Category: Southern Africa

Zimbabwe’s finance minister blamed international sanctions on Sunday for a cash crunch that has forced the government to delay wages to soldiers and civil servants as President Robert Mugabe faces rare popular protests. Western countries imposed sanctions in 2001 on Mugabe’s government over allegations of vote-rigging and human rights abuses, which he rejects, while lenders…

South Africa’s telecoms regulator opened a tender to bid for high-speed wireless broadband licenses on Friday as it seeks to increase access to the Internet and bring down costs for consumers. The high-speed broadband, known as spectrum, has been packaged into four lots with varying frequencies. The reserve price for the lots starts at three…

South Africa is set to contribute even more to the African Union (AU) under a new self-funding model adopted at the continental body’s summit in Kigali, Rwanda this weekend. From 2017 all countries will be required to impose a levy of 0.2% on all their “eligible imports” to contribute to the AU, which meant the…

The Department of Trade and Industry will in the next few months launch a national one-stop-shop that will be responsible for issuing permits, licences and registering new businesses, President Jacob Zuma said in a written reply to a parliamentary question. Cope MP Deirdre Carter asked Zuma whether government has started efforts to remove red tape…

The rand strengthened 1% on Thursday on expectations that the Bank of England could cut interest rates, lifting demand for higher yielding assets. “Risk sentiment remains positive and the expectation that the Bank of England will introduce some form of monetary easing later today could see the rand strengthening even further,” ETM market analyst Ricardo…

South African regulators are investigating possible insider trading at Discovery after shares fell sharply the day before a downbeat trading update in February, the insurer said on Wednesday. Discovery shares fell 5.5 percent on Feb. 16, a day before South Africa’s biggest health insurer said it expected a fall of as much as 55 percent…

Retailers will have to increasingly demonstrate that they offer customers value for money if they want to attract and retain the country’s “cautious consumer”, research from management consultants McKinsey & Company suggests. “Our research shows that the perception of value for money is by far the biggest factor influencing South African consumers,” note the South…

South Africa, which is set to produce the smallest maize crop since 2008 this year, may miss a target to import enough maize this season to meet consumers’ needs, the biggest agricultural lobby group said. “It is still unclear whether we will be able to see the forecast 1.1 million tonnes by the end of…