Kenya’s ruling Jubilee Party on Thursday presented parliament with proposals intended to prevent the Supreme Court annulling the results of a coming re-run presidential election, as it did the last vote in August.
The court struck down President Uhuru Kenyatta’s poll victory then, saying there had been illegalities and irregularities in the transmission of results.
Kenya used two systems to transmit results from polling stations: paper forms and the electronic transmission of the vote tallies plus scanned copies of the forms. The court found flaws in both.
Jubilee’s proposed amendments to election law would stop the court from invalidating results if the electronic transmission again fails to work smoothly. The manually transmitted results would be final, a copy of the amendments seen by Reuters on Thursday showed.
The re-run vote is scheduled for Oct. 26 and opposition challenger Raila Odinga’s coalition has said it will not take part unless the proposed changes are dropped, calling them “sanitisation of the flaws of the Aug. 8 vote”.
The amendments would also prevent the court from voiding an election on the grounds of non-compliance with the law, provided the poll was held in line with constitutional principles and the non-compliance did not affect the result of the election.
The president, two dissenting Supreme Court judges, and some legal commentators have faulted the court’s majority ruling for failing to explain how the illegalities cited interfered with the result of the election.
Kenyatta said last week the ruling by the Supreme Court threatened to thrust the country into “judicial chaos”, as lower courts use the precedent to invalidate other elected positions.
The dispute over the election law changes adds to a war of words ahead of the repeat election.
Odinga has called for street protests to force out senior officials from the electoral board, while Jubilee has said the election will go ahead even if Odinga’s side refuses to take part.
Hundreds of University of Nairobi students fought running battles with police around their campus on Thursday, as they protested against the detention of an opposition legislator.
Paul Ongili Owino was re-arrested on Wednesday, shortly after being released on bail on charges of subversion for calling Kenyatta a “son of a dog” at a campaign rally on Sunday.
He was arraigned again in court on Thursday on new charges of an assault causing “grievous harm” to a voter during the campaign for last month’s election.
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Editing by Andrew Roche
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Kenya’s ruling party moves to amend election law ahead of vote re-run

Mercy Mpinganjira |University of Johannesburg
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Online shopping is becoming ubiquitous in many parts of the world. The internet today enables retailers to open online and serve customers at any time of the day without the need for them to visit a physical store.
This is especially true in countries like China, the US and the UK, which lead the pack when it comes to e-commerce. Globally, e-commerce is a trillion-dollar industry and online retailing is a major part of it.
Online retailing is a relatively new phenomenon and still a small element of total retailing in Africa. In South Africa, for instance, total online salesin 2016 were estimated at R9 billion which was only 1% of total retail sales.
The rapid penetration of internet technologies around the continent provides hope for e-commerce’s continued growth. Firms that want to enter the online retailing market must learn and develop strategies that will help them benefit from this growth.
I undertook a study that looked at various factors that influence customer attitudes towards online stores. It focused on existing online shoppers from South Africa’s Gauteng province, which is the country’s economic powerhouse. There were 201 respondents in the study. All were older than 18 and from the middle- to upper-income groups according to the South African Living Standard Measure. 98 were men and 103 were women.
The respondents completed a structured questionnaire. They gave answers on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) with a statement to 5 (strongly agree). The customers were asked to have a specific online store in mind when answering the questions.
<h2>The findings</h2>
The findings showed that customers, in general, were positive about the online retail stores they were using. Four main factors influenced their attitudes and intentions to shop at a particular online store again. These were:
<ol>
<li>Store offerings: Denoted by the choice of products and the price at which the products are offered, this emerged as the main source of customer value associated with a store. Customers rate an online store’s offering as high when they are happy with the type and quality of products on offer as well as the price at which these are offered.</li>
<li>Navigation aids: This refers to website elements that help shoppers to easily find what they are looking for. Navigation aids can make online store visits easy and encourage shoppers to take desirable action like visiting more pages associated with an online store and purchasing products. Examples of online store navigation aids include a good site map, a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section and a built in search facility.</li>
<li>Security concerns: Online shopping entails sharing of personal information, including credit card details and many respondents were anxious about the security of such information. They worry about data breaches and the possibility of their personal information ending up in the hands of hackers or other unauthorised people.</li>
<li>Fulfilment reliability: this refers to dependability in the way in which online shopping orders are processed. It is about having the right products delivered to customers within stipulated time frames.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Implications for retailers</h2>
Online retailers need to realise that not everyone who has access to internet is a potential customer. Segmentation and target marketing is key to ensuring that customers are satisfied with an online store’s offering. When this is properly done, it will help an online store to stock products and implement pricing strategies that will have high appeal to the target market.
It’s also important to give serious attention to online store design issues. They need to provide good navigation aids to facilitate the provision of access and search convenience. Ease of navigation is critical to enhancing any online customer’s shopping experience.
Thirdly, online retailers need to appreciate that their customers are likely to have some security concerns. Online retailers have a duty to help ensure their customers’ security by keeping up to date with technological developments in this area and using the best security systems available.
The study’s findings about order fulfilment show how important it is to invest in a good order processing system. Customers need a clear indication of when they can expect their orders. If there are any delays customers must be informed in good time to quell their anxiety. Online retailers should invest in order tracking services so customers can easily follow the progress of their orders.
It is worth noting that focusing on these four factors – store offerings, navigation aids, security concerns and reliability in order fulfilment – can encourage customers to repurchase from the same store. Any online retailer must work not just to acquire new customers, but to retain existing ones.
<h2>Limitations and future studies</h2>
All these findings must be understood bearing in mind that the study had some limitations.
It was based on a sample of respondents drawn from Gauteng, which is South Africa’s most urbanised province. This means the findings may not be generalised to all parts of the country.
Secondly, it looked at online stores in general rather than those in a particular industry. This means that any industry differences in factors that influence attitude towards online stores could not be established.
Future studies may include samples drawn from different parts of the country or the continent as well as aim at establishing industry differences or similarities by focusing on retailing within a single or a few industries.
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Here’s why South Africa’s online shoppers keep coming back for more

