CAPE TOWN (Reuters) &#8211; President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday there was no reason to believe that any country would impose sanctions on South Africa over the government’s plans to redistribute land to address racial disparities in ownership.
Ramaphosa announced in late July that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) plans to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation, as whites still own the majority of South Africa’s land.
U.S. President Donald Trump waded into South Africa’s high-octane land debate last month when he asked his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study South African “land and farm seizures” in a late-night tweet.
Some analysts have since speculated that Trump’s government could impose economic sanctions on South Africa to express its disapproval with the ANC’s land reform agenda.
“We have no reason to believe that any country would impose sanctions on South Africa for any actions that we take, actions that are constitutional, that are lawful and consistent with international law,” Ramaphosa said in parliament while answering a question from an opposition party on his government’s land reform plans.
Ramaphosa added that the government was ready to discuss its land reform plans with any country. He repeated that land reform would follow a parliamentary process and that the government would not tolerate “land grabs”.
Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by James Macharia

Will South Africa face sanctions over land reform? Here’s what Ramaphosa thinks…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s industrial output expanded in July as food and motor vehicle output rose, easing pressure on an economy that recently slipped into recession and is struggling for investment amidst policy uncertainty and possible credit downgrades.
The statistics agency in Africa’s most industrialised economy said on Tuesday manufacturing output rose by 2.9 percent year-on-year in July, following a revised 0.6 percent expansion in June.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 1.1 percent year-year-on-year increase in July.
The rand responded positively to the data, strengthening to 15.0850 from 15.1200 before the release.
Analysts said manufacturing, which contributes 13 percent of gross domestic product and 11 percent of employment, is set to rebound for the rest of 2018 as inventories are replenished.
“This could be early signs of stabilisation in the sector, but we cannot rule out shocks especially as trade conditions are affected by the U.S.-China trade war,” said Isaac Matshego, senior economist at Nedbank.
The country slumped to a surprise recession, data showed last week, as manufacturing along with agriculture and retail shrank. Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene on Monday said revenue collection could fall below target due to the recession.
Reporting by Nomvelo Chalumbira and Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by James Macharia

South Africa’s manufacturing output for July rises by 2.9 percent, what you need to know…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday labelled reports that top ANC officials, including former President Jacob Zuma and the party’s secretary-general, were plotting in secret to unseat Cyril Ramaphosa as party leader as “shameless gossip”.
The Sunday Times newspaper said earlier on Sunday that Zuma held a clandestine meeting with staunch backers including ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, former North-West premier Supra Mahumapelo, ANC Women’s league secretary-general Meokgo Matuba and ANC Youth league KwaZulu-Natal secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo on Thursday.
“The meeting is believed to have discussed a fightback strategy that involves court action to challenge the outcome of last year’s ANC national conference, which elected Ramaphosa party president,” Sunday Times said, citing witnesses and senior ANC leaders.
The paper said the first action from the group was a letter sent to Magashule on Wednesday from regional executive committees in the North West, challenging the ANC’s highest decision-making body for its decision to disband the Mahumapelo-led provincial executive committee.
In a statement, ANC spokesman Pule Mabe refuted the report, saying the ANC rejects attempts to link Magashule to the alleged plot to oust Ramaphosa.
“It is clear that this malicious gossip is calculated to cast aspersions on the integrity and commitment of our Secretary General to the unity and renewal project of the African National Congress,” Mabe said.
Ramaphosa narrowly defeated Zuma’s ex-wife and preferred successor, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in a leadership vote at the party’s national conference in December. The ANC then ordered Zuma to step down as president in February.
Since taking office, Ramaphosa has been prioritising rooting out corruption as he strives to put the sluggish economy back on a sustained growth trajectory. Such measures led to the forced resignation of Mahumapelo as North West leader.
As bold as some of Ramaphosa’s decisions have been, he still maintains a cautious leadership style as he and some ANC officials know the power that Zuma loyalists retain within the ANC, Africa’s oldest liberation movement.
The ANC Women’s League also rejected the report, saying in a statement it will “defend the unity and integrity of the ANC.”
Reporting by Nqobile Dludla, editing by David Evans

Are top ANC officials plotting to unseat South Africa’s Ramaphosa as party leader?

