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Debt relief and more tariff hikes in focus as Eskom warns of yet another R20bn loss

By: Terence Creamer 28th November 2019 Troubled State-owned power utility Eskom warned on Thursday that its record R20-billion loss of 2018/19 would be repeated in 2019/20 and said that planned cost-savings and already-secured fiscal transfers would have to be accompanied by debt relief and further tariff hikes if the debt-laden group... →

Eskom projects another R20bn full-year loss

By: News24Wire 28th November 2019 Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza says the struggling power utility is projected to make a R20-billion full-year loss for the 2020 financial year. The debt-laden parastatal reported a net loss after tax of R20.7-billion for the 2019 financial year. It will announce its full-year results in July... →

Photo by Creamer Media
Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza

Sanral: E-toll resistance gave us a bumpy ride

By: News24Wire 28th November 2019 The South African National Roads Agency admitted to Parliament on Wednesday morning that it was partly to blame for the resistance to its electronic tolling system on Gauteng's freeways as consulting ahead of the toll introduction was flawed. Failure to collect adequate revenues from e-tolling,... →

Government says working to ensure SAA's survival

By: Reuters 28th November 2019 South Africa's public enterprises ministry said on Wednesday it was working with struggling state airline South African Airways (SAA) to ensure that it could continue to operate. SAA suffered a crippling strike this month which pushed the airline to the brink of collapse. →

Sanral’s Alex van Niekerk resigns

By: Simone Liedtke 27th November 2019 Alex van Niekerk has resigned as the South African National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral’s) planning, transportation and toll manager to pursue another career opportunity. His last day will be February 28, at which point a successor or acting manager will be named. →

Transnet may yield first State capture criminal corruption

By: African News Agency 27th November 2019 The first criminal prosecution in the State capture scandal is likely to relate to the financial looting of Transnet, the board of the State rail freight company said on Wednesday. "The first test case on [the] prosecution of State capture will emanate from Transnet's side," Transnet board member... →

Exxaro records mixed performance in year-to-date

By: Simone Liedtke 27th November 2019 A slowdown in global economic growth, supply-side disruptions, escalating US-China trade tensions and energy transition themes have, in the year-to-date, all impacted on the commodities that diversified miner Exxaro Resources produces. In a pre-closed-period trading update for the financial year... →

Nampak retains focus on reducing debt, cutting costs

By: Simone Liedtke 27th November 2019 JSE-listed packaging group Nampak expects the sale of Nampak Glass and Nampak Nigeria Cartons to raise R1.9-billion, which is said to be applied to reduce dollar-denominated debt, in particular. Additionally, the company confirmed on Wednesday, following the release of its results for the... →

South Africa's power sector reform timeline 'optimistic' – S&P

By: Reuters 27th November 2019 The timeline for South Africa's plan to overhaul its power sector by breaking up loss-making State utility Eskom over the next three years is "somewhat optimistic", S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday. President Cyril Ramaphosa promised in February that he would split Eskom into units for... →

Mboweni backs 'intrusive' investigative capacity at Sars, says agency cannot be toothless tiger

By: News24Wire 26th November 2019 Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has said the South African Revenue Service needs "intrusive capacity" to investigate taxpayers concealing earnings and to counter the illicit financial flows in cigarettes, alcohol and fake goods. Mboweni was responding to a Parliamentary question by the Economic... →

Photo by Reuters
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni

Ramaphosa tells workers at Medupi 6 times that Eskom will not be privatised

By: News24Wire 26th November 2019 President Cyril Ramaphosa told workers and staff at Medupi power station six times in an address that Eskom would not be sold off or privatised. The ballooning costs of the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power stations have put Eskom's balance sheet under severe pressure, but Ramaphosa scaled back... →

President Cyril Ramaphosa & Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan

Free State electricity utility to meet with Eskom as power cutoff looms

By: News24Wire 26th November 2019 Centlec, the Free State utility that provides electricity to customers in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, which includes Bloemfontein, says it will meet with Eskom to discuss the paying of its debts. On Monday Eskom warned that it would interrupt daytime power to three Free State... →

Eskom warns it will stop providing daytime power to Bloemfontein unless it gets paid

