Star 2022-05-16

ESKOM’s windfall announced on Friday that it will be able to short-circuit Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) procurement processes which are likely to help the utility to move faster, but there remain concerns that continuing corruption and the need for extensive maintenance may take more power off the grid for longer. Eskom announced on Friday that the National Treasury’s relaxation of some procurement and supply chain management rules and processes contained in the PFMA will assist it in speeding up critical and urgent procurement. The amendment, which is outlined in an instruction note that became effective in April, will also empower it to engage directly with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and maintenance suppliers. This is as Eskom, which has long bemoaned that it needs at least 77 days…

SOUTH Africa’s struggling tourism industry has been given a boost following an agreement that could expose local tourism companies to the lucrative Middle East market. Emirates airline on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the SA Tourism Board to jointly promote tourism and boost visitor arrivals and inbound traffic to South Africa from key markets across the Emirates network. The MoU was signed on the side-lines of the international travel trade show Arabian Travel Market by Badr Abbas, Emirates’ senior vice president commercial operations for Africa, and the SA Tourism Board’s acting chief executive, Themba Khumalo. Khumalo said the partnership would support South Africa’s tourism recovery efforts after Covid-19 travel curbs nearly brought it to the brink of collapse. “The Middle East is a critical market for…

TRANSNET Freight Rail (TFR) has lost more than 15 million tons of freight volumes in the year ending March 31, after declaring force majeure due to irregular locomotive acquisition, maintenance problems and massive cable theft on its coal line. This will be a blow for South Africa’s biggest coal exporters, who have already lost billions of rand in export opportunities due to Transnet’s poor rail performance. TFR on Friday said its performance for the year was affected primarily by a reduction in the number of locomotives due to maintenance problems. In the 2021/22 financial year, TFR only had 1 656 locomotives, a 25 percent decline from 2 215 locomotives, which significantly reduced its ability to move goods. Transnet said getting spare parts for certain locomotives had been jeopardised by…

RAUBEX Group, the infrastructure development and construction materials supply company, on Friday said all conditions for its acquisition of chrome ore mining and platinum exploration company Bauba Resources had been met. It will offer 42 cents per Bauba share. Bauba, meanwhile, reported bigger losses. Bauba Resources’ share price closed unchanged at 41 cents on the JSE on Friday, while Raubex’s share price closed 1.67 percent lower at R40.70. Raubex is expected today to report an earnings per share increase of be- tween 244 and 254 percent for the year to February 28, compared with the same period last year. This was expected to translate to earnings per share being between 300.7c and 309.4c and headline earnings per share of between 293.2c and 301.4c (81.9c).…

MINISTER of State Enterprises Pravin Gordhan stated during an economics cluster question-and-answer session in Parliament earlier this month: “It is my firm view that the export of scrap must be banned for a while. That will ensure that there is no market externally for the theft of infrastructure.” These words bring little comfort and do not inspire any faith that things will change. This approach to the problem originated on November 28, 2014. New export regulations came into effect on September 16, 2014. The Metal Recyclers Association of South Africa opposed the new regulations imposed by Ebrahim Patel and SA’s International Trade Administration Commission (Itac). It was also supported by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, the then trade and industry minister Rob Davies, and the then water and…

MTN GROUP, the pan African mobile operator, grew revenue 15 percent in the quarter to March 31, spurred by a substantial 37 percent growth in data revenue. The group, which has 274 million customers in 19 markets, said voice revenue only increased 2.6 percent for the period, Fintech revenue however was well up by 21.2 percent. “The MTN Group delivered a solid first quarter performance, with double-digit service revenue growth and the expansion of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) margins supported by the focused execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy,” said Group President and chief executive Ralph Mupita in a statement. Ebitda was up 21.1 percent, following an improvement in its margin to 46.4 percent from 44.2 percent. Group service…