Unchallenged as South Africa’s most influential daily newspaper, The Star covers the heart of the nation with unequalled reporting of local, national and international news and sport. It is widely considered to be a superb advertising environment.
Aishah Cassiem aishah.cassiem@inl.co.za A BUSINESSWOMAN is set to take legal action against one of Africa’s biggest law firms, for allegedly agreeing to represent her company, taking her money and confidential information, and thereafter backing out while knowing they were on the panel of the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) which was a respondent in the case. Mendiswe Mzamane’s small black-owned business, Razoscan, was one of many approved loans for businesses from previously disadvantaged communities, but alleged corruption from Sefa left her with a major company loss when the entity allegedly gave her R3 million to a Greek national in 2015. Mzamane said she was searching for trustworthy firms to assist her in retrieving her money from Sefa when she finally approached Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS) in December 2018…
Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE UNEMPLOYMENT crisis in South Africa continued to worsen as more people lost their jobs in the non-agricultural sector during the first quarter of this year. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that thousands of jobs were lost in the three months to March, despite expectations of a rise in employment. The quarterly employment statistics revealed that the total number of persons employed fell by 9 000 in the first quarter. This meant the total number of persons employed in the formal non-agricultural sector fell from 9 653 000 in December last year to 9 644 000 in March this year. First National Bank (FNB) said the third wave of Covid-19 infections and the recently implemented adjusted level 4 lockdown…
Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za HOUSEHOLD finances are expected to improve after increasing further in the first quarter as economic activity recovered during the period on less restrictive lockdown measures. The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) Quarterly Bulletin yesterday showed that personal disposable income rose 2.3 percent year-on-year. SARB said low interest rates and subdued inflation pushed household consumption spending higher. It said that household consumption expenditure rose 4.7 percent over the quarter, slower than 7.5 percent in the last quarter of 2020. SARB said households’ net wealth increased further in the quarter as the increase in total assets outweighed that in total liabilities. It said the value of assets was boosted by an increase in equity holdings in particular, as share prices increased substantially further. Investec economist Lara Hodes…
Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za THE REHABILITATION of the poultry industry, which has set local producers and importers on a collision course, has already created R4.7 billion growth in the industry and 1 298 jobs since early this year. Local producers said the growth excludes benefits in the feed manufacturing industry, grain industry, packaging industry and other sectors as the target of lifting the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from R48bn in 2019 to an estimated R54bn in 2022 in sight. Pillar 1 of the master plan will work on establishing 50 new contract farmers and 1 000 jobs and cost R35 million, to be financed by the Land Bank and the Industrial Development Corporation. The plan by Minister in the Department of Trade Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel earlier this…
EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za THE JSE HAS approved the listing of six SA Taxi Holdings’ social bonds, valued at R900 million, on the bourse’s Sustainability Segment. The six social bonds will have a maturity of between one and 10 years. SA Taxi Holdings, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Transaction Capital, has indicated it would use the proceeds from the social bonds to finance economic development, support social inclusion, hire inclusively and promote climate resilience. SA Taxi, a vertically integrated minibus taxi platform, mainly finances minibus taxi entrepreneurs, who operate minibus taxis, but who may not have access to credit from traditional banks. Through granting of the loans, SA Taxi empowers small, micro and medium-size enterprises and promotes broad-based black economic empowerment, helping to create an inclusive and diverse economy. There are…
LAST MONTH the latest in the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) series of Sectoral Master Plans was signed, this time for the Steel and Fabricated Metal Industry. To date, the dtic and its key stakeholders, including the private sector and organised labour, in the poultry, clothing, textile, footwear and leather, automotive, sugar and furniture sectors, have signed agreements designed to assist these job intensive industries to overcome a variety of challenges that they have faced as part of the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan. The master plans have targeted specific action points relating to the respective industries, but there are also generic objectives including a change in ownership and production patterns within each sector. This means, for example, transforming and assisting small-scale farmers in the poultry and sugar…
