By Chris Bishop



As the COVID-19 spreads across Africa there have been 10,000 cases – with South Africa suffering the most &#8211; killing 500 people with a 9.4 per cent recovery rate.



The figures are likely to be even higher, in reality, as the World Health Organization admits that it is struggling to test outside African capitals because of a lack of resources, equipment and planes.



“We now have 44 African countries in the WHO region, sub-Saharan Africa, including Algeria, who are testing. In most of these countries there is urgent need to move testing beyond capital cities. We are also facing very much challenge of procurement and supply of equipment,” says Matshidiso Meoti, the director for Africa for the WHO.



“There is a shortage on a global level this is a huge concern for WHO as we work to procure testing kits. Some philanthropists are procuring and providing. There is availability on international markets and transportation but there is a lack of availability of flight in countries. We are working on how can kits can be moved and it is one of the most acute issues we are working on at this time.”



When asked about certain countries in different continents restricting the export of COVID-19 testing and protective equipment Michel Yao, a WHO representative to the Central African Republic, said: “ We are in talks with manufacturers, we need solidarity with countries , who can produce, to have a global approach in this outbreak The outbreak needs to be addressed everywhere at one time if we continue to have outbreaks in Africa, it will continue to affect everyone else.”



A lack of mobility was also causing problems for Africa’s migrants. The lockdown in many countries had seen people stranded up at borders, from Djibouti to the border between Burundi and Tanzania, according to Nairobi-based Mohammeed Abdiker a regional director for the International Organization for Migration. He also warned governments to be careful with refugees.



“Governments should think hard about deporting refugees at this time. If we look at cross border movements, just by deporting two or three thousand people across a border we are increasing the risk of pandemic,”



On the movement front, Ethiopian Airlines told CNBC Africa that, despite losing $550 million dollars through the pandemic, it was prepared to fly equipment to every country in Africa. The airline said billionaire philanthropist Jack Ma had cooperated with the government of Ethiopia to supply equipment for mercy flights across Africa.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti – WHO Regional Director for Africa

COVID-19 kills 500 Africans says WHO – and why it could be a lot worse than we know.

By Chris Bishop



As South African mines prepare to shut down, in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, the chief economist for the Minerals Council of South Africa warned that the industry was set to lose R1.5 billion-a-day ($86 million) at a time when it can ill afford it.



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a> 



The government lockdown from midnight on March 26 could see many of South Africa’s four million workers lose their jobs as industries are forced to draw in their horns in the name of safety.  



Even though mining has yet to see its first case of
Coronavirus, it is considered one of the country’s most vulnerable industries.
More than 300,000 of the 450,000 mineworkers, in South Africa, work deep
underground, in sweaty heat, at depths of up to four kilometres.



Henk Langenhoven, the chief economist for the Minerals
Council of South Africa- the body that represents most major miners –
calculates that the industry will lose R1.5 billion-a-day in a business that
earns 24% of the country’s foreign currency every year.



“It is a very difficult time for the mining industry. It is
a pity that many of the prices of commodities were rocketing recently now the
industry will not be able to take full advantage of them,” says Langenhoven.



Langenhoven also said the shut down in mining will neither
be swift, nor easy.



“The logistics are mind-boggling. It takes up to a week to close down a chrome smelter. Care and maintenance of mines is also costly”



President Cyril Ramaphosa, when he <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2020/03/23/breaking-nationwide-lockdown-announced-in-south-africa/">announced the shutdown</a> on Monday in Pretoria, called on mines to carry out care and maintenance, unless they could operate remotely with machinery. Those operations are few and far between in South Africa. President Ramaphosa made no bones about the impact on South Africa’s flagging economy that faces yet another downgrade from the ratings agency Moody’s on Friday.



“Business will suffer from this shutdown,” Ramaphosa said.



The only light at the end of a long tunnel is that the government has set up a so-called Solidarity Fund to raise money to ease the blow of hardship and job losses. It will be chaired by legendary South African entrepreneur Gloria Serobe.



Billionaires Nick Oppenheimer – whose family fortune came
largely from mining – and Johann Rupert pledged a billion rand each to the fund
along with R150 million in seed capital put forward by the government.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

COVID-19: South Africa eases lockdown to revive battered economy

How COVID-19 will cost SA’s mines R1.5 billion-a-day

By Chris Bishop



It is a bitter irony in South Africa’s Budget week that one of the most robust, homegrown, retailers ever built in South Africa is in its death throes.



Whatever Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has to offer small
business in his budget this week, it is too late for Bakos Brothers a family
furniture firm built on fraternal hard work and sweat. 



Bakos Brothers has closed all of its stores, retrenched 288 staff, and hopes to tie up all loose ends by the end of February. It has been a slow death for the store chain – one of the few left in South Africa that makes its own furniture – which made retrenchments every few months for the last two years. Costs were cut to the bone, in vain, as revenue tumbled. Everything from cheap Chinese imports to government tightening its purse strings – meaning fewer so-called tenderpreneurs –meant the numbers fell.



It saw a dramatic plunge in turnover that even the company itself
finds hard to explain. In the year to the end of February 2017 the stores
turned over R158 million; figures for the year to the end of this February show
a mere R55 million turnover.



“Not in the 48 years of this business have we ever seen a
downward cycle of retail like this,” says Ryan Bakos the CEO of the company.



“In recent years we have waited for changes under the new
president, but little happened. We have decided to go and sleep for two or
three years and then we might come back.”



