MAPUTO (Reuters) &#8211; Hundreds of thousands of people are still in need of aid after Cyclone Idai battered Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in March. 



More than 1,000 people have been reported killed by the storm, the flooding it caused and heavy rains before it hit. The World Bank estimates the affected countries will need over $2 billion to recover.



Following is an outline of the disaster, according to government and U.N. officials.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">MOZAMBIQUE</h3>



Cyclone Idai made landfall on the night of March 14, near the port city of Beira, bringing heavy winds and rains. Two major rivers, the Buzi and the Pungue, burst their banks, submerging villages and leaving bodies floating in the water.



People killed: 602



People injured: 1,641



Houses damaged or destroyed: 239,682



Crops damaged: 715,378 hectares



People affected: 1.85 million



Confirmed cholera cases: 4,979



Confirmed cholera deaths: 8



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">ZIMBABWE</h3>



On March 16, the storm hit eastern Zimbabwe, where it flattened homes and flooded communities in the Chimanimani and Chipinge districts.



People killed: 344



People injured: 200



People displaced: 16,000 households



People affected: 250,000



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">MALAWI</h3>



Before it arrived, the storm brought heavy rains and flooding to the lower Shire River districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje in Malawi’s south. The rains continued after the storm hit, compounding the misery of tens of thousands of people.



People killed: 60



People injured: 672



People displaced: 19,328 households



People affected: 868,895



Compiled by Emma Rumney; Editing by Alison Williams

Hundreds of thousands displaced after Cyclone Idai, death toll over 1,000

JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; At the edge of Nairobi’s Ngong Forest, thousands of used cars glitter in the hot sun on a dusty field, waiting for buyers. 



Imported from Japan or the Middle East, they offer an affordable route to vehicle ownership in Kenya and have dominated the market for decades.



That is an obstacle big carmakers must overcome if they are to crack Africa, a market promising rapid growth as trade tensions threaten sales elsewhere. African consumers also still need conventional engines just as demand in more traditional markets is curbed by restrictions on carbon emissions.



Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Nissan and others have joined forces to lobby governments for steps that would reduce the imports that have made sub-Saharan Africa notoriously difficult terrain and allow local production to flourish.



“The question on Africa isn’t, ‘Is it a market of the future?’” Mike Whitfield, Nissan’s top executive for Africa, told Reuters. “It’s a case of when.”



Four years after forming the Association of African Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) their efforts are starting to bear fruit. Carmakers that set up local assembly plants could get tax holidays of up to 10 years and duty exemptions in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, according to government plans seen by Reuters.



Thomas Schaefer, who heads Volkswagen’s Africa business, said there is a potential market in sub-Saharan Africa for 3 to 4 million new cars, up from just 420,000 in 2017.



But that will require addressing the well-entrenched interests of second-hand car dealers, smugglers and lowering the price of new cars.



“It will largely depend on how successful the African governments are in limiting the amounts of second-hand imports and how price-competitive new vehicles can be with their tariffs,” said Craig Parker, Africa research director at Frost &amp; Sullivan, a U.S.-based market research firm.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">MULTIPLYING EFFECTS</h3>



Africa’s population and household incomes are rising rapidly. But its 1 billion inhabitants account for only 1 percent of the world’s new passenger car sales, industry data shows. South Africans bought over 85 percent of those vehicles.



The AAAM identified Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana as potential manufacturing hubs and helped draft legislation setting up standards and incentives.



Details of governments’ plans provided to Reuters demonstrate that African nations are keen to secure a spot as a beachhead for the industry. Nigeria and Ghana are preparing to offer automakers tax holidays of up to 10 years and duty-free imports of parts and components used in local assembly. Nigeria also plans to double the levy on new, fully-built imported vehicles to 70 percent to boost demand for locally produced cars, though the policy’s approval has been delayed. In Kenya, automakers will pay no import or excise duties and get a 50-percent corporate tax break. For African nations facing massive demographic pressures, such concessions make sense if they create jobs, said Jelani Aliyu, of Nigeria’s National Automotive Design and Development Council. “The multiplying effects are exponential,” said Aliyu, who foresees supporting industries developing around the plants.



Legislative and fiscal frameworks are being finalised, but companies are already investing millions of dollars in new plants.



VW and Nissan have set up operations in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana or have pledged to do so. Honda and Peugeot have launched assembly plants in Nigeria, and Peugeot has done the same in Kenya. Carmakers sorely need the business. Their South African divisions, which typically direct operations elsewhere on the continent, face stagnating domestic sales and scant growth prospects in their main export market, Europe. A chaotic Brexit or U.S. tariff hikes could further dampen sales.



Toyota South Africa’s chief executive Andrew Kirby said the strategy is: “Focus on Africa because Africa is going to grow significantly.”



A pivot to Africa could also help insulate automakers from the immediate effects of the electric vehicle revolution. The continent is ill-placed to join it at the moment due to the higher prices of EVs and unreliable power grids.



Just 66 electric cars were sold last year in South Africa &#8211; the continent’s most developed economy.



“Africa will most likely remain as the last bastion of internal combustion engines,” Parker said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">DISTORTED MARKET</h3>



Nevertheless, industry officials say the biggest hurdle to developing the market for new cars is dumping from countries such as Japan, where strict vehicle inspections force cars out of circulation after just a few years.



They say this distorts the market by allowing dealers to buy the cars at scrap prices and export them to Africa.



They blame the cheap imports for killing off assembly sectors in a number of African countries including Nigeria, which built around 150,000 cars per year until the 1980s.



Political will is needed to change that, and without it there is little point in considering a country for local production, according to VW’s Schaefer.



“The markets &#8230; are literally not functioning right now due to importation of used vehicles,” he said.



In Kenya, the government plans to wind down imports of cars more than three years old by 2021. Exceptions will be made for passenger vehicles with 1.5 litre or smaller engines.



