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SUSTAINED PRESSURE

23rd October 2020 South African factory output contracted for a fifteenth month in August, when output fell 10.8%, compared with a revised 10.2% decline in July. The slump came even though South Africa has taken measures to ease Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Bloomberg reports that the decline could weigh on an... →

WRECKED

16th October 2020 A drone image shows decommissioned cruise ships being dismantled at Aliaga ship-breaking yard in the Aegean port city of Izmir, in western Turkey, earlier this month. Media reports stated that British, American, and Italian cruise ships were being dismantled in the country as the coronavirus... →

Photo by Umit Bektas for Reuters
WRECKED: A drone image shows decommissioned cruise ships being dismantled at Aliaga ship-breaking yard in the Aegean port city of Izmir, in western Turkey, earlier this month. Media reports stated that British, American, and Italian cruise ships were being dismantled in the country as the coronavirus pandemic continued to sink the industry.

DISPLAY OF DIVISION

9th October 2020 US President Donald Trump and Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden hurled insults and repeatedly interrupted each other in their first debate, sparring over topics that included the coronavirus, the economy and their families. The debate was meant to be the first of three before the November 3... →

VIRTUAL ASSEMBLY

2nd October 2020 The United Nations (UN) headquarters, in New York, US, pictured during the 75th yearly UN General Assembly high-level debate, which was held mostly virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. In his virtual address, President Cyril Ramaphosa argued that the UN remained “the most effective means to... →

BLAST FALLOUT

25th September 2020 Following outrage over the destruction, by Rio Tinto, of rock shelters used by Aboriginal Australians as long as 46 000-years ago, the mining group announced this month that its CEO, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, would leave the company at the end of March, or when a successor was appointed. Chris... →

BURNING ISSUE

18th September 2020 The sky turned orange in San Francisco, California, earlier this month as wildfires raged. California reported a total of 4 927 fires in 2019 and so far during 2020, during which summer temperatures have surged, there have been more than 7 606 blazes. There are also warnings that the risk of... →

NOT A GAME

11th September 2020 The high-profile clash between technology giant Apple and video game developer Epic Games is starting to attract the interest of competition regulators. In August, Apple terminated Epic’s account from its App Store, making it impossible to update the Fortnite app in its store. Earlier this month,... →

SOLAR SALUTE

4th September 2020 On August 25, Swiss adventurer Raphael Domjan completed the world's first parachute jump from a solar-powered aircraft, the SolarStratos. Domjan said he wanted to prove that activities such as skydiving could be carried out without producing greenhouse gases. He undertook the flight with Spanish... →

NAVIGATING HOSTILE SEAS

28th August 2020 The world’s largest container line, AP Moller-Maersk, reported earlier this month that it had been able to reinstate its full-year earnings guidance at a higher level than it had previously indicated, after staying open for business throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Global demand growth for... →

GLOBAL AFTERSHOCKS

21st August 2020 The aftershocks from the explosion in the Beirut port area, in Lebanon, on August 4 have been felt across the world. While the proximate cause was the criminal neglect of a warehouse storing thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, the root cause appears to be a political system that sustains... →

Photo by Reuters
GLOBAL AFTERSHOCKS: The aftershocks from the explosion in the Beirut port area, in Lebanon, on August 4 have been felt across the world. While the proximate cause was the criminal neglect of a warehouse storing thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, the root cause appears to be a political system that sustains sectarianism and thrives on corruption. It should serve as a wake-up call to all countries, including South Africa, of the damage that can arise should corruption and political inertia be allowed to take hold for a sustained period. Photograph: Mohamed Azakir for Reuters

SPLASHDOWN

14th August 2020 The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft made its historic splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, in the US, on August 2. The capsule carried US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who rocketed to the International Space Station two months earlier. The... →

RED PLANET RACE

7th August 2020 The Long March 5 Y-4 rocket, carrying an unmanned Mars probe of the Tianwen-1 mission, taking off from Wenchang Space Launch Centre in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China, late last month. The rocket is carrying a six-wheeled rover robot and should arrive in orbit around the Red Planet in February.... →

HISTORIC ELBOW BUMP

31st July 2020 European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel do an elbow bump at the end of a news conference on July 21, which followed a four-day European summit at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium. European Union leaders reached a landmark... →

MONTH OF STORMS

24th July 2020 As if the onset, in July, of the Covid-19 pandemic storm were not enough, South Africans have also been buffeted by several others. In Cape Town, people were literally drenched by sea spray thrown up by huge swells as a cold front moved into the region. Nationally, the dreaded load-shedding storm... →

