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Civil society organisations urge leaders to tackle corruption

By: Donna Slater 1st September 2020 In an open letter addressed to President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis and Public Affairs Research Institute executive director Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi urge the leaders to tackle corruption by taking advantage of the current... →

Treasury goes live with info on State Covid-19 procurement contracts

By: Marleny Arnoldi 26th August 2020 The Presidency on August 26 confirmed that all Covid-19-related government expenditure has been published online. The Office of the Chief Procurement Officer has published a full list of all companies who have been awarded contracts by government for the supply of goods and services relating to... →

B4SA disappointed at TERS payment suspension

By: Donna Slater 26th August 2020 Business for South Africa (B4SA) is disappointed that all payments of Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) benefits have been halted pending investigations by the Auditor-General (AG). It is understood that the AG is investigating system integrity... →

Covid-19 severely impacts business confidence, unemployment

By: Donna Slater 17th August 2020 Strategy and investment consulting firm Singular Group says the Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted South Africa’s economy, to such an extent that business confidence is at an all-time low, 22% lower than during the 2008 global financial crisis and currently ranking in the 8% range. During... →

More German experts coming to help reactivate South African industry

By: Rebecca Campbell 14th August 2020 The German embassy in South Africa expects further technical experts from that country to arrive in South Africa, subject to the approval of the South African government. The first contingent of these experts, sent to help reactivate and upgrade German-owned factories and service companies in... →

UIF TERS extended July/August applications to open next Monday

By: Donna Slater 13th August 2020 The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will open and begin processing the July/August Covid-19 Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) benefits applications from August 17. This follows the signing of the new directive on the extended period of benefits by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas... →

EU liquor trading partner puts pressure on South African govt to lift alcohol ban

By: Marleny Arnoldi 11th August 2020 In a statement, the liquor industry of South Africa has acknowledged the concerns raised by SpritsEurope around imbalances in trade between South Africa and the European Union (EU), owing to the continued ban on alcohol sales. The EU is South Africa’s biggest trading partner and the economic... →

Absa revises GDP forecast on better-than-expected data

By: Donna Slater 4th August 2020 Based on better-than-expected data arising from the first and second quarters of the year, financial services company Absa has revised down its forecast for the gross domestic product (GDP) contraction this year from 9.7% previously, to 8.3%. However, Absa notes that taking into account the... →

Solidarity Fund ramps up farming, food assistance

By: Marleny Arnoldi 31st July 2020 South Africa’s national Solidarity Fund has ramped up its efforts to bring relief to those most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The fund has been focusing its efforts since its inception in March on humanitarian efforts, as well as medical supplies, but food relief and gender-based violence... →

Difficult times ahead for property sector

By: Darren Parker 31st July 2020 Following the significant challenges because of the Covid-19 outbreak, the outlook for the South African commercial and industrial property sector for next year remains somewhat bleak, says South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa) CEO Neil Gopal. Since the start of the national lockdown... →

NEIL GOPAL There needs to be urgent intervention at local municipal level

Economic recovery interventions present hope

By: Darren Parker 31st July 2020 South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP) CEO Vuyiswa Mutshekwane says it is encouraging to already see a number of the proposals being put into practice from the SAIBPP’s 10-point plan to catalyse economic development and drive the post-lockdown economic recovery. The... →

VUYISWA MUTSHEKWANE It is not business as usual and things are unlikely to return to normal anytime soon

With IMF loan granted, govt has a chance to embed pro-growth economic reforms

By: Marleny Arnoldi 28th July 2020 North West University Business School economist Professor Raymond Parsons says the timing of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) loan to South Africa again emphasises the extent to which the country has reached a defining fork in the road in dealing with challenges and that a clear sense of... →

Gauteng Premier recovers from Covid-19, resumes duties

By: Sane Dhlamini 23rd July 2020 Gauteng Premier David Makhura has recovered from the novel coronavirus and has already resumed his official duties by joining Thursday’s virtual sitting of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, where the Adjustment Budget was tabled as part of the province’s Covid-19 response. He expressed his... →