It is a sad end to a business that began with bright optimism and elbow grease. The Bakos brothers bootstrapped the company into a household name in the 1970s by doing everything including sales and making the furniture. In the evening, the brothers would take off their suits and put on overalls. They would make deliveries to their growing market among the up-and-coming high rise residents of Hillbrow in Johannesburg. Often they would have to haul on ropes to lift lounge furniture to the upper floors.



The next morning, back in their suits, the brothers would
deposit the cash collected the night before to keep the young business going.



Bootstrapping that sadly came to naught nearly half a
century on.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

shutterstock_155347391

Bootstrapping Bakos Brothers broken

.By Chris Bishop



Before South Africa&#8217;s President Cyril Ramaphosa uttered a word in his State of the Nation Address in Parliament in Cape Town the proceedings were thrown into chaos.



Everyone thought the Economic Freedom Fighters were going to attack public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan – instead, they hurled angry words across the floor at the president of South Africa who stepped aside 26 years ago to make way for democracy and Nelson Mandela.



Julius Malema led the way by standing and raising a point of order. He castigated former South Africa&#8217;s President FW de Klerk as the commander of Vlakplaas – the apartheid era camp where torture and killings of political activists went on. He called the former president the “Commander of Vlakplaas” and said his presence was an insult to those who died.   “Are we going to go on and on and on about the matter of FW de Klerk? The presence of FW de Klerk in this house is proper as a former president we have done it by the rules.



Delaying the matters of this house on this matter is not
going to achieve anything,” replied Thandi Modise the speaker of the house to
applause from the ANC ruling party benches.



“Only last week de Klerk takes the mic and says apartheid was not a crime against humanity and you are clapping hands for him,” retorted Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, an EFF MP. 



The speaker ruled against them and President Ramaphosa was
invited to give his address to applause from most of the house. 



As the president prepared to speak, again the EFF benches rose –as expected &#8211; to howl down Gordhan who is saddled with the job of reforming the loss-making state owned enterprises. 



They called him a minister working for what they called white monopoly capital. The same opposition MPS in EFF red who once howled: “Payback the money” to former president Jacob Zuma and applauded Gordhan when he was named as finance minister for the second time after the former’s disastrous finance minister shuffle.  



“Pravin Gordhan must go,” shouted one of the EFF MPs to
cheers from his Parliamentary colleagues.



“ Please fire Pravin Gordhan or we go…Please adjourn the
house so you can fire Pravin Gordhan and you will have a peaceful, peaceful,
SONA,” shouted another.



The increasingly angry Speaker of the House looked like a kettle about to boil over. Modise told EFF MPs to take their seats to laughter from the EFF benches and uproar from the ruling party benches.



“You all have a minute to take your seats or march out,”
Modise shouted, over the din on the floor, jabbing her finger at the EFF
benches.



Other MPs complained that millions across the country were waiting to hear what the president had to say and it was unfair that the chaos on the floor was holding up proceedings. Elder statesman Mangosuthu Buthelezi tried to call for calm, but it was as if he was shouting in the wilds of KwaZulu-Natal where he grew up.



Malema’s EFF argued they had a right to speak in Parliament,
yet the speaker disagreed. 



“You are simply retarding the progress of this house
tonight,” says Modise. &nbsp;&nbsp;



The best part of an hour was wasted in squabbling across the
floor and the nation still had no idea, from the lips of the president, what
state it was in. 



“South Africa is not very proud of us tonight,” said Modise
with the shake of her head after 40 minutes of arguing. The heartfelt words
fell like a cup of water on a bushfire.



Maybe the chaos did reflect on the state of the nation in a backhanded way. At the very least, the squabbling was a clear, depressing, sign of the divisions and dissatisfaction that ail the once hopeful, golden, rainbow nation.

#SONA2020: Point of order Mr President !..Two presidents  howled down in Parliamentary fiasco

By Chris Bishop



Gold was a topic that glistered throughout the Mining Indaba in Cape Town this week. Its price continues to climb &#8211; more than 12% in the last year alone – and the interest in digging more of it up in Africa is growing.



There are around 190,000 tonnes of gold in the world and
demand for it is outstripping supply. A report from the World Gold Council circulated,
at the Mining Indaba, said annual supply of gold was 3400 tonnes while demand
was at 4500 tonnes. The demand is being driven by central banks who are buying
a pile of the yellow metal every year. In 2018, central banks bought 656 tonnes
– the biggest amount since major economies came off the gold standard – and
last year another 650 tonnes. The buoyant demand is being put down to economic
jitters around the world and the eroding of trust in the dollar.&nbsp; 



“The gap between demand and supply is being filled by
recycled jewellery but there are not enough new gold mines being built,” says
John Reade, the head of research for the World Gold Council.



[WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/05/miningindaba2020-has-gold-production-peaked/">#MiningIndaba2020:
Has gold production peaked?</a>



Reade, who worked in South African mines for Gencor,
believes now mines will come on stream, but slowly, with hopes of a 30%
increase by 2029. He said growth in gold mines was unlikely to be seen in South
Africa where environmental and regulatory concerns were dampening new
investment.



