By: Mastercard
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Inaugural report shows July retail sales nominal growth was 7.2% while inflation adjusted retail sales volume grew 2.3% versus July 2016.
Despite challenging economic conditions, retail sales growth for July 2017 was the highest recorded for that month since 2015. This is according to the Mastercard SpendingPulse™ report, a macroeconomic report tracking retail sales launched today in South Africa.
Nominal (not adjusting for price changes/inflation) July retail sales grew 7.2 percent versus the same month last year, marking the 55th consecutive month of positive growth. Volume retail sales &#8211; which removes the effects of inflation &#8211; for July also saw a positive increase of 2.3 percent year-over-year, indicating that consumer spending remains resilient, despite higher consumer prices.
“The continued growth in retail sales in July is encouraging, and points to a slight improvement in the consumer economy as the country emerges from a technical recession,” says Sarah Quinlan, Senior Vice President and Group Head of Market Insights for Mastercard. “South Africa’s consumer has shown resilience in the face of weak wage growth and high unemployment, reported at 27.7 percent in the second quarter.”
The average growth rate of the past three months was up 2.3 percent year-over-year, slightly above the 2.1 percent growth rate in the second quarter of this year. For the past 12 months, volume retail sales are less favourable, growing by only 0.2 percent. This is slightly underperforming GDP, which rose 0.3 percent in 2016 and is forecast to increase to 0.7 percent in 2017.
“While consumer spending is showing signs of recovery, South Africans still face a challenging macro-economic environment. The economic health of the consumer warrants close monitoring as the economy looks to regain its footing,” says Quinlan.
Mastercard SpendingPulse South Africa reports on national retail sales and uses aggregated and anonymous Mastercard transaction data, coupled with survey-based estimates for other payment forms including cash and cheque, to offer insight into consumer spending trends and the South African economy. Available to subscribers on a monthly basis, the report also includes an overall retail sales and price index to illustrate whether spending growth is being driven by increased shopping or by inflation or increased promotions.
“Providing both timely and insightful data on retail spending trends, Mastercard’s new monthly macro-economic report will offer an early overview of market indices to help retailers, investors, card issuers, banks and government agencies in their decision-making processes,” says Mark Elliott, Division President for Mastercard, Southern Africa.
In addition to reporting trends for the retail sector as a whole, the inaugural SpendingPulse South Africa breaks out sales growth trends for General Dealers, and Pharmaceutical, Medical Goods, Cosmetics and Toiletries. These sectors together account for over half of South Africa’s retail sales volume.
Pharmaceutical, Medical Goods, Cosmetic and Toiletry sales have outperformed other retail segments over the past 12 months, with sales volumes rising 3.4 percent.  However, momentum has weakened since the start of the year, with sales volume in July rising two percent year-on-year, slightly slower than retail as a whole. Price inflation for products and services in the health sector accelerated from 5.3 percent year-on-year for July 2016 to seven percent for July 2017.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, General Dealer sales have underperformed, with sales volumes falling 0.3 percent year-on-year in July, and the value of retail sales down 1.1 percent over the past 12 months.
“Consumers spent less and consumed less, partly because inflation has eroded their spending power. South Africa’s CPI increased 4.6 percent, driven largely by a 6.8 percent rise in food prices,” says Quinlan.