The policy could see mid-range imported models double in price, according to the 300-member Kenya Auto Bazaar Association (KABA). The lobby group has taken out ads in local newspapers denouncing the policy and is demanding a meeting with Kenya’s president.



Mark Oburu, KABA’s vice-chairman, said the move would hit an industry that delivers 85 percent of Kenyan car purchases.



“The middle class will not be able to own a vehicle of their choice,” he said.



In the Nairobi bazaar, Grace was shopping for her eldest son’s first car. She said she could not afford to buy a new one.



“If they don’t rescind that decision, we will be on boda bodas (motor-bikes).”



Both Ghana and Nigeria have also pledged to tackle the issue. Nigeria hiked taxes on imported used cars in 2014, but smuggling has undermined that effort to boost demand for local production, according to manufacturers and government officials.



Used cars are also among the leading imports in many African countries, and governments will have to wean themselves off the associated tax revenues.



There are other stumbling blocks: access to financing is limited, and countries that don’t host assembly plants must also be persuaded to limit used imports and reduce tariffs on African-made vehicles. That will be hard to do if the only outcome they see is higher sticker prices.



“The purpose is not to take the most lucrative slice of the industry,” said Ghana’s minister of trade and industry, Alan Kyerematen, suggesting that neighbours could produce components for his country’s assembly plants.



Auto executives acknowledge the challenges but point to a famous precedent. When VW and GM entered China in the 1980s and 90s, vehicle ownership rates were lower than in many African markets. Today, those two companies alone sell over 3.5 million vehicles annually in China. “Everybody was laughing, saying China doesn’t need cars, they only need bicycles,” Schaefer said.



Joe Bavier and Emma Rumney reported in Johannesburg and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Additional reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana in Kigali and Chijioke Ohuocha in Lagos; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Anna Willard

Auto giants and used car dealers battle it out for Africa’s huge market, what you need to know…

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s economy grew by 4 percent last year, below an initial target of 4.5 percent, treasury said on Thursday, as the country struggles with a severe shortage of dollars and surging inflation.



Treasury said in its fourth quarter report ending December that the government’s foreign and domestic debt stood at $17.8 billion, with 46 percent of that amount owed to foreign lenders.



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Angus MacSwan

Zimbabwe’s GDP grew by 4 percent in 2018,  below initial target

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe appealed on Tuesday for $613 million in aid from local and foreign donors to cover food imports and help with a humanitarian crisis after a severe drought and a cyclone that battered the east of the country.



An El Nino-induced drought has wilted crops across Zimbabwe and left about a third of its 15 million people in need of food assistance, according to a U.N. agency.



The situation was worsened when Zimbabwe, along with Mozambique and Malawi, were last month battered by Cyclone Idai, leaving hundreds of thousands needing food, water and shelter.



An appeal document given to reporters by the ministry of information showed the government is seeking about $300 million in aid for food while the rest would fund emergency shelters, logistics and telecommunications among other needs.



Hundreds of people have died in Mozambique and Malawi and the death toll in Zimbabwe was now 344.



Meanwhile, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the cabinet had hiked the maize price paid to farmers by 86 percent to $232 a tonne and maintained a subsidy for millers in a bid to keep the price of the staple maize meal down.



In February, Zimbabwe scrapped a 1:1 peg between the U.S. dollar and the bond notes and electronic dollars it introduced to compensate for its hard currency shortage, merging the surrogate currencies into the RTGS dollar.



Mutsvangwa said farmers would be paid 726 RTGS dollars ($232), up from 390 RTGS dollars.



The RTGS dollar was trading at 3.12 to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday on the bank market and at 4.4 on the black market.



The government is the sole buyer and seller of maize in Zimbabwe through the state-owned Grain Marketing Board.



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Mark Heinrich

What you need to know about Zimbabwe seeking $613 million in aid after the country was hit by drought and Cyclone Idai

By Josh Adler 



April 15, 2019, will hopefully mark the day a new phrase enters popular discourse about how our economic futures could play out. The term “4th Industrial Revolution” has come to embody the conversation around the supply-side of the jobs debate -skills and education. We hope to drive new research, discussion and policy around the demand-side of employment by deeply exploring entrepreneurship as a career -particularly for students of high potential. What if skilled students with options chose an entrepreneurship path and hired their friends and peers along the way? What does Africa’s youth employment situation look like if this happens? 



The Anzisha Scenario campaign concept was born after heated discussions and exchanges internally in response to a research paper that was released in 2018, and the resulting coverage it got in the media. The research took a position that older founders in the US have been more successful as entrepreneurs generally, and particularly when it comes to scale and job creation. The ensuing media and social media coverage seemed to quickly extrapolate this to an insight that applied globally. Emails quickly circulated across the entrepreneurship and education ecosystems echoing the sentiments of the research and its impact for programming. 



I had a particularly strong reaction to the report. It’s not that the research is wrong (it isn’t), it’s that it:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Is pretty obvious. Prior work, life and management experience should make you a better entrepreneur when you’re older, in the same way it should make you a more successful manager or leader within an existing business.</li><li>Inadvertently positions the problem of youth unemployment as largely unsolvable by young people themselves. But with not enough job opportunities to start with, if only people with 15+ years&#8217; experience can create other jobs, we’re in a heap of trouble.</li><li>Is quickly supported by those who have followed traditional education and career pathways, crowding out other experience pathways as less legitimate. Anyone who got a great degree, and then worked for a great company, is immediately validated and pre-qualified as a better scale entrepreneur through formal training. Few have that opportunity. </li></ul>



Having had this research kick off some of our own thinking, we started to look at our own evidence and work. And this then became the next driver of investing in a campaign as a pan-African, inclusive, multi-stakeholder scenario planning exercise. 



We have seen, time and again, young entrepreneurs start out from the very youngest of ages, and slowly build careers –in the same way any other career professional would. Those that are well supported throughout tend to be more successful, just as a well-supported professional would be on their path to senior management. We will be presenting these stories in a Hall of Fame campaign later in the year.