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s new Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube may scrap the quasi currency bond note and liberalise exchange controls as part of reforms he plans to implement by end of this year, a state-owned weekly newspaper reported on Sunday.
The southern African nation, which dumped its currency in favour of the U.S. dollar in 2009 following years of hyperinflation, introduced bond notes in November 2016 in a bid to ease acute shortages of cash. The shortages have, however worsened while a black market continues to thrive.
The notes are backed by U.S. dollars loaned to the government by the African Export and Import Bank, and can be used like cash.
Officially, they are pegged to the dollar at a rate of 1:1, but on the street $1 fetches up to 1.50 in bond notes.
“I am very clear that there have to be currency reforms and the current currency approach is not working,” Ncube told the government-owned Sunday Mail.
He said he would explore three options: either Zimbabwe joins the South African rand union; uses only the U.S. dollar while removing bond notes from circulation, or reintroduces the Zimbabwean dollar.
Ncube however said a local currency would only be introduced when the country has enough foreign reserves and achieves macro-economic stability. Zimbabwe currently has two weeks import cover, according to central bank data.
Ncube, a former senior executive with the African Development Bank, was appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday and is expected to lead Zimbabwe’s economic recovery programme.
He was not immediately available to comment when Reuters tried to contact him.
A dwindling supply of cash dollars has led to banks limiting daily withdrawals to as little as $30 in bond notes. Companies are struggling to pay for imports and foreign investors cannot repatriate dividends or profits.
There are $350 million worth of bond notes in circulation, according to latest central bank figures.
Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Kirsten Donovan

Zimbabwe’s new finance minister considering scrapping bond notes, what you need to know…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s tax take could well be lower than forecast this year, with a downturn in the economy exacerbating problems at the tax revenue service, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said on Monday.
The country entered recession in the second quarter for the first time since 2009.
Nene said tax avoidance and evasion would rise in any economy that was growing slowly and where taxes have been increased, and the recession would only worsen matters.
“There is now additional downside risk to the tax revenue projected at the beginning of the year because of the contraction in the economy,” Nene told a tax conference.
“Fixing our economy to ensure that it grows faster and in a more sustainable manner is therefore critical.”
Nene also cited problems experienced by the South African revenue service (SARS).
President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended its commissioner Tom Moyane in March over alleged misconduct during the previous administration of Jacob Zuma, establishing an inquiry into the allegations two months later. Moyane has denied wrongdoing.
Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Writing by James Macharia; editing by John Stonestreet

South Africa’s Finance Minister says tax target could be lower than expected, here’s why

Bain &amp; Company, which has been in the firing line for its work done at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has set aside R164 million ($10.8 million) of fees plus VAT and interest paid to it by SARS. In a statement it said “the money will be used either as prescribed by the Nugent Commission of Inquiry or – in the absence of such prescription &#8211; for the benefit of South Africa”.
In 2014, Bain conducted a diagnostic for SARS after being employed by the collection service’s then boss Tom Moyane. The plan has been widely criticised for weakening SARS’S collection abilities.
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In a statement, the consultancy service said its organisation structure work at SARS did not achieve positive results for its client.
Bain also revealed that Vittorio Massone will step down as managing partner, and be replaced by Tiaan Moolman, a long serving member of the company.
Massone however remains a partner at Bain &amp; Company and will focus his time on cooperating with the Nugent Commission, the statement said.
Elaborating it said: &#8220;We have requested Tiaan Moolman to take over day to day operations as interim managing partner. It has been known to our clients for some time that Mr Massone would rotate out of his current role in December to take on another senior role within the firm. This rotation typically occurs each 5-7 years and Mr Massone has already completed almost 9 years in his current role&#8221;.
Much of the destruction caused by Bain came to light at the Nugent Inquiry into SARS where Massone testified (see video). Following his and others’ testimony Bain &amp; Company launched an independent investigation led by global law firm Baker McKenzie to examine the facts relating to people, processes, and governance that resulted in it getting and accepting the work.
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In a statement Bain says initial findings have shown that its engagement with SARS fell short of its operating principles.
The consultancy also said to reinforce the independence of the investigation and Bain’s commitment to addressing any new facts, it has established an oversight committee made up of senior global Bain partners. “Athol Williams, a Bain alumnus and a respected independent advisor, will chair this committee on an interim basis. He is a distinguished academic in the areas of corporate responsibility, a corporate leader, and lifelong social advocate.”
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Bain & Company plans to pay back $10.8 million for SARS work, Managing Partner changes role