S.A Consumer spending turns upward in face of tight economic conditions

Danny Bradlow | University of Pretoria
The formation of the BRICS – the bloc made of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – was supposed to be the harbinger for a new approach to global economic governance. The leading emerging markets and developing countries were becoming major players in the global economy. And they expected to play a commensurate governance role.
BRICS leaders have now been meeting annually for nine years. They recently met for the ninth BRICS Summit in Xiamen, China. They have positioned themselves as a force for transforming global economic governance so that it’s more responsive to the concerns of developing economies. They are seeking a more just and equitable global economy.
The question is: how effective have they been in reforming global economic governance and the fairness of the global economy?
The honest answer is that as a group, BRICS hasn’t been an effective force at all. This is for a number of reasons.
<h2>What’s not happened</h2>
The following examples illustrate the point.
At least formally the G20, which consists of 20 major economies including the five in BRICs, has supplanted the G7, made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, as the premier forum for global economic governance. But the agenda in these meetings is still largely set by the most powerful countries which now include China but not the other BRICS.
The IMF and World Bank have both changed their voting arrangements to give a louder voice to developing economies and emerging economies. This has particularly benefited China, India and Brazil. But BRICS hasn’t supported South Africa’s call for a third African seat on the board of the IMF. This has left Africa as the most underrepresented region on the board.
BRICS countries, together with other G20 developing countries, have become more active participants in organisations responsible for developing international financial regulatory standards. This means that they now can participate in the writing of standards that guide the international financial system. But the system continues to be more responsive to the interests of the rich and powerful than those of the developing world.
New international financial institutions have been created, including the BRICS’ New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, which provides financial support for BRICS countries experiencing balance of payments problems. Unfortunately, the New Development Bank operates in a less transparent and less accountable way than other multilateral development banks. For example, it’s harder for outsiders to access information on the operational policies and practices of the bank than those of the World Bank or the African Development Bank. Unlike those other banks, there isn’t yet a mechanism to hold the New Development Bank accountable if it causes harm.
The New Development Bank also risks repeating the tragic mistakes of these other institutions, which for many years concentrated only on economic issues in their operational decision making. Following a number of scandals they began to pay more attention to the social, human rights and environmental impact of their operations.
Members of the New Development Bank seem to share this concern. The BRICS leaders have reiterated their commitment to achieving
<blockquote>sustainable development in its three dimensions &#8211; economic, social and environmental- in a balanced and integrated manner.</blockquote>
But it’s hard to see how they expect the bank to meet this commitment if it continues to place more emphasis on speed in project implementation than on identifying and managing the adverse environmental, human rights and social effects of its projects. To fulfil their commitment to promote a more just and equitable global economy the BRICS will need to up their game.
<h2>How to fix the problem</h2>
Achieving a just and equitable international economic order requires governments to take seriously their commitment to protect and promote human rights as set out in the UN Charter and other human rights treaties.
The starting point is a commitment to respect and promote the rights of each individual affected by each project, programme or policy that governments undertake or support. This requires developing a good system to forecast the impact of a project on the environment, society as well as human rights. And to have a plan to manage them.
Another element is accountability. Any person adversely affected by a project should have access to a mechanism that can provide them with an effective remedy.
Finally, the relevant decision makers must be able to show how their proposed activity is using the maximum available human and financial resources to fulfil the human rights of all the people affected by their decisions. This suggests that the relevant decision makers bear the burden of explaining why the proposed allocations are the most feasible. This includes governments, international organisations as well as private parties.
There are reasons to think the BRICS leaders could be persuaded to adopt a human rights based approach to making global economic governance more democratic and responsive to the needs of developing countries and for a more just, equitable and sustainable global economy. They, and their colleagues in other developing countries, are governing societies with continuing, and some cases worsening poverty, inequality, unemployment and environmental degradation levels. And they don’t seem to have an effective strategy for meeting this challenge.
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This article was first published in The Conversation.

BRICS needs a new approach if it’s going to foster a more equitable global order

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Tanzania’s government has closed a critical newspaper for the second time in three months, banning the weekly MwanaHalisi for two years after accusing it of inciting violence.
Another newspaper &#8212; Mawio &#8212; was banned in June over articles it published linking two former presidents to alleged improprieties in mining deals signed in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The moves appear to cement President John Magufuli’s pledge in January that the days of newspapers his government viewed as unethical “were numbered” &#8212; a statement that triggered concerns about censorship.
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“The government has suspended publication and circulation of the weekly MwanaHalisi newspaper for 24 months &#8230; due to repeated unethical reporting, publishing fabricated and inciting articles and endangering national security,” the state-run Tanzania Information Services said in a statement.
The body said MwanaHalisi published a series of inciteful articles about Magafuli and that its editors had refused to apologize for their reporting.
Magufuli, nicknamed “the bulldozer”, has won some praise from Western donors for an anti-corruption drive and cutting wasteful public spending.
But opponents accuse him of increasingly undermining democracy by curbing dissent and stifling free speech.
Tanzania has one of the most highly diverse media industries in Africa, with over 450 registered newspapers and journals, as well as 180 radio and television stations.
In November, Magufuli signed into law a bill that journalists said was aimed at muzzling freedom of the press.
The Media Services Act of 2016 gives officials powers to shut down media organizations that violate their licenses and requires newspapers to apply for an annual license.
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Editing by Aaron Maasho Editing by Jeremy Gaunt
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Tanzania shuts down another ‘days numbered’ newspaper