Omolade Adunbi | University of Michigan
The rise of ethnic and religious nationalism in Nigeria in the last decade has led to such high levels of tension that it’s prompted people to ask if it will survive as a country. Or if Nigeria is on the brink of another civil war.
What’s behind the growing tensions is unequal distribution of the country’s wealth. Inequality has caused mistrust among ethnic groups. This, in turn, has led to conflict and violence.
Nigeria has in fact been at war with itself for some time – a war that has become intensified in the last two decades.
A number of events illustrate this. For instance, militancy in the oil rich Niger Delta region started after the 2003 general elections where arms and ammunition were purchased by some politicians and handed to young people in an attempt to influence the elections. But after the elections, many young Nigerians, angered by high rates of unemployment, turned the weapons against their sponsors and the Nigerian state.
Another example is the role played by the Oodua Peoples Congress, a group that advocated for an autonomous region for the Yoruba speaking southwest Nigeria. The congress started its agitation in 1994, a year after the annulment of the 1993 presidential election won by M.K.O Abiola, a member of the Yoruba ethnic group. Their dominant message was the alleged marginalisation of the Yoruba ethnic group.
And in 2009 the Boko Haram insurgency erupted after the brutal murder of Mohammed Yusuf, an Islamic cleric based in Maiduguri who had started a movement seven years earlier to push for an end to corruption and action against inequality. He also supported Islamic practices in the northeast region of Nigeria. Yusuf was arrested by the police and died in custody in 2009. Many members of his sect immediately staged a peaceful protest. Protests later became violent when they started targeting police offices and police posts across the North.
Now there is a resurgence of opposition in Biafra. It echoes back to 1967 when the then military governor of the Eastern region of Nigeria, Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Igbo speaking East independent from Nigeria. This followed Igbos in the North being targeted after the first military coup d&#8217;etat that ended Nigeria’s first republic. The 1966 coup, mostly led by military officers from the Igbo speaking east of Nigeria, was perceived by many in the North to have specifically targeted and killed many Hausa/Fulani politicians from the Northern region.
Economic inequality cannot be separated from the root of all these developments. Nigerians are frustrated because they can see economic inequality growing at a faster pace than ever before and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Will these agitations lead to an outright war in the scale of the 1960s civil war? There is no categorical answer to that. But I doubt that there will be another civil war on the scale of 1967-1970, although there may be large scale violence.
<h2>A history of violence</h2>
Violence has always been part of the history of economic and political marginalisation in Nigeria.
Examples can be drawn from the mass violence that led to the 1967-70 civil war as well as the ethno-religious violence of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s. These included the Zango Kataf conflict, Maitatsine riotsin the North between 1980 and 1985, the Agbekoya farmers uprising in the West 1968-70, the first iteration of the resurgence of Biafra by the Ralph Uwazuruike-led Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra in 2000 and the national protests against the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
Many of these mass actions started as protests against perceived injustice. But they were aggravated by the forceful response of the Nigerian government. The protests all paralysed state activities. But none threatened the survival of the Nigerian state more than the oil related conflicts in the Niger Delta.
Beginning with the state murder of Niger Delta rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa in November 1995 and crystallising in the insurgency against oil corporations and the state, protest action in the Niger Delta have affected the production and sale of oil which is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.
<h2>How Nigeria got here</h2>
The resurgence of ethno-religious protests in Nigeria can be traced to the fact that wealth circulates among a small group of elites. Although they come from all ethnic and religious groups, they resort to fanning ethno-religious sentiments when they feel there’s a threat to their wealth. Cries of marginalisation becomes the dominant cry when they’re out of power.
The election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, triggered new tensions. This is because he is considered a member of the Northern elite. Immediately after his election protests began supporting self-determination or secession by various groups from the South. These included the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South East as well as groups such as the Niger Delta Avengers in the South-South.
Control of Nigeria’s oil resources in the Niger Delta always comes into the mix. Recent clashes involving the Biafra group in Port Harcourt – capital city of oil rich Rivers State – must be understood in that context. It is no surprise that once again, the Niger Delta is at the heart of the current clamour for secession just as it was between 1966 and 1970 when oil extraction started taking root in Nigeria.
But there are important differences between today’s protests and those staged earlier in Nigeria’s history. The main ones include the fact that people are mobilised differently, and the way in which information is disseminated and consumed.
News travel faster than it used to and unfounded rumours spread like wildfire. Fuelling the tensions is the fact that hate speech is rife. The state is as guilty as the agitators. Voices of reason and objective analysis are lost in the noise especially now that everyone with a smart phone has become a ‘journalist’. In the confusion, the road to anarchy looms large over Nigeria.
<h2>What’s to be done</h2>
An inclusive economic and political system is the only solution. The current public discourse is focused on political restructuring along ethnic lines. The calls for a political arrangement where major ethnic groups will have control over their geographical areas as well as resources therein might help. The danger is that rather than unify Nigeria, it would further divide the country along ethnic and religious lines.
What’s missing in the conversation is the fact that the environment for violence and oppression of most Nigerians has come about because of the way in which the country’s economy is structured. The elitist economy cuts across all ethnic groups. The disenfranchisement, marginalisation and exploitation defy ethnic colouration.
For restructuring to be meaningful, Nigeria must create an inclusive economic and political system where ethnic and religious affiliation will no longer be a defining factor in economic and political participation. What Nigerians need, and are clamouring for, is a country that will accommodate them regardless of ethnic or religious creed. Political, religious and ethnic tolerance is the key to economic and political success, therefore economic and political inclusivity must account for greater tolerance for it to be effective.

