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[1/5] View of boats stuck in a sea with invasive green water hyacinth weed at the Hartbeespoort dam, informally known as "Harties", a small resort town in the North West Province of South Africa, February 16, 2023. REUTERS/Shafiek TassiemHARTBEESPOORT, South Africa, March 1 (Reuters) - The Hartbeespoort dam in South Africa used to be brimming with people enjoying scenic landscapes and recreational water sports. Now, the visitors are greeted to the sight of boats stuck in a sea of invasive green water hyacinth weed. Scientists and community members have, however, found a unique way to deal with the invasion by introducing a water hyacinth eating bug called Megamelus scutellaris. The insect army has previously reduced the expanse of water hyacinths to a mere 5% on the dam, Coetzee said.

☆ South African factory activity slumps in Feb on record power cuts - Absa PMI
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, March 1 (Reuters) - South African manufacturing activity contracted sharply in February as unprecedented power cuts led to a marked deterioration in business conditions, a survey showed on Wednesday. The business activity, new sales orders, employment and inventories indices were all in contractionary terrain, Absa said in a statement. "Load-shedding once again featured frequently in the commentary where respondents explained why activity declined relative to the previous month," Absa said, using a term for power outages. Struggling state electricity utility Eskom has implemented power cuts every day this year due to breakdowns at its coal-fired power plants, after a record number of days with outages last year. There was a steep fall in the PMI index measuring expected business conditions in six months' time, with the index falling to its lowest level since May 2020.

☆ Glencore Subsidiary Sentenced, Ordered to Pay $30 Million to Medical Company
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Dylan Tokar | Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

A Glencore lawyer on Tuesday said the company now expects to pay as much as $1.5 billion in total penalties, up from the $1.2 billion it initially agreed to pay last year. Glencore faced several restitution claims after agreeing to its settlement last year, including from Petróleos Mexicanos SA de CV, or Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company. The negotiated monetary penalty paid by the Glencore subsidiary is lower than what is called for under federal sentencing guidelines, a reflection of Glencore’s cooperation, Judge Schofield said at Tuesday’s sentencing. Glencore gave prosecutors more than a million documents, including from overseas, where prosecutors lack subpoena power, the judge said. The company also agreed to overhaul its compliance program and will be under an independent monitorship for three years, she said.

☆ Tommy Fury defeats Jake Paul in Saudi showdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"Tonight I made my own legacy, I made my own legacy," Fury said, finally stepping out of the shadow of his illustrious boxing family. "All the way through these two and a half years, I had a dream, a vision, and no-one believed me. A short left hand downed Fury in the eighth and final round to shift the momentum in Paul's favour to set up a grandstand finish in which both men chased a knockout punch that never materialised. "All respect to Tommy, he won, don't judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses. I'll come back, I thought I deserve that rematch, it was a great fight, a close fight," Paul said in the ring as his boxing record slipped to six wins and one loss.

☆ How a 27-year-old raised over $1 million to build a platform for African designers: 'We know our problems better than anybody else'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

For Amira Rasool, fashion is a lifelong passion. "I was always the person that laid out my first day of school outfit, like, two weeks before school," she says. That same year, she also traveled to South Africa, discovering local clothing brands she'd never heard of in the States. Many brands didn't have the technology, infrastructure to ship internationally or access to U.S. retailers to get their apparel outside of African borders. 'My mom would just ship the products from her place'After that initial visit to South Africa, Rasool sought out ways to return to the country to found her company.

☆ Mozambicans seek shelter as storm Freddy makes landfall
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Manuel Mucari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MAPUTO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Mozambicans took shelter on Friday as tropical storm Freddy made landfall in a small coastal town, with heavy rain expected to batter the country's southern provinces for several days. Pictures posted by Matos on Facebook showed children and adults sitting on the floor in a crowded primary school classroom. Up to 1.75 million people could be affected by the storm and severe flooding, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement. Mozambique has already been battling severe flooding in recent days, and the government has declared a state of "red alert" to expedite operations to tackle Freddy. In Zimbabwe, which is expected to see heavy rain from Freddy, the education ministry has suspended school in six provinces.