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HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday appointed former banker Mthuli Ncube as finance minister and kept Winston Chitando in charge of mining, placing two technocrats at the helm of plans to rescue the country’s battered economy.
The 75-year-old leader is under pressure to rebuild an economy hit by lack of foreign investment, unemployment above 80 percent and acute dollar shortages that have hobbled some imports.
Mnangagwa won a disputed vote on July 30, the first election in the southern African nation since Robert Mugabe was removed by the army last November after nearly four decades in power.
In appointing Ncube, Mnangagwa wants to show the international community that he is giving priority to the economy and moving away from the Mugabe years where important cabinet posts were given on patronage lines.
“It sounds very encouraging especially on the choice of finance minister. That’s a very good foundation for the country’s economic recovery prospects,” said John Robertson, a Harare-based independent economist.
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“I hope the president will permit those ministers to exercise their skills without interference.”
Ncube, 55, is a former chief economist and vice president at the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was also a lecturer in finance at the London School of Economics and Wits Business School in South Africa.
He founded Zimbabwe’s Barbican Bank and asset management company, which were, however, put into administration by the central bank in 2005 after only two years of operations. The bank’s license was later canceled.
Ncube will be tasked with crafting an economic recovery program as well as coming up with strategy to pay off Zimbabwe’s $1.8 billion arrears to the World Bank and AfDB.
<h3>MINING FAVORITE</h3>
Chitando, a former managing director and chairman at the Impala Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater joint venture platinum miner Mimosa, was favorite to be retained at the mines ministry, to which he was first appointed in Nov. 2017.
Mining generates more than half of Zimbabwe’s foreign export earnings and Mnangagwa has said the sector, which is attracting investors in lithium mining, will anchor future economic growth.
Mnangagwa also appointed ZANU-PF national chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri as Defence Minister, taking away a key security portfolio from Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, the retired general who led the coup against Mugabe.
Zimbabwean swimming Olympic gold medalist Kirsty Coventry was a surprise pick for the youth and sports ministry in a cabinet that did not include any opposition officials.
Mnangagwa appointed eight new faces to his cabinet but there was no place for long serving ministers Patrick Chinamasa, Obert Mpofu, David Parirenyatwa and Simon Moyo.
“We would want to grow, modernize and mechanize our economy. We believe in the next five years, we will be able to transform our people into middle income citizens,” Mnangagwa told reporters after his chief secretary announced the cabinet list.
Mnangagwa had earlier received support from former President Robert Mugabe who said he now accepted him as Zimbabwe’s legitimate leader after initially accusing him of leading a “disgraceful” de facto coup that ended his near four-decades rule last year.
On the eve of the July 30 vote, Mugabe, 94, said he would vote for the opposition to remove Mnangagwa’s “military government”, expressing bitterness toward his one-time allies in the ruling ZANU-PF party.
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Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Catherine Evans, William Maclean
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Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa names new cabinet, ex-banker to be finance minister