In South Africa, also, the deep narrow shafts of the gold
mines, some going down as far as four kilometres, were making the seams
expensive and hazardous to mine by many of the 93,150 people who work in the
operations. The Minerals Council of South Africa also warned at the Mining
Indaba of the bitter and costly harvest of power cuts in the country. In 2019,
according to the latest MCSA report, gold production fell by 13.5 %, to 101.3
tonnes, largely due to power cuts of up to 3000MW at a time.&nbsp; 



No matter, say the West Africans who appear poised to profit
from growing gold demand. West Africa has a competitive advantage over the more
established gold fields in the south. Its deposits are shallow, easy to get to
and largely under exploited. It is a sign of the times that the winner of the
investment battlefield contest – where people put their mining projects before
a panel of experts – was a 2.2 million oz open cast gold project in Cote D’Ivoire
that hopes to be 3 million oz before the end of the year.



Both Ghana and Nigeria are working on their mining codes to
ease the cost of doing business to encourage more capital.



Nigeria, in particular, has high hopes, even though its
mining is in its infancy and the whole economy struggles from a lack of
electricity. 
“We are sorting out this power problem and we hope to one day export more gold
than oil from Nigeria,” says the minister of mines and steel development
Olamilekan Adegbite.



The minister needs a golden touch combined with steel
resolve to see it through.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



[WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/05/miningindaba2020-nigerias-gold-exportation-has-potential-to-surpass-oil-and-gas-minister-olamilekan-adegbite/">#MiningIndaba2020: “Nigeria’s gold exportation has potential to surpass oil and gas” – Minister Olamilekan Adegbite</a>

#MiningIndaba2020: How Nigeria wants to become the gold coast as well as the oil capital

By Chris&nbsp; Bishop 



One of the supreme ironies of this Mining Indaba – billed as the place to connect junior miners with investors – is that the representatives of the junior miners themselves came here to complain bitterly that they were hamstrung in their efforts to do so.



For more coverage on #MiningIndaba2020 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/category/mining-indaba/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/category/mining-indaba/</a> 



Junior miners are the scouts of the industry, in the frontline of exploration:  getting small projects off the ground and often selling them to the major miners on fruition. Around 1500 South African junior miners support 45,000 jobs – yet a report released Wednesday by the Minerals Council South Africa, on Day three of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, claims 230,000 jobs could be created, through the multiplier, if there were tax breaks, less red tape and more support from investment funds. [WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/03/miningindaba2020-how-mining-companies-can-strengthen-relations-with-local-communities/">#MiningIndaba2020: How mining companies can strengthen relations with local communities</a>



“A lot of people at the Mining Indaba say to us: If only
this mining project was just in Australia it would be ten times the value of
the market capital price. It is sad,” says Errol Smart CEO of junior miner
Orion Minerals one of the presenters of the report.



Smart claimed South Africa was losing projects across the border to more go-ahead mining nations like Botswana and Namibia. He claimed junior miners struggled to wade through piles of bureaucracy at the overstretched Department of Mineral Resources.



[WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/04/miningindaba2020-alex-caldwell-on-where-vivo-energy-sees-investment-opportunities-in-africa/">#MiningIndaba2020: Alex Caldwell on where Vivo Energy sees investment opportunities in Africa</a>



“We have got to declutter the system and get red tape out of
the way,” says Smart.



Another problem for South African junior miners – in a land
of big mining and big government &#8211; is that investment funds here have no
mandate to invest in their small projects.



Ironically, according to Smart, Australian pension funds
invest in South African junior mining projects along with retail investors in
Canada who enjoy tax breaks for doing so. All of these factors make it even
tougher for the mining scouts on the front line who live with high risk and
narrow margins.



“Our members invested R55 billion and earned R54 billion in
revenue last year. That shows you that it is a tough gig,” says Smart.



Former finance minister Trevor Manuel promised tax breaks
for junior miners more than a decade ago. They never came. 



Mmadikeledi Malebe, the deputy director general of the
Department of Mineral Resources, said: “We deal with all applications on
receipt and we always try to assist junior miners with their paperwork.



Junior miners plan meetings with government in the coming
months to raise their issues.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Junior miners: If SA is serious about creating jobs it needs to make these changes…

By Chris Bishop



When the young Fortune Mojapelo (pictured) used to take a taxi from his township to the nearby small town of Kwekwe in Zimbabwe he used to marvel at the huge, imposing, chrome refineries that loomed large by the roadside – never thinking, for a moment, that one day he would be in mining poised to take over 10% of supply of one of the planet’s most sought after minerals destined to power our future.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="1024" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/fortune.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-355128" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/fortune.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/fortune-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/fortune-696x928.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/fortune-315x420.jpg 315w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></figure>



Mojapelo left Que Que, in the heart of Zimbabwe’s chrome
belt, to go to the University of Cape Town to study actuarial science. He spent
a few years as a management consultant before applying his skills to a
consortium seeking mineral rights in South Africa. They succeeded and Mojapelo,
then in his early 30s, became a founder of Bushveld Minerals, which listed on
AIM in London in 2017.



Now the South African company is gearing up to take advantage
of the world rush for battery metals expected to see the world market increase
122 times in the next 20 years. An expansion expected to attract $660 billion
in capital expenditure to unearth more metals like cobalt, lithium and vanadium
that will make the batteries that will power the world’s cars, factories and
mines. This transformation, expected to be led by Chinese manufacturers, will
replace fossil fuels with electricity to diminish the world’s carbon footprint.



“My only question is can Africa keep up with this demand,”
says Mojapelo <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/04/miningindaba2020-bushveld-minerals-ceo-heres-why-we-are-excited-about-our-expansion-plans/">speaking
the CNBC Africa at the Mining Indaba</a> in Cape Town, “I think we can and our
company is expanding to make sure we can.”