We also have seen clear evidence that managers hire from their peer group in terms of age. Older entrepreneurs hire older professionals. Young entrepreneurs hire young. The only people really willing to hire 19 year old’s without question are 23 year old entrepreneurs (or thereabouts).



 We have seen young people of high potential and with options &#8211; they are actively recruited by universities and employers &#8211; choose entrepreneurship. The combination of this and many other thoughts is part of the discussion we want to have. Is the Anzisha Scenario possible? What are the drivers, barriers and opportunities? What are the roles of parents, teachers, students, policy-makers and other stakeholders in making the choice of “entrepreneurship as a career” desirable and supported, with appropriate income as you grow? The Anzisha Scenario as a conversation on campus has already begun to influence our own curriculum planning as our faculty think about their role in promoting and supporting entrepreneurship as a career path. 



We’ve already had two stakeholder workshops with cross-sector representatives from South Africa, Mauritius, Egypt, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Botswana. (Thanks to ALA, ALU, ALX, Harambee, Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, Driven Entrepreneurs, E-squared, Imagine Scholar, McKinsey, Nova Pioneer, RLabs, and Startup Academy. 



On April 15, during the inaugural Very Young Entrepreneur Education and Acceleration Summit, we’ll host our first experts’ panel and launch the draft position paper. Please follow or contribute to the conversation using the hashtag #AnzishaScenario. Make sure to also watch highlights from the Summit at anzisha.org/summit. Let’s see if we as a community can put young people at the center of solving the employment challenges we collectively face.

This Summit is gearing towards a future driven by Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African retailer Steinhoff has again delayed release of its 2017 and 2018 financial statements, saying that complexities in the process were slowing the work of external auditor Deloitte, sending its shares down more than 4 percent.



The retailer said it had made “significant efforts” but its 2017 group financial statements would not be released until May 7 and its 2018 statements would be delayed until June 18. Both had been expected in mid-April.



“We sincerely regret this further delay,” Chief Financial Officer Philip Dieperink said in a statement to the stock exchange, adding that the company and Deloitte believe that the new timeline is achievable.



Steinhoff has repeatedly delayed publication of its accounts after a $7.4 billion accounting fraud that stunned investors in the multinational retailer that had been at the vanguard of the European discount furniture retail industry.



While a summary of an investigation by auditor PwC released last month has shed some light on what happened, shareholders are still hungry for more information on the scandal and an indication of how much Steinhoff’s remaining assets are worth.



Steinhoff added that said the revised timetable would be likely to affect the timing of its 2019 interim results, currently scheduled for late June, and that a new date would be given in due course.



The 2017 and 2018 results for its wholly owned subsidiary, Steinhoff Investment Holdings, will be released on June 28, the company said.



Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by David Goodman

Steinhoff again delays release of financial statements sending its shares down

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jeffrey-w-paller-195503">Jeffrey W Paller</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-san-francisco-2073">University of San Francisco</a>

Cyclone Idai tore through Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique and devastated local communities. Hundreds were <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2019/03/29/mozambique-malawi-zimbabwe-braced-for-cyclone-idai/#Echobox=1553645248">killed</a> and more than a million people were displaced.

Much of this devastation occurred in southern Africa’s rapidly growing coastal cities. The city of <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-03-22-00-cyclone-idai-after-the-floods-the-famine-and-then-more-of-the-same">Beira in Mozambique</a>, which faces rising sea water, was nearly wiped out entirely. 

How do African cities grow and develop in a sustainable way to confront climate change?

The <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2019/03/23/africa-in-the-news-cyclone-idai-47-billion-for-climate-finance-and-power-shortages-in-south-africa/">international community</a> and African governments are aware of the emerging challenges of climate change. Beira, for example, <a href="https://apnews.com/b95c3aa3521e45f196574d949b585931">invested $120 million </a> in a drainage and water detention project to deal with rising seawater. 

But <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/28/mozambique-mayor-cyclone-deaths-negligence-idai-rural">mismanagement</a> and booming population growth continues to place pressure on cities’ poor infrastructure. Therefore, people in Africa who live in urban areas are often forced to confront climate change <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2019/03/africans-are-largely-on-their-own-facing-climate-change?fbclid=IwAR0FB5_D5cDVMDvpCEl9DmG9_TetjiKFhPTdvtTlg2fh03Y0pON36Zb8GM0">on their own</a>.

My new book <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/democracy-in-ghana/20E72D3CCE54A8636AC900430C9F2C47">Democracy in Ghana: Everyday Politics in Urban Africa</a> suggests that people in Africa who live in urban areas confront these challenges in a contentious political environment. The distribution of resources and the building of infrastructure take place in a political struggle over control of the city. In particular, informal settlement and claims to urban space continue to structure everyday politics in Africa’s cities.

During my fieldwork, I found that urban development is shaped by relationships between those who claim they’re from a particular place – or indigeneity – and the rest. Groups native to a territory hold special rights and entitlements. The relationship between the hosts and migrants often dictate the politics of neighbourhoods.

These forms of everyday politics boil over into multi-party politics and municipal governance. Focusing on everyday politics can help explain why public policies are enacted, but also why powerful interest groups undermine policies that might improve the public good.

<h2>The case of Accra</h2>

In my view the everyday politics of urban neighbourhoods can help explain why the capture of public goods for private gain, and sustained ethnic politics continue to undermine urban development. Sustainable urban development, therefore, is not just a technical endeavour. It requires local political solutions.

Take Accra, Ghana, where I conducted my fieldwork. Like Beira, Accra faces <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/policy/news/rising-sea-levels-threaten-ghana-s-coastal-communities-1.html">rising sea levels</a>. It also faces a <a href="https://unhabitat.org/books/ghana-accra-urban-profile/">growing population living in substandard conditions</a>, and <a href="http://floodlist.com/africa/ghana-floods-accra-june-2018">annual flooding</a> that displaces residents and often kills several people. 