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe has said he now accepts President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the country’s legitimate leader after initially accusing him of leading a “disgraceful” de facto coup that ended his near four-decades rule last year.
On the eve of the July 30 vote, Mugabe said he would vote for the opposition to remove Mnangagwa’s “military government”, as the 94-year-old leader expressed bitterness and turned against his one-time allies in the ruling ZANU-PF party.
But at a funeral wake of his mother-in-law, Mugabe said Mnangagwa’s victory, which is still disputed by his main opponent Nelson Chamisa, made him a legitimate president, the privately-owned NewsDay and state-owned The Herald newspapers reported on Friday.
“The wrong that happened last November has been erased by his victory in the July 30 elections. We now have a government born out of the constitution. I now accept his leadership and he now deserves the support of every Zimbabwean,” Mugabe said, looking frail in video footage on an online television site.
“Before the elections, I did not support him because he came through illegal means which violated our liberation values that politics lead the gun,” added Mugabe, likely ending the feud between the new president and his former mentor.
Mugabe’s forced resignation divided ZANU-PF and created mistrust between the army on one side and the police and intelligence agency on the other, but the rapprochement could help overcome those differences and rally others behind Mnangagwa.
The military last year intervened after expulsions of ZANU-PF officials that were sympathetic to Mnangagwa, then Mugabe’s deputy, and to stop the presidential ambitions of the wife of the veteran former leader.
Mugabe’s wife Grace and a ZANU-PF faction known as G40 had been resisting Mnangagwa’s rise to power. Mugabe again denied that he had planned to install Grace as his preferred successor, NewsDay and The Herald reported on Friday.
At the wake Grace also said people should pray for her husband, who she said was not feeling well. The couple have travelled to Singapore several times this year for Mugabe’s medical treatment.
Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Mugabe says he now accepts Mnangagwa as Zimbabwe’s legitimate leader, here’s why…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; MTN Group has been put on review by Moody’s for downgrade after the South African mobile phone operator said it was on the hook for a total of $10.1 billion from its biggest market Nigeria, the ratings agency said on Thursday.
“MTN’s ratings have been placed on review for downgrade to reflect the uncertainty around the potential implications of the recent CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) and NAG (Nigerian Attorney General) announcements on MTN’s credit profile,” Moody’s said.
Africa’s biggest wireless phones group said on Tuesday the Nigerian Attorney General was seeking $2 billion in taxes incurred over the last decade.
That followed an order days before from that country’s central bank that MTN’s Lagos-based unit hand over $8.1 billion that it said was illegally sent abroad.
Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by James Macharia

MTN placed on review for downgrade by Moody’s, what you need to know…

JOHANNESBURG/PRETORIA (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa will soon recover from recession, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday in his first reaction to news that undermines his effort to revive the economy and attract investment after a decade of stagnation.
Ramaphosa staked his reputation on economic revival when he took over in February from Jacob Zuma, whose tenure was plagued by scandal, and investors welcomed his accession to power in part due to his strong ties to the business community.
Ratings agency Moody’s said the slide into recession in the second quarter would exacerbate fiscal and monetary challenges. It said weaker-than-expected economic data was “credit negative”.
Data on Thursday showed the current account deficit narrowed to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product in the second quarter, from a revised 4.6 percent in the first quarter. The rand extended its gains to more than 1 percent stronger on the news.
The deficit figure was slightly smaller than the 3.4 percent deficit analysts polled by Reuters had expected, a much-needed boost for after data this week showed the economy slipped into recession for the first time since 2009.
In his first comments on the recession, Ramaphosa said the setbacks were temporary.
“All these things that are happening now are transitional issues that are going to pass,” Ramaphosa was quoted by local news agency Eyewitness News as saying.
“I will be meeting with the business community soon, so that we rally everyone together and pull our country out of the situation that we are in,” added Ramaphosa, who was attending a China-Africa summit in Beijing when the data was released.
South Africa needs faster economic growth to reduce its 27 percent unemployment rate and alleviate poverty and inequality, both of which stoke instability.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has made repeated pledges to improve the economy. Unemployment is a key concern for voters ahead of elections next year.
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MOODY’S WARNING
The rand has slumped as much as 5 percent against the dollar this week and government bonds have sold off steeply, also hurt by the turmoil on Turkish and Argentinian financial markets.
“This weaker-than-expected economic performance will exacerbate fiscal and monetary challenges, a credit negative,” Moody’s said in a statement on the weaker GDP figures.
The agency is the last of the “big three” international agencies to rate South Africa’s long-term foreign-currency debt investment grade.
While releasing the current account data, the Reserve Bank, which meets on Sept. 20 to decide on interest rates, said the improved current and trade account figures were due to higher value and volume of merchandised exports.
“South Africa’s terms of trade (including gold) improved in the second quarter of 2018 as the rand price of exports, including gold, increased at a faster pace than that of imports,” the central bank said in a statement.
Several foreign banks have slashed their growth forecasts for South Africa to less than 1 percent this year.
“Moody’s has pointed out that the task of fiscal consolidation is going to get harder, but I don’t think they’ll change our credit rating yet,” said portfolio manager Wayne McCurrie at First National Bank.
“A narrow current account helps. Any good news in this environment is really good news.”
Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Here’s what South Africa’s president Ramaphosa has to say about the country slipping into recession