Economic inequality lies behind growing calls for secession in Nigeria

South Africa’s economic growth will be significantly hampered by increasing political uncertainty in the run-up to the ruling African National Congress’s leadership contest in December, Fitch said on Thursday.
In a report released by its BMI research arm, Fitch said a turn to more “radical rhetoric and policy positions by the traditionalist wing of the party” would weigh on investor confidence.
“Mining and manufacturing activity are likely to be hit especially hard by the political challenges, as the elevated policy uncertainty stymies much-needed investment,” Fitch said in the report.
The continent’s most industrialised economy contracted in the last quarter of 2016 and the first of 2017 before recording marginal growth in the second quarter. Average expansion is forecast around 1 percent for the next three years.
Fitch and S&amp;P Global Ratings both downgraded South Africa’s foreign-currency rating to speculative grade, or junk, following an abrupt cabinet reshuffle in March that saw the respected Pravin Gordhan axed as finance minister by President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma is due step down as ANC president in December, when the party elects new leadership, and as national president in 2019,
Along with allegations of corruption and mismanaging the economy, the ANC has been riven by fighting between factions backing Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and former African Union head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as leadership candidates.
“Even after a new leader is chosen, deep-seated divisions within the party will limit the scope for much-needed structural reforms,” Fitch said.
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Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Ed Cropley
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Fitch_Flickr

