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This week Comair become the latest victim of Covid-19 lock-down&#8217;s with the airline filing for business rescue hot off the heels of South African retailer Edcon.

COVID-19: Businesses seeking rescue at the tipping point

COVID-19: Businesses seeking rescue at the tipping point, bubble is about to burst

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Agri-business Kaap Agri has iced its interim dividend despite an increase in revenue and profit due to most of its operations trading during the five week COVID-19 lockdown. Kaap Agri CEO, Sean Walsh joins CNBC Africa for more.

Kaap Agri holds on to cash to avoid COVID-19 iceberg

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Several South African magazines have been pulled off the shelves after their publishing houses became casualties of the COVID-19 economic downturn. With the fortunes of prominent glossy magazines doomed, what does this mean for other reading materials like books? Grattan Kirk, CEO of Exclusive Books joins CNBC Africa for more.

How books have made a comeback during coronavirus lock-downs

By Chris Bishop.



It was raised and tended, by hand, in the shady herbal gardens on an island amid the warm sea breezes of the east coast of Africa. It is intended to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but the World Health Organisation says: don’t touch it &#8211; yet.



It is a balm produced from a plant called Artemesia blended with a collection of herbs grown on the island of Madagascar.



Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina has presented it to heads of state at the African Union as a herbal prevention of treatment of COVID-19. For centuries – long before pharmaceuticals factories were built – African herbs were a natural and trusted way of healing and warding off ailments. The liquid is being made by the Madagascar Institute of Applied Research and distributed door-to-door by soldiers in the capital Antananarivo. &nbsp;



Yet, in its online briefing to journalists, WHO’s regional director Matshidiso Moeti warned Africans to steer clear of the liquid from Madagascar.



“We are advising the government of Madgascar to take this through a clinical trial…So, we would caution and advise against countries adopting a product that has not been tested for its efficacy. Everything should be used only after clinical trials,” says Moeti when questioned about the elixir from Madagascar.



“We are concerned that the touting of this product as a preventative measure might stop people doing the right things to protect themselves.”



South Africa’s health minister Zweli Mkhize tweeted: “We received a call from the government of Madagascar, who asked for help with scientific research. Our scientists would be able to assist with this research. We will only get involved in a scientific analysis of the herb. We are not at that point yet.”



Moeti, a South African born doctor raised in Botswana, painted a grim picture of the fight against COVID-19 that has seen 2000 people die. To make matters worse, she said, 1000 health workers had fallen foul of the disease leaving a shortage of workers in treating all diseases. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I have a lot of faith in the resilience of African people. We will not see a continent flattened and in despair. It will be difficult but I am sure we will come through this together and stronger,”says Moeti.

MADAGASCAR-HEALTH-VIRUS

The anti-COVID-19 herbal balm from the sea breezes of  Madagascar – why the World Health Organisation says don’t touch it for now.

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Rwanda recently eased the lock-down and public buses are required to carry fewer passengers to avoid the spread of Covid-19. CNBC Africa spoke to Patrick Nyirishema, Director General of Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority on measures to ensure public transport is safe and profitable.

The impact of Covid-19 on Rwanda’s transport system

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In response to Covid-19 realities Nigeria’s electricity regulators shelved an initially planned April tariff hike by another three months. This comes as talks that the country plans to cap electricity tariff shortfalls this year to 380 billion naira and to move to full cost-reflective tariff in 2021. Oti Ikomi, CEO and Executive Vice-Chairman Proton Energy, joins CNBC Africa to discuss stakeholders’ responses and further sectorial impact.

Proton Energy CEO on COVID-19 & its impact on Nigeria’s power sector reforms

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Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo says the country has reached an agreement with the Bank of Ghana and other commercial banks in the country to raise three billion cedis to support specific industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. John Gatsi, Dean of the School of Business at the University of Cape Coast joins CNBC Africa to assess the palliatives rolled by the Ghanaian government so far.

How Ghana plans to help its COVID-19 hit industries stay open

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Amadou Hott, Senegal’s Minister for Economy, Planning and International Cooperation joins CNBC Africa to discuss how the country is responding to the Covid-19 shock.

Amadou Hott on how Senegal is responding to the COVID-19 shock

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As of Friday the 1st of May, South Africa entered into level 4 lock-down regulations, which permitted food businesses to operate on a home delivery service basis only. Burger King South Africa has opened some of its franchises on Wednesday the 6th of May and Juan Klopper the Chief Operating Officer at Burger King South Africa joins CNBC Africa for more on the process of reopening and the impact that Covid-19 has had on the business.