KPMG South Africa wants an independent investigation into the firm’s conduct to reassure employees and clients after a scandal involving its handling of audits for businessman friends of President Jacob Zuma, its new chief executive said on Wednesday.
“This would be an additional assurance lens, so the public can see,” Nhlamulo Dlomu, who took over as chief executive of the auditor’s South African operations on Friday, told Talk Radio 702.
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Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Ed Cropley
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KPMG South Africa CEO wants independent probe into firm

Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister on Wednesday said the southern African nation would not be able pay $1.8 billion in arrears to the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) until economic fundamentals improve.
Patrick Chinamasa said in a radio interview that a payment plan agreed with foreign lenders in 2015 in Lima, Peru, could only proceed once Zimbabwe has reduced its fiscal deficit from around 10 percent of gross domestic product, cut its wage bill from 92 percent of the budget and increased its import cover.
Chinamasa said the government had negotiated a cheaper loan to pay the $1.8 billion but had decided against paying after realising that the country could still remain in a debt cycle if it did not address its economic problems.
He did not give the source of the new loan but said Zimbabwe was paying 15 percent a year on its World Bank loan. Zimbabwe’s total foreign debt is more than $7 billion.
“When we think that the economic fundamentals of our economy are right, we then are in a position to repay the World Bank and the AfDB,” Chinamasa told talk-show radio CapitalkFm.
“We need to put ourselves in a position that is sustainable in terms of honouring our obligations. So, to that extent the ball is in our court.”
In April, Chinamasa said Zimbabwe had met all conditions to pay the World Bank and AfDB after clearing its outstanding dues to the International Monetary Fund last October.
Zimbabwe, which ditched its hyperinflation-wrecked currency for the U.S dollar in 2009, has since last year grappled with acute shortages of dollars.
Chinamasa blamed the shortages on “market indiscipline” and “lack of confidence by major economic players” in the economy.
He said to try manage scarce foreign exchange all export earnings from diamonds, gold, tobacco, platinum and ferrochrome would be managed by the central bank.
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Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, editing by Larry King
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Zimbabwe to pay $1.8BN  in foreign arrears only when economy is stronger: finance minister

Tanzania’s president on Friday ordered the military to build walls around its tanzanite mines and directed the central bank to buy the precious stone to boost reserves &#8211; the latest twist in a spat with mining firms over alleged tax evasion.
“All tanzanite gemstones will be controlled and will pass through one gate and he (Magufuli) ordered the (central) Bank of Tanzania to take part in the tanzanite buying trade,” a statement from the presidency said.
President John Magufuli’s government accuses mining firms of cheating Tanzania out of its fair share of mineral wealth through tax dodging and smuggling, allegations they hotly deny.
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A parliamentary inquiry team said on Sept. 7 that it had uncovered massive smuggling of the blue-violet tanzanite gemstone, found only in the East African nation.
Magufuli ordered the military to build walls with security cameras and checkpoints around all tanzanite mining concessions in northern Tanzania “to control illegal mining and trading activities,” the presidency statement said.
“Even if someone swallows some tanzanite gemstones, they will be detected at the proposed checkpoint,” Magufuli said.
“Tanzania gets just 5 percent of revenues from the global tanzanite trade &#8211; all the rest of this precious gemstone benefits other people abroad. This is unacceptable.”
Tanzania overhauled the legal, regulatory and fiscal framework governing the mining sector with three new laws in July, sending stock in foreign-owned mining companies plunging.
The new laws established a National Gold and Gemstone Reserve under the control of the central bank.
On Sept. 7, the government confiscated a consignment of diamonds from a mine majority-owned by Petra Diamonds after accusing the London-listed firm of under-declaring the value of the stones by around half. Petra denies the charge.
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reporting by Fumbuka Ng&#8217;wanakilala; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Mark Heinrich
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Tanzania president military to build walls around its tanzanite mines

