Star 2023-05-29

Eskom wage negotiations are heading for the fourth round in June after talks deadlocked as three workers unions rejected the employers’ revised final offer of 5.25% increases. These protracted negotiations, which began mid-April, could raise the stakes and increase the possibility of heavily intensified load shedding if workers down tools since parties remain far apart. This comes as the power utility and its three recognised trade unions – National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity – concluded the third round of salary negotiations last week. Eskom on Friday said the negotiations have progressed relatively well with some significant movements made since the beginning of the wage talks last month. In the first two rounds, Eskom responded with a 3.75% offer, which was…

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s transfer of some powers to decide on the required new electricity generation capacity from the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe has created more confusion than clarity in the market. Ramaphosa on Friday signed a pro- clamation to transfer roles and responsibilities in Section 34(1) of the Electricity Regulation Act to the Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosien- tsho Ramokgopa. Section 34(1) of the act empowers the minister to issue a determination that new generation capacity is needed in order to ensure security of energy supply. This includes the amount of new capacity that must be procured; the type of capacity (for example, wind or solar PV); and the manner in which it must be procured. These powers and functions were previously entrusted…

The move is effective from August 1, making her the first female CEO of listed SA insurance group JEANETTE Christina Marais has been appointed as the new Group CEO of Momentum Metropolitan Holdings and Momentum Metropolitan Life. The move makes her the first woman CEO of a large, listed life insurance and asset management group in South Africa – a positive move for gender parity. Only seven of the top 100 Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies are led by woman CEOs, indicating minimal progress in balancing gender representation at senior management and executive positions, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) South Africa’s 2022 executive directors report. And while only 5% of companies listed on Africa’s 24 stock exchanges have a woman as CEO, those that do have a woman CEO outperform financially by…

TESLA Model Y has become the first all-electric vehicle to be billed as the world’s bestselling car, a report has shown. Tesla Model Y surpassed Toyota’s RAV4 and Corolla models to top global sales rankings in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from Jato Dynamics. The 2023 Model Y starts at $47 490 (R932 248), considerably more than the 2023 Corolla ($21 550) and RAV4 ($27 575), reports The Verge. Tesla Model Y sold 267 200 units globally in the first quarter this year, compared to 256 400 Corolla and 214 700 RAV4 units sold. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even estimated back in 2016 that this model would draw demand “in the 500k to 1 million…

All living organisms germinate or get born and die. In human populations, this process is followed, aggregated and reported upon by national statistical authorities. In South Africa, Statistics South Africa takes on this noble task. From 1995 to 2000, I was a chief director responsible for demography, vital statistics, surveys and censuses at Statistics South Africa. I have had the privilege of observation and research through a study I conducted in Bophuthatswana in 1986, while I served in the statistics office from 1982 to 1994. The study revealed the causes of a low rate of registration of vital statistics in Bophuthatswana. I was thus in a position to address and set systems towards remedying the low rate of recording of, especially, births and deaths when I started work at…

The UNEXPECTEDLY higher increase in the repo rate by 0.50 basis points to by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SA Reserve Bank last Thursday brought about concern among the public, economists and market analysts. The rand initially depreciated strongly against the US dollar, pound and euro just after the announcement of the increase in the repo rate. This latest rate hike is the 10th consecutive increase in interest rates since November 2021 and was raised in total by 475 basis points (more than double) from 18 months ago since the policy tightening began. The rand almost immediately lost 40 cents to R19.77 to the dollar after the announcement and traded for the first time higher than R24 against the pound. The currency, as expected, however, started to…