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CLEAN HOUSE
By: Darlene Creamer 2nd February 2018 The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief on Saturday January 20 when a new board, lead by Jabu Mabuza, was appointed at cash-strapped power utility Eskom. Expectations are high that the board, together with acting CEO Phakamani Hadebe, will do what is necessary to clean house. It is... →
THE NEW DEAL:
By: Martin Creamer 26th January 2018 THE NEW DEAL: South Africa’s New Deal under new African National Congress president and South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is founded on an unrelenting commitment to the implementation of policies that restore investor confidence. Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to put an... →
WATER WORRIES
By: Darlene Creamer 26th January 2018 The terrifying alert to Hawaii residents warning them about an inbound ballistic missile was, thankfully, a false alarm. However, the warning about ‘day zero’ in Cape Town is all too real. While there is unsurprisingly much unhappiness about a proposed drought levy to delink city revenues from... →
KNOT AGAIN
By: Martin Creamer 19th January 2018 Investment-starved but well-endowed South African mining can be healed by the introduction of good new government policy. Local mining’s failure to keep pace with mining jurisdictions elsewhere relates to pernicious policy rather than palpable potential. As the Chamber of Mines of South Africa... →
COMING WAVE
By: Darlene Creamer 19th January 2018 South Africans breathed a collective sigh of relief last month when the National Energy Regulator of South Africa limited Eskom’s 2018/19 tariff increase to 5.23% – the utility was seeking 19.9%. However, given the electricity producer’s perilous financial state (and the likely resistance of... →
CHANGE OR SHRINK:
By: Martin Creamer 15th December 2017 If it does not remove its damaging policy framework, the South African mining industry stands to lose another 100 000 jobs. That is the view of Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani, who accurately predicted the 100 000 job loss suffered over the last six years. “I'll say it again, absent of change,... →
HAD A GREAT FALL
By: Darlene Creamer 15th December 2017 The reputations of the South African government and the governing African National Congress took serious knocks during 2017. Allegations, and hard evidence, of State capture flowed stronger than the Orange river in flood, while the national mood was further depressed by downgrades, job losses,... →
ABERRANT LEGISLATION
By: Martin Creamer 8th December 2017 The long process of reconsidering the aberrant Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) Amendment Bill has reportedly generated so many additional procedural missteps that turfing it into the bin is only one good thing left to do with it. According to Herbert Smith Freehills Africa... →
SMOKING GUN
By: Darlene Creamer 8th December 2017 Against all odds, the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises has done a remarkable job in peeling back the layers of State Capture at the country’s power utility. However, former Eskom chairperson Zola Tsotsi arguably provided the ‘smoking gun’, with testimony linking President Jacob Zuma... →
LEGISLATIVE PLAYGROUND:
By: Martin Creamer 1st December 2017 In September, Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane told a mining conference in Australia that the changes to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) would be made in December. But a senior Parliamentary official has since made it clear that Parliament will miss Zwane’s... →
BIG DECISION
By: Darlene Creamer 1st December 2017 The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is hoping to make its determination on Eskom’s revenue application for 2018/19 on December 7. It’s a big decision not only in light of Eskom’s liquidity problems, but also given the potential negative economic employment impacts of a further... →
CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY:
By: Martin Creamer 24th November 2017 In today’s litigious South Africa, the Ministry of Mineral Resources and its Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) are coming in for legal stick over big picture legal issues. But this might not be the end of the legal story. The DMR’s irrational refused to grant prospecting licences could also... →
WRECKING CONTINUES
By: Darlene Creamer 24th November 2017 President Jacob Zuma’s move to foist an unworkable, and unfunded, higher education funding plan on the National Treasury is yet one more sign that he is willing to drive a bus through any institution standing in the way of his toxic political project, which combines power with patronage and... →