A Rwandan opposition official and eight others were charged on Wednesday with forming an armed group and seeking to overthrow the government &#8211; indictments that could see them jailed for life.
Boniface Twagirimana, the vice president of the FDU Inkingi movement, denied the charges in the Kigali court. The party’s leader, Victoire Ingabire, is already in jail, convicted of conspiring to form an armed group and other charges in 2013.
The prosecutor said the defendants had joined ‘P5’, describing it as an umbrella group of five organisations, including FDU Inkingi, operating outside the country
The central African nation has been widely praised for the speed of its economic growth, and for its overall recovery from the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people in 1994.
But rights groups have accused it of fueling conflict and backing armed groups in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
President Paul Kagame has also faced mounting criticism for what activists say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media, and suppression of political opposition &#8211; accusations he dismisses.
Only one defendant pleaded guilty to a charge &#8211; Papias Ndayishimiye, who said he had planned to join the group to “offer some help”. He joined the others in denying plotting against the government.
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They could be jailed for 10-15 years if convicted of forming an armed group, and for life if found guilty of planning to overthrow the government.
Early this month, police arrested Diane Shima Rwigara, a leading critic of Kagame, and charged her with forgery and tax evasion.
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Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Andrew Heavens
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Opposition official, others charged with plotting against Rwandan government

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For all its economic troubles, South Africa has managed to keep inflation within its central bank’s target band.
The latest numbers on Wednesday confirmed this. As the following graphic shows, inflation has been within the South African Reserve Bank’s 3 to 6 percent band for most of the past five years and is again.
After rising above target last year and the early part of 2017, it has now been within target for five consecutive months. That allowed the bank to cut in July and is expected to lead to a repeat performance at least this Thursday.
The latest Reuters poll suggests the SARB will cut its benchmark repo interest rate by another 25 basis points, taking it to 6.50 percent.
The rest of the economy, in the meantime, could probably do with a monetary boost. As this graphic shows, GDP and unemployment have been heading in opposite &#8212; and adverse &#8212; directions.

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Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Hugh Lawson
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Why South Africa can cut rates this week

Seth Trudeau and Keno Omu | African Leadership University
Across Africa, students arrive on campuses full of hope that a university degree will improve their lives. The reality is far less certain.
In 2014, a British Council study estimated Nigeria’s graduate unemployment at 23.1%. In Kenya, it takes an average of five years for a graduate to find a job. Yet business leaders frequently say there are jobs – just a lack of skilled talent to do them. How can this be?
There are two commonly cited explanations. The first is that financial, human capital and infrastructure constraints have a negative impact on the range and quality of skills students graduate with. The second is the disconnect between what universities teach and the skills needed in the market.
However, another more fundamental explanation has to do with howstudents are educated, irrespective of what they study or the resource constraints they face. How students learn matters to employers because it shapes how they think and what they do at work.
A growing number of employers are no longer looking for graduates with the most impressive degree certificates. In fact, trailblazers like Ernst &amp; Young have removed degree classifications from their entry requirements because they do not believe that academic success is always a sign of professional success.
<h2>A new kind of graduate</h2>
Employers are now looking for graduates who can think for themselves, integrate into fast-paced work environments, learn new ways of working and develop creative solutions to real problems. These abilities depend more on how they were taught than what they learned.
We are at a unique moment in the history of education. Information was once scarce but is now everywhere. In the last 15 years, we have also made a giant leap forward in our understanding of how the brain works and how people learn. These developments have radically altered the way we think about higher education.
In the traditional university model, “learning” meant access to information and knowledge, education resources and teaching expertise. Today, technology has made it easier for anyone to get information, knowledge and learning resources.
The advantage retained by the traditional university is in producing and organising knowledge. But academic researchers form a very small percentage of the knowledge workers needed in the information age.
<h2>Time to revisit old models</h2>
Universities need to rethink their approach to learning if they are to produce people with the critical thinking, leadership, collaboration and problem solving skills needed for modern life.
Learning in many African universities still happens in large lecture halls and rewards the ability to remember and repeat information. Researchers such as Nobel Prize winning physicist Carl Wieman have shown that this is one of the least effective  ways of learning.
Effective learning takes three things. First, students must be able to reflect on what they are learning. Reflection helps students assess what they know and what they don’t. It also helps them to integrate new ideas and concepts into their body of knowledge. When students reflect, they strengthen the neural pathways in their brain, and build new pathways that link information that was previously not associated. These links enable critical thinking.
Second, true learning happens when students stop being passive recipients of information and become active experimenters. When students take an active part, they take responsibility for the results and ensure that learning is relevant to them. They develop habits that help them learn later in life, such as self-regulation, motivation and curiosity.
Third, learning happens when students apply new concepts or skills. This is the most natural test for a student’s comprehension of what they are studying. Doing something, receiving feedback about it, refining the approach and then doing it again also builds neural pathways for retrieval and association.
Universities are the planning stage for a society’s aspirations. African universities must begin to produce employable leaders who will meet the challenges that are hindering the continent’s progress. To produce graduates with the appropriate skills and ways of thinking, they will have to change the way they see, design and assess learning.