ANC infighting to hit South Africa growth: Fitch

South African e-commerce giant Naspers (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NPNJn.J">NPNJn.J</a>) increased its investment in online food takeaway firm Delivery Hero (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DHER.DE">DHER.DE</a>) on Thursday, buying half the stake of German investor Rocket Internet (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RKET.DE">RKET.DE</a>) for 660 million euros ($775 mln).
The deal is the latest high-stakes bet on online food delivery platforms by Naspers, which already runs similar sites in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and in May paid $80 million to buy into India’s Swiggy.
The investment in loss-making Delivery Hero comes as some of Naspers’ investors are losing patience with losses from more than a dozen e-commerce platforms that include Letgo and OLX &#8211; the biggest classified sites in India and Brazil.
Naspers first took a stake in Delivery Hero in May, a month before the Berlin-based takeaway firm went public. On Thursday, Naspers lifted its stake to 23.6 percent, making it the biggest shareholder in one of Europe’s largest internet startups.
Naspers Chief Executive Bob van Dijk said the investment underlined his confidence in Delivery Hero’s prospects, particularly in developing markets. Founded in 2008, Delivery Hero offers online food delivery in more than 40 countries around the world.
“Many markets have experienced significant traction already, but we believe the potential is far greater in high-growth markets than that observed in the West,” he said in a statement.
Delivery Hero, the world’s largest online takeaway food delivery company, reported a 66 percent jump in first-half revenue and sharply narrower losses on Wednesday, as it set its focus on breaking even in 2018.
Rocket Internet shares were up 5 percent by 0801 GMT and Delivery Hero rose 0.6 percent, while Naspers’ stock price slipped 0.2 percent.
Rocket Internet, which built up and invested in dozens of businesses from fashion and furniture e-commerce to food delivery, has been cashing in on several of its start-ups as its share price has performed poorly since it listed in 2014.
It sold a stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada to China’s Alibaba (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BABA.N">BABA.N</a>) in June, while the Global Fashion Group it founded with Sweden’s Kinnevik (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KINVb.ST">KINVb.ST</a>) sold a stake in its Middle East site in May. Rocket’s shares also got a boost last month from a 100 million euro stock repurchase.
On Thursday, Rocket Internet reported that aggregate revenue for its leading start-ups rose 29 percent to 1.24 billion euros in the first half, while it narrowed the adjusted loss before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to 161 million euros from 204 million a year ago.
Rocket is still hopeful it can meet a target to make three of its start-ups profitable by the end of the year, although Chief Executive Oliver Samwer told reporters on a conference call that the goal might slip by three to six months.
Rocket said its meal kit delivery company HelloFresh, which has been considering an initial public offering, saw net revenue rise 49 percent to 435 million euros in the first half, while its EBITDA loss rose slightly to 47 million euros.
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Reporting by Emma Thomasson and Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Ludwig Burger and Susan Fenton
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Naspers buys half of Rocket’s stake in Delivery Hero

By: Allianz Group
&nbsp;
S.A Fast Facts
South Africa’s net financial assets per capita was R111.640 in 2016.
The country’s financial assets grew by 4.7% while global financial assets climbed above 7%.
South Africa’s debt ratio fell below 45%.
&nbsp;
The eighth <a href="https://www.allianz.com/en/economic_research/">Allianz Global Wealth Report 2017</a> has ranked South Africa 36th wealthiest out of 50 countries. The country maintains its ranking from the previous year. The report, which was released today, September 27, 2017, puts the assets and liabilities of households in more than 50 countries under the microscope, including South Africa.

This performance is due to the market’s financial asset growth that remained lackluster for a second year in a row at 4.7%. Although it was slightly higher than the year before, it was well below the inflation rate of 6.6%. Globally, 2016 was a politically unstable and very turbulent year, but private wealth shrugged it off: after a weaker 2015 (+4.7%), financial assets grew again by 7.1% to a new record high of almost EUR 170 trillion.
At R111.640, South Africa’s net financial assets per capita, is higher than other BRICS countries except for China. However, South Africa’s net financial assets of households grew by only 5.3% – one of the slowest rates among the BRICS countries, which is also below the average of advanced markets.
The growth of liabilities slowed down to 3.2% as South African households continued to show some debt discipline. This has resulted in the debt ratio falling below 45% for the first time in ten years. Even though the country’s households have trimmed their debt ratio by 10% over the last decade, its overall level remains elevated, and higher than the emerging market average of around 35%.
The country’s relatively high average wealth has to be taken with a pinch of salt, as it is one of the countries where wealth is unevenly distributed. More than 70% of all net financial assets are owned by 10% of the population at the top of the wealth distribution. Whilst, globally, only the US displays a higher share of wealth, the global average is about 53%. At the top of the list, a change of the guard occurred in 2016, with the USA capturing the top spot from Switzerland (by a razor-thin margin). Otherwise, the list gives the usual picture, with Scandinavian and Asian countries dominating.
Top 20 in 2016 by…
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-285177 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Allianz_Graph_01.png" alt="" width="223" height="429" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-285178 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Allianz_Graph_02.png" alt="" width="228" height="427" />
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Allianz study ranks South Africa 36th wealthiest out of 50 countries

