Star 2023-09-11

SOUTH Africa will have to attract an additional 1 million foreign tourists on average every single year for the next seven years if it is to reach the downwardly revised target of 15.6 million foreign tourists’ arrivals by 2030. This is a mounting task for an industry that is currently battling a number of headwinds not of its own doing. Last year, the tourism industry revised the annual arrivals target down from 21 million to 15.6 million by 2030 and moved the target for 21 million visitors forward to 2035. Rising input costs on hospitality and accommodation businesses that have to run diesel generators due to crippling power cuts, safety and security concerns, as well as insufficient overseas and domestic leisure demand were issues of…

Circular to all government departments and provinces instructing to slash budgets by up to 15%, freeze all vacancies FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana has been forced to defer tabling his mini budget by a week as the National Treasury is finalising consultations about the Cabinet directive compelling government departments to cut down on spending in the face of an economic downturn precipitated by load shedding. This comes after leaked reports of the Treasury’s circular to all government departments and provinces instructing to slash budgets by up to 15%, freeze all vacancies and infrastructure rollout programmes as part of policy of fiscal consolidation. According to Treasury sources who spoke to Business Report, Godongwana was scheduled to deliver the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on the traditional date of the last Wednesday of…

THE MINISTER of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has placed all his hopes of ending higher stages of load shedding on the misfiring Kusile power station in Witbank, Mpumalanga. Kusile is a multi-billion rand 3 200MW coal-fired power station in which a number of generation units are not operating after a section of the flue-gas desulphurisation duct, which carries emissions from Kusile Unit 1 into a large chimney, collapsed in October 2022, contributing roughly two stages of load shedding. Kusile and Koeberg nuclear power stations are the biggest contributors to the ongoing energy crisis as they have taken at least 3 000MW from Eskom’s generation capacity. Ramokgopa yesterday said he will be visiting Kusile today where he expects to announce the timelines set to return some units back into…

EIFSA THE ECONOMIC Intervention Forum of South Africa (Eifsa) is extremely disappointed to learn about stage 6 load shedding as announced by Eskom, to be implemented from 5am on Tuesday, September 4, until further notice. It is of no comfort that the latest statement issued by Eskom indicates that load shedding will be reduced. This, to us points to a system that is unstable and unreliable, because it makes it difficult for people to plan their lives. This comes after a few months of enduring stage 1, or less of load shedding. What is more disappointing is that, even the Minister of Electricity seemed to be taken by surprise by these developments. “This should come as no surprise and South Africans should accept the short-term pain for long-term gain,”…

SOUTH32 said on Friday that the global economy had seen two successive major shocks in a short span of three years, and despite this, it set annual production records at three of its operations. In its annual report, South32 chairperson Karen Wood said while the world had reopened since the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions remained heightened throughout the 2023 financial year, including the ongoing tragic war in Ukraine and strained ties between the major economic centres. “This has contributed to market fragmentation and volatility in a landscape where policymakers and companies are already grappling with structural risks including climate change, higher sovereign debt levels, ageing demographics, and rising income inequalities. “Against this volatile and uncertain backdrop, we set annual production records at three of our operations and delivered one of…

THE MINISTERS and Members of the Executive Council had at their last meeting endorsed the Construction Industry Recovery Plan (Cirp), which aims to develop the sector considering the lagging investment in infrastructure over the past decade. This was according to Department of Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala, who spoke at the Master Builders South Africa annual conference in Cape Town on Friday. The government accounts for at least 40% of infrastructure investment in the country. “Cirp enables a focus on the entire infrastructure delivery and maintenance value chain. It is a construction industry-wide plan focusing on the public and private sectors. “The Cirp … signifies our commitment to propel our country towards sustainable growth, economic resilience, and infrastructure development in support of the National Development Plan, the Economic…