Development finance institution the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) president Dr Akinwumi Adesina has appointed former Senegal Minister Amadou Hott as his special envoy and global champion for the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA). The AGIA was established to accelerate Africa’s transition to net zero by mobilising, at scale and speed, investments needed [...]

In an early victory for CancelCoal applicants, the Pretoria High Court on December 12 ordered Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe to release records relating to the decision to include new coal-fired power in the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), and to the 2020 Ministerial determination for new coal issued under the IRP. The [...]

Bridgestone Southern Africa Holdings (BSAFH) has acquired Otraco Southern Africa. Otraco Southern Africa is active in the off-the-road (OTR) tyre-management solutions market. 

In what is a transformational high point, Benford Mokoatle will run Gold Fields South Africa from January 1 when Martin Preece steps up as interim CEO following the sudden step down of Chris Griffith over the Yamana Gold transaction not succeeding. The Gold Fields South Africa EPV position goes to Mokoatle for now as Preece [...]

The UK needs to establish independent, sustainable and resilient supply chains to diversify its sourcing of critical minerals and reduce dependence on such minerals being sourced from China, said UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre chairperson Paul Atherley, who is also chairperson of magnet metal and rare earths miner Pensana. He was called to give evidence [...]

The first potential underground mining at Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena platinum group metals (PGM) mine in Limpopo is targeted to start towards the end of 2024 and build up slowly to a full underground unit by the end of the decade. “We’re nearing the end of phase one of the decline development, which will start [...]

The world’s first pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) nuclear power plant (NPP) achieved full initial power on Friday, World Nuclear News has reported. It is located at Shidaowan in Shandong province in China. The NPP comprises two PBMR units, each of 250 MWt capacity, together driving a single 210 MWe steam turbine. There was a [...]

The Competition Tribunal has approved Shoprite's proposed acquisition of certain Massmart-owned supermarkets, wholesalers and liquor stores. It also gave Shoprite the go-ahead to buy Massmart's Massfresh business too, but with a lot of conditions. Shoprite initially made an offer to buy 56 grocery stores from Cambridge Food and Rhino Cash and Carry and 43 adjacent [...]

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial executive council has resolved to establish a technical committee to deal with debt owed by government to municipalities, which is said to be R2.8-billion. The committee will see to it that those debts are cleared and, where there are areas of disputes, they are resolved immediately.

A scheme by employees at Swiss industrial firm ABB to pay bribes for contracts at South Africa’s State-owned power utility nearly fell apart in a dispute over who would share in the spoils, US court filings show. The filings give a fresh look at corruption at Eskom, the power company plagued by deteriorating finances and [...]

Uganda said on Friday it would not renew South Africa power firm Eskom's licences to run two hydropower stations when they expire in March next year, as part of plans to bring the electricity sector under government control to reduce costs to consumers. The government will create the Uganda National Electricity Company Limited (UNECL), a [...]

Democratic Republic of Congo authorities have sealed the offices and seized the accounts of the local branch of South Africa's Vodacom over a tax dispute, the company said in a statement. "On December 6 and 7, 2022, agents of the General Directorate of Taxes (DGI) presented themselves at our technical, commercial and administrative offices and [...]