This is the hefty price Burger King is paying for SA’s lock-down

Are low interest rates enough? | CNBC Explains

By Emma Rumney



JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The expansion of South Africa’s auto industry is central to the government’s economic development strategy but the coronavirus crisis has forced carmakers into survival mode and could push ambitious growth plans out of reach.



Industry officials say the government needs to defer some tax payments for the auto industry and relax the criteria for investment incentives and allowances, or the pandemic could deal the sector a permanent blow.



Before the crisis, the government had crafted a plan to supercharge the sector to help revive the country’s struggling economy and form a beachhead for expansion within Africa, the world’s last major untapped market for new cars. [nL8N21S590]



But a five-week lockdown has brought a manufacturing and retail industry that accounts for almost 7% of South Africa’s gross domestic product and 30% of its manufacturing output to a virtual standstill.



“Those plans will be impacted massively,” said Mike Mabasa, chief executive of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA). “Particularly for the short to medium term, that plan is completely out of the window.”



South Africa has put its so-called automotive masterplan at the heart of attempts to revive growth through industrialisation after years of stagnation and to bring unemployment down from almost 30%.



The plan aims to boost growth and create jobs by more than doubling the industry’s annual production to 1.4 million vehicles by 2035 and raising the proportion of auto components made locally to 60% from 39%.



The new scheme comes after a series of auto industry development plans and will be supported by investment and tax incentives that have been in place in some form for years.



They include a tax-free cash grant starting at 20% of the value of qualifying investments, rising to 25% for component makers, and a tax perk related to vehicle production, known as the vehicle assembly allowance.



SCANT RESPONSE



Mabasa said NAAMSA has asked the government to relax the minimum plant production capacity threshold of 50,000 cars a year needed for the investment incentive as carmakers believe it’s too stringent given the fallout from the crisis.



As part of series of requests on behalf of the industry, NAAMSA has also asked the government to use 2019 production numbers and targets for 2020’s vehicle assembly allowance, as output is likely to take a major hit this year.



The sector had some relief with the easing of the country’s lockdown on May 1 as it allowed auto manufacturers to return to 50% capacity. But it has had scant response from the government to its calls for specific financial help, besides requests for more information.



The Department of Trade and Industry did not respond to requests for comment.



Most of South Africa’s automakers referred Reuters to NAAMSA for comment.



NAAMSA represents 41 firms – including BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen &lt;VOWG_p.DE&gt; – which make some 600,000 vehicles a year in South Africa and export about 65% of them.



Mercedes-Benz South Africa said it was not possible to predict the impact of COVID-19 on the 2035 industry targets.



“We have constructive relationships with our key stakeholders in suppliers and the government, and are confident that we will be able to find solutions to maintain the competitiveness of the automotive manufacturing sector,” its corporate affairs manager, Thato Mntambo, told Reuters.



SMALL FIRMS VULNERABLE



NAAMSA’s Mabasa warned that if carmakers struggle for liquidity in the crisis they may be unable to fulfil export orders, worth $9 billion a year across the industry. Local component makers focused on autos could also suffer badly.



Industry officials said the damage could be permanent and open the way for upcoming rivals such as Morocco and more established centres like Thailand to steal market share.



Andrew Kirby, chief executive of Toyota South Africa, said last month that the risk to the country’s role in global auto industry supply chains stemmed mostly from the vulnerability of its smaller component manufacturers.



If either vehicle makers or parts manufacturers cannot deliver their products, international customers will rapidly take their business elsewhere, industry officials said.



Renai Moothilal, executive director of the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers, said there was a strong possibility smaller firms would not survive and that would be disastrous for the government’s drive to boost local output and double employment in the sector.



He said levers the government could pull included levy waivers and support for utility and wage bills, but without help it was not hard to see how an industry that has already lost much of its business case might contract rather than expand.



“Once global companies move export contracts, and invest in tools of production in another destination, the costs sunk into that move make it improbable that they would want to bring it back to South Africa,” Moothilal said.



HITTING RESET BUTTON



NAAMSA’s Mabasa said the overseas headquarters of some local component manufacturers had already indicated they could shift production to divisions outside South Africa.



About 90% of the business of one local supplier, SP Metal Forgings (SPF), is in the automotive sector. Chief executive Ken Manners said the initial three-week lockdown alone had probably cost it 12% to 15% of annual turnover.



Another local component supplier, Pressure Die Castings (PDC), said it was expecting to lose 15% of its turnover for at least three months from the start of the lockdown.



“If we were only in (auto) manufacturing, we probably would have closed the company,” said Graham Smith, managing director of PDC, which supplies components to several industries.



The car sector will benefit from some economy-wide tax measures already announced, such as deferred payments on a carbon tax, but the demands on South Africa’s strained public finances are huge, with many key industries in trouble.