Accra’s squatter settlement Old Fadama – called Sodom and Gomorrah by locals – is often <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/june-27th/blaming-june-3-floods-on-old-fadama-residents-reckless-irresponsible-pratt.php">blamed for the floods</a>. Residents in the neighbourhood have settled in what authorities deem an uninhabitable, marshy swampland. They are accused of disposing their waste in the surrounding Korle Lagoon, which some blame for drainage problems across the entire city.

But the <a href="http://www.currenthistory.com/Paller-CH_May_2017.pdf">scapegoating of Old Fadama is political</a>. 

Accra Metropolitan Assembly officials appointed by the President are responsible for managing the city for all residents. But many have close ties to powerful local chiefs who want to reclaim the “invaded land” from migrant squatters. 

Powerful indigenous families rally support from neighbouring citizens, especially those in the oldest quarters of the city who see incoming migrants as a threat to their control of the city. Politicians magnify this dispute in Parliament, hoping to score cheap political points. 

The most problematic <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/EPoverty/Ghana/AmnestyInternational.docx">consequence</a> is the undermining of collective decision-making and cross-ethnic interactions in the neighbourhoods themselves. Leaders and residents are forced to <a href="https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/state-of-slum/forthcoming/">govern themselves in the absence of the state</a>. And they are able to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02723638.2016.1191792">mobilise residents in the event of a demolition or eviction threat</a>. But the development of long-term, pro-poor, decision-making pathways are compromised for short-term solutions and personalistic politics.

<h2>The case of Ashaiman</h2>

It does not have to be this way. The case of Ashaiman, a rapidly growing city outside Tema, a port city near Accra, provides an example of what can happen when leaders from diverse ethnic groups come together to govern themselves.

Ashaiman started as a squatter settlement in the 1960s. Indigenous landowners and migrant leaders agreed on land distribution at the early stages of urban development. This partnership has been tested throughout Ashaiman’s history, but residents constantly negotiate and renegotiate these agreements.

Today, while Ashaiman’s leaders certainly have their political differences, they are on the same side in their demand for improvements to the city. And they are on the same side of the <a href="https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/155825/2012-08-10_Vol11_N01_Political_Accountability_in_Ghanaian_Slums_Evidence_from_the_Grassroots.pdf">fight for more local autonomy</a>. This collective strength is an important ingredient in local communities’ ability to confront challenges like climate change in the future.

<h2>Community engagement</h2>

<a href="http://daldrich.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/5/0/15507740/aldrich_et_al-2018-journal_of_contingencies_and_crisis_management.pdf">Evidence from other parts of the world</a> shows that social capital and community engagement is central to building resilient cities and combating climate change. 

Even in Cyclone Idai, some communities with <a href="http://atavist.mg.co.za/the-malawian-villages-that-took-on-the-floods-and-survived">strong, proactive leaders and collective action capacity</a> prepared for the floods and were able to thwart disaster.

The international community, central governments, and municipal authorities must support sustainable development policies. But their success depends on the implementation and management by residents in the very neighbourhoods most affected by climate change.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114625/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jeffrey-w-paller-195503">Jeffrey W Paller</a>, Assistant professor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-san-francisco-2073">University of San Francisco</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-everyday-politics-shapes-the-way-african-cities-are-run-114625">original article</a>.

How African cities are run is largely shaped by everyday politics, what you need to know…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; The South African rand weakened early on Thursday, after a senior minister said the government was considering more financial support for the highly indebted utility Eskom.



At 0735 GMT, the rand slipped 0.3 percent from its previous close to 14.1900 against the dollar.



Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Wednesday the highest levels of government were discussing another support package for the state-run Eskom, which in February was granted a 69 billion rand ($4.9 billion) bailout over the next three years.



Eskom Chairman Jabu Mabuza said on Wednesday that Eskom’s debt would be more manageable if it were 250 billion rand lower.



The South African currency had rallied earlier in the week after the ratings agency Moody’s delayed a review that might have removed South Africa’s last investment-grade credit rating, then struck a surprisingly positive note in a research report.



Stocks opened weaker on Thursday, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Top-40 Index and the All-Share Index both 0.4 percent lower.



Government bonds were also weaker, with the yield on the 2026 bond adding 1.5 basis points to 8.545 percent.



($1 = 14.2006 rand)



Reporting by Naledi Mashishi; editing by Alexander Winning, Larry King

South African rand weakens as government considers more financial support for Eskom

JOHANNESBURG &#8211; (Reuters) &#8211; Activity in South Africa’s private sector contracted sharply in March, a survey showed on Wednesday, with firms citing electricity blackouts as the main drag on business.



IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slipped to 48.8 from February’s 50.2 as falls in new orders and employment saw output contract by the most in four months.



The reading was below the 50-point mark separating expansion from contraction for the sixth time in seven months.



Firms surveyed said interruptions to production were mainly due to rolling electricity blackouts. South Africa was plunged into stretches of darkness lasting hours in March as faults at state utility Eskom’s coal-fired power stations squeezed supply.



“The promise shown by February’s data was quickly overturned in March &#8230; Companies squarely lay the blame at frequent power cuts due to load-shedding at Eskom, leading to lower activity for those affected,” sad IHS Markit economist David Owen.



“As a result, firms reported an unprecedented fall in selling charges, highlighting their striving to recover sales.”



Cost inflation, a measure of the growth in price of manufacturing inputs like labour, water and power, was at a record low, reflecting prolonged weak demand due to subdued consumer confidence.



Large South African retailers including supermarket giant Shoprite have indicated they are reluctant to pass on price increases to customers, instead extending discount promotions that keep store price inflation well below national rates.



mfuneko.toyana.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Here’s why activity in South Africa’s private sector contracted sharply in March

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Steinhoff said on Tuesday investors who were suing the company have agreed to extend the suspension of litigation by six weeks, allowing the crisis-hit retailer time to proceed with its investigations and restructuring.



Steinhoff said the legal proceedings, which were suspended in October last year, would be further suspended until May 15, 2019.