Op-Ed: Are graduates prepared for the job market? Rethinking Africa’s university model

Kenyan police tear-gassed opposition supporters demonstrating near the Supreme Court on Wednesday as judges began to deliver a detailed ruling that criticised the election board for its performance in last month’s annulled presidential election.
Voters are anxious to find out whether the vote was voided on procedural grounds or whether there was evidence of systematic rigging. The court has already said in a brief Sept. 1 ruling that some tallying sheets were not signed or officially stamped.
Election board officials had said incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta won by 1.5 million votes but that was rejected by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the 2017 election, as well as the previous two votes, were stolen from him.
The court ordered a fresh vote to be held within 60 days. Kenya has the region’s biggest economy and is a diplomatic and security hub for East Africa.
In the introduction to the detailed ruling on Wednesday, Judge Philomena Mwilu criticised the election board for refusing to comply with court orders to open its computer servers, saying it meant that opposition claims of hacking or manipulation could be true.
“Noncompliance or failure by the board to do as ordered must be held against it,” said Judge Philomena Mwilu.
Mwilu also said it appeared the board did not have all the necessary tally forms when they announced official results.
“The (board) cannot therefore be said to have verified the results,” she noted.
She also said the board should have made alternative arrangements to transmit scanned tally sheets quickly when it was clear that around a quarter of polling stations did not have access to internet via mobile phone.
Many of those polling stations were a short drive from areas with good network coverage, she said.
“It is an inexcusable contravention &#8230; of the election act,” that the forms were not quickly available, she said, noting officials said thousands of forms from polling stations were still unavailable four days after the official results were announced.
On Tuesday evening, Deputy President William Ruto tweeted: “So has CJ taken sides? Listening to the tone, language &amp; drift of (Chief Justice David) Maraga’s lecture the only phrase missing is NASA HAO! TIBIN! &amp; TIALALA!” &#8212; phrases that are a rallying call for the opposition coalition.
Earlier, the chief justice told a press conference that judges were getting death threats and the police were not offering adequate protection, an allegation that the chief of police denied.
Also on Tuesday, police also used tear gas to disperse supporters of the ruling party protesting outside the Supreme Court. In a couple of towns, ruling party supporters used stones to block main roads.
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Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo and Katharine Houreld; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg
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Kenya Supreme Court criticises election board in verdict on polls

