Новости за 23.02.2021

JSE-listed Murray & Roberts (M&R) expects to report a loss a share of between 38c and 45c for the six months ended December 31, 2020, compared with earnings a share of 41c reported for the six months ended December 31, 2019. It further expects to report a headline loss a share of between 24c and 31c, compared with headline earnings a share of 40c reported for the prior comparable period.

Two law firms announced on Tuesday that they would move ahead with plans to file a class action on behalf of South African Uber drivers against the ride hailing tech giant's operations in South Africa as well as in London for drivers to be recognised as employees. If successful, the legal bid will allow South African Uber drivers to pursue holiday pay and compensation for overtime under existing South African legislation. Currently, drivers in the Uber service operate similar to contractors.

Gold mining company Harmony Gold realised a net gain of R902-million from its hedging in the six months to December 31, Harmony Gold FD Boipelo Lekubo said on Tuesday. In presenting Harmony’s superb set of dividend-yielding half-year results of profit soaring 336% to R5.8-billion in the six months to December 31, Lekubo said the company was locking in higher prices as part of its derivative programme while also continuing to enjoy favourable commodity pricing on the unhedged portion of its exposure.

The case against two former Eskom executives who were allegedly involved in a R745-million corruption case at the Kusile power station has been postponed for more than three months.   Former Eskom Group Executive for the Group Capital Division Abram Masango and former contracts manager France Hlakudi appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sitting in Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

South Africa’s energy sector needs to broadly embrace a just energy transition to ensure it improves energy security and stability, as well as meets its obligations towards mitigating climate change, says nonprofit economic research institution Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies senior economist Gaylor Montmasson-Clair. He says a fair and equitable energy transition away from fossil fuels, and coal in particular, and towards renewable energy and other forms of less carbon intensive energy needs to embrace three key dynamics.

Waste management company Averda has appointed Mariam Ansari director of plastics recycling and Brindha Roberts group director of sustainability. The company says the appointments reflect its strategic focus on fostering the circular economy in the emerging world, as well as its commitment to staff diversity at senior level.

Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies says South Africa is well placed to build a new and sustainable export commodity – green hydrogen. TIPS believes the country can become a key supplier into the rapidly growing international hydrogen market, as the world faces growing pressure to move to low-carbon energy options.

Food service multinational Bidcorp CEO Bernard Berson has lauded the company's more than 23 000 employees across 35 countries, as well as its diversity of clients and decentralised operations, for producing resilient results for the six months to December 31, 2020. Many of the sectors in which Bidcorp's clients operate were significantly impacted on by the Covid-19 gpandemic and the restrictions imposed to combat its spread. These sectors include the hospitality, tourism, conference and sporting events sectors, he said.

South Africa’s challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality cannot be changed without a capable, professional, ethical and developmental State, speakers noted during a webinar hosted by government agency the National Planning Commission (NPC) on February 23. The NPC envisages a capable and developmental State and has drafted a paper titled 'NPC Position Paper: Capable, Professional and Ethical Developmental State'.

Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lobby organisation the Small Business Institute (SBI) has called on Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to speed up economic reforms, invest in infrastructure and not abruptly cut off support for SMEs. “As the pandemic has yet to be overcome through a rigorous vaccine programme, we believe the support to households and companies should not be abruptly withdrawn; rather, we need a careful sequencing informed by measures to avert the real prospect of a third wave of infections. Читать дальше...

Eskom’s recently tabled tariff restructure programme, which proposes changes such as charging consumers a fixed connection fee, may indeed improve the landscape for renewable energy in South Africa, says Energy Partners Intelligence business development head Tygue Theron. He tells Engineering News that while there has been a fair amount of criticism levelled against the State-owned utility’s proposed plan, as well as recent developments that are expected to result in a 15.63% increase in tariffs from April 1... Читать дальше...

Comair, the South African private sector airline group which operates the British Airways in Southern Africa and Kulula low cost carrier brands, has announced that Kulula will resume operations at Lanseria International Airport on April 1. These flights will service the carrier’s routes to Cape Town and Durban.  Initially, both routes will be operated with a limited schedule. The number of flights will, however, be increased over the coming months. Passengers can now book flights from and to Lanseria.

Greenfield exploration drilling has restarted at the Target North prospect in the Free State, which Covid-19 temporarily halted, Harmony Gold CEO Peter Steenkamp told Mining Weekly on Tuesday. Speaking during a Zoom interview after presenting an outstanding set of dividend-yielding  financial results, Steenkamp said the greenfield exploration had to date achieved three intersections and that a second drilling rig had been commissioned.

The JSE-listed Imperial group plans to exit its Logistics International business, says CEO Mohammed Akoojee. “We thoroughly assessed the strategic fit of our international portfolio [and] we have concluded that Logistics International is noncore to our Gateway-to-Africa strategy and we will explore an appropriate exit plan for this business.

Infrastructure and contract mining group Aveng, which is at the tail-end of a far-reaching restructuring exercise that has been under way since 2017, has reported its first positive earnings since 2014, recording headline earnings of R109-million for the six months to December 31. The recovery interim earnings, were underpinned by a 15% rise in revenue period-on-period to R12.9-billion  (R11.2-billion) and a massive rise in operating earnings from R14-million to R280-million, both of which were largely attributable to its Australian unit... Читать дальше...

Emerging South African digital bank TymeBank, which has on-boarded 2.8-million customers 24 months after launching, has secured an investment of R1.6-billion, attracting new investors from the UK and Philippines. The investment, which is one of the largest foreign investments any financial technology company has secured in South Africa, will be deployed to bolster TymeBank’s growth and secure its path to commercial success.

South Africa's official unemployment rate increased by 1.7 percentage points to 32.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, the highest since Statistics South Africa started publishing its Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008. Stats SA reports that the number of employed persons increased by 333 000 quarter-on-quarter to 15-million in the fourth quarter of 2020, while the number of unemployed persons also increased by 701 000 to 7.2-million.

The Summerstrand Hotel, a Port Elizabeth landmark, is being converted into a 500-bed residence for students at the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and is due to open in March. The Summerstrand Student Village is a 600 m walk from NMU’s main campus. The new village gives students an opportunity to stay in accommodation close to the NMU campus at an affordable rate, says student accommodation group STAG African director John Schooling.

International rivers and river communities rights nongovernmental organisation International Rivers has called on South Africa to withdraw its agreement to offtake electricity from the Inga 3 hydropower project being built in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). South Africa continues to uphold its commitment to procure power from the delayed Inga 3 hydropower dam, but the power imported from Inga is expected to cost R175-million a year more than domestic power generation, the NGO avers.

Gold mining company Harmony Gold, which is in the process of introducing 30 MW of own-generation solar power into its electricity mix, has begun the phasing in of the first 10 MW of renewable energy generation. “Generating our own power from solar power is the way to go,” Harmony Gold CEO Peter Steenkamp said in response to Mining Weekly during a media briefing on Monday.