The lawsuit, brought in the Netherlands, was aimed at compensating investors for the more than 14 billion euros ($16 billion) wiped off Steinhoff’s market value ever since the retailer uncovered accounting irregularities last year.



The lawsuit was brought by a collective group known as VEB/European Investors, Steinhoff. It claimed that certain financial statements, prospectus and press releases issued by the company were incorrect and misleading, the company said.



Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Uttaresh.V

Why Steinhoff investors agreed to extend suspension of legal battle

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) &#8211; The development bank of the BRICS group of emerging economies has approved funding of $790 million for three South African projects, the bank’s president said on Monday.



“We plan to end the year with total loan approvals of about $2.3 billion in South Africa,” New Development Bank president K.V. Kamath told the bank’s annual meeting in Cape Town.



A bank source told Reuters that $480 million of the approved funding was for struggling South African state power firm’s Medupi coal-fired power plant.



Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Alexander Winning

BRICS development bank approves $790 million funding for this African country’s projects

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand firmed against the dollar early on Monday as ratings downgrade fears eased after Moody’s said late on Friday it would not publish a review of the sovereign debt rating as indicatively scheduled.



The currency was further supported by a broader boost to investors’ risk appetite following positive Chinese factory gauges and signs of progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks.



At 0615 GMT, the rand traded at 14.3275 per dollar, 1.26 percent firmer than its New York close on Friday.



“The rand is demonstrating some of the market’s relief following no action by Moody’s last week, with it clawing back some ground during the overnight trade on Sunday,” said Bianca Botes, a corporate treasury manager at Peregrine Treasury Solutions.



South African markets on Friday were on edge over the impending review, with some economists concerned that a power crisis will cost the country its last investment-grade rating and lead to the outflow of billions of dollars.



Moody’s rates South Africa’s foreign and local currency debt on their lowest level of investment grade at ‘Baa3’, with a stable outlook.



In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark instrument due in 2026 dipped 6 basis points to 8.55 percent in early trade.



Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, editing by Louise Heavens

South Africa’s rand firms as Moody’s delays credit rating review, what you need to know…

By Gary Van Staden, Senior Political Analyst at NKC African Economics



The Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) deadline for Lesotho to implement a series of critical constitutional and security reforms expires in May, with what little progress made since 2017 now under threat due to coalition party infighting that suggests another government is about to fall.



In
June 2017 the then opposition All Basuto Convention (ABC) led by Tom Thabane
emerged as the major party in the country’s third election in some five years,
but once again without the majority necessary to govern – forcing yet another
coalition in a country with a history of failed coalitions. 



This
time Mr Thabane joined forces with the Alliance of Democrats (AD), the Basotho
National Party (BNP) and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL). The ABC
started on the right foot by taking all the key posts, including the prime
minister and the majority of ministers. 



We
thought at the time that it was extremely unlikely that the coalition would see
out its five-year term and predicted yet another early election. 



The
reasoning was that while Lesotho politics continued to be dominated by the
parties of old men who seemed to play ruling musical chairs, there was no
prospect for any political stability in the country with or without Sadc’s
intervention. 



In
a repeat of history, it did not take long for the ABC and Prime Minister
Thabane to marginalise their coalition partners and create fresh tensions.



There
were clashes over ministerial positions and allegations that the ABC was
side-lining districts that had delivered no fewer than 11 of its members of
Parliament (MP) in the directly elected vote. 



Internal
power struggles quickly gathered around those for and against the autocratic
rule of Mr Thabane with his ambitions to remain party leader and prime minister
for as long as his body held breath. 



The
tensions came to a head at the ABC congress in early February when factions
clearly defined by support or opposition to Mr Thabane slugged it out on the
congress floor and in the courts where the one faction attempted to overturn
the election of Professor Nqosa Mahao and former Law, Constitutional Affairs
and Human Rights Minister Lebohang Hlaele into key positions in the party. 



Party
sources told local media that the old ABC’s national executive committee (NEC),
which was ousted at the party’s elective conference, had demanded that the pair
step down before it handed over the reins to the new NEC. 



This
demand, a blatant attempt to undermine democratic processes, was rejected
outright.



But
amid dire warnings of ‘chaos and bloodshed’, certain ministers who had lost
positions at the elective conference went to court to reverse congress
decisions. 



The
ministers Habofanoe Lehana (trade and industry) and Keketso Sello (mining), who
both lost elections, asked the courts to nullify the outcome of the party’s
elective conference and order fresh polls – failing which they warned of
“serious bloodshed” when warring factions try to gain control of the ruling
party. 



The
outcome of the infighting and clamour for power is not as relevant as the fact
that the coalition is tearing itself apart from within. Relevant too is the
African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) group’s latest report on
Lesotho, which found the infighting in the ABC and the wider coalition could
“scupper efforts to implement the multi-sector reforms that were recommended by
the Southern African Development Community”. 



Sadc
gave Lesotho until May 2019 to fully implement the constitutional and security
sector reforms required to foster permanent peace and stability, but most local
commentators and people involved at Sadc believe the prospect of implementing a
significant portion of the reforms is effectively zero.



The
ongoing infighting and court battles surrounding the ABC elective congress that
exposed inevitable cleavages in both the party and its already shaky coalition
arrangement are par for the Lesotho course and come as no surprise at all. 



Mr
Thabane is no democrat, as clearly demonstrated by his tactic of proroguing
Parliament to avoid a vote of no confidence back in 2014 (a move that plunged
the country into uncertainty and instability amid unproven rumours of a coup
attempt). 



He
lost subsequent elections in 2015 after Sadc forced a new poll but regained
power in another bout of musical chairs in 2017 with his ABC-led coalition. 



Now,
he is under threat once again with a faltering coalition and rampant infighting
in the ABC, but Mr Thabane’s future is unimportant in the context of stability
and peace in the country. 



The
Sadc-imposed reforms did not meet universal approval, but they did promise some
return to normality in the mountain kingdom. 



Mr
Thabane, however, was not as interested in them as he was in holding onto power
– despite the apparent objections in his own party. 



