Star 2024-07-18

AngloGold Ashanti has appointed former De Beers CEO Bruce Clever to its board of directors as an independent non-executive director. Last month, AngloGold Ashanti said all of its operations had been certified as conflict-free amid rising concerns that conflict minerals, including illegally mined and smuggled metals such as gold and diamonds, could be fuelling human rights abuses in Africa. Though some parts of the DRC where the company also operates had been ranked as escalated to a full-scale war under the 2022 Heidelberg Institute’s Conflict Barometer, AngloGold Ashanti said its Kibali mine operations managed by the group’s joint venture partner Barrick Gold Corporation were not located in the conflict zones. Cleaver will serve on AngloGold Ashanti’s social, ethics and sustainability committee as well as on its audit and risk committee.…

Ascendis Health, the health products and medical devices company being delisted amid strong criticism from some shareholders, said yesterday that the high court had set aside a Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP) ruling about alleged contraventions of takeover provisions. Last month the TRP, following complaints from some shareholders, issued a ruling in terms of which the takeover consortium headed by Ascendis CEO Carl Neethling had been found to have contravened certain provisions of the Takeover Provisions Regulations. At the time, Ascendis and the consortium, which is delisting Ascendis through an offer to minority shareholders, disagreed with the TRP’s findings and said they were assessing their legal options. Ascendis directors said yesterday that it and the consortium subsequently made an application to the high court on an urgent basis to review and…

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana yesterday said National Treasury wanted to trim the Budget deficit to 3.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), down from the current 4.9%, by the end of the 2026/27 fiscal year. However, last year’s National Budget indicated that Treasury had set itself the target of narrowing this ratio to 3.3% by the end of the 2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework – or 2026/27 – in a bid to address the unsustainably high national debt burden above R5 trillion. Although the target for trimming the Budget deficit seems to have shifted somewhat, during National Treasury’s Budget vote in Parliament yesterday, Godongwana said the outcomes of the most recent financial year – the 2023/24 financial year – suggested that Treasury was “on-track to meet these objectives”. “Fiscal deficits rose persistently…

Zimbabwe’s government will stick to what it promised when it launched a new currency in April by ensuring it remains fully backed by reserves, the central bank governor said yesterday, adding that it was the only way to build trust. The new Zimbabwe Gold currency (ZiG) is the country’s sixth attempt at a local currency in 15 years after a bout of hyperinflation under its former leader Robert Mugabe. The last currency, the Zimdollar, fell 80% in the three months before it was scrapped, and the authorities face a battle to convince a sceptical population to stop transacting in foreign currencies. “Confidence can only come with us walking the talk,” governor John Mushayavanhu said, referring to the central bank’s commitment not to print money to finance government spending, which drove…

The National Health Insurance (NHI) Act could not garner the full support of members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) yesterday, as it was largely criticised as not being the silver bullet to solving corruption, poor management, access to hospitals and the basics of the health care system. This came as Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi argued that societal imbalances favoured the rich. Motsoaledi recently said the private health sector was subsidised for up to R70 billion a year through government spending on medical schemes for its workforce, which shored up the sector. Arguing for the phased implementation of the NHI Bill, which was signed into law in May, Motsoaledi yesterday told the NCOP hybrid debate that the R62.2bn budget tabled by his department would go into levelling the…

In recent years, inflation has surged across many economies, significantly impacting the food and consumer sector. The effects are particularly pronounced in the coffee industry, where climate change, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures are driving prices to unprecedented levels. Coffee has been significantly affected by adverse climate conditions. Heavy rainfall in Brazil and drought in Vietnam have disrupted production, leading to sharp increases in coffee prices. The International Coffee Organisation reported that the composite indicator price reached a 13-year high in April, up 16.4% from March, averaging 216.89 US cents per pound. Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, is facing price increases due to heavy rainfall, which will likely affect the country’s 2024/25 supply. Vietnam, the second-largest coffee producer, is also experiencing supply difficulties due to poor harvests in…