With the country’s debt rating now firmly in junk territory and an economic contraction inevitable, there are questions over how it will even pay for measures already announced.



Meanwhile, the risk of a return to a more expansive lockdown looms and demand for vehicles at home and abroad has plummeted.



IHS Markit senior analyst Walt Madeira said car production will fall too. It forecasts global light vehicle sales will drop to 69.6 million units this year from 89.7 million in 2019, with a 20% decline in South Africa. (https://tmsnrt.rs/2WbOIfb)



And any change of tack by carmakers at the top of the production pyramid will ripple through the industry.



“It’s like pushing a big reset button and nobody is quite sure what that means,” SPF’s Manners said. “It’s very worrying in terms of what our businesses are going to look like in six months.”



(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by David Clarke)



This article was first published on Sharenet <a href="https://www.sharenet.co.za/views/views-article.php?views-article=414382">https://www.sharenet.co.za/views/views-article.php?views-article=414382</a> and is republished with its permission.



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

SA’s auto industry ambitions threatened by COVID-19

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; The World Bank will grant $7 million to Zimbabwe to help it fight the new <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/04/30/morgan-co-on-covid-19-its-impact-on-zimbabwes-economy/">coronavirus outbreak</a> that is expected to worsen an already struggling economy and <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2020/04/02/the-fight-to-keep-4-1-million-zimbabweans-fed-in-covid-19-lockdown/">food crisis</a>, a bank spokesman said on Wednesday.



Zimbabwe is more than $1.2 billion in arrears to the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/04/09/world-bank-considers-debt-relief-for-africa-to-fight-covid-19/">World Bank</a>, <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/04/09/afdb-announces-10bn-war-chest-to-fight-covid-19/">African Development Bank</a> and European Investment Bank, making it ineligible for funding or debt forgiveness from global lenders.



The World Bank spokesman said that while Zimbabwe and other countries indebted to the lender could not access regular financing, they could get money from its trust funds to fight the coronavirus that has slowed down the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/05/covid-19-what-the-world-can-learn-from-africa-in-dealing-with-a-pandemic/">global economy</a>.



“The bank’s senior management has underlined the need for additional trust fund financing to ensure that Zimbabwe and the small group of other countries in arrears can receive support as part of our global effort to help countries respond to the COVID-19 crisis,” the spokesman said.



Zimbabwe would get $5 million from the World Bank’s global financing facility trust and another $2 million would be diverted from <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/04/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-is-taking-its-toll-on-african-livelihoods/">funds meant to help the country recover</a> from a devastating cyclone in 2019.



“We recognise this is a global crisis that impacts every country and we cannot leave anyone behind in our response,” the spokesman said.



Zimbabwe’s finance minister wrote to the International Monetary Fund and other lenders last month warning that the country was being driven towards a <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/04/covid-19-lockdowns-when-is-the-right-time-to-reopen-economies/">health and economic catastrophe</a> by the coronavirus pandemic because its debt arrears mean it cannot access foreign financing.



The impoverished southern African nation has only recorded 34 cases and four deaths from the coronavirus but analysts say its fragile health system will not be able to handle any surge in infections.



(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Mark Heinrich)



This article was first published on Reuters Africa <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFKBN22I1QX-OZABS">https://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFKBN22I1QX-OZABS</a> and is republished with its permission.



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

Zimbabwe gets $7m COVID-19 lifeline from World Bank

Can Airbnb Survive?

By Tim Cocks, Shafiek Tassiem



JOHANNESBURG, May 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Most visitors wanting to see big game in Africa jet in from faraway places, so when the new <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/05/covid-19-bites-into-sas-tax-revenue/">coronavirus</a> <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2020/05/05/covid-19-sa-based-airline-comair-enters-business-rescue/">grounded flights</a> and put the world into lockdown, the legendary African safari died.



But for South African company WildEarth — which brings virtual safaris to your living room via a camera that their guides drive around in an open top vehicle — it is boom time.



“We’ve seen a dramatic rise in our viewership of our live safaris,” founder Graham Wallington told Reuters. “A fivefold increase in the first two weeks in March.”



Wallington said they are currently attracting up to 3 million viewers a month, with an individual virtual safari hooking in as many as 200,000 at their most watched.



Twice a day, viewers can watch whatever animals the guides spot as they zoom around game reserves — they’ve filmed 200 spots across east and southern Africa since founding it in 2006. A 24-hour camera perched over a watering hole in South Africa’s Djuma Game Reserve also shows live images of whatever comes there to drink.



Highlights include a pack of jackals and African wild dogs fighting over a kudu carcass, a leopard cub jumping out of a tree, a mother cheetah playing with her kids and close encounters with elephants, hippos, lions, baboons and giraffes.