South Africa’s parliament said on Wednesday it has terminated its contract with KPMG, citing reputational risks after the global auditor was caught up in a scandal involving business friends of President Jacob Zuma.
Parliament said this termination includes a contract KPMG has with a medical aid scheme for Members of Parliament.
KPMG cleared out its South African leadership en masse this month after damning findings from an internal investigation into the Guptas, accused by a public watchdog of improperly influencing government contracts.
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Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Joe Brock
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South Africa’s parliament cuts ties with auditor KPMG

Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 9.0 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 6.6 percent in the previous three months, the statistics office said on Wednesday.
For years, Ghana’s economy grew at around 8 percent per year, but it slowed sharply in 2014 due to lower prices for its commodity exports and a fiscal crisis that forced the government to sign a $918 million credit programme with the International Monetary Fund.
The growth figure is subject to revision, the statistics office said.
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Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Nellie Peyton
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Ghana GDP growth rises to 9.0% in Q2 2017

South Africa’s credit rating is well placed at the lowest investment grade, but rising foreign ownership of the government’s local-currency bonds is a risk, a senior analyst at Moody’s ratings agency said.
Two of the three large international ratings agencies &#8211; S&amp;P Global and Fitch &#8211; downgraded South Africa’s foreign-currency rating to speculative grade, or “junk” status, this year after the economy slowed and an abrupt Cabinet reshuffle in March.
Moody’s downgraded South Africa to “Baa3”, one notch above junk, in June and has the continent’s most industrialised economy on a negative outlook.
The ratings downgrades have put pressure on South African asset prices and could increase its borrowing costs.
“We think currently South Africa is well placed at Baa3 with a negative outlook. We had a rating action fairly recently in June,” Zuzana Brixiova, a Moody’s vice president, told Reuters at an investor conference in London.
However, she said that since the June downgrade she had observed a larger-than-expected shortfall in South African government revenues and an increase in foreign financing of government borrowing in rand to around 40 percent.
“To some extent the risk of a ‘sudden stop’ has increased,” she said, referring to the risk that an abrupt change in investor sentiment could result in a sharp reduction in capital flows into South Africa.
Among other concerns, Brixiova cited weak economic growth in South Africa and pressure on institutions, which she said “were being constantly tested”.
She said that whoever the ruling ANC party chooses as its next leader at a major conference in December, Moody’s “would wait and follow what this really means for the policy direction”.
South Africa was earlier dropped from one of the widely used global bond indices, and it risks being excluded from a larger index run by U.S. bank Citi if both Moody’s and S&amp;P cut the country’s local-currency rating to junk.
Both agencies have South African local debt at the lowest investment grade, and Brixiova said Moody’s was likely to keep one unified rating for South African foreign and local debt.
Looking at sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, Brixiova said it was important for countries to “rebuild their fiscal space” in the wake of the slump in commodity prices in recent years.
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Reporting by Alexander Winning and Karin Strohecker; Editing by Toby Chopra
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Moody’s says South Africa credit rating well placed

South Africa’s political parties should be required to disclose the source of their funding, a court ruled on Wednesday, potentially exposing the patronage networks that have influenced power in the two decades since apartheid.
The ruling by the Western Cape High Court, which orders parliament to amend access-to-information laws, comes against opposition from some parties who fear disclosure could jeopardize funding.
Judge Yasmin Meer said in court papers that disclosure of the private funding of political parties and independent candidates was required for the effective exercise of the right to vote in elections and to make political choices.
She instructed parliament to amend the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) accordingly.
The application challenging the constitutionality of PAIA, which exempted party funding, was brought by non-profit organization My Vote Counts (MVC), which welcomed the judgment.
“This means that there must be a legislative mechanism that allows access to this information,” MVC said in a statement.
However there are concerns this could impact on funding and potentially expose parties to embarrassment, an analyst said.
“There’s a potential of significant embarrassment. I think you going to find some people who appear to be strongly aligned to one party are actually giving money to another,” said political analyst at NKC Research Gary van Staden.
Main opposition party the Democratic Alliance, which was among the responding political parties, said some of its donors would not like to be made public for fear of discrimination.
The ruling African National Congress party, which was also among the respondents, was not immediately available for comment.
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Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg Editing by Jeremy Gaunt
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Court orders South African political parties to disclose private funding

