Category: Southern Africa

The International Monetary Fund warned South Africa on Thursday its economy is extremely vulnerable to external shocks and funding shortfalls, although it stuck by its earlier growth forecast of 1 percent this year. In an executive report following a country visit in the last week of June, the Fund also said policy uncertainty linked to…

Three months ago, Bell Pottinger announced that it had decided to cease work for Oakbay Capital. We had worked for them for a year, following a competitive bid process. When we terminated our work with Oakbay, we said we were doing so because of increasingly strong social media attacks on our staff and our business…

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s office spent more than $50 million on foreign travel last year, official figures show. According to a financial statement published in the latest government gazette, foreign travel expenses totalled $53.2 million in 2016. According to the figures in the “Consolidated Statement of Financial Performance of the Consolidated Revenue Fund”, this was…

Government has reaffirmed its commitment to pay civil servants their 2016 bonuses, saying all its workers will receive their 13th cheque by next month. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira yesterday said Government would not disappoint the civil servants. Government staggered payment of 2016 bonuses because of resource challenges, but most of…

Farmers in the livestock production sector have cried foul over various taxes they are expected to pay dubbed “beef sector compliance costs”. The farmers are expected to pay levies to abattoirs, Agricultural Marketing Association, Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe Veterinary Services, among others, which they say erode their hard earned money. Speaking at a stakeholder dialogue…

Zambia’s economy is expected to grow by 4.1 percent in 2017 and by close to 5 percent by 2019, the World Bank said on Thursday, but the global lender also warned that stricter spending controls were needed to ease the country’s large debt burden. “The government has started to reduce the large stock of expenditure…

South Africa’s Chamber of Mines has applied to a high court for an interdict to prevent the implementation of a new charter that increases the minimum threshold for black ownership of mining companies, the industry body said on Monday. “The vast and systemic damage which the publication and threatened enforcement of the 2017 Charter has…

The South African Reserve Bank’s mandate to keep inflation low and protect the value of the currency is supportive of economic growth, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said on Monday. “If we can keep inflation lower, anchoring inflation expectations, that should in turn generate a lower rate of interest to support the economy,” Kganyago told a business…