Gauteng Premier David Makhura

AfDB approves R5bn loan for South Africa's Covid-19 fight

By: Donna Slater 23rd July 2020 The African Development Bank (AfDB) board has approved a loan of about R5-billion ($288-million) to the government of South Africa, as the country battles one of the largest Covid-19 caseloads in the world. The loan forms part of the AfDB’s $10-billion Covid-19 Response Facility and will finance... →

Agri SA bemoans agriculture programme budget cuts

By: Marleny Arnoldi 22nd July 2020 Industry body Agri SA says the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s salary bill should be cut by a higher amount rather than the cuts announced in funding for programmes for food security, land reform, production aid, infrastructure and rural development. “Scaling down... →

CW report highlights impact of corruption in health sector

By: Sane Dhlamini 22nd July 2020 Not for profit organisation Corruption Watch (CW) on Wednesday released its ‘X-Ray: The critical state of the health sector in SA’ report which aims to uncover the impact of corruption in the healthcare sector. The report demonstrates how people who are reliant on public health facilities in... →

Sars losing out on R5bn in excise duties, says alcohol industry

By: Marleny Arnoldi 20th July 2020 The renewed prohibition of alcohol sales has resulted in the South African alcohol industry having no choice but to apply for a deferment of payment of excise duties to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) valued at R5-billion for July and August. In a statement issued on behalf of the... →

DMRE budget slashed by R1.5bn

By: Donna Slater 14th July 2020 The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE’S) budget for the 2020/21 financial year has been reduced by R1.5-billion, from the initial R9.3-billion, owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, taking the revised yearly budget for the financial year to R7.8-billion. The Portfolio... →

CoJ council has until Friday to approve budget

By: Sane Dhlamini 6th July 2020 Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile has urged the City of Johannesburg Municipal Council to put the interest of the residents of the City first following its failure to approve an annual budget for the start of the municipal financial year 2020/21. The Gauteng Provincial Executive... →

Roles of govt, business in restarting economy need clearer definition, says BLSA

By: Donna Slater 6th July 2020 In her weekly newsletter, Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso says a clearer perspective of the roles and responsibilities of business and government needs to be established as the country grapples with restarting its economy. She notes that, on one level, there are common... →

Photo by Creamer Media's Donna Slater
BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso

Treasury warns public finances dangerously overstretched

By: African News Agency 26th June 2020 South Africa's finances are overstretched and unable to weather another severe shock, a senior National Treasury official warned on Thursday. "We are now in a position where we are dangerously overstretched in our public finances," Edgar Sishi, the acting head of the treasury's budget office,... →

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni

South Africa too rich for relief even as fiscal reckoning looms

By: Bloomberg 25th June 2020 Too rich for debt relief available to most African nations and hobbled by its politics, South Africa is facing a public financing crisis. Debt levels will continue to rise, peaking in 2024 and only dipping back below 80% of gross domestic product by 2028, according to the supplementary budget... →

Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses in our communities – Dlamini-Zuma

By: Sane Dhlamini 23rd June 2020 Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Tuesday declared that the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has exposed the weaknesses and deep fault lines in basic services, infrastructure, poverty and hunger, as well as in economic activities in rural... →

Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

No quick fixes for economy – Ramaphosa

By: Sane Dhlamini 22nd June 2020 President Cyril Ramaphosa warned on Monday that there would be no quick fixes for the economy as government gears up to launch its Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium on Tuesday. The Sidssa is organised by the Investment and Infrastructure Office within The Presidency and it is... →

President Cyril Ramaphosa

South Africa rand weaker as budget risk raises second wave Covid-19 fears

By: Reuters 22nd June 2020 South Africa's rand weakened early on Monday, reflecting the gloom in global markets as fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections around the world increased investor jitters ahead of a local emergency budget later this week. At 0700 GMT the rand was 0.49% weaker at 17.4050 per dollar from... →

