Star 2024-05-20

CHECKERS’ Sixty60 has upped its e-commerce game as it announces that it’s beta testing the new and improved version of its app, enabling customers to shop for more than 10 000 larger Hyper products, with same-day delivery scheduled within a 60-minute time slot. The move comes hot on the heels of Amazon’s launch in South Africa more than a week ago. With a new fleet of eye-catching Hyper delivery vans, Checkers says its Sixty60 product offering now extends beyond groceries to include larger items, ranging from camping and outdoor gear to small appliances, baby products, toys, kitchen and home electronics and gardening and pool equipment – all at supermarket prices. Delivery is free during beta testing and will remain free for Xtra Savings Plus subscribers, it says. Neil Schreuder,…

YEAR-ON-YEAR volumes rose across Trans- net Port Terminals’ (TPT’s) sectors in the first six weeks of the 2024/2025 financial year, which started in April 2024, it said in a statement on Friday. Container volumes were up 10%, while bulk volumes and break- bulk volumes increased by 5% and 17%, respectively. Automotive volumes were 3% down owing to high stock levels, which have forced importers to revise their imports orders due to low car sales as a result of slow economic growth. TPT chief executive Jabu Mdaki said: “We are doing our best to move more volumes despite our shortfalls on equipment and, ultimately, key perfor- mance indicators.” He said that when com- paring the previous financial year to the current year, the performance was showing signs of recovery. TPT had…

FIXING what was broken at Eskom did not just result in South Africa experiencing more than 50 days without load shedding, but has also created a new engineering problem for the power utility, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Friday. He said that to stop load shedding, Eskom had simply repaired the machines that were giving problems, after identifying six power stations that were responsible for 70% of the losses (17 000MW), known as the unplanned capacity loss factor. However, the country was not out of the woods yet. “Three of them have graduated from being problem power stations. Kusile, Majuba have graduated and are some of the best power stations. As a result of that, we have a new problem, which is that we are generating more electricity…

NASPERS and Prosus’s appointment of Fabricio Bloisi as their new group chief executive, an entrepreneur with practical and profitable AI experience, appeared to be welcomed by market analysts, notwithstanding the lower share prices on Friday. Naspers chairperson Koos Bekker said in a briefing that if Naspers and Prosus were to survive the “explosive” growth of AI and technology, then five years from now they would need to look entirely different from what they did now, and their new CEO needed to have the qualities to be able to drive this change. After Bloisi’s appointment (effective July 1) was announced, Naspers shares fell 3.19% to R3 954 on the JSE on Friday morning, while Netherlands- based stable-mate Prosus’s share price fell 2.74% to R702.05. At the same time, the All…

STAKEHOLDERS in South Africa’s electricity generation sector from wind, solar, and photovoltaic producers to in- tensive users, are urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to quickly sign the Electricity Regulation Amendment (ERA) Bill into law, following its adoption by the National Council of Provinces last week. The ERA Bill, once enacted, is expected to steady Eskom’s hand and expedite open-market trade in electricity. The amendment bill aims to provide for additional electricity generation ca- pacity and infrastructure, and to establish the duties, powers and functions of the Transmission System Operator and provide for an open-market platform that allows competitive electricity trading, among others. It further seeks to amend the regulatory framework for the electricity industry, in response to prevailing conditions in the South African electricity power system, and the Department of Public…

OVER THE PAST few years, African debt markets have faced significant challenges due to a combination of factors including soft global economic conditions, the Covid-19 pandemic and related supply chain failures. These factors led to a decrease in demand for African debt and a dramatic rise in borrowing costs, placing sovereign borrowing in particular in a difficult position. In fact, in 2023, there was no issuance at all in sub-Saharan Africa, marking the first time since 2008 that this happened. The global bond market was effectively frozen for Africa. The funding squeeze and the closure of the bond market forced African countries to seek alternative sources of financing, such as domestic capital markets, multilateral institutions, and bilateral agreements. But in January and February 2024, everything changed. Suddenly there was a…