Bushveld Minerals, with its Vametco Mine employing 600
workers in Brits west of Johannesburg, is investing to treble production to
8400 mt in the next five years. The company, which supplies the steel industry
in the United States and Asia, &nbsp;currently
supplies 3% of world demand and hopes to expand this to 10%.



Mojapelo is also planning to invest in a factory to make the
batteries from the mined vanadium. He agrees that Africa should be extracting
more from its raw minerals.



Benedikt Sobotka, the head of the Global Battery Alliance set up by the World Economic Forum, <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/04/miningindaba2020-eurasian-resources-ceo-reveals-the-biggest-purchase-order-for-the-mining-industry-how-africa-stands-to-benefit/">said at the Mining Indaba</a> that Africa needed to get busy making batteries as well as mining the raw materials.



“If you look at a cell phone battery, it can retail for a
thousand dollars, while the raw materials can cost cents. That is how much
money can be made in the battery business and Africa needs to get into it,
“says Sobotka.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

cybersecurity_shutterstock

How this African company plans to take advantage of the world’s rush for battery metals

By Chris Bishop, in Cape Town.



The deadly Ebola virus killed the golden goose in West Africa and now a young turk in the Sierra Leone government is going to help revive it.



 [WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/04/miningindaba2020-how-sierra-leone-plans-to-strengthen-its-mining-sector/">#MiningIndaba2020: How Sierra Leone plans to strengthen its mining sector</a>



Mining in Sierra Leone was on the up in May 2014 – exporting a billion dollars a year in iron ore exports alone until Ebola struck. In just over 18 months the industry was devastated; workers died from the disease, exports were all but over and those who survived fled the country taking their mining skills with them.



[WATCH]<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/03/miningindaba2020-idc-ceo-heres-is-how-much-we-are-looking-to-invest-into-mining-in-2020/"> #MiningIndaba2020: IDC CEO: Here’s is how much we are looking to invest into mining in 2020</a>



Nearly five years on, the dapper, young, director general of the mining ministry of Sierra Leone is helping to bring the industry back to life. Julius Mattai’s eyes light up when he talks about the prospects for his country’s mining industry on his mission to find foreign investors at the #MiningIndaba2020 in Cape Town this week. 



[WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/03/miningindaba2020-how-mining-companies-can-strengthen-relations-with-local-communities/">#MiningIndaba2020: How mining companies can strengthen relations with local communities and create sustainable profits </a>



“We can double the size of our mining industry by 2025,” he says with genuine pride and enthusiasm.&nbsp; 



In this inspiration has come from above. The government has just
completed an aerial survey of the country’s mineral wealth and the results, to
be released next month, look good at first sight. They show that Sierra Leone
has a healthy stock of platinum group metals, Rutile – a prized and pricy
titanium dioxide that is used in aerospace and pigmentation- that Sierra Leone
has a claim owning most of world supply. There is also an abundance of Coltan –
used to bind together the inside of laptops – along with gold, diamonds,
bauxite and chromite.



“We want to make Sierra Leone a flagship of African mining,”
says Mattai.



Already the golden goose has been stirring. Changes in government mining rules have tempted back 15 mining companies to Sierra Leone, of which four are operational. In 2019, mining in Sierra Leone increased its exports to $350 million and employed 7,000 people.



“We want to create the right business environment,” says
Mattai.



Sierra Leone suffers, like many African mining nations, from
a dearth of skills and power, but at the very least it is trying to open the
door to investors in the hope of a rapid revival and all the wealth and
employment it brings. Other African mining nations could learn from this.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

How Sierra Leone plans to bring the golden mining goose back to life

By Chris Bishop, in Cape Town.



The first day of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town saw hustle,
bustle and a sharp exchange in the struggle for power.



Mining companies and South Africa’s Mining Minister Gwede
Mantashe’s team clashed over how the mines are going to power their future in
the face of power cuts and production losses. The Minerals Council South Africa
– which represents the country’s biggest mines – claimed that power had cost
production leading to a 2.8 % drop in contribution to GDP, in 2019, despite an
uptick in commodity prices. Mining still contributed 8.1 % to GDP last year
even though costs rose at 3% above inflation.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">[WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/03/miningindaba2020-these-are-the-biggest-constraints-to-sas-mining-industry/">#MiningIndaba2020:
These are the biggest constraints to SA’s mining industry</a></h3>



Solving these costly power cuts is causing tension between
the mining companies and government.



The MCSA fired the first salvo at its traditional breakfast briefing on the first day of the indaba. The mining companies said they wanted government to stop bailing out loss-making parastatals and put the money into solving infrastructure problems like the dearth of power.



“At last this is being seen as a country problem and not a
mining problem,” said Roger Baxter the CEO of the MCSA.



“What we want to see is action, action, action.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">[WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/03/miningindaba2020-roger-baxter-on-why-self-generation-is-a-game-changer-for-sa-mining/">#MiningIndaba2020: Roger Baxter on why self-generation is
a game changer for SA mining</a></h3>



The MCSA has a list of power projects, including wind and solar,
that it claims can create more than 2000 MW in nine months. The only problem
is, says Baxter, is that it takes a raft of expensive and lengthy bureaucracy,
including registering a change of use of land and paying to connect to the
national grid.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">At a press conference hours later
Mantashe vowed to make it easier for miners to create their own power projects
but warned. 
 