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Workers from South Africa’s mainly white Solidarity union started a go-slow protest at petrochemicals firm Sasol over a share scheme offered exclusively to black staff, and will launch a full strike on Thursday.
The Solidarity union also said it will file a complaint to U.S. regulators over Sasol’s “discriminative” black share scheme.
The company is a leader in technology that converts coal and gas to fuel and also operates in the United States,
“We have a staggered industrial action. Today, we have a go-slow. Our 6,300 members will carry out their duties, but in a slow manner. We plan to ramp up to a full-blown strike on Thursday,” Dirk Hermann, Solidarity’s chief executive said.
Reporting by James Macharia, editing by Louise Heavens

White workers at Sasol protest over share scheme offered exclusively to black staff

Media Statement from Bain &amp; Company
In light of new questions being raised during last week’s testimony before the SARS 
Commission of Inquiry and from media inquiries, led by our global leadership and external 
Counsel, Bain &amp; Company is now undertaking a deep and extensive investigation into all 
matters relating to our work with SARS. We want to be absolutely certain that we entered into our SARS engagement in full compliance with applicable procurement laws and that our investigation’s findings are accurate and unassailable.
We want to be completely open and transparent, as we believe that is what the people of South Africa deserve. However, given the Commission of Inquiry is continuing its investigation we cannot publicly discuss anything that would in any way affect the ongoing work of the Commission.
Bain continues to stand by the value and rigor of its work – not as a point of pride– but out of a sense of mission that our South African associates wanted to bring to that organization. We worked hard because we wanted to help SARS become an even better organization and we believe our work could help to do that.
We have listened with concern to the testimonies of SARS employees who feel they have been mistreated and disrespected, at their frustration and pain and the consequences this has had on the lives of these individuals and their families. We are dismayed by the way our work has been used to further a different agenda than was intended. In our recommendations, there was no need for any lay-offs or terminations. This didn’t turn out to be the reality when the model was implemented. We are deeply sorry for how this turned out – we wish we had known then what we do now.
We contend that this could have been avoided. Through the various Commission testimony, we now know that essential elements of delivering a successful operating model were not 
systematically addressed, causing the failure at SARS.
As we stated in our testimony, Bain believes that the success of an operating model for an 
organization is a function of defining and implementing all elements of the model correctly: 
leadership, organization structure, accountabilities and decision processes, governance forums, core values/ways of working, capabilities, business processes, and IT systems. We raised this with SARS, but Bain’s contracted work on the operating model covered only one aspect, organizational structure, whilst SARS handled internally all other aspects of the process. This point must not be lost nor is the fact that the design principles for this structure was presented to and reviewed by SARS’s independent Advisory Board instituted by the Finance Minister.
In hindsight, as we reflect on our role at SARS there are a several places where we could have done better. We could have listened better. We could have pushed SARS harder to acknowledge and address the risks we raised. We could have been more aware of agendas that could have diverged from the mandate we were given. These are lessons we have already taken to heart.
These last few weeks have been difficult. There is a growing frustration within our firm that we did not recognize the possibility that we may have been used to further a political or personal agenda. We always go into our work presuming our clients have good intentions. We are now questioning these beliefs as it relates to SARS.
As a firm, we stand by the work we produced and the dedicated effort of our employees who wanted nothing more than to make SARS a better place. We will continue to cooperate with the Commission of Inquiry to support a process aimed at restoring SARS to the once credible institution it was once known as.

