Category: Southern Africa

South Africa’s negative economic growth is a risk to fiscal targets and puts pressure on the government to intensify growth programmes as a matter of urgency, the Treasury said on Tuesday. South Africa entered recession for the first time in eight years, led by weak manufacturing and trade, data from Statistics South Africa showed. “This…

Private-sector activity in South Africa was little changed in May from April, remaining in positive territory, as new orders and output failed to register significant gains. The Standard Bank Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, was at 50.2 in May compared with 50.3 in April, still above the 50 mark that separates growth from…

Telkom SA, South Africa’s biggest landline provider, reported a rise in full-year earnings and revenue on Monday, buoyed by a strong performance by its mobile business and its Business Connexion enterprise division. With the completion of a turnaround plan, which aimed to bring down costs, including job cuts, and better compete with wireless operators, the…

South Africa’s National Energy Regulator (NERSA) is soon to decide if the country’s power utility, Eskom, should be granted an exemption from a long list of regulatory reporting requirements when it submits a new tariff application next month. The reporting requirements centre around thousands of detailed cost and sales items making up Eskom’s financial and…

Local government minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, has directed the Harare City Council to recover and return to council coffers some $282,000 which was looted by top officials. A recent government audit at Town House revealed that four council officials unlawfully transferred $282 000 from the local authority’s beer levy to their personal accounts in 2014. According…

Namibia has secured a 10 billion Namibian dollars ($750 million)loan from the African Development Bank to finance its budget deficit and infrastructure projects, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein said on Thursday. Namibia’s budget deficit is expected to narrow to 3.6 percent of GDP in the current 2017/18 fiscal year from 6.3 percent in the prior year.…

Available capital isn’t the only obstacle to economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Another major hurdle is the lack of reliable electricity. In fact, large parts of the region have no power at all. This makes it hard for entrepreneurs to build businesses, create jobs and generate wealth. But things are changing. This week, Angola, Africa’s…

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has told MPs that more than 50 000 grant beneficiary complaints were incomplete as they were still waiting for affidavits from complainants. Dlamini told the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday that the South African Social Security Agency had received 95 429 disputes from grant beneficiaries from April 2016 to…