Star 2025-03-05

Shoprite has reported an impressive growth in sales volumes across its operations for January, continuing the momentum from its robust performance in the half year ending December 2024. The supermarket chain, renowned for its strategic investments into IT systems and customer rewards programmes, appears well-equipped to withstand the pricing pressures currently impacting the retail sector. While its rivals flounder and shift towards budget offerings and rationalising operations through closure of non-performing stores, Shoprite is growing its footprint. This is helping it trump up the competition, with sales volumes for the first month of the second half year to June 2024 registering a further uptick. “For the first month of our second half period, January 2025, sales growth in our core SA supermarkets segment remains ahead of that reported for the…

The growth outcome falls short of projections forecast by the government agencies The outlook for economic activity in South Africa has continued to cast a cautious shadow for the year 2025 despite a slight rebound in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2024. Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday showed that real GDP increased by 0.6% in 2024, following an increase of 0.7% in 2023. The growth outcome fell short of projections from the government agencies, which had anticipated a rebound to 0.8% this year and 0.9% forecast by the International Monetary Fund, bolstered by nearly 300 days of uninterrupted power supply. Stats SA said the 2024 GDP print was primarily led by higher economic activities in finance, real estate and business…

The ongoing debate surrounding the South African government’s proposed pause on employer pension contributions at the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) has sparked significant discord among workers' unions. As Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana seeks measures to address a staggering R60 billion shortfall ahead of the upcoming 2025 Budget Review, the proposal to temporarily halt these contributions has been met with both support and opposition from major labour organisations. The Cabinet convened a meeting on Monday to explore various strategies for addressing financial pressures while considering inputs from its members. The tensions within the unions reflect broader concerns about the impact of fiscal policies on public servants and their long-term financial security. The Presidency on Tuesday said a team led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile and supported by National Treasury tabled…

Consumers have been granted some financial relief for the month of March after the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) announced fuel price decreases across the board. The department said that the adjustments were due to lower average oil prices when compared to the previous period, as well as a stronger rand against the dollar, which led to the reduction. The decreases in fuel prices for March will be: This means that the price of petrol will move from R22.16 to R22.09 inland for the 93 grade of petrol, while 95 will drop from R22.41 per litre to R22.34 a litre inland. Diesel 0.05% (wholesale) prices will shift inland from R20.34 a litre to R20.16 a litre, while Diesel 0.005% (wholesale) will decrease from R20.45 to R20.21 per litre,…

Through a complicated process in which the Steinhoff holding company sold and otherwise moved brands around through various entities, it was able to artificially generate profit to close the gap between what it actually earned and its anticipated bottom line. A PwC investigation into the company, which runs into thousands of pages, showed that a company set up to ostensibly hold several brands, or trademarks, was not actually an entity in which Steinhoff held a minority stake. Business Report secured a copy of this probe through a Promotion of Access to Information Act application. The workings of the buying and selling of the trademarks was deliberately complex to make it nigh impossible to work out the financial relationship between the entities involved and their ownership. PwC stated that: “The detailed…

The government has begun advertising for projects through the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) aimed at greening state buildings. This initiative aligns with the Just Energy Transition (JET) strategy and underscores a commitment to curtailing financial waste due to mismanagement and inefficiencies in execution, Deputy Minister for Public Works and Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala, announced on Tuesday. Addressing attendees at the launch of the Black Business Council in the Built Environment (BBCBE) Indaba 2025, Zikalala detailed the department's push to ensure the proper execution of 62 Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs) that had received gazetted status in 2020, alongside an additional seven SIPs announced in 2022. Overall, there are about 268 individual projects under the SIP framework, predominantly in the energy sector, covering areas like the Embedded Generation Programme and the Green Hydrogen…