Jannie Rossouw | University of the Witwatersrand
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As far as corporate accountability goes, the recent announcement that the CEO and seven senior executives at auditing and consultancy firm KMPG in South Africa have resigned is a welcome development.
By resigning, the KPMG executives reinforced the principle of executive responsibility. This is a matter not taken seriously in South African culture, particularly when it comes to the public sector. The usual pattern when misdemeanours are uncovered is for government ministers and other senior executives to blame their staff – or someone else – when things go wrong.
At this level the action of the KPMG executives is to be respected. The hope must be that this behaviour becomes an example for others.
KPMG executives have set a new South African benchmark: executives assuming responsibility for wrongdoing in their organisations. South Africans should thank the firm for setting a new standard with this decisive action. Its executives have taken oversight responsibility for the action of others.
The role that companies such as KPMG plays is particularly crucial because auditor firms and consultancies are meant to hold companies and state entities to account by ensuring transparency and honesty. The fact that a firm of KPMG’s standing should be embroiled in a matter as murky as compiling false reports to serve the political ends of particular politicians highlights the degree of corruption that has taken hold in South Africa.
In light of this, are KPMG’s actions enough? I believe not. To pull South Africa back from the brink, the auditing firm should opt for full disclosure of all its involvement with the Gupta family as well as the companies they own. This should, inter alia, include all working papers, correspondence and audit findings. This would allow public scrutiny of the work it claims to have done under the banner of professionalism and provide the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the Gupta network. Nothing short of this will clear KPMG’s name.
<h2>From state capture to country capture</h2>
There is no doubt that KPMG’s report on a rogue unit completed for the South African Revenue Service has damaged South Africa’s image. But it has done more than that and raises the question whether South Africa suffers only state capture, or whether the rot is growing into economic capture of the whole country, what I term “country capture”.
The basis for asking this question is that the South African economy – and as a result its citizens – are paying a heavy cost for the mismanagement of the country’s resources. This has been through a combination of bad and neglectful management and out-and-out corruption. All this for the account of South African taxpayers.
South Africa’s fiscal position is precarious, with a revenue shortfall of more than R50 billion expected in the fiscal year to 31 March 2018. This growing shortfall is driven by subdued economic performance and will continue until the domestic economic growth recovers.
The shortfall is directly linked to low economic growth and recessionary conditions. These in turn have been caused by state capture. The private sector is reluctant to invest in the midst of corruption. This means that there is no new economic activity being started, a particularly bad situation given that industries such as mining are shrinking. This week Implats announced it was in negotiations with unions to lay off 2 500 workers. Unemployment is already at 27.7%.
Individual South African taxpayers are therefore being forced to bail out the government as it faces fiscal difficulties, placing the country on the slippery slope of country capture. This is reflected in the fact that government’s final consumption expenditure as percentage of GDP currently exceeds 20%.
<h2>What next?</h2>
Having ended up in this precarious position, it’s necessary to consider the way forward for KPMG and for South Africa.
KPMG clearly wants to save itself as a company and South Africa wants to rid itself of state/country capture. In redeeming itself, the firm can render a great service to South Africa in the quest to break the stranglehold. KPMG should disclose all dealings, findings, work papers, interactions and the like with the Gupta family businesses. This would achieve two objectives.
Firstly, it would show who is implicated and who is not. KPMG stated that there was no wrongdoing on its side in audits it did on companies owned by the Guptas. But this can only be settled through full disclosure.
Secondly, such a disclosure would help to reveal the full scope of state/country capture in South Africa.
Naturally KPMG’s dealings with the Gupta companies and Gupta family are subject to client confidentiality agreements. KPMG should therefore inform the Gupta family of its intention to publish within seven days. If the Guptas object in writing KPMG should approach the courts with a request to issue a clarification order to authorise disclosure.
This is the only way in which KPMG can salvage what’s left of its reputation in South Africa. KPMG should stand for: “Keep Pushing Mighty Guptas”.
At the same time South Africans would be able to use the disclosures as the basis for beginning to understand the full extent of state/country capture and the remedial steps necessary to turn this around.
Here is a small opportunity to make progress towards some light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel. The opportunity rests in the hands of KPMG. South Africa waits.
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<div class="grid-ten grid-prepend-two large-grid-nine grid-last content-topics topic-list"> This article was first published in The Conversation.</div>

What KPMG’s Gupta imbroglio says about corruption in South Africa

Police sealed off roads near Kenya’s Supreme Court on Wednesday as judges prepared to deliver a detailed ruling laying out their reasons for annulling last month’s presidential election.
Voters are anxious to find out whether the vote was voided on procedural grounds &#8212; the court has already said in its brief Sept. 1 ruling that some tallying sheets were not signed or officially stamped &#8212; or whether there was evidence of systematic rigging.
Election board officials had said incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta won by 1.5 million votes, but that was rejected by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the 2017 election &#8212; and the previous two &#8212; were stolen from him.
The court ordered a fresh vote to be held within 60 days.
Kenyatta promised to respect the ruling although he has repeatedly criticised it harshly.
On Tuesday evening, Deputy President William Ruto tweeted: “So has CJ taken sides? Listening to the tone, language &amp; drift of (Chief Justice David) Maraga’s lecture the only phrase missing is NASA HAO! TIBIN! &amp; TIALALA!” &#8212; phrases that are a rallying call for the opposition coalition.
Earlier, the chief justice had told a press conference that judges were getting death threats and the police were not offering adequate protection, an allegation that the chief of police denied.
Also on Tuesday, police also used tear gas to disperse supporters of the ruling party protesting outside the Supreme Court. In a couple of towns, ruling party supporters used stones to block main roads.
Police have said they will disperse any such protests on Wednesday.
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Reporting by George Obulutsa and Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Catherine Evans
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Kenya tightens security as country waits for Supreme Court verdict

