Star 2023-08-16

SOUTH African human rights lawyer Richard Spoor announced yesterday that he had filed a class action against global mining companies South32, BHP Billiton and Seriti Power, seeking legal remedies for sick miners and the families of workers who died due to coal mine dust lung disease (CMDLD) in the form of pneumoconiosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Spoor filed the class action in the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Local Division, and he said this application for certification of a class action seeks recourse for current and former coal miners, as well as dependants of deceased workers who contracted the illness. The applicants seek to hold South32, BHP Billiton PLC, and Seriti Power responsible for actions from March 12, 1965, to the present. The proposed applicant classes include…

Jobless rate eases by 0.3 percentage points to 32.6% in the second qaurter: StatsSA EMPLOYMENT recovery in South Africa has been forecast to remain clouded by prevailing economic uncertainty, in spite of the rate of joblessness softening near to pre-Covid levels in the three months ended June buoyed by the construction sector. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the unemployment rate eased by 0.3 percentage points to 32.6% in the second quarter of 2023, down from 32.9% recorded in the first quarter. This unemployment figure was slightly lower than market expectations and the lowest rate since the first quarter of 2021. According to StatsSA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), there were 40.7 million people of working age in South Africa, with the labour force increasing…

NEW VEHICLE sales fell 8.1% in the sec- ond quarter compared with the first quarter as consumer budgets took strain due to high interest rates and ongoing affordability factors, and CEOs in the sector are largely pessimistic about a second half improvement. The second quarter sales were 8.1% higher than the same time in 2022, but this reflected the lower base effect due to the impact of flooding in KwaZulu-Natal on vehicle production and supply chain disruptions at the time in 2022, a quarterly review by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) showed yesterday. It was also for this reason that second quarter 2023 domestic vehicle production increased 23% over the corresponding quarter 2022. During the second quarter vehicle exports increased 13.8% to 88 025…

THE RAND MOUNTED a serious battle to end the day 0.3% lower at R19.14 against the US dollar yesterday after the unemployment data showed signs that South Africa’s economy was recovering, albeit at a slower pace. The domestic currency has been on a free fall this week on worries over the health of China’s economy, South Africa’s biggest trading partner, falling to R19.27/$1 during early trade yesterday on risk-off sentiment. Disappointing Chinese retail sales and lower-than-expected industrial production figures have seen the Chinese Yuan fall under further pressure after the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) cut key policy rates for the second time in as many months. TreasuryONE currency strategist Andre Cilliers said the risk-off sentiment continued to flow throughout the markets yesterday, with higher US Treasury Yields, poor Chinese…

ATTERBURY South Africa’s property development team yesterday began construction of a 12 500 square metre light industrial site at Richmond Park, just north of Cape Town, for a facility that will be home to Africa’s first dedi- cated gigawatt battery storage manufacturing plant. Kaloyani Dimov, the CEO of Solar MD, speaking at an event to mark the start of construction, said demand for their lithium-ion energy storage solutions was robust, driven to a large extent by load shedding. And with sales in Africa and to Europe, they had run out of space at their existing facility in Cape Town’s industrial park, Montague Gardens, which the company had been using since 2018. The new building at Richmond Park, which will include offices as well as manufacturing and storage facilities, would…

MERAFE Resources said yesterday that despite local challenges, which include power shortages, energy costs and logistics constrained its interim earnings increased. In its financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2023, the group reported headline earnings per share of 42 cents, compared to the 37c in the comparable period last year. The company, which is part of a joint venture with mining giant Glencore, had its shares increase on the JSE by almost 11% yesterday morning. The shares closed 9.17% higher at R1.31 on the JSE yesterday, but they had dropped by 13.04% in the past six months. Merafe achieved a profit of R1.05 bil- lion from R925m the prior corresponding period, as a result of higher realised chrome ore prices and a weaker rand and…