JSE-listed Blue Label’s core businesses continued to generate further growth in revenue, gross profit and core headline earnings per share during the six month ended November 30. Revenue for the six months under review reached R9.8-billion, up 8% from R9.1-billion in the prior corresponding period, the company said in its financial results statement on Thursday.

Distell Group boosted revenue in South Africa and across the continent as a deal between the country’s biggest wine exporter and Heineken NV continues to go through a regulatory approval process. While Heineken’s offer of about €2.3-billion for Distell has got support from local shareholders, the final steps to buy the wine, brandy, liqueur and [...]

Minerals Council South Africa welcomed the government’s intervention on Eskom’s debt and the financial encouragement to stimulate businesses building renewable energy projects by offering generous tax incentives as outlined in the 2023 Budget Speech. The Minerals Council believes there should be further support from the government in implementing the solutions being developed in the Transnet [...]

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer gives an overview of the 2023 Budget delivered by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, including the announcement of a R254-billion Eskom debt-relief package and the conditions that apply to that package; the assumption that it would only work in tandem with tariff hikes and the user-pays principle being honoured; and the [...]

Sibanye-Stillwater miners were trapped underground in Randfontein due to a power supply interruption caused by powerlines that collapsed after being weakened by the vandalism of cable thieves. According to Eskom, the pylon structures were weakened by the theft of  "tower members" and unstable ground caused by digging around their foundations.

The National Budget facility for infrastructure has approved municipal water infrastructure projects to the value of R3.7-billion. These projects are ready for implementation once the 2023 Appropriations Bill is enacted, while government will also spend R115-billion in the medium term on 11 strategic projects in the water and sanitation space. Government will spend an overall [...]

In line with the carbon tax increase that become effective on January 1, 2023, from R144/t to R159/t of carbon dioxide equivalent, the carbon fuel levy for 2023/24 will increase by 1c to 10c/l for petrol and 11c/l for diesel, from April 5. The carbon tax cost recovery quantum for the liquid fuels refinery sector [...]

As State-owned entities (SOEs) continue to rely on government bailouts and dominate the guarantee portfolio of the fiscus, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has announced conditional in-year allocations to various SOEs in the National Budget speech delivered on February 22. These include allocations to arms maker Denel, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and freight utility [...]

Conditions linked to R254bn Eskom debt relief may lead to concessioning of coal plants The R254-billion Eskom debt-relief package unveiled by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in his 2023 Budget includes a sweeping set of conditions that will restrict the State-owned utility’s capital expenditure to transmission- and distribution-related investments and could also result in coal-fired power [...]

South Africa’s 2023 Budget includes tax incentives worth R9-billion to support businesses and households invest in renewable energy, including rooftop solar, in a bid to offset the impact of intensifying power cuts. In addition, the National Treasury announced that it would amend the bounce-back loan scheme, initially set up to support the recovery of businesses [...]

Limpopo MEC for Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure Nkakareng Rakgoale this week attended the sodturning ceremony for the construction of a R127-million bridge over the Steelpoort river, at Ga-Malekana. The sodturning ceremony follows the successful signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) by Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) and eight mining companies operating within the Sekhukhune [...]

The world must do everything to fight inflation, says AngloGold Ashanti CEO Alberto Calderon, a former International Monetary Fund luminary, who has reported emphasised cost control in a year dominated by what the JSE-listed company described the highest inflation rates in more than 40 years. Higher-grade ore mined by AngloGold Ashanti in the third quarter [...]