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Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za MINERAL Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe yesterday faced criticism that registration as an embedded generation facility to produce up to 100MW of electricity is taking almost as long as the licensing, but he said it should take no longer than two months. Mantashe said, however, that his department had “not seen a single one registered up till now”, this is in spite of the fact that the government had opened the process up to 100MW from 50MW, specifically because it had already received applications from mining companies to produce more than 50MW of electricity. Mantashe was responding to questions from the audience at the Solar Power Africa 2022 conference held in the Cape Town’s International Convention Centre yesterday. It emerged from questions in the audience that…
Group takes a legal stand against banks over empowerment and its right to trade SIZWE DLAMINI sizwe.dlamini@inl.co.za THE UNSPOKEN entanglement of South Africa’s banks with white monopoly capital knows no bounds, as we witness a systematic shutdown of the efforts by the country’s “not so strategically aligned” businesses, this time affecting at least 43 companies and several thousand livelihoods. An order handed down by Judge Matthew Francis in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, revealed that transformative justice has an important role to play in South Africa’s banking sector. This, as the wider Sekunjalo Group took a stand against the banks in what looks set to be an epic battle for transformation, empowerment and the right to trade. The Sekunjalo Group is looking to stop abuse by South Africa’s…
Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa’s Budget could reach a primary surplus by 2024/25, as per National Treasury’s goal, if the government manages an “unflinching” commitment to fiscal consolidation. This was the view of Old Mutual Wealth Group economists yesterday, as they unpacked their expectations for the Budget to be presented by the finance minister next week. Currently, the consolidated Budget deficit is expected to be 7.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021/22, gradually lowering to 4.9 percent in 2024/25. This is a significant improvement from the deficit of 15.7 percent, or R760 billion, suffered during the 2020/21 fiscal year at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. The Treasury aims to use part of the higher tax revenues associated with the recent surge in…
Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za TIGER Brands, South Africa’s biggest food products producer, had got off to a slow start in its new financial year, and revenue from continuing operations increased by only 1 percent in the four months to January 31, a trading statement said yesterday. The group, which is also facing a class action case from listeriosis victims, said yesterday that industrial action had cost it R120 million over the three months to December 31. The Snacks & Treats business was impacted by supply challenges due to an eight-week labour disruption in November and December, compounded by low opening stocks of finished products, because of the civil unrest in July 2021. Although the Snacks & Treats business had made “significant progress” in restoring supply, it was anticipated that…
THE Book of Esther, the Jew and wife of King Xerxes, is relevant in the humanitarian crisis of those excluded in the stakes of prospects for a better life – be they local or foreign. Our present-day defiance wailing at the gates of power is not Mordecai, the Jew, that commander of the armed forces of King Xerxes, Haman, despised so much that he prepared a guillotine for him to be beheaded. But Mordecai represents poverty, inequality and unemployment that stands at the doorstep of a Parliament in ashes, and at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Twenty-five days ago, in an article in Business Report, titled “SA has sunk to a new low as the march against foreign nationals begins”, I argued that the absence of the government in this…
Dieketseng Maleke dieketseng.maleke@inl.co.za DRDGOLD, which mines gold dumps around Johannesburg, said yesterday it had opted to upgrade its Driefontein 2 mine instead of building a R1bn tailing facility as part of the expansion of its Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR) near Carletonville. It made this decision to upgrade its existing infrastructure after the Department of Water and Sanitation rejected its technical proposal for tailings facilities without composite linings. DRDGold chief executive Nïel Pretorius said: “We are reluctant to build a tailings storage facility (TSF) of this magnitude on a composite liner, for reasons based both on safety and efficiency, and have started a regulatory process to amend the licence conditions of the existing design. “Pending this, we are now investigating the feasibility of an interim phase at considerably reduced capital…
