Star 2024-04-17

THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered South Africa’s growth forecast for 2024 slightly as Africa’s most-industrialised economic growth stalls, in spite of the global economy remaining remarkably resilient. In its World Economic Outlook for April published yesterday, the IMF said South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 0.9% this year and 1.2% next year. This growth forecast is slightly down from the 1% the Washington-based lender projected in January, but significantly lower than its forecast six months ago in October 2023 when it saw growth expanding by 1.8% in 2024. It is also in line with Fitch Ratings agency’s forecast, but detracts from Moody’s more optimistic 1.5% forecast and the SA Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) 1.2% GDP growth for this year. Momentum Investments economist, Sanisha Packirisam, said the…

STER-KINEKOR has confirmed that it has been forced to issue retrenchment notices to 236 employees as it restructures its business and streamlines costs due to dwindling attendance numbers at its South African cinemas, coupled with other challenges. The cinema group said all staff members had been issued with notices informing them of the company’s intention to proceed with a restructuring exercise under Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act. “In recent months, the business has suffered a significant decline in attendances,” the company said in a statement to Business Report. “This is largely as a result of a challenging economic environment, prolonged and more intense load shedding as well as the impact of the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes.” Ster-Kinekor said the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike in 2023 had…

SOUTH Africa has initiated a dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in relation to phytosanitary trade regulations imposed on the country’s citrus by the European Union (EU). This was announced by the Department of Agricul- ture, Land Reform and Rural Development and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition on Monday evening. SA said this action was initiated to find a lasting solution to the EU’s phytosanitary regulations on Citrus Black Spot (CBS), in order to protect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in the local citrus industry. CBS is a fungal infection that could result in cosmetic blemishes on the affected fruit. Despite the world’s leading scientists proving that CBS cannot be transmitted through the actual fruit as a pathway, the EU has continued to enforce…

Volkswagen Group Africa has announced a R4 billion investment in its car manufacturing plant in Kariega, near Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, in a bid to upgrade the facility as it prepares it for the production of a third model, an SUV, from 2027. The car manufacturer said yesterday that most of the R4bn investment would be allocated to capital expenditure for production facilities, manufacturing tooling, local content tooling and quality assurance. Nearly R877 million will be spent to enhance automation in the body shop while an estimated R418m will be used to procure new press tooling in the press shop. The first phase of the plant facility upgrade will begin at the end of 2024 during the plant shutdown. Volkswagen Group Africa chairperson and managing director Martina Biene…

AFRICA needed to raise $1 trillion (R19 billion) to achieve Africa Union’s flagship project for an African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) by 2040, Amani Abou-Zeid, the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy of the AU Commission, said yesterday. The commission has amassed R30 billion to date for the project. Abou-Zeid was talking on the sidelines of the 14th Assembly of International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) convention on Monday, which officially kicked off yesterday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and runs for two days. The creation of AfSEM – one of the largest electricity markets in the world, covering a population of more than 1.3 billion – requires physical interconnection of Africa’s continental energy infrastructure. “We can do it,” she said, adding that while it was an…

THE NATIONAL Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and the National Rationalised Specifications (NRS) Association have painstakingly explained that the NRS 048-9 Third Edition of the load reduction and load shedding protocol was not a clarion call for up to stage 16 or 32 hours without power. However, the organisations yesterday said this was an upgrade of the guide to avoid a national emergency in the yet-unlikely stage 8 load shedding happening in the current scenario. In a briefing yesterday, Nersa and NRS said the revised standards had helped eliminate human error as the previous guidance was up to stage 8 only. The briefing was to calm the hyper-reaction to the recently announced approval of updated guidelines for Eskom’s load-shedding procedures by Nersa, now formally including provisions…