If there’s a five-letter expletive in Cape Town these days, it’s Eskom. With just one exception, Eskom’s executive directors, who earned R73-million last year, are the highest paid in the country. The city has racked up losses of hundreds of millions of rands in power cuts and load shedding and faces a bleak winter as the country runs out of electricity capacity.
Think of every building, house, shack and pondok in the country. Now think of the same buildings, houses, shacks and pondoks, but each with a solar heater on the roof. It seems an impossible dream, yet, experts say, every household could have had a free solar power unit on its roof if public money had been spent on solar rather than nuclear power.
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/ 13 February 2006
South Africa is going Brazilian, joining a worldwide scramble to catch up with the South American country’s successful use of the green fuel ethanol as its primary source of liquid energy. Ethanol, which has benefited in recent years from dramatic technological advances, is now seen internationally as a key renewable energy source.
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/ 8 February 2006
While Naspers executives have been at the ramparts fending off a hostile bid, chief executive Koos Bekker has struck a deal with Sanlam, making him a controlling force in the R40-billion giant for an investment of just R67,5-million. Bekker recently sold R75-million of Naspers shares to pay Sanlam for a 25% stake in Wheatfields, a new entity that owns high-voting Naspers A shares.
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/ 27 January 2006
Most Dusi veterans have portaged Burma Road at least once and most swear they will never, ever do it again. But the top contenders know that if they run the whole thing — it takes about 30 minutes — they can save a minute on a fast crew paddling around and shooting the biggest rapids of the three-day event.
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/ 13 January 2006
Hot on the heels of a Competition Commission finding that South African car prices are on average 14% more expensive than in Europe, the motor industry this week announced record vehicle sales last year of more than 600 000 units for the first time — R125-billion in total sales.
Business in South Africa finds itself in an unprecedented situation as government brings it to book. The Mail & Guardian takes a closer look at current cases where whole industries or leading companies have agreed to pay reparations, have been fined, are under investigation or in dispute with government.
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/ 23 December 2005
The government has tabled a special black economic empowerment (BEE) deal for foreign multinationals that exempts them from bringing in black shareholders. The latest BEE codes of conduct, released recently, say that multi-nationals operating in South Africa can sidestep BEE ownership regulations if they can show that implementing black shareholding will cause substantial commercial harm.
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/ 6 December 2005
The government is forging ahead with developing mini-reactor nuclear technology despite the fact that cost estimates have exploded, foreign and local investors have either quit or appear to be distancing themselves from the project and new investors are conspicuous by their absence.
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/ 31 October 2005
There are two people at Absa who are arguably the most important. One is CE Steve Booysen. He has the job of running the country’s largest retail bank while also keeping staff, customers and shareholders happy. The other is Tokyo Sexwale, the leader of the Batho Bonke consortium, Absa’s empowerment partner.