By: News24Wire 25th November 2019 Eskom has warned that it will begin regular scheduled interruptions to three municipalities in the Free State, including the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality where Bloemfontein is, unless it gets paid for the provision of electricity. The other two affected municipalities are the Mafube and... →

Dudu Myeni's legal team expected back in court as arguments over scope of case continue

By: News24Wire 25th November 2019 The Pretoria High Court is expected to hear an application by former South African Airways chair Dudu Myeni's legal team on Monday to have other board members at the flag carrier included in the delinquent director case is facing. Outa and SAA Pilots Association want the court to declare her a... →

Photo by Creamer Media
Former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni

South Africa blocks arms sales to Saudi and UAE in inspection row

By: Reuters 25th November 2019 South Africa is blocking arms sales to countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE in an inspections dispute, endangering billions of dollars of business and thousands of jobs in its struggling defence sector, according to industry officials. The dispute centres on a clause in export documents... →

SAA flight schedule to be reinstated as wage agreement reached

By: Rebecca Campbell 22nd November 2019 State-owned airline South African Airways (SAA) announced on Friday that it had reached agreement with trade unions to end a seven-day long strike. The unions were the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the South African Airways Cabin Crew Association. The agreement was ratified... →

SAA, unions reach wage deal – if funds are available

By: News24Wire 22nd November 2019 South African Airways and unions the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and the South African Cabin Crew Association have reached an agreement, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration announced on Friday. Following an eight-day strike that cost the airline some... →

SAA cabin crew trickle back as no-work, no-pay begins to bite

By: News24Wire 22nd November 2019 Cabin crew are returning to work at a growing pace as the one-week wage strike at South African Airways begins to bite with the imposition of a strict no-work, no-pay policy. "For Wednesday and Thursday, we had 70 cabin crew returning to work. The quantification of actual losses (to workers of... →

Early-morning breakdowns, but Eskom not expecting load-shedding

By: News24Wire 22nd November 2019 Eskom said on Friday morning that it does not expect any load-shedding during the day, despite what it described as a constrained and vulnerable electricity system. Generating plants are still performing at very low levels of reliability, Eskom said, with some unplanned breakdowns at 06:00 on... →

SAA, National Transport Movement sign wage deal

By: Reuters 22nd November 2019 Trade union, the National Transport Movement (NTM) on Friday signed a wage deal with struggling South African Airways (SAA) for a 5.9% pay rise for the 2019/20 financial year that started in April, according to a copy of the deal seen by Reuters. NTM is one of the largest unions at State-owned... →

South Africa’s transport future depends on how economy is stimulated

By: Simone Liedtke 21st November 2019 Transport infrastructure is considered a critical part of the National Development Plan 2030, with State-owned Transnet capital projects acting project director Shraveen Ramdhar on Thursday saying South Africa’s transport future was dependent on how government intended to stimulate the economy.... →

Transnet capital projects acting project director Shraveen Ramdhar speaks to Engineering News Online about South Africa’s transport future. (Video: Creamer Media’s Kutlwano Matlala. Editing: Creamer Media’s Nicholas Boyd)

Solidarity lodges business rescue application for SAA

By: Rebecca Campbell 21st November 2019 Trade union Solidarity served court papers on embattled State-owned airline South African Airways (SAA) and on the Ministers of Finance and Public Enterprises on Thursday. The union has asked the court to put SAA into business rescue. If granted, it would mean the appointment of a business rescue... →

R7bn Limpopo coal mine a step closer as ResGen, Transnet ink ten-year logistics deal

By: Terence Creamer 21st November 2019 State-owned freight logistics group Transnet signed a ten-year take-or-pay coal transport agreement with Resource Generation (ResGen) subsidiary Ledjadja Coal on Thursday, improving prospects for the development of a new R7-billion greenfield coalmine in the Limpopo province. Under the contract,... →

Transnet chief customer officer Mike Fanucchi and ResGen interim CEO Papi Molotsane signing coal transport agreement

Cabinet backs new Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter

By: News24Wire 21st November 2019 New Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter brings significant international experience and turnaround skills necessary to carry out interventions at Eskom, according to Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu. Mthembu said the appointment of De Ruyter is not a reversal of government's policy on... →

