Star 2025-04-22

The Association of Communications and Technology (ACT) has raised concerns about the impact of the Competition Tribunal blocking Vodacom Group from acquiring a 30% to 40% stake in fibre company Maziv for R13.2 billion. The ACT - which represents leading network operators including MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, and Rain - on Friday said it believed the deal would have had a huge impact on Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). In March, the Competition Tribunal prohibited the acquisition, which would have created the largest fibre company in South Africa, citing significant anti-competitive effects that outweighed limited public interest benefits. The Tribunal found that the deal would harm competition in mobile and fibre services, affecting millions of South African consumers that would increasingly in the future be making use of data/internet services.…

An extensive and lengthy legal battle, which went through several courts, has just seen the Pretoria High Court rule against the now-defunct Steinhoff over allegations of price fixing, paving the way for the matter to ostensibly proceed. The judgement reverses a previous one after the Competition Commission was granted leave to appeal by the Supreme Court of Appeal. It means that an alleged price-fixing matter involving PG Bison – indirectly owned by Steinhoff – and a firm with which it should have been in competition, Sonae, proceeding to the Competition Tribunal. However, the issue is only moving ahead six years after the Commission decided to refer the complaint to the Tribunal and some 18 months after Steinhoff, which imploded in 2017 after Deloitte flagged accounting irregularities, was delisted from both…

The union has rejected Transnet’s final 2025/26 wage offer of 6%, 6% and 5.5%, and declared a dispute State-owned logistics firm Transnet remains under threat of a massive industrial action as wage negotiations with the trade union representing more than 20 000 workers have deadlock in spite of intervention by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The United National Transport Union (UNTU) said on Friday that it was currently conducting a balloting process to get consensus on industrial action, which could cripple the importation and exportation of goods and damage economic activity. Transnet is the largest and most crucial part of the freight logistics chain that delivers goods through its ports, pipelines, rail, and freight divisions. The union has rejected Transnet's final 2025/26 three-year wage offer of 6%,…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged emerging market economies and countries with unsustainable public debt, many of whom are in Africa, to preserve exchange rate flexibility and move proactively to restore sustainability amidst prevailing global economic uncertainty. This comes as the IMF warned that its latest World Economic Outlook, to be released on Tuesday, will include notable markdowns in growth projections, but not recession, as well as markups to the inflation forecasts for some countries. IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, on Thursday said the resilience of low economic growth and high debt was being tested again by the reboot of the global trading system. Delivering her curtain raiser speech at the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C., Georgieva said trade distortions—tariff and nontariff barriers—have fed negative perceptions of…

On 15 April 2025, the Minister of Employment and Labour published the ‘Determination of Sectoral Numerical Targets’ (Final Sector Target Regulations) and the ‘Employment Equity Regulations, 2025’ (General Administrative EE Regulations), which repeal the Employment Equity Regulations, 2014 (collectively, the 2025 EEA Regulations). The 2025 EEA Regulations are published, following the Employment Equity Amendment Act, 2022 (Amendment Act) coming into effect on 1 January 2025, and the purported consultations that took place between the Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL) and representatives of various sectors. In the Final Sector Target Regulations, the Minister has identified 18 national economic sectors and set numerical targets for each sector. The ultimate purpose of these sector targets is to ensure the equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups. In terms of section…

Despite geopolitical and economic uncertainty across the globe caused by US President Donald Trump and his vacillating position on trade tariffs, among other decisions with far-reaching ramifications, Africa is still an attractive investment destination. Andrew Bahlmann, CE of corporate and advisory at Deal leaders International, explained that, given the potential headwinds from rising US nationalism under a second Trump administration, South Africa's deal flow presents a complex picture. “From a global perspective, South Africa has historically been viewed by many international investors as a key entry point into the broader sub-Saharan African market,” said Bahlmann. This, Bahlmann said, was due to the country’s relatively developed infrastructure, sophisticated financial sector and established legal frameworks, which have often made it a more familiar and less risky initial investment destination. “While specific deals…