Photo by Reuters
MONTH OF STORMS: As if the onset, in July, of the Covid-19 pandemic storm were not enough, South Africans have also been buffeted by several others. In Cape Town, people were literally drenched by sea spray thrown up by huge swells as a cold front moved into the region. Nationally, the dreaded load-shedding storm struck, owing to a combination of unplanned power station outages and a rise in demand, triggered partly by the cold weather. All the while, the ongoing lockdown continued to trigger stormy debate, with opinions strongly divided on whether schools should have remained open, the effectiveness of the alcohol and cigarette bans and whether taxi precautions are appropriate.

ART OF REOPENING

17th July 2020 The Louvre museum, in Paris, has reopened its doors to the public after an almost four-month closure, owing to the coronavirus outbreak in France. There is something of an art to the reopening of the world’s busiest museum during a pandemic, though. All visitors are now expected to wear... →

Photo by Charles Platiau for Reuters
ART OF REOPENING: The Louvre museum, in Paris, has reopened its doors to the public after an almost four-month closure, owing to the coronavirus outbreak in France. There is something of an art to the reopening of the world’s busiest museum during a pandemic, though. All visitors are now expected to wear protective face masks and an online reservation system is being use to limit crowds to well below the typical 50000-a-day pre-pandemic visitor numbers. The upside is that visitors, such as those pictured here, are now able to have a less congested experience when viewing the museum’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci. Photograph: Charles Platiau for Reuters

WING & PRAYER

10th July 2020 Finance Minister Tito Mboweni used his Supplementary Budget on June 24 to signal that dramatic action will have to be taken in the coming few years if government is to get its burgeoning debt under control and avoid a scenario whereby debt to gross domestic product surges well past the 100%... →

TOWER TALKS

3rd July 2020 Telecommunications group Telkom is exploring possible deals for its portfolio of about 6 500 towers as it moves to strengthen its balance sheet and preserve cash to weather a deep recession brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Demand for towers could rise as South Africa starts to roll-out a... →

Photo by Bloomberg
TOWER TALKS: Telecommunications group Telkom is exploring possible deals for its portfolio of about 6 500 towers as it moves to strengthen its balance sheet and preserve cash to weather a deep recession brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Demand for towers could rise as South Africa starts to roll out a 5G network. Pictured here is the iconic Telkom Tower, in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, which was developed during a very different era and when Telkom’s predecessor, the Department of Post and Telecommunications, was the only game in town.

CRITICAL MINERAL

26th June 2020 Automotive manufacturers globally are seeking to reduce the use of cobalt in the production of their electric vehicles, owing to concerns that its extraction has been associated with human rights abuses. Nevertheless, with big global expansion plans, electric-car pioneer Tesla will need to secure... →

LOST EXPORTS

19th June 2020 Agriculture is one of Africa’s most important economic sectors, making up 23% of the continent’s gross domestic product. Africa’s exports of food and agricultural products are worth between $35-billion and $40-billion a year and, in sub-Saharan Africa, farming provides work for nearly 60% of the... →

NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE

12th June 2020 Protests erupted across the US this month following the agonising and filmed death of George Floyd. Floyd succumbed to asphyxiation when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held him down during an arrest by using his knee on Floyd’s neck and back for nearly nine minutes. Some of the protests... →

STIMULUS WHILE DISTANCING

5th June 2020 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, centre, has proposed a fiscal stimulus package of €750-billion for Europe to help overcome what is being described as the deepest recession in living memory. Von der Leyen made the proposal during a meeting in the hemicycle of the European... →

BE PREPARED

29th May 2020 While South Africa’s grade 7 and 12 learners are set to return to some form of contact learning from June 1, it will most definitely not be teaching and learning as normal. To build the confidence needed to begin phasing in the other grades, schools are going to have to institute entirely new... →

NO MASKING HUNGER

22nd May 2020 South Africa’s R500-billion support package will help to reduce the economic distress precipitated by government’s entirely justifiable response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is wholly insufficient, however, to entirely alleviate the economic pain and close a gaping social-welfare gap that was... →

CONTACT TRACING

15th May 2020 There are genuine concerns about the privacy implications of mobile-phone contract tracing applications. As South Africa phases in more and more business activity, however, the use of contract-tracing Apps could prove valuable in highlighting areas of risk by detecting and keeping track of... →