☆ Financial crime watchdog adds South Africa, Nigeria to 'grey list'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PARIS/JOHANNESBURG, Feb 24 (Reuters) - International financial crime watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday it was adding South Africa and Nigeria to its so-called "grey list" of countries under special scrutiny to implement standards to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing. Being added to the grey list is a reputational setback for the South African government, which has been trying to address shortcomings identified by the FATF. Analysts say it could also mean South African clients at international financial institutions will be subject to enhanced due diligence checks. It could also complicate South African attempts to access funding and support from multilateral development institutions and official lenders. The watchdog said it places a country on its "grey list" under increased monitoring when the country has "committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframe."

☆ An energy CEO poisoned with a cyanide-laced coffee joked that you should 'never have a personalized mug' in an explosive interview on South African TV
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Andre De Ruyter, CEO of South African energy giant Eskom, was poisoned with cyanide in December. He joked Tuesday that you should "never have a personalized mug" after poison was slipped into his coffee. De Ruyter, CEO of energy giant Eskom, was interviewed by journalist Annika Larsen, with the interview broadcast on South African TV on Tuesday. Insider has viewed the interview, which was also reported by local South African publications. "So this is a recommendation and a learning that I can share, never have a personalized mug.

☆ Indian cenbank onshore, offshore intervention helps rupee outperform-traders
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Nimesh Vora | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] A security guard stands next to the logo of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) inside its headquarters in Mumbai, India, February 8, 2023. "Without the RBI, there is little doubt that the rupee would be significantly lower," a currency and rates trader at a Singapore-based hedge fund said. This trader and two others that Reuters spoke to did not want to be identified on account of their internal policies. "The RBI's offshore presence, alongside what it is doing onshore, is making speculators stay away from the rupee," a trader at a Mumbai-based private sector bank said. A trader at a second private sector bank said one of the largest public sector banks has been "on both sides" in the onshore market, making the rupee "fairly unresponsive".

☆ Management consulting firm McKinsey & Co plans to cut 2,000 jobs after adding 17,000 over the past 5 years: reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The consulting firm is looking to get rid of jobs that do not deal with clients. Financial Times and Bloomberg reported that over the past five years, McKinsey added 17,000 employees. The source also told the Financial Times that the legal and compliance teams would not be affected. McKinsey & Co., one of the "Big Three" consulting firms in the US, is one of the most sought-after consulting jobs in the country. In 2018, McKinsey told Insider the firm received 800,000 applications, with only 8,000 people receiving offers.

☆ Russia will not fire Zircon missile at South Africa naval exercise
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Siyabonga Sishi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov and Chinese frigate Rizhao (598) are seen ahead of scheduled naval exercises with Russian, Chinese and South African navies, in Richards Bay, South Africa, February 22, 2023. REUTERS/Rogan WardSummary Russian media reported planned test launch of hypersonic weaponSouth Africa hosting drills with Russia, ChinaWestern diplomats have voiced alarm over drillsRICHARDS BAY, South Africa, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russia's navy will not fire its new generation "Zircon" hypersonic missile during a joint exercise with South Africa and China, a senior Russian naval officer said on Wednesday, contradicting an earlier Russian media report. A Russian frigate armed with the Zircon weapon system has been deployed to the joint exercise. Along with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle which entered combat duty in 2019, the Zircon forms the centrepiece of Russia's hypersonic arsenal. South Africa has defended its decision to host the Mosi II naval exercise despite the concerns of diplomats from European Union and NATO countries.

☆ 'Unpredictable' election in Africa's largest economy is set to resonate around the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

After 24 years of uninterrupted democracy since ending military dictatorship in 1999, Africa's most populous nation and largest economy is conducting its seventh election. Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria's president, speaks during the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York. Leena Koni Hoffmann, associate fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, told CNBC on Monday that the presidential election will be the "most unpredictable" since the transition to civilian rule. Alongside the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine, Koni Hoffmann noted "missed opportunities" and "self-inflicted crises" under Buhari's regime. Economists panned the decision, which Koni Hoffmann suggested rendered Nigeria and its neighbors more vulnerable to the damage of the pandemic.