Deloitte discusses funding options ahead of Mboweni’s special adjustment budget

By: Simone Liedtke 18th June 2020 With the coronavirus, or Covid-19, pandemic having forced every South African to “radically reassess any plans he or she may have had for 2020”, no one has had to do so more than Finance Minister Tito Mboweni with regard to the national budget. Originally tabled on February 26, Mboweni and his... →

Photo by Creamer Media's Donna Slater
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni

Labour department starts auditing UIF payments to ensure compliance

By: Donna Slater 15th June 2020 Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi reports that, during the second week of June, the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) appointed auditors to investigate whether money paid to employers, to help bridge employees salary deficits during the Covid-19 pandemic, is being paid in full to... →

Mavuso laments all-time low in business confidence

By: Donna Slater 15th June 2020 Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso says business confidence in South Africa is destroyed. In a weekly newsletter, she points out that the latest Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau of Economic Research business confidence index shows that 95% of businesses are dissatisfied with... →

Investment summit to go virtual

By: Donna Slater 10th June 2020 In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the forced cancelation of mass gatherings, the South African Innovation Summit (SAIS) will be presented in a new and virtual way this year, with the first ever digital SA Innovation Summit due to be held from September 30 to October 1. The SAIS is a major... →

Transnet reopens Pretoria freight line

By: Simone Liedtke 8th June 2020 State-owned Transnet has reopened its freight line from the Pretoria complex to Pyramid station, following years of closure owing to challenges with cable theft and sabotage. The line has been out of operation since August 2014 owing to the theft of signaling equipment and overhead track... →

Solidarity Fund flies in essential PPE for frontline healthcare workers

By: Donna Slater 8th June 2020 The Solidarity Fund has taken delivery of a consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) as part of its health and humanitarian intervention to provide much-needed PPE for frontline healthworkers. The consignment, received on June 6, includes gowns and N95 respirator masks, and takes the... →

Ramaphosa tables support for 2yr debt standstill for African countries

By: Donna Slater 29th May 2020 Addressing members of the African Union (AU) on development financing for developing countries in the era of Covid-19, chairperson and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Africa was encouraged by the collaboration of the Group of 20 economies, the Bretton Woods institutions and the... →

BBC, Treasury discuss how to enhance impact of R200bn loan guarantee scheme

By: Donna Slater 29th May 2020 Black professional, business associations and chambers confederation, the Black Business Council (BBC), led by its president Sandile Zungu, and the National Treasury, led by the Deputy Finance Minister Dr David Masondo, met recently to consider ways to enhance the R200-billion loan guarantee... →

Africa's debt burden to rise from Covid-19 capital disinvestments

By: Donna Slater 28th May 2020 As a result of the economic impact of Covid-19, there have been significant outflows of capital from emerging markets, many in Africa, thus far this year, as risk appetite weakens significantly and capital is redirected into safe haven assets, like gold, reports insurance company Alexander Forbes... →

Reserve Bank running out of space to keep lowering interest rates – Kganyago

By: News24Wire 25th May 2020 The South African Reserve Bank has slashed the repo rate by 275 basis points this year to provide relief to indebted consumers and businesses as they navigate the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic. But the central bank is slowly running out of space to further lower interest rates in... →

SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago

Household wealth takes R830bn knock quarter-on-quarter

By: Marleny Arnoldi 25th May 2020 A new study by insurance provider Momentum and the University of South Africa has found that households’ real net wealth had decreased by about R828-billion from the fourth quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year. Momentum economist Johann van Tonder says this estimated real... →

Pandemic heightens existing construction sector woes

By: Mamaili Mamaila 22nd May 2020 Challenges in the construction sector will continue to prevail if construction sites remain closed, owing to South Africa’s national lockdown, says Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS) president Christelle Bown. →

CHRISTELLE BOWN It is important to address the difficulties caused by the onerous conditions prescribed when tendering for professional services

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