By: James Noble | Absa Business Banking
&nbsp;
The South African fuel retail industry has grown considerably in recent years. In fact, it is one of the few sectors to weather the downgrading, rand volatility and negative growth rates recently experienced.
Fuel retail specifically is a highly specialised sector, with operating margins that are affected by a multitude of factors such as oil prices, labour costs, exchange rates and regulations, to mention a few.
In the current economy, only a small number of industries can claim to be recession proof. The fuel retail sector has proven to be just that; showing healthy profits in times of slow growth cycles.
Growth Indicators
Service stations in South Africa have a combined annual turnover in excess of R200 billion. The country remains the biggest consumer of fuel on the continent, claiming more than 20% of the market share. Satellite sectors create multi-channels of employment that generate economic opportunities for approximately 90 000 people locally.
There are roughly 4 600 service stations in the country, averaging 300 000 litres on a monthly basis, <a href="https://blog.absa.co.za/tag/fuel-retail-sector/">with the outlook for the South African fuel industry looking strong</a>. The ratio of convenience store turnover to fuel volumes pumped is about R1.20 to R1.50 depending on the brand and location. Absa is the financial services partner to more than 30% of these service stations and can safely say it has a thorough understanding of the industry’s intricacies and challenges.
Although fuel gross profit margins are lower, fuel sales remain the primary income of a business, accounting for approximately 80% to 90% of an operation’s turnover and usually delivering greater profit than alternative profit opportunities, for instance, a convenience store, carwash, bakery and quick service restaurant.
Viability 
As the fuel price increases or decreases and retailers work on fixed margins, it’s important for the service station owner to grow volumes. If turnover increases, expenses will also increase due to merchant service, cash handling and other turnover related costs. This will in turn impact profitability.
There are three ways to open a service station in the country:
<ul>
<li>Investing in the physical building, land and associated assets (property company)</li>
<li>Purchase of the business operation only (operating company)</li>
<li>Purchase of both (property and operating company).</li>
</ul>
Setup costs for a service station property can range from between R10 million for an average site to R100 million for a doubled-sided highway site. The funds for a new service station operation payable to the oil company can range from R2,5 to R15 million depending on the projected volumes. The purchase price of an existing service station is based on profitability and normally ranges from R2,5 to R35 million. The average working capital required for stock and operational expenses can vary between R1,2 to R1,5 million.
Given a growing middle-class population that owns more vehicles, we see fuel retail remaining healthy and profitable in the foreseeable future. However,  fuel retailers will still have to closely manage their budgets.
Convenience Shopping
Alternative Profit Opportunities or APO’s is another revenue stream that is key to growing the fuel retail sector.
Convenience stores have become increasingly popular as South Africans find themselves working longer hours with less time to prepare meals. Being able to buy bread and milk, or stopping for a quick meal while filling up with fuel allows service stations to play on convenience more than conventional retailers. This gives fuel retailers a competitive edge &#8211; and an additional opportunity to penetrate a developing market. Well known retailers like Woolworths, Pick and Pay, SPAR and OK are partnering with oil companies and non-refinery brands to increase market share. Other APO’s include carwash services, restaurants, quick service restaurants and even ice-cream shops.
As oil prices hover around $50 per barrel, fuel demand in South Africa will remain stable. With the industry contributing more than 6% to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), selling approximately 27 billion litres of petroleum products through retail and commercial activities and spending more than R70 million on corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives annually, one can see the significant role petroleum still plays in South Africa’s emerging economy.

Fuel franchising continues to be resilient as economic indicators remain subdued

A Zimbabwean court on Tuesday freed activist pastor Evan Mawarire, a critic of President Robert Mugabe, following his weekend arrest on new charges of attempting to subvert the government.
It was the second time he has been detained for a similar offence.
Mawarire went on trial on Monday on separate subversion charges stemming from protests last year against Mugabe’s handling of the economy.
The magistrates court said the rights of Mawarire, who appeared in khaki prison uniform, had been violated after police failed to bring him to court within 48 hours following his arrest on Sunday morning, as stipulated by the law.
Mawarire had earlier attended trial at the High Court but the judge postponed the case to Thursday.
The 40-year-old pastor faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted, and even if acquitted could soon be on trial again.
He is due to face yet another trial at a later date on charges of promoting violence after he addressed protesting university students in June.
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Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe Editing by Jeremy Gaunt
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Zimbabwe court frees activist pastor arrested for subversion

Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni | University of South Africa
&nbsp;
Maori anthropologist Linda Tuhiwai Smith, in her seminal work Decolonising Methodologies, argues that
<blockquote>Re-search is a dirty word.</blockquote>
Hyphenating “research” into “re-search” is very useful because it reveals what is involved, what it really means, and goes beyond the naive view of “research” as an innocent pursuit of knowledge.
It underscores the fact that “re-searching” involves the activity of undressing other people so as to see them naked. It is also a process of reducing some people to the level of micro-organism: putting them under a magnifying glass to peep into their private lives, secrets, taboos, thinking, and their sacred worlds.
Building on Smith’s work, my concern here is the context in which re-search methodology is designed and deployed. In particular, it concerns the relationship between methodology with power, the imperial/colonial project as well as the implications for those who happened to be the re-searched.
Broadly speaking, what is at issue is re-search as a terrain of pitting the interests of the “re-searcher” against those of the “re-searched.” The core concern is about how re-search is still steeped in the Euro-North America-centric worldview. Re-searching continues to give the “re-searcher” the power to define. The “re-searched” appear as “specimens” rather than people.
I define re-search methodology as a process of seeking to know the “Other” who becomes the object, rather than subject of re-search and what is means to be known by others.
That is why methodology needs to be decolonised. The process of its decolonisation is an ethical, ontological and political exercise rather than simply one of approach and ways of producing knowledge.
<h2>Whose methodology is it anyway?</h2>
When Europeans shifted from a God-centred society to secular thinking during the Enlightenment period, they inaugurated the science of “knowability”. God was no longer the only one who could understand the world. The rational human could too.
This idea is best captured in Rene Descartes’ famous dictum
<blockquote>Cogito Ergo Sum (I Think, Therefore, I am).</blockquote>
This marks the emergence of the Cartesian philosophy of being and the Cartesian knowing subject: a human defined by her rationality.
Since then, the decolonial theorists have unmasked the person behind the “I” as not just any human being, but the European “Man”. Here was born the idea that “Man” stands for “Human” as well – the beginning of the shift towards the world being seen through a patriarchal lens.
It was during the “Voyages of discovery” that gave rise to colonialism, that European men began to encounter the “Other” and then assume the position of a “knower” and a “re-searcher” who was thirsty to know the “Other”, who emerged as the native Indian, as Shakespeare’s Caliban, as the African, the Aborigines and the other natives.
The Other had to be re-searched to establish whether they were actually human or not. Here was born the methodology as a handmaiden of colonialism and imperialism.
<h2>From ‘ethnographic’ to ‘biometric’ state</h2>
In his book Define and Rule, Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani argued that every colonial conqueror was preoccupied with the “native question”. This was about how a minority of white colonial conquerors were to rule over a majority of conquered black people.
To resolve the “native question” the conquered black “native” had to be known in minute detail by the white coloniser. Thus re-search became a critical part of the imperial-colonial project. The European anthropologist became an important re-searcher, producing ethnographic data and knowledge that was desperately needed by colonialism to deal with the nagging “native question”.
As a result of this desire to know the “native” for colonial administrative purposes the colonial state emerged as an “ethnographic state”, interested and involved in ‘re-searching’ the native so as to “define” and “rule” over the “native”.
It was under the “ethnographic state” that colonial ideologues such as Thomas Babington Macaulay in India, Lord Frederick Lugard in West and East Africa, Cecil John Rhodes in Southern Africa used this data to malevolent ends, both to invent the idea of the native and to control her. They assumed the status of experts on the colonised natives and produced treatise such as The Dual Mandate in Africa which assumed the status of modules on how to rule over “natives”.
Today, with the rise of “global terrorism,” drug-trafficking and the problem of migration, new forms of surveillance, and state control have emerged. Keith Breckenridge in his award winning book  reflected on concepts of “biometric state” and “documentary state”. These use machines to extract, capture, and store information about all people, but particularly “Muslims” and “blacks”, whose ways of worship, living and actions do not fit into the European template.
What is the role of re-search in this and what methodologies are used in trying to know the “Other”, that is, the unwanted migrant and the feared Muslim.
<h2>Unmasking, rebelling, re-positioning and recasting</h2>
Decolonising methodology must begin with unmasking the modern world system and the global order as the broader context from which re-search and methodology are cascading and are influenced. It also means acknowledging and recognising its dirtiness.
Our present crisis is that we continued to use re-search methods that are not fundamentally different from before. The critique of methodology is interpreted as being anti-re-search itself. Fearing this label, we (modern scholars and intellectuals) have been responsible for forcing students to adhere religiously to existing ways of knowing and understanding the world.
No research proposal can pass without agreement on methodology. No thesis can pass without recognisable methodology. There is a mandatory demand: how did you go about getting to know what you have put together as your thesis?
Consequently, methodology has become the straitjacket that every new researcher has to wear if they are to discover knowledge. This blocks all attempts to know differently. It has become a disciplinary tool that makes it difficult for new knowledge to be discovered and generated.
In the knowledge domain those who try to exercise what the leading Argentinian semiotician and decolonial theorist Whater D. Mignolo termed “epistemic disobedience” are disciplined into an existing methodology, in the process draining it of its profundity.
Decolonising methodology, therefore, entails unmasking its role and purpose in re-search. It also about rebelling against it; shifting the identity of its object so as to re-position those who have been objects of research into questioners, critics, theorists, knowers, and communicators. And, finally, it means recasting research into what Europe has done to humanity and nature rather than following Europe as a teacher to the rest of the world.

