Новости за 21.09.2021

Takatso Consortium said on Wednesday it was still in discussions with South Africa's Treasury over its purchase of a 51% stake in the country's struggling national airline but said both parties were committed to an agreement. The transaction was large and complex and so might take time to finalise, it said in an emailed statement, although it said a due diligence process was largely complete and had identified no material issues.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says industrial policy and the quest for industrialisation belong back at the centre of the development agenda and are critical for meeting South Africa’s aspirations for higher levels of economic growth, job creation, transformation and development. The South African economy, the Minister said during an address on Tuesday, was unsustainable in its current state and part of government’s response required that emphasis be place on fundamentally transforming the structure of the economy ... Читать дальше...

Cennergi, the wholly owned renewable energy arm of coal mining company Exxaro and South Africa’s second-largest renewable energy company, is being deployed to decarbonise the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company’s own coal mines. In addition, Exxaro, through Cennergi, is in discussion with other mining companies to bring them green energy from a mining know-how position and help them on their way to significant decarbonisation.

Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has thanked Germany for its “progressive and scientific” decision to remove South Africa from its high-risk country list, stating that it would directly contribute to efforts to recover the tourism sector. The decision means that vaccinated travellers from South Africa no longer need to have an explanation of the purpose of entry and can travel to Germany, subject to the validity of their passport and Schengen visa. “This is great news for South Africans who travel for leisure and business. Читать дальше...

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) on Tuesday announced that it would embark on a national strike in the engineering sector from October 5, after wage talks deadlocked. Numsa has deadlocked with employer associations in engineering, namely the National Employers Association of South Africa, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa), SA Engineers and Founders Association and the CEO of the Metals Engineering Industries Bargaining Council, the union said.

The civil confidence index ticked up slightly to 17 points in the third quarter, but despite the improvement, underlying indicators worsened in the quarter and industry respondents remained dissatisfied with prevailing business conditions. The civil confidence index, compiled by First National Bank (FNB) and the Bureau for Economic Research, improved from 13 points in the second quarter.

Gold mining company Gold Fields has reached agreement with global engineering group Sandvik to trial a battery electric vehicle (BEV) underground loader at its South Deep gold mine, with the project starting towards the back end of next year, Gold Fields EVP for South Africa Martin Preece said on Tuesday. Preece was responding to media reports of Sandvik undertaking a two-year BEV production study in Australia in partnership with the Johannesburg- and New York-listed Gold Fields.

France’s Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport will pilot a project, being developed by an Airbus-led consortium, to increase the use of hydrogen in aviation, both in aircraft and ground vehicles, the European-based global major aerospace group announced on Tuesday. Lyon-Saint Exupéry is one of the airports in the French VINCI Airports group, which owns and/or operates airports on four continents. The third member of the consortium is French industrial gases and services group Air Liquide. The ultimate aim is to help cut air travel’s carbon emissions.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is seeking a permanent director-general for a five-year contract in Pretoria, calling for applicants to submit their CVs by October 4. The critical post, over the past few financial years, has mostly been held by acting directors-general.

Deputy Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane says that South Africa plans to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for a 2 500 MW nuclear programme by the end of March 2022 and complete the procurement in 2024. In an address to the sixty-fifth general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday, Nkabane reported that government had received positive responses from 25 companies to a request for information issued in June 2020 and stated that the National Energy... Читать дальше...

A court case filed by a losing bidder in South Africa’s emergency power program threatens to delay the provision of the electricity by months as banks balk at providing funding because of the risk of an adverse judgment. Officials at three of the seven preferred bidders selected to provide power by August 2022 said the lenders are refusing to sign off on the projects until the court case is complete. They asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.

In a recent brief report, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) pointed out that, according to the available data, the agricultural sector was one of the South African economy’s least concentrated sectors. And while agro-processing was much more concentrated that agriculture itself, it was still far from being one of the most concentrated sectors of the economy.

Hospital operator Mediclinic has refinanced its existing debt through a new R8.45-billion sustainability-linked banking facility – the first of its kind arranged by a bank in Africa. Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a division of FirstRand Bank, acted as the lead arranger for the transaction.

South African companies Sasol and Imperial Logistics have entered into an agreement to explore options and solutions for decarbonising heavy-duty long-haul trucking, including through the use of fuel cell electric (FCE) trucks fuelled by green hydrogen. Sasol has already announced its intention to play a leading role in the development of a green hydrogen economy in South Africa, and to produce green hydrogen to help decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors such as freight transportation.

The biometric digital authentication and automated onboarding solution of technology company iiDENTIFii has won the Best Enterprise Solution award of the MTN Business App of the Year Awards 2021. While technically complex, the solution assures that an individual is a real person and present at the time of transaction or verification, and that the person’s online identity, in a digital world, is who the person claims to be, says iiDENTIFii co-founder and chief strategy officer Lance Fanaroff.

Nonprofit organisation the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced South African Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former UN under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women, as the winner of the 2021 Global Goalkeeper Award. As part of its yearly Goalkeepers campaign, the foundation also announced the winners of three additional Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards.

Tshepiso Moahloli has resigned from her position as the National Treasury’s deputy director-general (DDG) of asset and liability management. The resignation will be official from October 15.

Nonprofit shareholder activism organisation Just Share and investment management company Aeon Investment Management on September 14 co-filed a nonbinding, advisory shareholder resolution with chemicals company Sasol, for tabling at its November 19 annual general meeting. The resolution asks Sasol to improve and expand its disclosure of its direct and indirect climate lobbying, including disclosing the yearly membership fees paid to industry associations which are involved in climate lobbying activities.

Widespread closures of magnesium smelters in top producer China due to a clampdown on emissions and shortages of energy have propelled prices of the metal to their highest since 2008, posing another headache for automakers. Magnesium, also widely used in the aerospace industry, is needed to make aluminium alloys for the auto sector, which is already reeling from chip shortages.