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Southern Africa
As Africa’s role in the global economy continues to garner prominence, it’s imperative for the continent to seal the gaping hole in its power supply.
Lack of universal power access remains a major roadblock that has retrogressed industrialization and socio-economic development. Statistics from the World Bank indicate that Africa remains the least electrified region in the world, with 568 million people lacking access to electricity.
The Bretton Woods institution, further notes that the Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of the global population without electricity, jumped to 77 per cent in 2020 from 71 per cent in 2018, whilst most regions saw declines in their share of access deficits. It has become a Hobson’s choice for African governments to prioritize the power sector, which is the epicenter of industrialization, working towards Goal 7 of the UN SDGs; which advocates for universal access to affordable, reliable and modern electricity services.
Currently, Africa’s power is …
Findings show that increasing costs in every market due to a year of supply disruption did not deter data centre demand in most markets including Nairobi and Johanessburg.
The two African capitals were among 44 other locations that were surveyed.
According to the study, despite the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic, demand remained relatively steady when compared to other industries owing to governments’ decisions to make working and schooling from home mandatory. …
Given these enabling circumstances, KKR offered to buy out RJR and reorganize the business and optimize value from its operations. This initial attempt was not warmly received, and RJR sought other investment companies to purchase it. What then ensued was what members of the investment community call putting the company in play.
This describes a scenario where one company is actively pursued by several suitors who desire to purchase it. In the end KKR triumphed albeit having paid a massive premium for the company. Unfortunately, the company did not realize the gains that it had envisaged it would.
The Nabisco operation of the company was spun off into a separate entity and the tobacco interests were also kept separate. All the gains the company anticipated it would make were swallowed up by tobacco lawsuits so that by 1994 the KKR had all but written off its investment in RJR Nabisco.…
What Housing Act? Asks SA’s former Housing MEC
In a most bizarre turn of events, the now-infamous Mosebenzi Zwane, former Free State human settlements MEC told a panel of jurors that he did not know the country had a Housing Act.
Mr. Zwane, baffled the commission and the world at large after he denied any knowledge of the existence of South Africa’s Housing Act, despite him running the government housing sector for one whole year.
Mr. Zwane is defending himself in a hot corruption scandal regarding ‘irregular use of funds and unlawful contracting processes in the Free State 2010 housing project.’
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He also said he did not know how many houses were built during his time in office, but admitted that he personally oversaw the handover of at least 50 houses.
The unexpected answer from the former high ranking government official was described …
South African Airways (SAA)—one of Africa’s largest carriers have gained a promising turn, as its administrators said conditions for a business rescue were met to bring the state-owned carrier back to operations.
According to information from Bloomberg News, the administrators did not provide any further notice to affected parties on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that “whether the government had met their demand to place in an escrow account $988 million the state has guaranteed to creditors should the carrier fail. The Treasury said on Monday its usual guarantees should suffice”
The SAA which was illustrated by News24 a South African business publication, that had a net asset value of nil in 1999 and since then has contended with a weak balance sheet exaggerated by weak management and a poor business model.
Further, the which SAA has received no less than $3 billion in bailouts or recapitalization over 20 years, starting from …
The coronavirus (COVID-19) has hurt the South African business confidence, making it to drop to the lowest level in almost 45 years.
Among the factors sited for the drop include the resources spent in virus prevention measures—particularly the strict lockdown.
What the index says
According to information from Bloomberg News, the second-largest economy in Africa readings started in 1975 showcased, the deep fall, whereas both—Rand Merchant Bank (RMB)unit and Stellenbosch University affirmed that, a quarterly gauge measuring business confidence fell to 5 in the second quarter from 18 in the previous three months.
However, a reading of 5 means “just about every respondent in the second quarter was unsatisfied with the prevailing business conditions,” RMB said. The survey was based on the responses of 1,800 business executives between May 13 and June 1.
Further, as the nation moves away from the harsh-lockdown total of around 1 800 executives surveyed across …
South African aviation industry, which is also one of the regions largest carrier is facing challenging setbacks, including the current state of the SA Express—which is state-owned, which just slid from a liquidation process, as a judge granted its three-month delay, pending anticipated government intervention, according to information Reuters.
Saved by the possibility of an investor
After several rescue attempts, June 9 was the set court date—hence, due to the possibility of a potential investor—which the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) claim to have an investor from the United Arab Emirates potentially interested in buying a stake in SA Express, the issue has been postponed until September 9, according to information from News24.
According to the laws of South African regarding foreign ownership in domestic airlines, the “potential” investor is limited to 25 per cent. Hence—as the unions did not …
Africa’s second-largest economy, South Africa—is planning to introduce projects worth of $29.5 billion in sectors such as water, energy, and transport—to fuel an economic recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to information from Reuters.
The infrastructure projects are expected to be approved by the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet, following discussions with the private sector and multilateral development banks, Paul Mashatile, ANC’s treasurer-general said during a video conference organized by a London based think-tank—Chatham House.
According to statistics from the South African government on COVID-19 trend, until May 27, 634,996 tests were conducted, 25,937 cases identified, 13,451 people recovered, 552 people succumbed to the virus and more than 1,600 cases emerged.
As South Africa swims in a second-recession, the economic-recovery projects would focus on areas such as railways, ports, energy, information technology, water and sanitation and housing.
“It is clear that given the scale of the damage to …
Supply chain software company MACmobile has launched a new platform that can support “live” streaming of formal market retail “sales out” data from till points as well as map the relevant stock holding in store simultaneously in the Kenyan Market.
This follows a partnership with Cognizance Processing who built the platform and will be available for Kenya wholesalers and retailers.
The platform will reflect “sales in” data to retailers while mapping stock holding in the multiple warehouses being used in the distribution supply chain.
Daily retail sales feeds and basket data feeds (when made available), stock in store and stock at the distribution centre, can be recorded and made available in a live feed to a dashboard.
This enables the manufacturer to identify Key Performance Areas (KPAs) against which performance benchmarks are established and deviations reported against. The deviation reporting is live and communication is made to merchandisers and/or retail …
