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/ 28 October 2005
Fill up with Penuell, Khaya and Phuthuma. This week, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reveals for the first time the big empowerment stakes at issue in the Uhambo deal — the proposed merger of Engen and Sasol’s fuels business — which show that the benefits to accrue to Penuell Maduna, Khaya Ngqula and Phuthuma Nhleko will make them industry giants.
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/ 23 September 2005
The government has quietly agreed to end a ”dispensation” in which fuel giant Sasol was to repay subsidies — worth R6-billion since 1989 — paid to the fuel-from-coal giant when oil prices were low. The result is that while Sasol received billions of rands of direct support while oil prices were low, it is not required to repay these funds now that oil prices are stratospheric.
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/ 19 September 2005
There’s good and bad news from the social delivery interface, but mostly it is good. Personnel costs are down, capital expenditure is up, the provinces are growing their implementation capacity, social development expenditure has more than doubled since 2001/02 and nearly 5,6-million children are getting child support grants, up from 970Â 000 in 2001/02.
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/ 19 September 2005
South Africa’s home-grown fuel giant Sasol published its annual results recently against the background of continuing high fuel prices and intensifying debate over how well the current regulatory regime serves the country. Pump prices internationally are in the spotlight.
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/ 9 September 2005
Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks threw up her hands at escalating fuel prices, saying there was nothing the government could do. But administered prices, those set by regulation, make up a large part of the fuel price and the evidence is that the government has been doing a poor job in keeping price increases in line with inflation.
The government, having identified import parity pricing as a prime economic evil, is turning a blind eye to this practice in the fuel industry, which is making spectacular profits on rampant oil prices.President Thabo Mbeki has been leading the charge against import parity pricing.
Safika Holdings, one of the highest black economic empowerment fliers, is jointly controlled by Standard Bank, Competition Tribunal documents show. The tribunal earlier this year approved a merger between Standard Bank and Safika, where the former bought a 20% stake in the latter for an undisclosed sum.
Spare a thought for Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana. He has just had his salary package cut by 37%, from R11,14-million to R6,9-million. Telkom has cut executive salaries and bonuses in the past two years from R59-million to R33-million. The Telkom board, no doubt, has taken note of the new mood sweeping the country as workers look not so much at CPIX.
Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) chief executive officer Monhla Hlahla says it is okay for her to have a shareholding in two companies that are major service providers to Acsa because her shareholding is too small for it to constitute a conflict of interest. Acsa is 75% state-owned, 20% being owned by Aeroporti di Roma (AdR), a Rome-headquartered company that has the option to buy a further 10%.
Ask anybody who has made the most money out of empowerment and they will probably say Tokyo Sexwale, whose shares in Mvelaphanda this week were worth R400-million. Not far behind is Hosken Consolidated Investments’ John Copelyn, whose shareholding until recently was worth R358-million. Unlike Sexwale, though, Copelyn, is white.