In all, the guides narrate the trials of the animals as they follow them around.



The footage is free to access. WildEarth makes revenue from selling premium video to broadcasters, from merchandise and a small amount of advertising, Wallington said, declining to give figures on turnover.



The main benefit for conservation efforts is that the videos are “making people fall in love with nature,” he said.



“They start seeing those animals as individual beings. That is the moment that the viewer empathises,” he said.



Whether it is commutes to work, long-haul business travel or sightseeing, the COVID-19 shutdown has a lot of people thinking about whether they need to always rush from place to place, or whether a virtual interaction would sometimes do just fine.



Wallington said the crisis had created “a real opportunity for people to generate money by creating virtual experiences.”



From an environmental point of view, it also cuts back on carbon emitted by flights, and could help popular spots, like East Africa’s Serengeti, recover from over-tourism.



“If our mission was just to bring more and more tourists, we would destroy the thing we want to save,” he said.



In the coming weeks, they plan to start paid-for private tours with currently out-of-work guides via a Zoom video call.



(Editing by Alexandra Hudson)



This article was first published on Reuters Africa <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/southAfricaNews/idAFL8N2CM3LB">https://af.reuters.com/article/southAfricaNews/idAFL8N2CM3LB</a> and is republished with its permission.



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

COVID-19: Liven up your lockdown routine with SA’s ‘virtual safaris’

Former South Afriican Airways CEO, Vuyani Jarana speaks to CNBC Africa’s Fifi Peters on how to get the airline flying again.

Vuyani Jarana on how ICT can assist with the fight against COVID-19

Why SAA’s former CEO believes the airline can be restructured in 2 weeks

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COVID-19 has accelerated the global push into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. While the growth of the gig economy is leaving many industries redundant, one industry that is expected to continue thriving is telecommunications due to increased demand for digital connectivity. Vuyani Jarana, ICT veteran &#038; Group Chairperson of Mobax joins CNBC Africa for more.

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Covid-19 has clipped the wings of the global aviation industry with Comair the latest airline to announce that it would enter business rescue. International aviation and tourism bodies are now calling for urgent relief of $10 billion as well as other support measures to revive Africa’s travel and tourism sector and prevent millions from losing their jobs. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General, Alexandre de Juniac joins CNBC Africa for more.

Newsletter

COVID-19: Businesses seeking rescue at the tipping point, bubble is about to burst

Kaap Agri holds on to cash to avoid COVID-19 iceberg

How books have made a comeback during coronavirus lock-downs

The anti-COVID-19 herbal balm from the sea breezes of Madagascar – why the World Health Organisation says don’t touch it for now.

The impact of Covid-19 on Rwanda’s transport system

Proton Energy CEO on COVID-19 & its impact on Nigeria’s power sector reforms

How Ghana plans to help its COVID-19 hit industries stay open

Amadou Hott on how Senegal is responding to the COVID-19 shock

This is the hefty price Burger King is paying for SA’s lock-down

Are low interest rates enough? | CNBC Explains

SA’s auto industry ambitions threatened by COVID-19

Zimbabwe gets $7m COVID-19 lifeline from World Bank

Can Airbnb Survive?

COVID-19: Liven up your lockdown routine with SA’s ‘virtual safaris’

Why SAA’s former CEO believes the airline can be restructured in 2 weeks

Vuyani Jarana on how ICT can assist with the fight against COVID-19

Reviving Africa’s aviation industry post COVID-19

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletter

COVID-19: Businesses seeking rescue at the tipping point, bubble is about to burst

Kaap Agri holds on to cash to avoid COVID-19 iceberg

How books have made a comeback during coronavirus lock-downs

The anti-COVID-19 herbal balm from the sea breezes of Madagascar – why the World Health Organisation says don’t touch it for now.

The impact of Covid-19 on Rwanda’s transport system

Proton Energy CEO on COVID-19 & its impact on Nigeria’s power sector reforms

How Ghana plans to help its COVID-19 hit industries stay open

Amadou Hott on how Senegal is responding to the COVID-19 shock

This is the hefty price Burger King is paying for SA’s lock-down

Are low interest rates enough? | CNBC Explains

SA’s auto industry ambitions threatened by COVID-19

Zimbabwe gets $7m COVID-19 lifeline from World Bank

Can Airbnb Survive?

COVID-19: Liven up your lockdown routine with SA’s ‘virtual safaris’

Why SAA’s former CEO believes the airline can be restructured in 2 weeks

Vuyani Jarana on how ICT can assist with the fight against COVID-19

Reviving Africa’s aviation industry post COVID-19

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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