[WATCH] <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/02/03/miningindaba2020-sa-mines-to-be-allowed-to-self-generate-mantashe/">#MiningIndaba2020: : SA mines to be allowed to
self-generate – Mantashe</a></h3>



“We have to be sure about projects and be certain they
comply and do not destabilise the national grid. We do not want a free for
all,” says Mantashe.



“We want to know who you are and how much you will spend.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mantashe argued that solar power was not yet “cheap” as many
claimed. He also questioned the major mines hunger for new self –generated
power.



“Sibanye was granted permission for a 50 MW in 2017 and they
didn’t go. They didn’t go,”Mantashe said pointing his finger at his questioner
for emphasis.



James Wellstead, the spokesman for Sibanye, confirmed that
the 50 MW project hadn’t gone ahead because of complications and a desire to
create a 150 MW project instead.&nbsp;

Power squabbles at #MiningIndaba2020

By Chris Bishop 



The owners of the luxury Westin Hotel in Cape Town could have slept soundly last night knowing they were guaranteed to make at least R3.5 million ($233 226) as the Africa #MiningIndaba2020 and its nearly 7,000 delegates rolled into town.



READ: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/zdnl-mc/2020/01/30/will-sa-regain-its-top-spot-in-gold-mining-what-to-expect-from-miningindaba2020/">Will SA regain its top spot in gold mining? What to expect from #MiningIndaba2020</a>



The Mining Indaba – the biggest mining gathering on the planet – kicks off tomorrow Monday and the organisers say more than 40 African ministers and the President of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio will attend. Mining accounts for 80% of Sierra Leone’s exports – mining everything from mineral sands to diamonds and iron ore &#8211; and its president wants to revive the economy by rewriting the country’s mining law.



 Tune in daily from 3-6th February as CNBC Africa brings you all the action from #MiningIndba2020 brought to you by Brand South Afric<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InvestInSAMining?src=hashtag_click">a #InvestInSAMining</a> 



All 26 editions of the Mining Indaba have been held in Cape
Town. Joanna Kotyrba, Head of Marketing for the Mining Indaba attributes this
to Cape Town being South Africa’s top conference destination on the African
continent and it is considered as one of the premier business events
destinations in the world. 



“By hosting Mining Indaba events in Cape Town, we not only
ensure our events attract top delegates from around the world, but we are also
supporting the city and province’s goals of economic growth and job creation in
the areas of conferencing, tourism and hospitality,” she told CNBC Africa.



Many of Africa’s top politicians are staying in the 4,500 hotel rooms that are a 10-minute walk from the Cape Town International Convention Centre where the Mining Indaba will be held throughout this week. Word is in the Cape Town hotel business that every one of these rooms are sold out this week. It is part of a wave of currency that comes with the many conferences held in Cape Town that see a surge in demand for cars, hotels and food right down to airport shuttles and shoeshines.



One of the hotels that make up the 4,500 rooms a hop-skip
and a jump from the Mining Indaba is the plush Westin Hotel on the doorstep of
the conference. Its 500 rooms are sold out, according to sales and marketing
director Stacey Hopkins. This means the hotel takes at least R3.5 million in
revenue every night that it is packing them in from the Mining Indaba.



“The Mining Indaba is good for business in Cape Town,” says
Hopkins.



“We have struggled against a water shortage for a long time
and conferences are helping us improve business.”



Hopkins said matters were improved even more for the hotel
business in that many Mining Indaba delegates choose to extend their stay in
Cape Town around conference to make time for holidays and business
meetings.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

How #MiningIndaba2020 is bringing in millions for tourism in Cape Town

By Chris Bishop 



Next week almost 7,000 delegates from 90 countries will descend on Cape Town for the biggest mining gathering on the planet in the hope that the gloom could soon lift from one of the big drivers of African growth.



Tune in daily from 3-6th February as CNBC Africa brings you all the action from #MiningIndba2020 brought to you by Brand South Afric<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InvestInSAMining?src=hashtag_click">a #InvestInSAMining</a> 



For years South Africa – the biggest mining nation on the continent – has been in decline losing tens of thousands of jobs amid economic and regulatory uncertainty. The Mining Indaba, a place where investors and the industry meet, has mirrored this downturn. In recent years there has been a deathly quiet in some quarters of the Cape Town International Convention Centre where once there was noisy bustle. This year could prove a little brighter, according to some delegates who have booked their flights to Cape Town because of more stability in South African mining and an uptick in commodity prices. 



“I am excited this year and I think it will be a lot less gloomy than last year, “says Tawanda Madondo the Senior Coverage Banker Natural Resources at Absa Corporate Investment Banking. Madondo cited the increase in prices for rhodium and palladium as part of the drive to cut down car emissions. Palladium, a by-product of platinum, touched record highs of $2500 in 2019, an increase in the price of 19%.



More junior miners are expected at this year’s Mining Indaba – a bellwether for the mining industry. Junior miners are the scouts of the mining industry. They are nimble companies with low-cost bases that find mining projects that the big operators may miss and grind them through to bankable feasibility. Junior miners then sell to the major miners who pour in the required hefty load of capital.



“They are the in the front line and we are seeing a lot of
interest this year from Australian junior miners, especially when it comes to
West Africa,” says Wickus Botha,&nbsp; Energy
&amp; Natural Resources Leader for Africa at Ernst and Young.