South Africa’s Sasol will write off $900 million of debt used to bring in black investors in a 2008 deal that foundered after a fall in oil prices hit its shares, the petrochemicals maker said on Wednesday.
The 28 billion rand ($2.10 billion) deal &#8211; at the time the biggest so-called “black economic empowerment” transaction in South Africa, was part of corporate efforts redress the imbalances of apartheid, which ended in 1994.
More than two decades after the demise of white-minority rule, much of South Africa’s wealth remains in white hands.
Sasol said it would buy back the outstanding 12 billion rand of shares from its black investors, effectively cancelling them and allowing the company to write off the shortfall.
Sasol said it expects there will be no distribution of Sasol shares to participants, given the closing Sasol ordinary share price of 389 rand on 4 September, below break-even levels to pay back debt.
For more than 250,000 Sasol Inzalo investors the share should have reached at least 462 rand by 2018 to break even. The stock, which closed at 398 rand on Tuesday, looks unlikely to reach that level.
Sasol’s share price has seen dampened growth since the transaction due to oil prices which have fallen by more than 40 percent since 2008.
The scheme paid 7.6 billion rand in dividends, 5.1 billion rand of which was used to pay down debt and the rest as payouts to shareholders and employees in the scheme. That still left the scheme with around 12 billion rand in debt.
Sasol will unwind the Inzalo transaction in favour of a new 21 billion rand scheme that will run for a further 10 years until 2028, giving at least 25 percent black ownership of Sasol’s wholly owned subsidiary, Sasol South Africa.
The new transaction, Sasol Khanyisa, will only be funded by the company and will not depend on share price fluctuations.
“Sasol Khanyisa’s success is not dependent on Sasol Limited’s share price fluctuations. As no external funding will be used, there will be no cash outflows from Sasol,” said joint president and chief executive officer Bongani Nqwababa in a statement.
($1 = 13.3085 rand)
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Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; editing by Ed Cropley and Jason Neely
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South Africa’s Sasol to write off $900MN from 2008 empowerment deal

Mozambique offered a portfolio of small renewable energy projects to foreign investors on Tuesday which it hopes will attract $500 million in investment and give everyone in the southern African country electricity by 2030.
Around 60 percent of people living in Mozambique, which is highly indebted, have no access to electricity.
“The initiative is intended to ensure that within a 15 year horizon the Mozambican population has access to electricity outside the national power grid, thanks to small autonomous systems,” the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy said.
It plans to do this by providing electricity to some 332 villages around the country using hydro and solar power.
The portfolio has identified potential sites for projects using solar, hydro or a combination and could attract an estimated investment of $500 million, it said
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Reporting by Manuel Mucari; editing by Alexander Smith
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Mozambique hopes to raise $500MN for renewable energy projects

