Star 2025-06-11

Max Oliva has announced his decision to step down as CEO of SPAR South Africa, marking the end of a 30-year career with the company as he embarks on a new journey to take the reins at McDonald’s South Africa. Angelo Swartz, the CEO of the SPAR Group, is set to assume operational leadership of the Southern Africa region. Oliva's departure coincides with an ideal moment for SPAR South Africa, which is currently experiencing strong growth and momentum within the retail sector. The group said this transition aims to uphold the successes and strategies put in place by Oliva, ensuring that SPAR South Africa continues to thrive in a competitive marketplace. Oliva leaves behind a legacy marked by resilience and integrity. Over the span of his career, he has held…

FirstRand on Tuesday confirmed that regulatory approval has been received for the transaction for FirstRand to take transfer of the clients, the banking assets and liabilities, and the employees of HSBC's branch in South Africa. The clients of HSBC South Africa are mainly subsidiaries of multinationals operating in South Africa and some large domestic corporates and the transfer will be led and implemented by FirstRand's corporate and investment banking franchise, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). "This will ensure that the transferred HSBC clients will have on-going access to corporate and investment banking services in South Africa. HSBC's multinational clients headquartered outside of South Africa can continue to have connectivity through HSBC's global digital channels for account visibility and payment initiation for their South Africa accounts once they have transferred to…

The World Bank has warned of economic slowdown as heightened trade tensions and a cloud of policy uncertainty loom over the global economy. The World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report released on Tuesday projected growth to reach its slowest pace since 2008, excluding outright global recessions. The report highlights a striking trend: growth forecasts have been downgraded in nearly 70% of economies worldwide, spanning all regions and income categories. The World Bank estimated global growth will decelerate to 2.3% in 2025, a figure that falls short of expectations set just at the beginning of the year. While a global recession is not on the horizon, the World Bank said if current forecasts materialised, the average global growth throughout the first seven years of the 2020s will be the most…

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been mandated to retrofit decommissioned coal-fired power stations with advanced clean coal technology. This initiative aims to mitigate the challenges posed by soaring electricity costs and dwindling availability that have threatened the operational viability of ferrochrome smelters in the region. Appearing before the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Petroleum Resources on Tuesday, the CSIR outlined a bold vision for the coal-to-carbon materials industry. The Council asserted that this venture not only offers alternative uses for coal but also promises sustainability for the local coal sector as part of the broader just energy transition. "The technology is ready, it's a matter of localising the technology, make it adaptable to the local conditions, the quality of the coal," the CSIR said. "There is…

According to Stats SA the decline is broad based and is driven by contractions in nine of 10 manufacturing divisions Economists have warned that the ongoing macroeconomic and policy uncertainty will continue to leave operating conditions unfavourable for manufacturing production and drag the sector’s contribution to South Africa’s economic growth. This comes after manufacturing output fell 6.3% year-on-year in April following a revised 1.2% contraction in March. This was the sixth consecutive monthly contraction and the sharpest drop since March 2024. Maarten Ackerman, chief economist at Citadel, expressed deep concern over the sector's trajectory, emphasising its vital role in job creation and economic stimulation. Manufacturing remains one of the few sectors in the South African economy with significant potential to create jobs, stimulate broader economic growth, and provide opportunities for…

South Africa is under siege once more, and this time not by force of arms, but through fibre cables and Wi-Fi routers. In the name of “connectivity,” we are witnessing the second coming of a land grab. First, they came for our land. Now, they are coming for our markets, our digital land, in townships and rural areas that black-owned Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have long nurtured and pioneered. We are not watching history repeat itself, we are living it. The Historic Echo: From Stolen Land to Stolen Market The dispossession of black people from their ancestral land is one of the darkest stains in South Africa’s history. Through the 1913 Natives Land Act and decades of apartheid legislation, 87% of land was allocated to a white minority. Even today,…