The
recent history of instability and conflict in Lesotho has thrown up several
names but only one constant – Tom Thabane.



Gary
Van Staden – Senior Political Analyst

Op-Ed: Sadc reform deadline looms as infighting continues in Lesotho

<figure>
 <img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265281/original/file-20190322-36264-2pjycb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" alt="File 20190322 36264 2pjycb.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" />
 <figcaption>
 Sports science needs to race towards a different approach.
 kentoh/Shutterstock
 </figcaption>
 </figure>

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/francois-cleophas-424785">Francois Cleophas</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/stellenbosch-university-1439">Stellenbosch University</a>

In the four years since the decolonisation debate took <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&amp;pid=S2221-40702018000200001">centre stage</a> at South African universities, much of the focus has been on what decolonisation might look like in the humanities.

But science subjects, too, need to be taught differently at African universities in the 21st century. This is true of my discipline, sport science. The content of the sports science curriculum needs to change. So does the focus of sports science departments. Increasingly, such departments at public universities rely on <a href="https://journals.assaf.org.za/sajsm/article/view/365">private funding</a> to operate. This means they are driven by corporate and donors’ interests, doing less for the public good and not necessarily producing social and political critical thinkers.

Both the curriculum and the structure of sports science departments needs to be overhauled. This is necessary, because nothing in the ideological content of sport science curricula has changed over the past 25 years. 

In fact, it can be argued that the sport science curriculum, driven more and more by semi-private institutions at public spaces of higher learning, is more committed to a neo-liberal capitalist project today than what it was 25 years ago. 

<h2>The field’s history</h2>

The history of modern day century sports science, as an academic discipline, dates back to the early 20th century when the medical fraternity and physicians became interested in athletic contests. One such doctor, R. Tait McKenzie, published one of the field’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/exerciseineducat01mcke/page/n4">earliest scholarly texts</a>, Exercise and Education in Medicine. 

This book reflected and enforced the cultural hold that the western (Hellenistic) presentation of the human body exerted in the emerging field of sport science. The Greek body – white, muscular, masculine and middle class –dominated as an ideal type. This dominance continues today. What wasn’t discussed was that ancient Greece was a slave-owning society that exploited inequalities based on race, gender and class. 

As scholars like Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska have <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280520.001.0001/acprof-9780199280520">highlighted</a>, physical culture around the turn of the 20th century existed against the backdrop of competing conceptions of masculinity and a wider debate about the fitness of the British “race”. The scientifically trained sport body, sculpted by the sport scientist, became modern society’s idea of the perfect body. 

The untrained body – that is, not trained by a sport scientist – is often presented as the “other” type. These “untrained” bodies are often developed in community sports in local communities without the high costs that accompany sport science interventions. These forms of exercise are looked down on and sports science students are taught that these matter less. Ordinary people in these communities are made to believe that their exercise regimes, and ultimately their physical bodies, are not valid and are unimportant.

There have also been few strides in addressing gender discrimination in sports science. White male bodies are the focus. Students are not taught about alternatives or given space to criticise traditional approaches.

The field of sports science, then, has neglected the development of a thorough, critical analysis of how gender, race and class inequalities play out in sports science and exercise.

<h2>Commodifying knowledge</h2>

But altering what we teach is just one part of the challenge for South African sports scientists. 

As higher education has become <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17430437.2014.849449">more commodified</a>, so have public universities’ sports sciences departments.

As sport scientists, we no longer focus primarily on generating and dispensing intellectual knowledge about sport to local communities. Instead, we accumulate knowledge primarily for performance appraisals in accredited publications for distribution in academic circles. This means it’s shared with fewer people. 

In this way, sports science’s intellectual property has been captured by what scholar Lesley le Grange <a href="http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/101900">refers to</a> as the knowledge economy in the ascendancy of the neo-liberal university.

<h2>What does all this mean, in practise?</h2>

Simply put, if sport science wants to be relevant to ordinary people, the curriculum needs to be taught and thought about differently. There must be a commitment to a decolonised way of doing things. This means teaching students about different bodies, about different fitness regimes and approaches, drawing from indigenous knowledge systems about what builds a strong body.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113930/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/francois-cleophas-424785">Francois Cleophas</a>, Senior Lecturer in Sport History, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/stellenbosch-university-1439">Stellenbosch University</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-sports-science-in-africa-can-be-taught-and-thought-about-differently-113930">original article</a>.

How can sports science be thought of and taught differently on the African continent ?

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sean-mfundza-muller-298216">Seán Mfundza Muller</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-johannesburg-1275">University of Johannesburg</a>

Recent <a href="http://www.eskom.co.za/news/Pages/2019Mar16.aspx">power cuts</a> and the <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2019-02-21-eskom-bailout-to-reach-r150bn-in-10-years/">announcement</a> that South Africa’s power utility Eskom will be receiving R23billion (about USD$1.5billion) a year in government support for the foreseeable future are symptomatic of operational and financial crises at the utility. 

The conventional wisdom is that a major restructuring will address the crisis. But this is misleading. Defensible justifications for the restructuring are mostly about Eskom’s future problems, not its current ones. And there’s a risk that restructuring could exacerbate some of the underlying causes of the crisis.

The crisis itself is a function of a <a href="https://www.gtac.gov.za/Publications/160-casestudy_eskom_300413.pdf">complex set of factors</a>. These include an inappropriate tariff regime in the 1980s and 1990s, policy indecision in the post-apartheid era, bad infrastructure planning and poor project and human resource management. There’s also been large-scale corruption and a failure in government’s implementation of the oversight model for state-owned entities – as well as problems with the model itself. 

Two basic cases are being made for restructuring the 96-year old utility. The first is that, by formally splitting Eskom into managerially and financially autonomous components, it will be possible to improve management, better understand the source of existing problems, attract private investors and address corruption.

