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Damage to economy from theft is estimated at more than R45bn a year THE MULTIBILLION-rand scrap metals industry could be in for a shock overhaul as government seeks to prohibit scrap metal cash transactions, as well as blacklist dealers who break the law and buy stolen cables. These are two examples among a raft of new measures that the government wants to implement, along with a proposal to ban scrap and waste metal exports for six months, in an effort to curb widespread theft of copper cables. The plan could face serious pushback from scrap metal businesses, lobby groups and opposition political parties. They have three weeks to submit their comments. The theft of copper cables and other metals from public infrastructure has hitting power supplies, leaving trains unable to…
CIVIL society has continued to call for the South African government to impose severe sanctions on the disgraced global management consultancy Bain & Company. The British government last week blacklisted Bain & Company from doing business with the State for three years due to corrupt reports it produced for the South African Revenue Service (Sars) at the height of the State Capture years. This comes after the Zondo Commission into State Capture found that Bain was irregularly paid around R164 million as third-party consultants when Tom Moyane was appointed as Sars Commissioner. The Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) on Friday called on South Africa’s government to follow in the footsteps of the UK government and ban Bain. HSF director Nicole Fritz said the UK government could only be applauded for…
ANGLOGOLD Ashanti on Friday reported a decline in its first half-year net profit while declaring that it is on track to meet its guidance for the full year, despite inflation expected to increase further. Implats said it had accounted in its guidance for the price of the Brent oil price. In the first half, the biggest impact Implats felt with inflation was the cost of diesel. Chief executive Alberto Calderon said looking at next year, while inflation currently was at 7 percent, the cost of inflation would be in the second half at about 13 percent. However, they expected crude oil prices to decline, with an expected increase in production, which was catered for in their guidance. Calderon said: “The fundamentals of our company…
LUXE Holdings was suspended on Friday because it had failed to report its financial results on time due to it uncovering a number of accounting errors in its previous years’ financial results, a statement said Friday. The JSE pointed out on July 1 that Luxe had failed to submit its annual report within the four-month period following its year-end, as stipulated in listing requirements, and it was under threat of suspension and possible removal of the listing. If Luxe failed to submit its results by July 31, 2022, then its listing might be suspended. The results were not received and the JSE suspended the share. Luxe said there were corrections from a number of transactions that were not accounted for in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in prior…
THE INVESTMENT required for renewable energy projects in South Africa translates to anything north of R500 billion in the short to medium term, according to estimates by Pranisha Sahadeo, the senior transactor for Infrastructure Sector Solutions of Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). She said last week that once one included the costs of increased maintenance of Eskom’s plants, and importing excess energy from South Africa’s neighbours, this figure would increase further. Last month, Eskom’s general manager for strategy and planning, Matthew Mflathelwa, revealed for the first time that the energy transition could cost as much as R1.2 trillion. Mflathelwa said about R990bn of that sum would be for generation in the energy transition plan, while R330bn would be for meeting compliance regarding air-quality requirements. However, Mflathelwa said Eskom would…
SOUTH Africa has a two-tiered and highly unequal healthcare system. The recent Covid-19 pandemic clearly demonstrated that the health needs of South African citizens exceed capacity. This is mainly due to the constant neglect and underfunding of the public sector and the fact that most South Africans can no longer afford the exorbitant cost of medical funds and private care. This situation is worsened by a lack of a strong primary healthcare network, as well as the efficiencies of hospitals. Many hospitals are falling apart and provide a low quality and inadequate health service. A major problem is also that access is based on distance to health services, resulting in people in remote areas enjoying less privileges. In order to address the inequality, government tabled the controversial National Health Insurance…