A South African broker and an energy investment firm fired KPMG on Tuesday, two of a host of local firms weighing whether to ditch the auditor to distance themselves from a scandal involving business friends of President Jacob Zuma.
Sasfin and Hulisani, both relatively small financial companies based in Johannesburg, announced they would drop KPMG due to reputational risk.
KPMG, one of the biggest and most influential names in accounting, cleared out its South African leadership on Friday after it found that work done for firms owned by the Gupta family “fell considerably short” of its standards. It found no evidence of crimes or corruption, however.
“In view of the well-publicised concerns recently raised with regard to KPMG as well as Sasfin’s commitment to good governance in respect of auditor independence and auditor tenure, Sasfin has decided to put its audit out to tender,” the company said in a statement.
Hulisani said it would ask shareholders to approve its decision to replace KPMG with PwC at a meeting next month. Fund manger Sygnia fired KPMG a month ago.
Several South African companies approached by Reuters over the last week, including blue chips Barclays Africa and Old Mutual, said they were considering cutting ties with KPMG.
“They’ve placed their clients in a difficult position. If their audits were not up to standards on the Gupta account, why should I believe they were up to standard on my account?,” Sygnia chief executive Magda Wierzycka told Reuters on Monday.
“What happens to KPMG from this point onwards really depends on what corporate South Africa does.”
Barclays Africa, South Africa’s third largest lender by market value and one of KPMG’s biggest clients, has met the firm to request more information on its internal investigation before making a call on whether to sever ties.
“After carefully considering the further information requested and the findings, (Barclays Africa) will be in a position to make a decision as to whether to continue to engage KPMG as its external auditors,” the bank said.
KPMG is the third global firm to face questions about its work for the Indian-born Gupta brothers, who have been accused by an anti-graft watchdog of unduly influencing the awarding of government contracts.
Consulting giant McKinsey is being investigated by South Africa’s parliamentary committee on public enterprises, and the British business of public relations agency Bell Pottinger collapsed last week following a scandal over a racially-charged political campaign it ran for the Guptas in South Africa.
The Guptas and Zuma deny wrongdoing and say they are victims of a politically motivated witch-hunt. The Guptas and their companies have not been charged with any crime.
<h3 data-reactid="58">BOARD MEETINGS CALLED</h3>
Anglo-South African investment bank and asset manager Investec’s audit committee was due to meet later in the week to make a recommendation to the board on whether to keep KPMG.
Mining company Sibanye Stillwater, whose chief executive Neal Froneman has called for Zuma to step down, and Africa’s biggest properly group Growthpoint will also hold board meetings to decide on whether to keep the firm. They declined to give exact dates for the meetings.
“The report came out of Friday so it would be premature to say we will fire them. The board will meet in due course to make a decision,” spokesman James Wellsted told Reuters.
Other companies considering whether to drop KPMG include Anglo-South African insurer Old Mutual and its banking unit Nedbank.
“Old Mutual is committed to doing business ethically and maintaining the highest standards of governance,” spokesperson Ursula Westhuizen said. “We understand that the conclusions of KPMG’s review will be available at the end of this month and we look forward to its publication.”
South Africa’s Institute of Directors, which represents all company directors in South Africa, earlier this month suspended ties with KPMG and, among other things, declined to sponsor a golf day set for October.
Save South Africa, a civil society group, has called on local companies to fire KPMG.
Iraj Abedian resigned as a director of Germany’s Munich Re’s African unit because the unit would not fire the accounting firm.
<h3 data-reactid="67">DAUNTING TASK</h3>
KPMG’s South African unit traces its roots to Johannesburg’s gold rush days in the late 19th century, when Scottish-born Alexander Aiken established a practice as a public accountant and auditor. KPMG acquired the firm in the 1980s.
New chief executive Nhlamu Dlomu, who replaced Trevor Hoole on Friday, faces a daunting task retaining both government and private sector clients and convincing them that it can still carry on auditing large corporations despite the Friday purge.
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KPMG did not respond to email requests for comment and spokesman Nqubeko Sibiya said Dlomu would not be available for interviews as she has just started her new role.
“On the one hand you could say they’ve cleaned up shop, but on the other hand, they’ve dismissed the entire executive team. Who is there to serve the existing clients and take on those leadership roles?” said Sygnia’s Wierzycka.
Andrew Cranston, former KPMG Russia head, has been brought over to replace chief operating officer Steven Louw.
In addition to Hoole, Louw, chairman Ahmed Jaffer and five senior partners who all resigned on Friday, the accounting firm also plans to dismiss Jacques Wessels, the lead partner on audits of Gupta-linked firms.
The South African tax collection agency, SARS, said on Monday it would cut all ties with KPMG, accusing it of ”unethical“ and unlawful” behaviour.
KPMG acknowledged “flaws” in a report that it compiled for SARS which implied that former finance minister Pravin Gordhan had helped set up a “rogue spy unit” when he was head of the service.
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Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Louise Heavens, Mark Potter and Sonya Hepinstall
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Two more firms fire KPMG as corporate South Africa weighs links with auditor

Zambia’s Finance Permanent Secretary said on Tuesday that the southern Africa nation will resume talks with the International Monetary Fund over an aid programme in October and hopes to get IMF board approval by the end of the year.
“The engagement with the fund is pretty advanced. We have addressed most of the structural issues and agreed to them,” Mukuli Chikuba said during the launch of a mid-year economic report.
“The work that is remaining with the IMF includes spending plans for the rest of 2017. We will resume engagement with the fund in October and hope to get board approval by December.”
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Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Nqobile Dludla
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Zambia to resume talks with IMF over possible aid programme in October

By: Sasfin
Sasfin will be changing its Independent Sponsor from KPMG Services (Pty) Ltd to Deloitte &amp; Touche
Sponsor Services (Pty) Ltd, effective as of Tuesday, 19 September 2017. This decision was made to ensure a separation of the role of external joint auditor to the Sasfin Holdings Limited Group with that of Independent Sponsor.
KPMG Inc. and Grant Thornton Johannesburg Partnership have been joint auditors of Sasfin Holdings Limited Group for 18 and 30 years respectively.
In view of the well-publicised concerns recently raised with regard to KPMG as well as Sasfin’s commitment to good governance in respect of auditor independence and auditor tenure, Sasfin has decided to put its audit out to tender.
This process is expected to begin in November 2017.

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