Improperly appointed boards spell disaster for organisations

Bain & Company to launch investigation into SARS consultancy

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Steinhoff reported a slight increase in nine-month sales on Friday as its managers remained preoccupied with cleaning up after an accounting fraud that nearly tipped the South African retailer into bankruptcy.
Steinhoff was thrown a lifeline last month when its creditors agreed to delay debt claims for three years after the multinational retailer uncovered accounting irregularities that sent its shares crashing and left it scrambling for working capital.
The company, which is registered in the Netherlands, said sales rose 2 percent to 12.9 billion euros ($15 billion) in the nine months through June as a strong showing at its separately listed African unit, Pepkor, offset weak results from Europe, the United States and Europe. The group’s brands include Mattress Firm in the United States and Poundland in Britain.
“As a management team we are focused on maintaining stability within the operations; finalising the implementation of the restructuring plan with the group’s financial creditors; improving governance at all levels,” the company said in a statement.
Shares in Steinhoff rose 3.17 percent to 2.95 rand as of 1026 GMT, valuing the company at around 12 billion rand, far from the more than 200 billion rand valuation the stock fetched just nine months ago.
Steinhoff has already written down the value of its assets by more than $12 billion following initial findings of an investigation into the company’s past bookkeeping practices.
The probe, being carried out by auditing firm PwC, has uncovered accounting irregularities that date back to at least 2015, and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
($1 = 0.8570 euros)
Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by James Macharia and Susan Fenton

Scandal-ridden Steinhoff reports 2% increase in nine-month sales, what you need to know…