BRIMMING OVER

8th May 2020 There are fears that fuel and oil storage capacity limits could be reached during May amid ongoing weak demand across the world, despite some easing of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Once there is nowhere left to put oil, drillers will have to shut enough supply to match the demand loss.... →

NEXT PHASE

1st May 2020 The next phase of South Africa’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic is to return to usual business, but not business as usual. Physical distancing – supported by ongoing hand-washing, sanitisation and face masks – is here to stay. Factories, mines, offices and retail stores are going to have to... →

NO LOOKING BACK

24th April 2020 There is no question that the Covid-19 pandemic, which has its genesis in the Wuhan seafood market, has fundamentally changed the lives of all humanity. It’s also clear that, once the South African lockdown eventually ends, face masks are likely to be a common accessory, at least for a for the... →

IN DEMAND

17th April 2020 Guidance on the use of face masks has evolved along with the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, most authorities advised that masks be used only if you were a healthcare practitioner in close contact with patients, if you were coughing or sneezing, or if you were taking care of a person with a... →

THE CITY THAT NEVER . . .

10th April 2020 New York City is world-renowned as the city that never sleeps. As it emerged as the epicentre of the US Covid-19 pandemic, however, the city took on a decidedly less frenzied character. Pictured here is a person wearing a protective mask and riding a skateboard in the Times Square neighbourhood,... →

VIRUS UPHEAVAL

3rd April 2020 The spread of Covid-19 is playing havoc with global supply chains and is affecting everything from copper to foodstuffs, with some countries reporting shortages of containers. South Africa, which instituted a lockdown last week, is limiting the movement of people, but is seeking to keep products... →

RUSH HOUR

27th March 2020 Many cities around the world have swapped their normal 24/7 hustle and bustle for eerie silence as government’s impose restrictions on movement and citizens self-isolate to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Pictured here is the post-lock-down morning rush-hour traffic as experienced on the normally... →

Photo by Bloomberg
Many cities around the world have swapped their normal 24/7 hustle and bustle for eerie silence as government’s impose restrictions on movement and citizens self-isolate to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Pictured here is the post-lock-down morning rush-hour traffic as experienced on the normally busy San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco, California, in the US. Last week, six of the biggest counties in the San Francisco Bay Area ordered people to stay home except for essential needs.

BARRIER TO ENTRY:

20th March 2020 While the full economic impacts of Covid-19 are far from clear, this novel coronavirus has already exacted a major toll on the global aviation and tourism industries. In some cases, formal travel restrictions have been imposed, but in many other cases business and leisure travellers are... →

ABNORMAL LOADS

13th March 2020 The transportation of the turbine components for two of the largest wind farms currently under construction in South Africa – Perdekraal East and Kangnas – was officially completed in late February. In all, more than 1 000 abnormal loads were undertaken, with the trucks moving components with a... →

OLDEST EXCHANGE, NEWEST INTERCHANGE:

By: Martin Creamer 6th March 2020 Sibanye-Stillwater listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on February 19 to the sound of the kudu horn and the singing of safety songs by mineworkers. Sibanye delivered a phenomenal return of 260% on the JSE in 2019, stated Dr Leila Fourie (centre), CEO of Africa’s oldest exchange, which is... →

SINGING BEE PRAISES:

28th February 2020 The world-renowned Ndlovu Youth Choir performed at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on February 17 to commemorate the announcement of a new black economic empowerment (BEE) scheme by AB InBev, which owns South African Breweries (SAB). The R5.4-billion SAB Zenzele Kabili transaction will be funded... →

END OF AN ERA:

21st February 2020 AngloGold Ashanti, the iconic gold mining company founded by the Oppenheimer family more than a century ago, confirmed last week that it had reached a R4.4-billion deal with Harmony Gold to sell its last remaining South African assets, including the the Mponeng mine pictured above. The... →

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

14th February 2020 Eskom’s new CEO Andre de Ruyter, pictured, has taken the unpopular decision to back a plan to shift away from the ‘keep the lights on’ strategy that has defined the operational stance at the State-owned utility for over ten years to one that prioritises so-called ‘philosophy maintenance’. From... →

TRANSITION PERIOD

7th February 2020 The UK formally left the European Union (EU) at 23:00 on Friday January 31, 2020, entering an 11-month so-called transition period. Many commentators are already warning, however, that the UK will probably need significantly longer than 11 months to strike a future trade deal with the EU. During... →

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