South Africa’s government will announce within a month how it plans to fix Eskom Holdings, the embattled state utility that supplies more than 90% of the nation’s power. There are no easy remedies. The company is R419-billion in debt, is losing money hand over fist, has way more staff than it needs and its aging [...]

Cape Town is losing 50-billion litres of water every year to thirsty alien trees surrounding the region’s supply dams – equivalent to two months’ water supply effectively going down the drain. For those who doubt the hydrological models that have come up with this figure, there will soon be hard evidence from flow meters that [...]

State-owned utility Eskom’s proposed tariff increases would cost some 150 000 direct mining jobs, all but eliminate the gold sector and, as a consequence, reduce Eskom’s mining client base by around 36%, thereby exacerbating the utility’s “death spiral”, Minerals Council South Africa (MCSA) chief economist Henk Langenhoven said on Wednesday. The National Energy Regulator of [...]

South African's State-owned pension fund Public Investment Corporation said on Wednesday a whistle blower has made new corruption allegations against two of its board members and the acting chief executive. The PIC, which has nearly R2-trillion ($147-billion) of civil servants' pension under its custody and is Africa's biggest pension fund, said it would immediately conduct [...]

A Gauteng high court ruled in favour of SA Express following a protracted contractual dispute between the airline and charter operator Solenta Aviation in an arbitration hearing on Monday.   Solenta Aviation applied for the liquidation of the airline over an unpaid R87.3-million it owed the charter operator in unpaid leasing debts due on three [...]

The members of a civil society coalition that has been challenging mining company Atha Africa’s proposed new coal mine inside a Mpumalanga strategic water source area, have welcomed the decision by Mpumalanga MEC Vusumuzi Shongwe to withdraw his notice of intention to exclude the area proposed for mining from the Mabola Protected Environment. Shongwe in [...]

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will, in collaboration with the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and Brand South Africa, host a South African Investment Roundtable on the margins of the twenty-fifth Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, on February 5. Team South Africa’s theme for this year’s Indaba is Invest in [...]

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday that Eskom’s financial and operational problems were unlikely to be solved without structural changes being made at the State-owned electiricity utility. Speaking as part of a panel discussion at Business Unity South Africa’s inaugural Business Economic Indaba, Gordhan said the recent period of State capture period left [...]

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) president Sipho Pityana has called for a “new framework for growth” that addresses, through public-private partnerships, the economic risk being posed by high levels of inequality. Speaking at Busa’s inaugural Business Economic Indaba in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Pityana lamented the fact that millions of citizens remained on the margins of [...]

The Aveng Strabag joint venture (JV), responsible for building the R1.65-billion Mtentu bridge, in the Eastern Cape, has not returned to site following a three-month break as a result of violent community protests against the project. The bridge forms part of the South African National Roads Agency’s (Sanral’s) N2 Wild Coast road project.

South African power utility Eskom is facing a mounting repair bill at two new coal-fired power stations that are still under construction, compounding its already dire financial situation. Fixing problems that have arisen during construction of the new plants will cost an estimated R2-billion, the utility said in an emailed response to questions. That’s up [...]

Global crude steel production reached 1.81-billion tonnes in 2018 – 4.6% year-on-year increase, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported on Friday. Worldsteel pointed out that crude steel production had increased in all regions, except for the European Union (EU), which recorded a 0.3% contraction.