By Gary van Staden, Senior Political Analyst at NKC African Economics
The decision – of which the legality is in dispute – by councillors and provincial officials in the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) Metro to remove Democratic Alliance (DA) Mayor Athol Trollip in a vote of no confidence on Monday, August 27, signals the end of the coalition experiment in South Africa’s municipal governments.
It failed for the reasons it usually tends to fail: the tyranny of minorities and the elevation of position and power over principle.
While the DA announced on Tuesday, August 28, that it intended to challenge in the courts what it called “a sham and a mockery and an insult to the voters,” the fact of the matter is that these battles tend to be fought on political terrain. Even if the courts overturn the decision and reinstate Mr Trollip it would only prompt an intensified effort to get rid of him, which will, at some point, succeed.
The African National Congress (ANC) has spent the past two years attempting to reverse its electoral losses in the NMB Metro as well as in the Tshwane (Pretoria) and Johannesburg Metros by repeated motions of no confidence and political shenanigans that show no respect for the will of the people.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who do not want to go into the general election next year as a friend of the DA, will do everything they can to put distance between themselves and the DA by trying to assist in the removal of all DA administrations for overtly political reasons.
We expect that the combination of the ANC and the EFF will eventually remove the DA-led administrations in both Tshwane and Johannesburg while both strenuously deny they are working together. (In both those metros, an ANC-EFF coalition would have the majority of council seats.)
The courts have still to decide on the legality of events in the NMB. The deciding vote was cast after the Speaker had been fired, to prevent him casting a decider in Mr Trollip’s favour, and the DA councillor who abstained to let the motion pass had supposedly been sacked by the DA’s Federal Executive Chair James Selfe in the hours before the vote, but was still counted as present, so the DA’s case may have some merit.
Still, the fact of the matter is that the residents of the Metro who roundly rejected the ANC in 2016 now have an ANC-EFF backed executive Mayor in Mongameli Bobani of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) whose party managed less than two percent of the popular vote in 2016.
The proud kingmaker EFF managed slightly better at 5.1% in 2016.
Mr Bobani then appointed his own Mayoral Committee that comprised mainly ANC members. An ANC member is now also Speaker. This new coalition – if it can hold – is not guaranteed a smooth ride and nor are the people of NMB guaranteed that the focus of their council is going to be on service delivery and governance. More likely it is going to focus on making sure the DA cannot manage to find a voice or two and bring its own motion of no confidence.
Senior officials from the mayor down will be constantly looking over their shoulders for the next attempt to unseat them. So much for governance.
The next target, as the EFF and its allies have already made clear, is the DA administration in Tshwane that inherited a near bankrupt, faction-riddled ANC administration sinking into a bog of corruption and mismanagement.
We expect that Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga and his coalition crew will suffer the same fate. The ANC has yet to succeed in a motion of no confidence in the Johannesburg DA executive despite several attempts (and although it has the most seats on that council, though 15 shy of a majority), but it is going to keep on trying until it succeeds.
The new willingness of the EFF to cosy up to the ANC suggests Johannesburg’s DA-led administration is on borrowed time.
Mr Trollip, as many have pointed out, is not an easy man to get on with and he tends to make enemies relatively easily, which is how the DA alienated the UDM. But he was the representative of the party that secured the most votes in 2016 and managed to negotiate a coalition government. Now the second-placed party – and one that voters had roundly rejected, slashing its share of the vote by close to 20% – controls the Mayoral Committee and probably the mayor with his 2% share of the vote.
People and parties wear tags of democracy and the will of the people on their exposed sleeves for all to see yet are quite prepared to usurp the will of people for short-term political gain and, frankly, in a spirit of bad-tempered malice.
Not only is this usurping the will of the people: it signals that South Africa’s political environment has been Zumafied to the point where everything is about power, position and access to resources and where public service and sacrifice for the common good are campaign slogans of no further use.
Coalitions in South Africa have now become mechanisms for gaining by stealth what was lost at the ballot box and for personal gain above service. This undermines democracy and deprives the people of what should and could be a relatively stable and productive mechanism for governing.

OpEd: Is the coalition experiment over in South Africa’s municipal governments?

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African trade unions ended a pay dispute with state power firm Eskom on Thursday, removing a major obstacle to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to guarantee uninterrupted power supplies while reforming the struggling utility.
Three unions — the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and Solidarity — signed a three-year deal that will see Eskom workers receive a 7.5 percent wage increase this year and a 7 percent increase in each of the following two years.
The agreement places an added burden on Eskom’s strained finances but reduces the risk of a repeat of the power outages experienced during several days in June and July that which cast a cloud over Ramaphosa’s economic reform programme.
Cash-strapped Eskom is one of the biggest threats to South Africa’s sovereign credit ratings, which are near “junk” status. It is desperate to push ahead with a turnaround plan.
The state-owned utility supplies more than 90 percent of the country’s power, has around 270 billion rand ($18.6 billion) of state-guaranteed debt and is a major employer, with around 47,000 staff, a figure its new board wants to trim to repair the firm’s balance sheet.
When talks with trade unions began several months ago, Eskom offered no increase in salaries. But it backtracked after protesting workers forced some generating units to be switched off, leading to the first power outages since 2015.
“The 2018 Eskom wage negotiations have been the most difficult ever in the history of the NUM,” the union said in a statement.
Eskom said the conclusion of the wage talks meant it could focus on its turnaround plan.
The wage deal agreed on Thursday is around 2 percent above consumer inflation-linked increases National Treasury promised as part of a fiscal consolidation plan key to Pretoria retaining its last investment grade credit rating.
Moody’s, the last of the “big three” ratings agencies to have South Africa’s sovereign rating in investment grade, said this month that the pace of fiscal consolidation in South Africa had slowed.
Analysts expressed cautious optimism about the wage deal being reached, but said it would be a drag on Eskom’s near-term financial performance and could worry ratings agencies.
“It is definitely ratings negative, but it is not the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” energy analyst Mike Levington said. “It’s good they’ve signed the agreement, but they’ve ignored the bigger problem of Eskom’s sustainability. It’s very clear that retrenchments (layoffs) are going to be part of that.”
($1 = 14.5254 rand)
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&#8211; Tanisha Heiberg, Mfuneko Toyana
Editing by Alexander Winning and Edmund Blair

