Broadband Infraco and Telkom merger highly likely

State-owned company Broadband Infraco supports the government’s plan to merge it with Telkom, and believes it should receive state assistance as soon as possible to prevent further erosion of its value.

 

Broadband Infraco’s corporate plan for 2016-21 and its integrated report for the 2014-15 financial year that have been tabled in Parliament, make it clear its executives believe it is preferable for the company to be acquired as a going concern to preserve its value and assets.

THE POINT: Lean start-ups will excite South Africa’s young people

LUMKA Mphande (27) from Tembisa is a call centre supervisor who started his own business, Bumka Scooter Rental. He rents out 125cc motorbikes to delivery businesses, such as pizza and sandwich outlets, in Tembisa.

 

"With many businesses utilising motorbikes for deliveries, I saw a gap in the market to rent out a few in my area," Mphande explains.
"I paid cash for all of them and I maintain a very simple lifestyle in my effort to save as much money as I can to plough back into my business."

Nuclear Power Pros and Cons up for Debate

The public protector’s office is considering whether it should work to pre-empt corruption in state procurement or only react after the law is breached, says deputy public protector Kevin Malunga.

Adv Malunga was discussing a complaint by the Democratic Alliance to the protector about the decision-making on SA’s nuclear procurement. In October last year, Earthlife Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute challenged the procurement process in court.

Public Sector Union Members Earn more

PUBLIC sector trade unions were able to secure earnings for their members at a rate 40% higher than nonunionised employees in the private sector with the same skills and other characteristics, says an economic analysis by the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town.


Measures to contain spending on wages are expected to feature prominently in Wednesday’s budget. The public sector wage bill, which has grown dramatically since 2008, has become a major constraint on South Africa’s public finances, consuming 40% of government spending.

DATA READINGS: SA Bonds lose out on Weak Economic Data

SOUTH African bonds were weaker on Tuesday afternoon as the market lost out in risk-off trade following a slew of negative economic data released on the day.

Eskom: Ailing Entities Pose Major Risks- EDITORIAL

State-owned enterprises have lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years. Anyone who doubted the damage their instability could do to the economy should take a look at the report Standard & Poor’s (S&P) released on Friday.

 
S&P already had SA’s sovereign credit rating at the lowest notch on the investment grade table. Now it has put the rating on "negative watch", an indication that it is looking to downgrade into subinvestment grade or "junk" bond territory within the next year or two.
Problems at state-owned enterprises are one of the main reasons that might cause S&P to do that. Its comments note the need for an urgent review of the role, ownership structure and operations of the state-owned enterprises.

President Zuma’s policy left economic in likelihood funds.

If investors  needed reminding about the quandary facing South Africa’s central bank, they just got it from two credit-rating companies.
While statements on Friday from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Fitch Ratings left the country’s debt short of a downgrade to junk, both companies gave the same diagnosis for SA’s economic malaise: government policies that are denting business confidence and the likelihood of state funding or guarantees that will further strain the budget of President Jacob Zuma’s administration.

The assessments get to the heart of the dilemma facing Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago, who is struggling to keep the weakening rand from fuelling inflation at a time when interest rates at their highest level in five years have left gross domestic product growing at its slowest pace since 2009. Throw in the looming prospect of the US Federal Reserve’s first rate increase in almost a decade — an event likely to accelerate the capital exodus from Africa’s second-biggest economy — and the task becomes greater still.

Steel chief warns of industry ‘bloodbath’

Paul O’Flaherty

The CEO of ArcelorMittal SA, Paul O’Flaherty, has warned of a "bloodbath year", indicating that anti-dumping duties of as much as 30%-60% on some Chinese steel products could be needed to sustain the cash-strapped steel maker’s operations.

SA’s largest steel maker said it would seek to raise R4bn-R4.5bn by way of a rights issue underwritten by Luxembourg-based shareholder ArcelorMittal and that it was in talks with government on measures to ensure the longer-term viability of SA’s steel industry.