☆ Russia's warship with hypersonic missiles arrives for drills with S.Africa, China
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] The Russian frigate 'Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov' arrives in the port of Richards Bay, South Africa, in this still image taken from video released February 22, 2023. Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russia's flagship frigate equipped with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles has arrived in the South African port of Richards Bay for exercises that will include China, Russia's RIA state news agency reported on Wednesday. It calls the drills routine but they have fuelled domestic criticism and fears they could endanger relations with Western partners. In late January, the ship tested its strike capabilities in the western Atlantic Ocean. Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ LIV Golf finalizes all 12 team rosters for second season
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

February 21 - LIV Golf announced its 12 rosters of four-players teams for the upstart league's second season Monday night, making official the reported signings of Thomas Pieters, Danny Lee, Dean Burmester and Brendan Steele. 35 in the Official World Golf Ranking as of this week, joined Bubba Watson's team, RangeGoats. Players who finished in the top 24 of the 2022 Invitational Series were guaranteed spots for the 2023 LIV Golf League, according to a press release. "In less than a year, LIV Golf has reinvigorated the professional game and laid the foundation for the sport's future. In 2023, the LIV Golf League comes to life," LIV CEO and commissioner Greg Norman said in a statement.

☆ South African cities scramble to keep the lights on
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Carien Du Plessis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Officials plan to procure up to 500 megawatts (MW) from private power companies by 2026 to provide roughly a third of the city's annual 1,500-1,800 megawatts (MW) electricity needs. [1/5] A woman tests LED lights on a solar panel at their factory called Ener-G-Africa, where they produce high-quality solar panels made by an all-women team, in Cape Town, South Africa, February 9, 2023. The neighbouring Ekurhuleni municipality has signed deals with 46 private power companies for 700 MW, according to its 2020/2021 annual report. Hill-Lewis said Cape Town also plans to change its energy policy to allow households and businesses that produce solar power to sell the excess to the city. In Cape Town, for those wanting to sell excess power to the city, a 12,000 rand feed-in meter is required.

☆ South Africa's Eskom ramps up power cuts to 'Stage 6'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 19 (Reuters) - South Africa's state power utility Eskom on Sunday said it would implement "Stage 6" power cuts continuously until further notice due to breakdowns of eight generation units on Sunday afternoon. Further changes on the stages of loadshedding at short notice are possible given the high number of breakdowns, Eskom said in a statement. Eskom has been implementing the worst rolling blackouts in South Africa on record, leaving households in the dark, disrupting manufacturing and hurting businesses of all sizes, leading to President Cyril Ramaphosa declaring a national "state of disaster" earlier this month over his country's crippling power shortages. The "Stage 6" power cuts, the worst outage level on record, require up to 6,000 megawatts to be shed from the national grid, and mean up to 10 hours a day without power for some South Africans. Reporting by Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Berlinale film 'Manodrome' explores misogynistic world of incel culture
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Miranda Murray | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Cast members Adrien Brody, Odessa Young, Jesse Eisenberg and director John Trengove attend a photo call to promote the movie 'Manodrome'' at the 73rd Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, February 18, 2023. The film, which premieres at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, explores the "manosphere" of online toxic masculinity that bubbled up into the mainstream after a series of mass killings by "incels" - the self-described "involuntary celibates" - in the 2010s. They eventually win Ralphie as a new adherent to their cult and initiate him by branding him with their symbol. "It really became this idea of a character who just immerses himself in a world of men. And it all kind of leads to a sort of madness, a kind of a fever dream," Trengove told the premiere's audience.

☆ South Africa's naval exercise with Russia, China raises Western alarm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Carien Du Plessis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"These exercises are going to be a lightning rod," said Steven Gruzd, of the South African Institute of International Affairs. "South Africa, like any independent and sovereign state, has a right to conduct its foreign relations in line with its ... national interests," South Africa's defence ministry said last month. Russia's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment, and South Africa's National Defence Force has denied the TASS report. China is now Africa's top bilateral trading partner, but the EU is by far the largest market for South African exports. Domestic critics of South Africa's push to deepen ties with Russia and China say that economic reality alone should be enough to give the government serious pause.