Both delegates agree that West Africa is seeing a lot of
interest from junior gold miners attracted by the shallow reefs of the region.
The West African gold fields promise less risk and capital and can be swifter
to set up. Veteran South African miners, who are used to negotiating narrow
shafts up to four kilometres, are finding West Africa a happy hunting ground.



Madondo also believes there could be a lot of interest in so-called ESG investing – that is investment that takes into account environmental, social and governance issues – this year. The carrot for these investors is that they could ease pressure on the environment at the same time as helping South African mines to free themselves from expensive, production disrupting, power cuts.



“The electricity costs for mines are at about 25%. If you
look at projects that will create green energy, through solar and wind, to fill
that need – I think it could be very attractive for ESG investors at the Mining
Indaba this year,” says Madondo.



One of the ESG investors in Cape Town this year will be the Church of England with its multi-million-pound pension fund for its vicars, bishops and deacons. If it decides to invest in green energy in the mines the environment of South Africa could have a prayer.

Will SA regain its top spot in gold mining? What to expect from #MiningIndaba2020

South African finance minister Tito Mboweni held a priceless piece of history in his hands but tossed it the bin in the snows of Switzerland. It would have been worth a fortune today. 



The pile of paper in question contained a speech by the then president- in-waiting Nelson Mandela who was the star of the World Economic Forum in Davos back in 1991. Fresh from 27 years in prison, Mandela addressed the forum and earned a 10-minute standing ovation before he uttered a word.



READ: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/zdnl-mc/2020/01/16/sas-finance-minister-how-rats-and-thieves-are-nibbling-and-pilfering-sas-pockets/">SA’s Finance Minister: How rats and thieves are nibbling and pilfering SA’s pockets</a>



Mandela was also trying to negotiate his way to power by carrying the wishes of the rank-and-file African National Conference members. On the cusp of power they wanted nationalisation of the banks and mines as laid down in the country’s sacred Freedom Charter penned by liberation activists in 1955. 



READ: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2020/01/16/this-is-how-sa-will-sell-its-investment-case-at-wef-2020/">This is how SA will sell its investment case at WEF 2020</a>



Mandela has laboured over a hand written speech promising nationalisation as
a cornerstone of a socialist economy. At the time, with globalisation on the
march, it would have gone down like a lead balloon with foreign investors who
were already edgy about the ANC, that had not long put down its weapons, taking
over the then biggest economy in Africa.



Mboweni recalled that among the first people Mandela met with in Davos, as
he worked on his nationalisation speech, were leaders of the communist parties
in Vietnam and China. 



&#8220;Both of them said to him we are leaders of communist parties we have
economic liberalisation programmes on our agenda. They said leading a national
liberation movement and we are leading communist movements how come you are
more radical than us?&#8221;



But ANC advisors persuaded Mandela to throw the speech away and the young
31-year-old exiled activist, duly cast the pile of papers in the bin.



“He was persuaded that a very long speech on nationalisation might be appropriate
for another forum but not Davos,” says Mboweni at the breakfast on the road to
Davos held at a Rosebank hotel in Johannesburg Thursday.&nbsp;



“It was a big pile of paper. My biggest regret is that I threw it away
because it is part of history and it would be worth a fortune now. The one we
used was only about three pages.”



Those three pages changed history and ushered in a golden decade of growth
and prosperity. Foreign investors, encouraged by swift free market reforms and
easing of exchange controls, queued up to invest in the new South Africa when
Mandela took power in 1994. GDP growth peaked at around 5% in 2005; fourteen
years on the country’s battered economy, plagued by power cuts, is struggling
to make one per cent.



“It’s no longer 1994!” exclaimed one business editor at the road to Davos
breakfast when asked about the country’s current new investment prospects in
Switzerland , “South Africa is just another small country in a big and more
complicated world.”



Fair enough. There are those in business who feel that South Africa didn’t
cash in enough on those gilded days of the Mandela feel good factor and is now
paying the price in the current difficult world economic climate. Many of them
are probably right. &nbsp;&nbsp;

How Tito Mboweni tossed a fortune into the bin

South African finance minister Tito Mboweni has two major headaches to sort out before the budget in February- how to cut the ballooning civil service wage bill and how to banish “rats and thieves” in the cause of cutting government spending.



Mboweni, who heads to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, says wastage and corruption were the biggest drains on the country’s fiscus.



READ: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wef/2020/01/16/this-is-how-sa-will-sell-its-investment-case-at-wef-2020/">This is how SA will sell its investment case at WEF 2020</a>



“The problem with government contracts is that when there are the big ones
with lots of money – that is when the rats and thieves come out!” he told a
Davos breakfast in Rosebank, Johannesburg.



“The public sector wage bill is also a huge threat to the fiscus and we will
be trying to find a solution before the February budget.”



Mboweni has his work cut out. Along with the job of convincing the world,
next week, that South Africa can change its economy quicker he has to think
hard about the budget in February. He has pledged many times not to risk
fuelling inflation by printing money to bail out government coffers, the
prudent alternative is likely to take a lot of canny though.



Corruption is only likely to be quelled by convictions and stiff sentences.
The civil service wage bill may be an even more arduous task and more than one
previous finance minister have fought shy of cutting it; the unions are strong
in South Africa’s civil service and are likely to fight the minister
tooth-and-nail.



February’s budget could be very interesting indeed.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

SA’s Finance Minister: How rats and thieves are nibbling and pilfering SA’s pockets

South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni heads to the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week ready to tell world leaders that South
Africa does have electricity – despite what they may have read in the papers –
but also ready to admit that the country is lagging in its economic reform.