Op-Ed: Decolonising research methodology must include undoing its dirty history

Nigeria’s government has asked parliament to amend its spending law to enable a debt program to settle 2.7 trillion naira ($8.6 bln) worth of obligations including pensions and salary arrears, according to a letter from Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The letter, read out in the Senate on Tuesday, requested amendments to the law, which stipulates allocation of government spending, to allow Nigeria to fund recurrent expenditure from proceeds of the debt rather than just capital projects.
Nigeria’s Fiscal Responsbility Act states that proceeds of government borrowings can only be applied towards capital expenditure. Osinbajo said the amendment was to provide the legal backing for the use of the debt to meet the obligations.
The vice president sent the letter to the Senate last month while President Muhammadu Buhari was on medical leave in Britain. The letter was read out after the Senate reconvened following a seven-week recess.
Africa’s biggest economy grew out of recession in the second quarter as oil revenues rose, but the pace of growth was slow, suggesting the recovery is fragile.
Osinbajo’s letter said the obligations had become inimical to government plans to revive the economy through the provision of modern infrastructure and settle pension and salary arrears dating back five years.
Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun has said the government plans to refinance $3 billion worth of treasury bills denominated in naira with dollar borrowing to lower costs and improve its debt position.
($1 = 314.50 naira)
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Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Alexis Akwagyiram/Mark Heinrich
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Nigeria asks Senate to amend law for govt to settle 2.7 TRN naira debt

Angola’s first new president in almost four decades vowed to rebuild an economy devastated by falling oil prices and fight corruption at his inauguration on Tuesday.
João Lourenço told thousands of supporters in Luanda he would also tackle gaping inequality in Africa’s second largest oil producer &#8211; though analysts have already raised doubts about his ability to make far-reaching change.
“No one is so rich and powerful that they cannot be punished and no one is so poor that they cannot be protected,” he said to loud applause.
In a 45-minute speech, Lourenço said he would strive to bring in reforms covering gender equality, the freedom of the press, private enterprise and public health.
Former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos remains head of the ruling MPLA party, giving the veteran leader influence over key policy decisions.
Any serious attempt to transform the country could put Lourenço on a collision course with senior party figures and powerful interest groups.
Angola’s economy fell into recession last year, while unemployment is officially over 20 percent and a shortage of foreign currency has forced firms to pull back operations.
Lourenço said he would work to reduce state intervention in the economy and give free enterprise the space and support to thrive.
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He has previously said he does not rule out negotiating a deal with the International Monetary Fund or World Bank to help rebuild an economy heavily reliant on oil.
“There are enormous challenges before us &#8230; We call on the help of everyone on this difficult journey,” he said.
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Editing by Andrew Heavens
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Angola’s first new president in 38 years vows to fight graft

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 South Africa is not planning to raid the government pension fund to bail out struggling state firms, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.
Gigaba also denied reports that he told a COSATU union meeting that indebted state-owned entities needed 100 billion rand ($7.50 billion) to survive.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported on Friday that the Treasury needed at least 100 billion rand to rescue power utility Eskom Holdings, oil company PetroSA and aerospace company Denel.
($1 = 13.3375 rand)
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Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Joe Brock
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South African pension fund won’t be used to bailout state firms: Finmin

Nigeria’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate at 14 percent on Tuesday, its governor said following a Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
Fourteen of 15 economists polled by Reuters last week predicted rates would stay on hold while one forecast a 200 basis point cut.
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Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Chijioke Ohuocha; editing by John Stonestreet
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Kenya’s ruling party moves to amend election law ahead of vote re-run

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Op-Ed: Decolonising research methodology must include undoing its dirty history

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