CAUGHT IN COURT:
By: Martin Creamer 17th November 2017 The errant Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and the litigious Chamber of Mines of South Africa spent a day or two in the High Court in mid-2016. The both spent another two days in the High Court on Thursday and Friday of last week. They are due to spend another two days in the High Court on... →
WORRYING DISCONNECT
By: Darlene Creamer 17th November 2017 Those closest to, and most affect by, the problems being experienced in the electricity supply industry are currently wringing their hands over the weak sales performance and what it could mean for tariffs. However, President Jacob Zuma and his newly appointed Energy Minister, David Maholobo, are... →
CRIPPLE AND CAPTURE:
By: Martin Creamer 10th November 2017 Current interests in South Africa’s mining industry are being crippled to make its assets cheaply available to connected companies, South African Institute of International Affairs' Governance of Africa’s Resources Programmes researcher Ross Harvey suggests in a recent opinion article in Business... →
SUFFOCATED BY SCANDAL
By: Darlene Creamer 10th November 2017 The hair-raising revelations in Jacques Pauw’s latest book, ‘The President’s Keepers’, outlining President Jacob Zuma’s association with key figures in South Africa’s underworld add yet another layer of shame to his already shameful Presidency. These scandals are not only suffocating Zuma and the... →
CRAZY CHARTER CROQUET:
By: Martin Creamer 3rd November 2017 Even mining communities are up in arms with the way Minerals Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and his Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) have unilaterally gazetted Mining Charter III, an unworkable document. Given the 0.7% growth rate to which the South African economy has slumped, Chamber of Mines... →
VITAL BAIL-OUT
By: Darlene Creamer 3rd November 2017 The exit of South African Airways’ toxic former chairperson, Dudu Myeni, may have been the best bail-out news yet received by the national carrier. Nevertheless, even with the additional support extended by the National Treasury, it’s going to take extraordinary effort and skill to pull the... →
SELF-INFLICTED DESTRUCTION:
By: Martin Creamer 27th October 2017 Unless South Africa starts exploring again and finds new ore deposits, the South African mining industry will ultimately grind to a halt and the big holes that have been dug could well become the preserve of illegal miners. But this does not need to be the case. This country remains highly... →
NUCLEAR ACCELERATOR
By: Darlene Creamer 27th October 2017 Whether justified or not, the appointment for former State Security Minister David Mahlobo as the country’s latest Energy Minister is seen an attempt by Present Jacob Zuma to push ahead with the currently stalled nuclear build programme. Given Mahlobo’s apparent close ties to Russia many view it... →
ECONOMIC ARSON:
By: Martin Creamer 20th October 2017 The South African mining industry catalyses a myriad of value-adding economic linkages in engineering, banking, law, energy, entrepreneurship and the list could go on. When mining is damaged, so are all those linkages. The knock-on effect is immense. Yet Minerals Resources Minister Mosebenzi... →
MISSING OUT
By: Darlene Creamer 20th October 2017 Largely owing to an exceptional solar resource, this country is often referred to as ‘sunny South Africa’. However, while the world is adopting solar photovoltaic (PV) technology at a record pace, this country’s solar programme is mired in uncertainty. The International Energy Agency’s... →
STRENGTHEN MINING, STRENGTHEN SOUTH AFRICA:
By: Martin Creamer 13th October 2017 Proper leadership will set South Africa back on an upward course under the growing realisation that if the country strengthens its mining sector, it strengthens the economy as a whole. Chamber of Mines president Mxolisi Mgojo has promised to ensure better outcomes for sector and country,... →
RUNNING ON EMPTY
By: Darlene Creamer 13th October 2017 Besides making ongoing losses, PetroSA is also facing an existential crisis, as its gas resources dwindle. Diminishing gas feedstock from its offshore wells, means that the Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids plant is now processing condensate as an alternative – a far from ideal feedstock. The State-owned... →
PLATINUM STRUGGLING TO FLATTEN 'EM:
