Star 2023-03-06

CONFIDENCE in South Africa’s private sector regarding the year ahead has declined for the fifth month running to the weakest level since May 2022, in spite of activity rebounding. The S&P Global on Friday released the South Africa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). The PMI returned to growth territory in February, printing at 50.5 points after falling to a 13-month low of 48.7 points in January, signalling a slight pick-up in the health of the private sector economy. The latest reading showed that the improvement came as output levels stabilised in February, thereby ending a prior five-month sequence of contraction. S&P said some panellists saw an increase in activity linked to new contracts and higher sales, but others saw a decline amid demand weakness and load shedding. Upturns in the…

SUN INTERNATIONAL said successful execution of its strategy last year yielded excellent results, resulting in strong growth in revenue, earnings and signifi- cant reduction in group debt, boosted by casino income. In a trading statement released on Friday, the group said basic earnings per share for the financial year was expected to be a profit of between 211 cents and 234c, which equates to an improvement of more than 100% when compared to the prior year’s profit of 105c per share. Headline earnings per share were expected to be between 213c and 237c, which equates to an improvement of more than 100% when compared to the prior year’s headline earnings profit of 106c per share. Adjusted headline earnings per share were expected to be a profit of between 415c…

SWEEPSOUTH, a leading home cleaning service company, wants those who refuse to play by the rules and pay the new national minimum wage to face legal consequences. SweepSouth managing director Luke Kannemeyer said in response to Business Report questions on Friday that the country would also need to guard against employers who may reduce days or hours of work, but then place unreasonable demands on their employees to still complete the same amount of work in a reduced time period. “This highlights the importance of not viewing the national minimum wage in isolation as a benchmark to improve the sector. Fair treatment is as important as fair pay,” Kannemeyer said. Last month, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi raised the minimum wage for farmworkers and domestic workers by a whopping…

Regulations combined with debt relief programme will release funds for critical spares needed ESKOM has expressed hope that the recently gazetted regulations governing the National State of Disaster on energy will enable the power utility to fast-track the end of load shedding. Eskom acting CEO Calib Cassim said on Friday that the regulations, combined with the debt-relief programme, will release funds for critical spares needed to fix generation units much quicker than normal. Last month, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that Eskom will not be spending capital on any greenfield projects for the next three years but will focus on maintenance of the existing generation fleet. This forms part of the conditions attached to the R254 billion debt relief intervention provided by the government in a bid to turn…

MTN RWANDA, the biggest telecoms operator in the East African nation, on Friday said investment in its network and platforms remained a key priority supporting its strategy to achieve 100% population coverage in 2023. In its results for the year to December 31, 2022, the group, which is also known as MTN Rwandacell, said it planned to ensure connectivity across Rwanda’s rural communities to further drive digital inclusion, as well as to grow its subscriber base. Service revenue grew 19.9% to 221.7 billion Rwandan Francs (Rwf) (R3.68bn) last year, but profit fell 12.8%. Mobile subscribers increased by 5.9% year-on-year to 6.8 million, while MoMo subscribers were up by 16.3% to 4.3 million, and the number of merchants rose by 192.6% to 141 222 at period end.…

SOUTH Africa’s greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, would stifle the country’s ability to do business globally, especially with EU members, says Youth Employment Service (YES) CEO Ravi Naidoo. YES is a business-led collaboration that seeks groundbreaking ways, through innovation and technological best practice, to reignite the economy and give youth a dignified first chance. Naidoo said that the greylisting, together with load shedding, would unfortunately also affect job creation. He said studies showed that greylisting negatively affected capital flows into countries, with consequent effects on economic activity, growth and employment levels. In response to a Business Report media inquiry, Naidoo said that the single biggest way to create jobs was to increase the country’s rate of economic growth. “We…