☆ MTN commits to $1 bln Ghana investment after government scraps tax claim
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The investment comes on the heels of the Ghana Revenue Authority exempting the company's bill for back taxes earlier this month after the incident sparked a diplomatic reaction by the South African foreign minister. The tax claim was initially issued after the revenue authority audited the company for the years 2014 to 2018 and inferred that it under declared its revenue by about 30% during the period. MTN Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita said the company was committed to investing in Ghana despite short-term headwinds. That said we are focused on the medium and long term and we are seeing growth," he said in a statement. MTN intends to invest the amount in 5G technology which it believes would spur faster growth across sectors, he said.

☆ Crippling power shortages hit South Africa's Telkom Q3 profit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 14 (Reuters) - South African telecoms group Telkom (TKGJ.J) said on Tuesday its third-quarter core profit declined by 13.5% as crippling power cuts inflated costs and impacted its service revenue. The operator also announced a cost savings programme to improve profit, which drove its shares up 6.33% by 0921 GMT. The telecom industry specifically is having to crank up diesel generators to power its vast towers, rollout additional batteries and increase security at these sites to protect them from theft, additional costs that are putting pressure on their margins. The blackouts resulted in a year-on-year increase of more than 150 million rand ($8.41 million) of additional costs for the quarter. ($1 = 17.8439 rand)Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ South Africa declares national state of disaster over floods
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 13 (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a national state of disaster to enable an intensive response to widespread flooding that has affected seven of the country's nine provinces. Invoking the national disaster act gives the government additional powers, including in the procurement and delivery of goods and services and the ability to bypass restrictions under current law. The national police and defence force may be called on to help respond to the flooding, the statement said. Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster last week over South Africa's power crisis, as daily rolling power cuts are paralyzing businesses. The national disaster act was also invoked in March 2020 to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, and last April to respond to floods in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.

London CNN —South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a national state of disaster in response to the country’s drawn-out energy crisis, calling it “an existential threat” to Africa’s most developed economy. Blackouts in South Africa — or load-shedding as they’re known locally — have been lasting for as long as 12 hours a day. Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesRamaphosa said Thursday that the national state of disaster would begin with immediate effect. Eskom has very little backup power, which makes it difficult to take units offline to perform crucial maintenance work. Years of mismanagement and systematic corruption are believed to be the key reasons why Eskom has been unable to keep the lights on.

☆ South Africa President Declares State of Disaster Over Power Cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Alexandra Wexler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

JOHANNESBURG—South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday declared a national state of disaster over the country’s rolling power cuts and said he would appoint a minister of electricity to oversee the response to the outages, which have reached new records in recent weeks. The power cuts—caused by constant breakdowns and lengthy maintenance shutdowns affecting South Africa’s aging fleet of coal-fired power stations—have left households and businesses without electricity for as much as 11 ½ hours a day over the past three months.

[1/4] South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during his 2023 state of the nation address in Cape Town, South Africa, February 9, 2023. "We are in the grip of a profound energy crisis," Ramaphosa said in his annual State of the Nation Address to parliament. State electricity utility Eskom is implementing the worst rolling blackouts on record, leaving households in the dark, disrupting manufacturing and hurting businesses of all sizes. Declaring a national state of disaster gives the government additional powers to respond to a crisis, including by permitting emergency procurement procedures with fewer bureaucratic delays and less oversight. Ramaphosa said on Thursday he would appoint a minister of electricity within the presidency to focus solely on the crisis.

☆ South Africa's consumer goods firms warn of much higher prices as power cuts bite
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Nqobile Dludla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A shopper looks for goods during an electricity load-shedding blackout in Johannesburg, South Africa, February 12, 2019. Food, consumer goods companies and retailers in South Africa are cranking up diesel generators and spending more on back up power supplies, adding to the pressure from soaring costs for raw materials, transportation and packaging. In an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the chief executives of member companies of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa pleaded for urgent and decisive action from the government to solve the power crisis. Shoprite has said its additional spend on diesel to operate generators amounted to 560 million rand ($32 million) in the six months to Jan.1. Supermarket group Pick n Pay (PIKJ.J) spent 346 million rand in the 10 months to Dec. 25 to run generators, and is currently spending about 60 million rand per month.

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