Photo by Creamer Media
Eskom's new CEO Andre de Ruyter

Solidarity says SAA nearing 'total collapse', wants it placed in business rescue

By: News24Wire 21st November 2019 Trade union Solidarity has served papers on cash-strapped airline South African Airways and the ministers of finance and public enterprises, asking a court to put the flag carrier in business rescue. The union made the announcement at a media briefing on Thursday, saying it has requested an... →

Montana describes Sars order to attach his assets as 'vindictive'

By: News24Wire 21st November 2019 Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) chief executive Lucky Montana has described the latest move by the South African Revenue Service (Sars), who seized his assets, as "vindictive" and "unethical". Montana said the Sheriff of the Court arrived at his home on Wednesday morning with... →

Eskom says capacity in danger zone, but no load-shedding planned

By: News24Wire 21st November 2019 Unplanned outages at power producer Eskom are still above 10 000MW – about 20% of its nominal capacity, but the utility says it is not planning to institute load-shedding on Thursday. The utility needs to use its emergency resources of diesel and pumped water storage schemes at a "high rate"... →

Gordhan says he will ‘interfere’ if Eskom jobs are threatened

By: Terence Creamer 20th November 2019 Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has refuted suggestions that government is interfering with the work of boards and executives at State-owned companies, such as Eskom, but has also indicated that he will not stand by should decisions be made that lead to significant job losses. In... →

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan

Companies mostly behave ethically, but internal issues persist

By: Marleny Arnoldi 20th November 2019 The Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) has shared details of the first phase of its ethics barometer initiative, finding that the overall “ethical fitness” of 15 participating companies was rated at 73, on a scale of zero to 100. Fifteen organisations and 8 000 of their employees... →

Gibs Ethics & Governance Think Tank founder Gideon Pogrund shares insight of its first ethics barometer survey and relates its findings to the South African context. Video: Kutlwano Matlala. Editing: Nicholas Boyd.

Eskom’s new CEO

20th November 2019 Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the challenges that lie ahead for Andre de Ruyter, who has been appointed Eskom’s new CEO, and what his top priorities will be. →

Eskom’s new CEO

SAA has to consult with representative unions of all its workers

By: Rebecca Campbell 20th November 2019 Three unions representing workers at South African Airways (SAA), and who have formed a coalition to jointly protect the interests of their members at the embattled State-owned airline, have warmly welcomed a ruling by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in their... →

Give new Eskom CEO a chance – Gordhan

By: African News Agency 20th November 2019 Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday defended the surprise appointment of Andre de Ruyter as Eskom's new CEO and urged stakeholders to give him a chance to do his job. "He was the choice of the board," Gordhan said when asked about suggestions that De Ruyter was a compromise... →

Eskom's new CEO Andre de Ruyter

Gordhan says SAA may have no money for salaries this month

By: News24Wire 20th November 2019 Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has warned that, while two unions at South African Airways are demanding salary increases for members, the airline might not even be able to pay any salaries at the end of the month. The minister said the strike was worsening the airline's financial... →

Photo by Reuters
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan

Eskom debt relief plan expected by year-end, MPs hear

By: News24Wire 20th November 2019 A report on how to deal with Eskom's group debt burden of around R440-billion is expected by year-end, the department of public enterprises told members of Parliament on Wednesday during a briefing. The department's Deputy Director General, Makgola Makololo, was briefing the oversight committee... →

Unions up ante at South African Airways as finances approach crunch

By: Reuters 20th November 2019 Unions are escalating a crippling strike at South African Airways (SAA) after talks broke down, leaving the state-run carrier at risk of liquidation without a government guarantee to secure bank funding, a board member said. The strike at the cash-strapped airline is entering its sixth day,... →

South Africa won’t give SAA any funding to resolve wage strike

By: Bloomberg 20th November 2019 South Africa’s government ruled out an intervention in the ongoing battle between the struggling state airline and unions leading a strike, with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan refusing to step in to fund wage demands. The state has already given South African Airways more than... →

SAA insists it cannot meet 8% wage increase demand

By: African News Agency 19th November 2019 South African Airways (SAA) has reiterated that it does not have the financial capacity to meet workers' eight-percent salary increase demand, saying it can only be in a position to pay 5.9 percent from March 2020, assuming funds were available at that time. On Tuesday, the State-owned airline... →

Photo by Reuters
SAA acting CEO Zuks Ramasia

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