The second is that restructuring would facilitate a greater role for renewal energy generation driven by privately-funded generation projects. Eskom’s roles as generator, buyer and distributor of electricity would be separated to stop the utility’s generation interests from distorting its purchase and distribution decisions. 

Both cases are flawed. Eskom’s management and financial problems won’t necessarily go away simply by splitting it into three components. Any managerial benefits of separation can be overshadowed by difficulties in getting autonomous components to interact in a way that promotes the public interest, while private investors will not take on the unattractively debt-ridden components. 

And the case based on renewables has more to do with the need for South Africa to have a more appropriate energy mix that doesn’t rely so heavily on coal. It has little to do with Eskom’s underlying malaise. Renewables are on the table because of technological change and mass deployment of renewable energy internationally that has decreased costs, along with the need to meet climate change commitments. 

<h2>The proposal and its risks</h2>

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Finance Minister Tito Mboweni have set out two main proposals to fix the utility. 

The first is a major injection of funds. Mboweni announced that the National Treasury will provide Eskom with R23billion in cash a year for between three and ten years. This is in addition to financial support in 2015 that exceeded R150billion in costs to the state. The financial support will largely be funded by reducing other government expenditure as well as an increase in borrowing. 

The second major announcement was that the power utility will be split into three components: generation, transmission and distribution. 

Financial support, although highly undesirable, has become unavoidable. The necessity of the restructuring, however, is questionable and it carries large risks.

Breaking Eskom up into three parts is touted as a way to improve information about operations and finances, and to reduce inefficiencies. In addition, some argue that it would help attract direct private sector financing. 

These claims are dubious. For instance, the claim about private sector financing rests on the assumption that private investors will get a guarantee of future tariffs or revenues. But a guarantee would also facilitate Eskom borrowing from financial markets itself. And the obstacle to such a provision is partly regulatory and partly that it would create a large contingent liability for the state. 

Similarly, private investors will only get involved where Eskom is expected to be profitable in the future. That means that the cost and debt overhangs from the country’s two biggest coal-powered fire stations, Medupi and Kusile, will remain the problem of government and citizens.

A great deal has been written about the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. There have been both successes and failures. International experience across many industries shows that while separation can have a positive effect, it can also lead to breakdown of communication and information flows, distortion of incentives relative to the public interest, decline in operational indicators and excessive profits for private participants. 

A prominent example is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nationalising-britains-railways-is-the-only-way-to-fix-chronic-problems-heres-why-88591">privatisation of passenger rail in the UK</a>. What followed was a deterioration in services and subsequent, large government bailouts. 

The nature and extent of the risks in the case of Eskom’s unbundling require a detailed analysis. The current narrative gives them too little attention.

<h2>Overselling renewables</h2>

Those pushing renewable energy as the panacea are, in my view, downplaying the downsides and playing up the benefits – suggesting, for example, that it’s a costless solution. But it’s not. 

Decentralised renewable power generation by firms and households is rarely entirely “off grid”. When the sun doesn’t shine, electricity is drawn from the grid. But revenues from the sale of this electricity aren’t enough to fund the costs of the underlying generation and transmission infrastructure. 

Other countries have got round the problem by introducing a high “grid connection fee”. This hasn’t been given much attention in South African commentary. 

And while some have led the public to believe renewable energy will <a href="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/6-quick-fixes-that-can-save-south-africa-from-more-load-shedding-2019-3">ameliorate</a> Eskom’s operational crisis, they fail to mention that it could exacerbate the utility’s financial crisis. Adding renewable capacity does not remove the costs already incurred for new coal-fired power stations. And decentralised generation reduces Eskom’s revenues. 

There are other reasons to gradually expand South Africa’s renewable energy capacity. That is certainly <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-power-utility-wants-to-finance-nuclear-this-is-a-bad-idea-67939">better than pursuing a nuclear power option</a>. But obscuring its downsides will lead to dangerously inaccurate beliefs about what is actually a very limited role for renewables in addressing the current crisis.

It would have been preferable if the dangers of restructuring Eskom had been properly considered before the the president and finance minister made their statements. But given that the path appears to be set, it is paramount that policymakers and the public be awake to its complexities and risks.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114333/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sean-mfundza-muller-298216">Seán Mfundza Muller</a>, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Research Associate at the Public and Environmental Economics Research Centre (PEERC), <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-johannesburg-1275">University of Johannesburg</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-restructuring-south-africas-power-utility-wont-end-the-blackouts-114333">original article</a>.

#LoadShedding: Restructuring South Africa’s Eskom won’t end power cuts in the country, here’s why…

Press Release



Two innovative products &#8211; Digital Investment Platform, Tracker, announced 



Abidjan, Cote
d’Ivoire, 25 March 2019 &#8211; The African Development Bank, heads of 34 leading financial institutions covering Africa and other partners of the Africa Investment Forum reaffirmed
their commitment to “scale up, speed up, and synergize” efforts to deliver
transformative projects across the continent.



The meeting was also
attended by lead partners of the Africa Investment Forum: African Export-Import Bank, Africa50, Trade Development Bank,
Development Bank of South Africa, Africa Finance Corporation, European
Investment Bank, and Islamic Development Bank.



Chief Executive Officer,
Development Bank of Southern Africa, Patrick Dlamini, said: “The time has come
for us to demonstrate leadership to the rest of the world that a lot is
possible in Africa. The Africa Investment Forum provides the right platform to
achieve this. To see that the inaugural Forum last year was able to raise the
kind deals it did is mind-blowing. ”



Ahead of the November
2019 event, the Bank announced two innovative products &#8211; an open digital
marketplace known as ‘<a href="https://platform.africainvestmentforum.com/">The Platform</a>,’ to connect funders to projects and investment opportunities across
Africa, and an Investment Tracker to
ensure that investment commitments made on the Africa Investment Forum platform
are closely monitored. 



<a href="https://platform.africainvestmentforum.com">The Platform</a> is developed in
partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank’s <a href="https://connectamericas.com/">ConnectAmericas</a> &#8211; a global digital community with 200,000 registered business users, consolidating
its lead role in encouraging private sector investment in Africa.



