Star 2024-08-26

Philip Morris International is moving away from combustible cigarettes and rolling out smoke-free nicotine products in South Africa, Branislav Bibic, vice-president for the company’s sub- Saharan Africa region said in an interview on Friday, adding that e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches should be regulated differently as they were gaining popularity on the local market. Philip Morris International is the producer of the popular Marlboro cigarettes brand, among others. The company is adopting new smoke-free products after launching its own new nicotine pouch product called ZYN last week. “It takes a lot of resources to educate consumers about the products and the benefit and we are doing that globally, and in South Africa we are making robust progress,” Bibic told Business Report in an interview. “These new categories (smoke-free nicotine products) are…

THE FIRST 10 000 mpox vaccines are finally due to arrive next week in Africa, where a dangerous new strain of the virus – which has afflicted people there for decades – has caused global alarm. The slow arrival of the shots – which have already been made available in more than 70 countries outside Africa – showed that lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic about global healthcare inequities have been slow to bring change, half a dozen public health officials and scientists said. Among the hurdles: It took the World Health Organisation (WHO) until this month to officially start the process needed to give poor countries easy access to large quantities of vaccine via international agencies. That could have begun years ago, several of the officials and scientists…

Financial heavyweight Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, has urged the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to deliver a 50-point rate cut in September in a bid to avert recession. This comes as market speculators are now anticipating a 70% chance of a 25 basis points cut and a 30% chance of a 50 basis points cut by the Fed next month. Recent minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting showed that risks to the inflation forecast were still seen as tilted to the upside, albeit to a smaller degree than at the time of the previous meeting, and that there had been some further progress towards the committee’s 2% inflation objective. Green, who is at the helm of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory and asset…

In what WILL be a seminal case that will help craft the future of South Africa’s law, MTN and Turkcell will be appearing in the Supreme Court of Appeal this week to argue a matter over whether a South African court can rule on alleged activities that happened in another country. Turkcell seeks to have MTN found guilty of bribery and corruption, alleging that it didn’t win its 49% of a telecommunications licence in Iran fairly. Before this issue can be heard, a full bench of judges in Bloemfontein needs to decide whether a South African court has jurisdiction over the matter. Turkcell’s bid to have MTN found guilty of bribery and corruption dates to 2013, when the Turkish operator initially approached the US courts in an action it later…

Mahindra South Africa and Auto Investment Holdings Group (AIH) have started work on a brand-new assembly facility to be completed by June next year, the subsidiary of the India-based vehicle manufacturer said. The company, which began vehicle assembly in South Africa at the Dube Tradeport outside eThekwini in 2018 and produced its 20 000th Pik Up model vehicle last week, said the new assembly facility would cover 14 000m² and would double the group’s current investment in South Africa. “The new assembly facility will anchor Mahindra’s next growth phase in South Africa,” said Rajesh Gupta, CEO of Mahindra South Africa, in a statement. Mahindra South Africa first opened its doors in October 2004 when representatives from Mahindra & Mahindra opened an office in Pretoria and hired its first local…

The GLOBAL Threat Intelligence Report for the first half of 2024 has revealed that the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors, followed by government services, were the industries most targeted by cyberattacks, with small and medium businesses bearing the brunt of attacks. The report was published by Mimecast Limited, a leading global human risk management platform, on Friday. Brian Pinnock, VP sales director Emea at Mimecast, said this report, along with many others, revealed that cyber actors were increasingly targeting SMEs rather than just big businesses. “We are also seeing a rise in cyberattacks on agriculture, forestry, fishing, and government services, as more governments in the region turn to the food economy to foster economic growth, reduce poverty and improve food security,” Pinnock said. According to the report, file share abuse…