The wage deal between South African unions and Eskom, the country’s power utility

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) &#8211; Britain will use its international aid budget to boost its national interest and deepen trade ties with Africa, Prime Minister Theresa May will tell an audience in South Africa on Tuesday.
May, battling to unite her divided party over her plan to take Britain out of the European Union, will also visit Nigeria and Kenya as part of a three-day visit to Africa alongside a group of business delegates.
She is expected to recommit to maintaining the overall British aid budget at 0.7 percent of economic output but will add that she will be “unashamed” to use it in a way that helps Britain.
The target has previously come under fire from many of May’s own lawmakers who say it is a blunt tool that is too high and should be spent elsewhere or in Britain itself.
May will say she wants Britain to become the biggest investor in Africa out of the countries in the Group of Seven nations, overtaking the United States, by using the aid budget to help British private sector companies invest on the continent.
“I am unashamed about the need to ensure that our aid programme works for the UK,” May will say in her speech, according to extracts released by her office.
“Today I am committing that our development spending will not only combat extreme poverty, but at the same time tackle global challenges and support our own national interest. This will ensure that our investment in aid benefits us all, and is fully aligned with our wider national security priorities.”
Writing by Kate Holton; editing by Michael Holden

May in South Africa to discuss Britain’s plans to boost trade in Africa, what you need to know…

PRETORIA (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa has cancelled plans to add 9,600 megawatts (MW) of nuclear power by 2030 and will instead aim to add more capacity in natural gas, wind and other energy sources, the energy minister announced on Monday.
Africa’s only nuclear power has an installed capacity of 1,860 MW but plans under the government of former President Jacob Zuma to have six times that output by 2030 hit hurdles over cost and other issues.
There are now “no plans to increase nuclear until 2030,” Energy Minister Jeff Radebe said while releasing the government’s new Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).
The plan also showed that electricity demand on the grid has been declining.
Russian state-owned firm Rosatom was seen as a frontrunner to build the additional nuclear capacity.
Several meetings between Zuma and Russian President Vladimir Putin led to speculation that Rosatom had secured the deal before the launch of the public tender. South Africa’s government and Rosatom denied this claim.
But soon after taking over from Zuma in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa put the nuclear expansion on the back burner saying the plan was too expensive.
In July, Ramaphosa said Putin had raised the subject of a nuclear deal at a private meeting with him at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg but that he had told him that Pretoria could not sign such a deal for now.
Radebe on Monday instead outlined expansion plans targeting other energy sources.
He said the plan calls for additional capacity of 8,100 MW from wind and 8,100 MW from gas, 5,670 MW from photovoltaic panels, 2,500 MW from hydro and 1,000 MW from coal by 2030.
Public comment on the plan is invited for 60 days before final cabinet approval, he said.
Writing by James Macharia; editing by Jason Neely

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OpEd: Is the coalition experiment over in South Africa’s municipal governments?

The wage deal between South African unions and Eskom, the country’s power utility

May in South Africa to discuss Britain’s plans to boost trade in Africa, what you need to know…

Why South Africa is cancelling plans to expand its nuclear power

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