Star 2024-08-01

Woolworths Holdings said headline earnings a share from continuing operations were expected to fall by between -14% and -19% for the year to June 30 due to investments made and the effects of the weak trading environment on its apparel businesses. “Whilst the group has maintained its stringent focus on preserving gross profit margin and containing costs, we equally continue to invest behind our key strategic initiatives. This, coupled with the impact of a weaker trading environment, has resulted in negative operational leverage in both apparel businesses,” the group said in a trading update yesterday. It said this was particularly prevalent in Country Road Group (CRG), which was further impacted by higher import costs due to a weaker Australian dollar, and a higher fixed cost base. Also, a reassessment of…

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) is putting its decision to apply a 45% tariff on imported clothing products from such vendors as Temu and Shein on hold until further notice. Sars spokesperson Siphithi Sibeko said yesterday Sars was consulting with the industry on the implementation of the correct duties on imported clothing. “Once this consultation is concluded, Sars will officially communicate the date,” he said. Last month it was announced that regulations would be changed. The proposed new tax envisions that clothing items imported into the country valued at less than R500 would carry the same duties as bigger orders. Clothing imports above R500 in South Africa would be subject to a 45% import duty plus VAT. The “de minimis rule” allowed these companies to get clothing parcels under…

The National Roads Agency of South Africa (Sanral) has moved to plug the gaps in its Board sub-committees to ensure continued effective governance and operational control. In a move seen as a response to the numerous legal challenges brought by construction companies last year over the agency’s Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP) instituted in May and withdrawn in October, Sanral said yesterday that it had made appointments to some of the sub-committees, including the audit and risk committee. It said given that the Board faced challenges in maintaining the required composition of key sub-committees, specifically the audit and risk committee (ARC) and the contracts committee (CC), these committees could not meet their regulatory and operational requirements in terms of their charters. In a Stock Exchange News Service announcement, Sanral said it…

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMBEJD) yesterday called for a universal approach with a uniform electricity tariff across the country. The call underscored problems that the administration of electricity at local level had been made far too complicated and onerous, with a myriad different tariff scales differentiating between the deserving and undeserving poor proving extremely difficult to manage and largely out of control, it said in a statement. In its assessment of the impact of the 12.72% tariff hike on the basic food basket implemented by municipalities at the beginning of July, the group said affordability studies prior to tariffs being passed have never found traction, and the free basic electricity policy had mostly failed, as had cross-subsidisation. It argued that it would be possible to implement a…

Kore Potash says it is focusing on completing financing arrangements for the Kola project in Congo Brazza- ville while it had made progress with PowerChina for the engineering, procure- ment and construction of the mine. Kore Potash believes the Kola potash operation will have a lifespan of 33 years under which it will produce up to 2.2 million tons of the commodity per year. In 2021, it announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Summit Consortium to provide financing for the Kola project. However, at the time, the project required that an optimisation study on the mine be concluded first. Yesterday, Kore Potash said it is focused on “completing the financing of Kola and moving forward to construction of Kola” as soon as possible. It had…

On Monday July 29, Energy and Electricity Minister, Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa addressed the media in regard to the ever-rising electricity prices in South Africa. He decried South Africa’s current electricity-pricing framework and called for its urgent reform. Without giving any specifics, the minister assured the public that solutions to the runaway power prices would have to be found. He acknowledged however that “there’s been an exponential rise in the cost of electricity. Our electricity pricing plan needs to kick in and that’s the primary preoccupation of the work of the ministry now working with Eskom; working with municipalities and working with SALGA.” According to the minister, South Africa must adopt a pricing framework that takes care of the interests of the poor and the marginalised, so that they…