Star 2023-06-08

BUSINESS confidence in South Africa has deteriorated to a three-year low due to persistent load shedding and challenging economic conditions amid rising interest rates and cost pressures. The RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI), released yesterday, declined for a fifth consecutive quarter to reach 27 index points in the second quarter of 2023, down by 9 points from 36 points in the first quarter. This was the lowest level of confidence since 2020 and suggested that only roughly a quarter of respondents were satisfied with prevailing business conditions. The second quarter survey, conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) between May 10 and May 30, covered 1 050 senior executives in the building, manufacturing, retail, wholesale and motor trade sector. Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) said the decline…

AFRICAN Bank, at its 2023 half-year stage, is markedly different from a year ago as it pivots from an unsecured lending business to a fully-fledged consumer and business banking group. The bank now services 4.2 million customers, up 193% from 1.4 million customers a year ago. It has a strong balance sheet and cash reserves, after reporting a small taxed loss in the six-month period. Its consumer banking customers came under pressure from rising food prices, transport inflation and load shedding during the six months, and a consequent rise in the credit impairment charge saw it report an interim R44 million net taxed loss, compared with R372m profit at the same time last year. The Consumer Banking division’s credit impairment charge increase resulted in a sharp rise…

ENERGY transition, exploration and coal remaining the dominant mineral will characterise the global mining industry in the next few years, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said yesterday as it released its Mine 2023 and Top 40 resource companies reports that include South African groups Anglo American, Impala Platinum and Gold Fields, among others. Transition to cleaner energies is dominating the global mining industry, although coal has remained the dominant mined fossil, especially in developing countries such as South Africa that are facing power deficits. Standard Bank has been defending its exposure to fossils to meet the continent’s energy requirements, with its exposure to oil and gas, coal and other fossils rising a massive 21% to R120 billion in 2022. Coal stocks in South Africa, such as Thungela Resources, have top performed owing…

Former DG says there is ‘irrefutable evidence of corruption through State Capture’ FIRED Director-General of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) Kgathatso Tlhakudi yesterday asked that Parliament halt the Takatso Consortium’s 51% takeover of South African Airways (SAA), while calling for an independent investigation. He alleged there was “irrefutable evidence of corruption through State capture“ and said the Special Investigations Unit proclamation on SAA should be extended to cover the Takatso transaction, DPE Minister and officials’ roles. In a submission before Parliament’s Portfolio on Public Enterprises, Tlhakudi said the restructuring of the airline, which had this far cost R37.5 billion, with R243 million in consultancy costs alone, was fraught with fault-lines: from the DPE not performing the due diligence on Takatso by May 22 when he was suspended,…

THE ONSET of the pandemic brought matters relating to employee health and wellness into stark focus. Employers were greatly impacted when their team members suffered from burnout, experienced high levels of stress and were absent from work due to physical or mental health issues. The ripple effect that these realities had on productivity and, ultimately, profitability highlighted the importance of ensuring that their employees were afforded a workplace that provided them with support, work-life balance and a culture of recognition. An investment in people is an investment in your small business’s future success. In the recent Business Partners Limited Q4 2022 SME Index, South African small business owners reported feeling only 64% confident that they would be able to find staff with the right skills and experience – a 6%…

IF ONE SPEAKS to entrepreneurs that have scaled their businesses amid the challenges they faced when starting, one of the biggest stumbling blocks most will mention will be lack of access to capital. In-depth research has also shown that many businesses fail due to little or no access to capital and effective capacity building programmes. Capacity building for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) basically means putting together measures that will assist them to grow their business, which could include, but not limited to, operational soundness, financial management, talent management and building a strong management team. Through capacity building, SMEs are more prepared to access various markets that they would not have necessarily accessed and also enjoy the support to access the financial capital that they may need to stabilise and…