest spend and volumes were at grocery stores and supermarkets, which nearly doubled in value to R50bn from R26bn, with card transactions increasing 6%. Woolworths interim headline earnings a share were expected to be more than 25% to 35% lower than the same…

Electricity minister will be leading the government negotiations with European investors MINISTER of Electricity Kgosien- tsho Ramokgopa will be leading the government negotiations with European investors seeking to finance the required expansion of South Africa’s transmission network in a bid to plug the electricity deficit. Ramokgopa yesterday said the on- boarding of new generating capacity, particularly renewable energy, was criti- cal to ensuring that additional capa- city was added to the national grid as generation capacity was constrained. He said that Team SA had established a rapport with private sector investors at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meetings in Davos last week, and those negotiations would now be taken forward. “As the president said last week, the Minister in the Presidency responsible for electricity is now given the responsibility…

BMW SOUTH Africa, one of the largest foreign investors and employers, has remained buoyant about the country’s economic prospects in spite of ongoing energy and logistics challenges. This comes as Transnet continues to battle to clear the backlog since November 2023 at the Port of Durban as a result of bad weather conditions, inadequate equipment and machinery. The BMW Group last year invested R4.2 billion in the electrification of the Rosslyn plant in Pretoria to manufacture the next-generation plug-in hybrid BMW X3 for global export. Speaking to Business Report yesterday, BMW South Africa’s manager for government and external affairs Mbasa Kepe said although they had not released production figures for the fourth quarter, congestion at the Port of Durban had been destructive to their operations. Kepe said that they…

AFTER my third trip to the World Economic Forum (WEF), I remain convinced that there is nothing like it. Presidents, global business leaders, innovators and more are all brought together in snowy Davos to engage, resulting in fascinating conversations that can shape the global economy. This year focused on AI+, Climate, and Africa. There is simply no denying that the future revolves around the topics, and here is why: Artificial Intelligence As Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, rightly said, GPTs have paved the way for the mass adoption of AI. ChatGPT has become a common tool and many others have started building their own GPTs or interacting with AI in various forms. Bill Gates framed AI as the tool with the potential to impact every household and to create…

HIGHER education is as critical to the global efforts to combat climate change as witnessed by universities’ globally increasingly recognising their responsibility to society and actively contributing to the mitigation of and adaptation response to the crisis. At the University of Mpumalanga and the Presidential Climate Commission, we are exploring a partnership of ensuring that our transition to a net zero is a just one. Importantly the university is committed to exploring practical steps in employing our academic discipline through research, teaching and learning to support South Africa’s climate change response measures and the just transition roadmap. However, like many other institutions in South Africa, the university is yet to fully articulate its contribution towards the efforts, through its curricula and research programmes that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of…

SIX SOUTH Africans have made the Forbes Africa Top 20 Billionaire list, while Nigerian businessperson and industrialist, Aliko Dangote, retained the top spot as the richest man on the continent. Forbes said that the fortunes of Africa’s wealthiest people rebounded slightly in the past 12 months, reversing the decline in their fortunes from a year ago, though they were still off their all-time highs. Forbes further pointed out that the 20 billionaires on the 2024 Forbes list of Africa’s richest were worth a combined $82.4 billion, which was up $900 million (R17bn) from last year’s $81.5bn. The continent remains one of the world’s toughest places to build – and hold on to – a billion-dollar fortune, as global investors remain leery of its stock exchanges, businesses struggle against…