The outspoken finance minister will field questions in the Swiss ski resort
– where 30,000 delegates will gather next week &#8211; resort from everyone from
presidents to the heads of multinational companies about everything from reform
the economy of Zimbabwe. The South African mission is bent on networking with
international investors and journalists asked Mboweni at a breakfast in
Rosebank, Johannesburg, Thursday about how difficult will this be for a country
struggling to maintain its electricity supply.



“When we are asked why there is no electricity in South Africa our answer is
going to be that this is not true. Yes, we are experiencing load shedding while
Eskom fixes this… You cannot be a doom day sayer and say there is not
electricity in South Africa. It is not true and that is the approach we will
take,” says Mboweni.



“We don’t want to go and lie to people if you lie to people you get caught.”



The finance minister also said the unbundling of the national power
generator Eskom into generation, transmission, distribution entities was moving
forward and be financed from the state budget and not the printing of money.



Yet Mboweni was scathing about failing state owned enterprises in general.



“We will tell in Davos of the determined effort to put state owned
enterprises on a good path, those which do work, those that don’t work should
get out of the way.” 



The finance minister also admitted that the structural reforms of South
Africa, promised with the advent of President Cyril Ramaphosa two years ago,
are behind and he expects questions about this in Davos.



“They will ask about the Reserve Bank and I will tell them the Reserve Bank
will stay independent and serve the needs of the people without fear nor
favour. We will also tell them that it is honest to say the pace of structural
reforms is not the way we want it to be so we must speed up,” says Mboweni.



Economic development minister Ebrahim Patel said South Africa could report
back to Davos on progress on a number of promises made in Switzerland last
year. He said the business portal – a one stop shop for entrepreneurs – had
made setting up and registering a business in South Africa much quicker.
&nbsp;&nbsp;

This is how SA will sell its investment case at WEF 2020

DAVOS 2020 – WHY THE WORLD IS LESS COOL THIS YEAR. 



By Chris Bishop



Next week world leaders will meet at one of the coldest
spots on earth to discuss this divided planet’s burning issues that threaten
its very survival.



For years, the World’s Davos gathering has been around
issues of globalisation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and artificial
intelligence. It is 50 years since the free market optimist Klaus Schwab
launched the gathering, in the Swiss ski village, aimed at bringing the world’s
economies closers.



The wags used to paint it as the great, good and the
powerful linking arms to sing: ‘We are the World.’ This year, the song of Davos
could be closer to a Bob Marley’s So Much Trouble in the World on the aptly
named album Survival.



As raging fires lay waste vast tracts of Australia – the
word is they won’t be doused until March – the World Economic Forum says the greatest
risk, in its 10 year outlook, is extreme weather destroying property and taking
life, followed closely by the failure to tackle climate change. Both lurk
beneath the glow of Australia’s ruinous bush fires.&nbsp; &nbsp;



The other greatest risks, according to 750 global experts
polled by WEF, are: environmental crime and mistakes, like radiation leaks and
oil spills; followed closely by the destruction of natural resources, tsunamis
earthquakes and geomagnetic storms. 



“The political landscape is polarised, sea levels are rising
and climate fires are burning. This is the year when world leaders must work
with all sectors of society to repair and reinvigorate our systems of
cooperation, not just for short-term benefit but for tackling our deep-rooted
risks,” said Borge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum. 



This is the second year running that that climate and
environment concerns top the list; one reason why issues like climate change
are shooting up news agenda in newsrooms around the world and causing companies
worldwide to rethink their investments. 



Aside from the fury of the elements, 2020 threatens to be a
dangerous and depressed year all round.



“The report forecasts a year of increased domestic and
international divisions and economic slowdown. Geopolitical turbulence is
propelling us towards an “unsettled” unilateral world of great power rivalries
at a time when business and government leaders must focus urgently on working
together to tackle shared risks’,” says the report.



The leaders of the South African delegation to Davos meet at
a plush hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg, to set out their stall for yet another
pitch to the world for investors as the economy stalls with growth expected to
be less than one per cent this year.



As usual, the South Africans will be looking largely for
investors in heavy industry, tech and mining. Maybe the country – on of the
biggest polluters in Africa &#8211; should be looking to attract investment into
renewable energy to help avert climate change before the elements eat it for
breakfast. &nbsp;&nbsp;

These are the world’s greatest risks

&nbsp;By Chris Bishop



He was one of the big names in business in Africa; as
gentlemanly. as he was shrewd. He fought the odds and apartheid to stake his
place in business and inspire millions of his countrymen to do the same.



Richard Maponya – the doyen of black business in South
Africa – passed away in the early hours of January 6, after a short illness.
Maponya turned 99 on Christmas Eve near the end of a long and fruitful life
that saw him dine with the Queen, laugh with Bill Clinton and chauffer his old
friend Nelson Mandela. Mandela asked Maponya, who owned a car dealership, to
pick him up at the airport in Johannesburg after his release from prison in
1990. 



Ï picked him up at the airport and that was the most
frightening time of my life. We were chased by people on foot, helicopters,
motorbikes and cars. Everyone just wanted to touch Mandela. They could kill him
just trying to touch him,” Maponya recalled to Forbes Africa in a cover story
in March 2017.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 



Mandela was a close friend of Maponya since the 1950s. The
future president, then a young lawyer&nbsp;&nbsp;
helped Maponya set up his first business against the restrictive
apartheid laws that shackled black business. 