By: Martin Creamer 6th October 2017 Palladium prices last week topped platinum for the first time since 2001, underscoring the diverging outlooks for the metals. Bloomberg reports that supplies are expected to tighten in palladium, owing to demand from petrol-fuelled vehicles and a snubbing of platinum in the wake of the VW diesel... →
CORPORATE CASUALTIES
By: Darlene Creamer 6th October 2017 The corporate body count directly attributable to the State-capture project continue to mount. Besides those companies directly associated with the controversial Gupta family, such as Oakbay and Trillian, there have been other serious casualties, most notably KPMG. More to come? Most definitely! →
IRREFUTABLE INFRINGEMENT:
By: Martin Creamer 29th September 2017 It appears that the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), as the aberrant creator of Mining Charter III, is the only organisation that likes Mining Charter III. Influential labour unions dislike it, community organisations condemn it, the African National Congress has called on the DMR to take... →
POWER STRUGGLE
By: Darlene Creamer 29th September 2017 Amid genuine unhappiness at the state of governance at Eskom, the timing of the utility’s application for a 19.9% tariff hike could not have been worse. What’s more it comes at a time when most South African firms, but especially power-intensive ones, as struggling to make ends meet. Therefore,... →
CHARTER THREE HIT FOR SIX:
By: Martin Creamer 22nd September 2017 Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, who has upset all stakeholders with his Mining Charter Three, is facing a barrage of stakeholder resistance to his deleterious document. The Chamber of Mines has stopped unfettered Ministerial comment on Mining Charter Three until a full bench of judges... →
TOUGH TO TICK
By: Darlene Creamer 22nd September 2017 Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba faces the most daunting Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement yet to be delivered by a South African finance minister. Not only has government’s credibility taken a nosedive under President Jacob Zuma, but there is now even a deep lack of trust surrounding the Finance... →
FICTION AND FIBS IN FOREIGN FIELDS:
By: Martin Creamer 15th September 2017 Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has been globe-trotting again instead of taking to mining stakeholders at home. He got away with distorting the realities of his aberrant Mining Charter Three at the LatAm Mining Cumbre in Chile, but thankfully he was prevented from dishing out more... →
MISSING IN ACTION
By: Darlene Creamer 15th September 2017 The interventions made by certain corporations following the #GuptaLeaks, as well as the expulsion of Bell Pottinger by the UK’s Public Relations and Communications Association, stand in stark contrast to the total lack of action by South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority. The National... →
DEMOLITION DEPARTMENT
By: Martin Creamer 8th September 2017 If South African mining continues to be damaged the way it is, it is likely to disappear altogether. Already mining company equity risk has soared along with the cost of capital, which puts South Africa at an increasing disadvantage. Mining Charter Three, if not stopped, will the heaviest... →
NEW MERGER MIX
By: Darlene Creamer 8th September 2017 Cement producers PPC and Afrisam abandoned their most recent merger negotiations late last month. However. Afrisam insisted that it had not abandoned the consolidation plan entirely and that a third approach could yet be made. Bloomberg reports that AfriSam is in negotiations with an equity... →
STRANGULATION OF MINING
By: Martin Creamer 1st September 2017 Mining Charter Three is already in the throes of strangling the mining industry, which provides virtually half of South Africa’s foreign currency from a quarter of its exports. Without these foreign currency earnings, South Africa’s participation in global trade stands to be decimated. Yet the... →
CATASTROPHE IN THE MAKING
By: Darlene Creamer 1st September 2017 A recent Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) report confirmed just how big a crisis South Africa has in the area of youth unemployment. The CDE found that, the country’s 20-million citizens aged between 15 and 34, 7.5-million were not in employment, education or training at the end of... →
LOCAL MINING NEEDS URGENT POLICY ATTENTION
By: Martin Creamer 25th August 2017 It is very sad that the mining industry is receiving toxic Mining Charter Three and mineral rights moratorium treatment at a time when the South African economy is in desperate need of stimulation. Even after more than a century of mining, it remains core to defining the entire South African... →
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