Star 2022-03-30

ABSA GROUP has appointed Arrie Rautenbach, currently chief executive of the bank’s retail business, as CEO, effectively immediately, the first internally appointed CEO since 2006. He fills a vacancy that had been left open since the unexpected departure of previous CEO Daniel Mminele 11 months ago. The appointment also precedes by days the handing over of the board chairpersonship, from April 1, to Sello Moloko, by Wendy Lucas-Bull. Interim CEO Jason Quinn will resume his position as group financial director. Absa said yesterday that the CEO appointment had followed a thorough recruitment and selection process completed by its board. Rautenbach has more than 25 years’ banking experience, which includes serving as the group’s chief risk officer, simultaneously also providing executive leadership for the Group Separation Programme and Group Strategy Office.…

SOUTH Africa’s unemployment rate is likely to remain the highest in the world for the foreseeable future as economic woes force the number of jobs created to be outpaced by the size of the labour market. Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) yesterday showed 278 000 more people joined the ranks of the unemployed in the last three months of 2021, raising the jobless rate to yet another record high. Stats SA said the country’s unemployment rate rose by 0.4 of a percentage point to reach the dreaded 35.3 percent in the fourth quarter, up from 34.9 percent the previous quarter. This means that there were 7.9 million people of working age actively looking for work who had no jobs at the…

WHILE the battle for Ithala Bank to become a fully-fledged State-owned bank with a right to compete with the big five banks escalates, the KwaZulu-Natal legislature doubts Ithala would be able to acquire its permanent banking licence by the end of next month, which is the cut-off date. The bank has been struggling for about 10 years to obtain a permanent banking licence and as a result, it had, up to now, been operating with a renewable Banking Licence Exemption Notice, which is renewable every 12 to 24 months. The temporary licence limits the activities of the bank, which was established by the then KZN government, leaving bigger banks to still control the sector. The executive managers of the bank, which is an entity owned by the KZN Department of…

THE PASSENGER Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has committed to ambitious plans to reduce its irregular expenditure by 2024. It told Parliament yesterday of a litany of problems, including heavily vandalised infrastructure, lack of qualified personnel in all tiers, sullied procurement systems, encroachment of its infrastructure as well as high diesel expenses. Appearing before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Minister Fikile Mbalula, acting board chairperson Leonard Rama- tlakane and acting chief executive David Mphelo acknowledged poor audit outcomes over three years and a R1.9 billion loss in 2020/21, with operating costs at R15.5bn. “The Covid-19 pandemic exposed Prasa to many risks, especially in emergency procurement, which inevitably resulted in some cases of corruption in the systems. “Prasa is not generating sufficient revenue and will have to…

THE rand rallied back toward a 5-month high yesterday, buoyed by increasing risk sentiment in spite of rising job losses in South Africa. South Africa’s unemployment rate hit a new record high of 35.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, mainly due to job losses in manufacturing and construction industries. Anchor Capital investment analyst Casey Delport, however, said total employment partially recovered as the number of employed persons actually increased by 262 000. “This is reflective of economic activity having bounced back after the July riots,” Delport said. “However, due to a bigger increase in the labour force, the unemployment rate actually climbed from 34.9 percent to 35.3 percent in the fourth quarter.” Despite this, investors have been pouring into financial markets as the start…

MIPIM, the world’s major international real estate event in Cannes, France, which ended on Friday, signalled a return to normality after the Covid health crisis. Under the shadow of a Russian- Ukrainian war, Mipim’s recovery from a two-year Covid break revealed good news amid clear global difficulties. Both listed and unlisted companies worldwide were represented at the event. There are many lessons for the South African property market, despite the visible lack of any African repre- sentation. For Inospace, it further validated the value we see in the industrial and logistics sector, which is booming worldwide with growing investor and tenant demand. More critically, we have also experienced strong rental growth in industrial units, and this seems to be a global trend in most first and second-tier investment destinations. A…