Category: Southern Africa
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South African business must own up to its part in the corruption scandals
South Africa is reeling from a string of scandals involving state owned enterprises and the Guptas, a family with close ties to President Jacob Zuma. A trove of recently leaked Gupta emails exposed the involvement of prominent businesses in the extensive corruption networks. Sibonelo Radebe asked Mills Soko to explain the implications of the scandals. What do…
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Both these economies are in recession but Nigeria’s will grow faster than SA’s in 2018
The Vanguard reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Nigeria’s economy will grow at a faster pace than South Africa’s in 2018, see table 1. According to its World Economic Outlook, WEO, for July 2017, the IMF said Nigeria will grow at 1.9% in 2018, while South Africa will only climb by…
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Zimbabwe central bank warms up ‘bond note’ printing presses
Zimbabwe is more than doubling its issuance of “bond notes”, a domestic quasi-currency, to $500 million, its central bank governor said on Wednesday, stoking fears of a slide towards the rampant money-printing and hyperinflation of a decade ago. Harare has used U.S. dollars and South African rand since 2009, after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe…
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Gupta brother says South Africa influence peddling emails are fake
One of South Africa’s Gupta brothers said leaked emails suggesting his family used links to President Jacob Zuma to win contracts and influence decisions were fake, a rare intervention in a scandal that has rocked the government. Atul Gupta – whose family business empire spans media, mining and technology – told the BBC he had…
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South Africa’s stock market defies recession, scales record highs
South Africa’s main stock index scaled a record high on Monday, underscoring the market’s disconnect from an economy mired in recession, hobbled by damaging ratings downgrades, and still largely defined by apartheid’s income inequalities. Skewed ownership patterns have made the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), which has been mostly lifted by the offshore earnings of a…
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South Africa’s rate cut signals political pressure on central bank: Moody’s
The first interest rate cut in five years by South Africa’s central bank will likely boost the country’s economic growth potential, ratings firm Moody’s said, but warned that the policy decision also signalled growing political pressure on the bank. South Africa’s main anti-graft watchdog recommended last month that the central bank mandate be changed to…
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Nigeria: Rice Importation Down By 80% – Osinbajo
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said Nigeria’s rice importation has dropped by over 80 per cent and that the country would be self-sufficient next year. Declaring open the 16th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC), Africa Region yesterday in Abuja, Osinbajo said the feat was achieved based on the collaborative efforts…
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MTN shares take a 7% dive as trading update disappoints
The cellphone operator has returned to profit, as it puts its enormous Nigerian fine behind it, but investors seem to have been hoping for a stronger rebound. MTN’s share price fell 7% to R110.08 on Thursday morning after it said it expected to report on August 3 that headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the…
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How will Eskom spend all the extra money it wants South Africans to pay?
Outa wants to know how the utility got around SAP software to rack up R3bn in irregular expenditure, as the utility seeks a 20% tariff increase from Nersa. Eskom wants consumers to cough up more for electricity‚ but a lobby group has raised questions about how the power utility has spent hundreds of billions in…
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South Africa’s maize estimate up 2%
South Africa will harvest 15,969 million tonnes of maize this season, the biggest crop on record after improved weather conditions across the maize belt boosted yields, the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Wednesday. The estimate is up 2 percent compared to the CEC’s June forecast of 15.6 million tonnes. The previous record harvest…