Star 2023-09-21

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana has called for ethical financial management, strict consequence management, and prudent procurement practices within government departments in a bid to restore deteriorating public finances, which would allow the state to deliver the required services. Godongwana openly admitted yesterday that South Africa’s fiscal metrics have deteriorated on the back of a projected R22 billion revenue shortfall, rising borrowing costs and weak economic growth. The Finance Minister said that public finances were currently in a difficult position, one that was increasing in complexity and uncertainty. He said a number of factors had put tremendous strain on the financial resources the government had available to address its most urgent service delivery priorities. “The short-term risks to the local and global economy that we predicted in the February Budget…

CONSUMER prices in South Africa could continue rising until the end of the year as global oil prices are on a hike, leaving the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) little room to start cutting interest rates from the current 13-year high. Statistics SA (StatsSA) said yesterday that the headline annual consumer inflation ticked up to 4.8% in August, up from 4.7% in July, after four consecutive months of decline. StatsSA said the upward pressure came from the “food and non-alcoholic beverages”, “housing and utilities” and “miscellaneous goods and services” categories. StatsSA’s Patrick Kelly said inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to cool, taking some of the heat off the headline rate. “Annual inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages declined for a fifth straight month, softening from 9.9% in July to…

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa took up the issue to press the Minister to take the sale offer MINISTER of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan’s decision to tarry on whether to take the tabled R336 million offer for embattled Mango Airlines by Ubuntu Airline Services may paint him into a corner as both legal precedent and rules of the Public Finance Management act (PFMA), along with the initial high court judgment, compel his compliance. This comes as the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) took up the issue yesterday to press the Minister to take the sale offer as opposed to clinging to the almost defunct airline after a series of failures that make it impractical to hold on to it. “The so-called concerns raised…

PPC, THE CEMENTITIOUS products group, said revenue from operations in Zimbabwe and Rwanda increased “materially” by 58% and 19% in rands respectively, for the five months to August 31 compared with the same period a year before. However, revenue excluding its businesses in Zimbabwe and Rwanda increased 5% for the five months, with this uplift driven mainly by an increase of average selling prices, despite weaker cement sales volumes. The operational update released by the group resulted in the share price rising 2.1% to close at R2.92 on the JSE yesterday, a three-month high. Group cement sales volumes (including Zimbabwe and Rwanda) for the five months were 3% higher due to “exceptionally strong growth in Zimbabwe” and, to a lesser extent, Rwanda, while cement volumes continued to decline in South…

Shane Packman SOUTH African investors have a love-hate relationship with listed property, with significant shifts in sentiment and demand evident over the past 10 years. Before 2017, it was common for multi-asset funds to have healthy allocations to the SA listed opportunity set, mostly due to the appeal of property companies offering relatively stable dividends. The SA property market demonstrated strong performance between 2013 and 2017, attracting significant investment flows into the sector. Sentiment towards the sector began to weaken in early 2018 as market participants became concerned about the overuse of debt, possible financial engineering, as well as corporate governance problems. The sector was further hindered by expensive valuations, unsustainable earnings and deteriorating local conditions. The FTSE/JSE SA Listed Property Index lost 62.6% of its value between January 1,…

SOUTHERN Sun reported yesterday that trading volumes in South Africa have continued to improve in the first five months of the financial year ending March 31, 2024, boosted by Netball World Cup 2023 and the 2023 BRICS Summit. The Netball World Cup 2023 was hosted in Cape Town from July 28 to August 6, while the 2023 BRICS Summit was held in Johannesburg form August 22 to 24. In a statement, the group, formerly known as Tsogo Sun Hotels, said occupancy was at 55.3% for the five months ending August 2023 and has increased by 2 percentage points compared to 44.2% in the prior comparative period, and is only 2 percentage points below the 57.2% achieved for the same five-month period in 2019, being pre Covid-19. “The group’s average room…