Maponya wanted to open a clothing store in Soweto,
Johannesburg; the authorities said no. Mandela lost the fight for the clothing
store, but did manage to secure him a license to trade daily necessities. This
opened the way for Maponya to start out with a milk delivery business that was
to prove the foundation of his fortune.



More than half a century on, Mandela, then a former president
of South Africa, beamed with pride, in 2007, as he opened the first shopping
mall in Soweto. 



Maponya Mall had taken the canny businessman a good deal of
patience to put together. He acquired the land in 1979 – the first black man to
secure a 100-year lease for land in Soweto – and spent many more years building
up the mall.



“Ï fought for 27 years for that mall and was many times
denied; they actually thought I was dreaming. When Nelson Mandela cut the
ribbon to open the mall, that was the highlight of my life,” Maponya said years
later. 



It was a mile on a road less travelled by Maponya in a long
journey from the tiny township of Lenyenye in Limpopo in northern South Africa
where he was born. He moved across the province to Polokwane to train as a
teacher and then, like many young men of his generation, moved south to
Johannesburg in search of his fortune.



In those days, the gold mining city was booming, but only the
few saw the fruits. Maponya was blocked at every turn as he tried to make his
way in business; he won through making a fortune from property, horse racing,
retail, cars and liquor. 



Maponya mentored many black entrepreneurs and inspired many
millions more he had never met. One of them was Herman Mashaba, the former
mayor of Johannesburg, who made his own fortune with hair care products.



“To myself and the people I grew up with he was an
inspiration to all of us to get into business…If he had started out in business
in a normal world there is no doubt he would have been even bigger than he
was,” Mashaba told CNBC Africa.



Maponya will be mourned by the millions who were inspired to
follow him and by a business world that is richer, in more ways than one, for his
nearly a century of hard work in which retirement was never an option.



“People who retire are lazy people. You retire and do what?
Bask in the sun?&nbsp; I am not that type of
man,” he said in 2017 at the age of 96.



He could never be. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

maponya

The life and wisdom of business doyen Richard Maponya

By Chris Bishop, Head of Programming at CNBC Africa



So, one of the largest unions in Africa says it is not so sure about new Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter.  It believes his appointment is against transformation and will only work with him if he abandons the unbundling of the national power generator that appears as vital to the operation as an elixir to a sick man.



READ: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/zdnl-mc/2019/11/19/why-the-new-man-at-eskom-needs-a-backbone-of-steel-and-the-eye-of-a-hawk/">Why the new man at Eskom needs a backbone of steel and the eye of a hawk</a>



There was no surprise when the National Union of Mineworkers
(NUM) kicked up a fuss in the wake of de Ruyter’s appointment. The union is
fighting the good fight very hard these days as it struggles to regain its
former strength. Once it was a powerhouse in the richest mining industry in
Africa with 300,000 members – redundancies have put paid to many members and
down the years many have drifted over to the Association of Mineworkers and
Construction Union (AMCU). A decade ago, AMCU was a fringe union now it is the
king of platinum and growing in numbers in the gold mines.



Therefore it is no surprise that the NUM is all over the
media saying it does not approve of de Ruyter and will not work with him at all
if he carries on with the unbundling of Eskom into three entities: generation;
distribution and transmission.



“We think this is the prelude to privatisation,” says
Livhuwani Mammburu, the spokesman for the NUM.



It is unlikely that Eskom will abandon the unbundling under
its new leader. The national power generator has struggled on for more than a
decade to provide half of Africa’s electricity. Maybe private money could help
the organisation shape up with the help of the discipline of the balance sheet.



As for transformation, I think most people in business,
right now, would support almost anyone from any background on earth if they
could secure a supply of affordable electricity in the long term.



It is also far too early to judge the new man, yet his
reputation looks promising. He was well thought of in his 20-year tenure at Sasol
where he had a reputation for walking the factory floors to learn the processes
of the business. De Ruyter was also seen as an expert on coal quality, which
will help him in his job at Eskom.



Although union muscle flexing appears in vogue in the
difficult South African economy; maybe it is time for the NUM to keep mum on
this appointment. For now at least. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chris Bishop

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This is how SA will sell its investment case at WEF 2020

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The life and wisdom of business doyen Richard Maponya

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Chris Bishop

COVID-19 kills 500 Africans says WHO – and why it could be a lot worse than we know.

How COVID-19 will cost SA’s mines R1.5 billion-a-day

Bootstrapping Bakos Brothers broken

#SONA2020: Point of order Mr President !..Two presidents howled down in Parliamentary fiasco

#MiningIndaba2020: How Nigeria wants to become the gold coast as well as the oil capital

Junior miners: If SA is serious about creating jobs it needs to make these changes…

How this African company plans to take advantage of the world’s rush for battery metals

How Sierra Leone plans to bring the golden mining goose back to life

Power squabbles at #MiningIndaba2020

How #MiningIndaba2020 is bringing in millions for tourism in Cape Town

Will SA regain its top spot in gold mining? What to expect from #MiningIndaba2020

How Tito Mboweni tossed a fortune into the bin

SA’s Finance Minister: How rats and thieves are nibbling and pilfering SA’s pockets

This is how SA will sell its investment case at WEF 2020

These are the world’s greatest risks

The life and wisdom of business doyen Richard Maponya

Eskom’s largest union’s ultimatum to Andre de Ruyter. If you want our support this is what you need to do…

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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