&nbsp;“We need to make the Africa
Investment Forum the accelerator of projects. Last year’s event was great and
we want to build on that momentum,” Africa 50 Chief Executive Officer Alain Ebobissé said, stressing the need to
collectively commit additional financial resources for project preparation, and
legal support for African governments to better negotiate public private
partnerships. 



Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African
Development Bank, said the maiden edition of the Forum held in November 2018
exceeded expectations. “The 2018 Africa Investment
Forum ended with 49 deals that secured investor interest worth US$ 38.7 billion—in
just three days.” Adesina thanked the
core partners for their strong support in making the inaugural forum a success,
and that “working together as one remains the core principle of our
partnership.”



Partners unanimously
affirmed their commitment to the Forum and to driving investments in Africa.



Mamadou Barro, Head Africa, Islamic
Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector – Member of the Islamic
Development Bank (IsDB) Group, said: “We
must find a way to collectively attract the kind of funds the continent needs
to close its infrastructure gap.”



Participants welcomed the
innovative Platform, which offers investors, project sponsors and transaction
facilitators a live database of private/public private partnership (PPP)
projects and investment opportunities in Africa. It connects providers of
capital with opportunities for deals, improves the quality of project
information and reduces intermediation costs.&nbsp;
Features also include deal flow analytics and investment support
services, and access to training in the ConnectAmericas Academy.



Director
Project and Export Development Finance, African Export Import Bank, Kofi Adomakoh, called attention to the
importance of the co-guarantee component of the Forum, “We must pull our
strengths together to identify projects and synergies under the Africa
Investment Forum. The African Investment Forum that happened last year was long
overdue, but was important to put us back on track,” he noted. 



The 2018 Africa
Investment Forum attracted 1,943 participants representing 87 countries, and
brought together 400 investors from 52 countries;



According to Jane Feehan, Head of
Regional Representation for West Africa, European Investment Bank: “We are delighted
to underline and repeat our commitment to the Africa Investment Forum. The
success of the first edition has given it a huge convening power. We are also
excited about the focus on transactions.”

#AfricaInvestmentForum: Partners reaffirm commitment to close Africa’s infrastructure gap

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Troubled South African retailer Steinhoff said on Wednesday it had raised 4.8 billion rand ($332 million) from the sale of its 26 percent stake in KAP Industrial to pay off debt and shore up its finances, sending its shares higher. 



Steinhoff admitted “accounting irregularities” in December 2017, shocking investors who had backed its reinvention from a small South African business to a multinational retailer at the vanguard of the European discount furniture retail industry.



This wiped about 85 percent off its market value and threw the company into a liquidity crisis.



Steinhoff said in a statement it sold 694 million KAP shares at 6.85 rand per share, a 9.4 percent discount to Tuesday’s closing price. The book of demand was oversubscribed, it added.



Steinhoff said on Tuesday the placement would be offered to institutional investors only and will result in the company no longer holding an interest in KAP.



Steinhoff shares jumped in early trade on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and were up more than 6 percent by 0725 GMT.



Shares in KAP, a diversified industrial group selling everything from chemicals and auto components to mattresses, were down more than 7 percent.



In South Africa’s biggest corporate scandal, an investigation carried out by PwC found that Steinhoff recorded fictitious or irregular transactions totalling 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) over a period covering the 2009 and 2017 financial years.



Steinhoff sold down its stake in KAP in March 2018 after placing 450 million shares, or a 17 percent stake, also via an accelerated bookbuild in a bid to plug a liquidity gap.



Steinhoff has also raised cash from the sale of stakes in South African investment firm PSG Group, French online retailer Showroomprive.com, as well a property in Austria.



($1 = 14.4535 rand)



($1 = 0.8885 euros)



Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Louise Heavens

Southern Africa

Hundreds of thousands displaced after Cyclone Idai, death toll over 1,000

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This Summit is gearing towards a future driven by Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs

Steinhoff again delays release of financial statements sending its shares down

How African cities are run is largely shaped by everyday politics, what you need to know…

South African rand weakens as government considers more financial support for Eskom

Here’s why activity in South Africa’s private sector contracted sharply in March

Why Steinhoff investors agreed to extend suspension of legal battle

BRICS development bank approves $790 million funding for this African country’s projects

South Africa’s rand firms as Moody’s delays credit rating review, what you need to know…

Op-Ed: Sadc reform deadline looms as infighting continues in Lesotho

How can sports science be thought of and taught differently on the African continent ?

#LoadShedding: Restructuring South Africa’s Eskom won’t end power cuts in the country, here’s why…

#AfricaInvestmentForum: Partners reaffirm commitment to close Africa’s infrastructure gap

Steinhoff exits KAP

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Advertise With Us

Southern Africa

Hundreds of thousands displaced after Cyclone Idai, death toll over 1,000

Auto giants and used car dealers battle it out for Africa’s huge market, what you need to know…

Zimbabwe’s GDP grew by 4 percent in 2018, below initial target

What you need to know about Zimbabwe seeking $613 million in aid after the country was hit by drought and Cyclone Idai

This Summit is gearing towards a future driven by Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs

Steinhoff again delays release of financial statements sending its shares down

How African cities are run is largely shaped by everyday politics, what you need to know…

South African rand weakens as government considers more financial support for Eskom

Here’s why activity in South Africa’s private sector contracted sharply in March

Why Steinhoff investors agreed to extend suspension of legal battle

BRICS development bank approves $790 million funding for this African country’s projects

South Africa’s rand firms as Moody’s delays credit rating review, what you need to know…

Op-Ed: Sadc reform deadline looms as infighting continues in Lesotho

How can sports science be thought of and taught differently on the African continent ?

#LoadShedding: Restructuring South Africa’s Eskom won’t end power cuts in the country, here’s why…

#AfricaInvestmentForum: Partners reaffirm commitment to close Africa’s infrastructure gap

Steinhoff exits KAP

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