1952: The UK tests its first atomic bomb, near the Montebello Islands in Western Australia. The operation made the UK the third country to have nuclear weapons after the US and Soviet Union.

Get blowing, as balloons in all sizes, shapes and colours are celebrated today across the world.

FOUR-YEAR CLAWBACK TO SPARK HIGHER ESKOM TARIFFS

The National Energy Regulator has approved the liquidation of Eskom's Third Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD3) Regulatory Clearing Account Balances for the 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2017/18 financial years over a four-year period. Effectively, this means the power utility has four years to recover ZAR32.69 billion. Nersa overruled Eskom’s originally application to recover ZAR66 billion and approved th recovery of the RCA balance of ZAR31.105 billion from standard tariff customers, and ZAR1.585 billion from a Negotiated Pricing Agreement (NPA) and international customers. Eskom will recover ZAR8.173 billion from standard customers for the 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. (Fin24)

JHB-CT ROUTE CRACKS TOP 10 NOD

With 31 914 flights in 2017, the route between Cape Town and Johannesburg was the 9th busiest between two airports in the world last year. This is according to a new report by the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG). The report, entitled Aviation: Benefit beyond Borders, was released at the ATAG Global Sustainable Aviation Summit in Geneva on Tuesday. The Cape Town - Johannesburg route has beaten the one between Beijing and Shanghai in 10th place with 30 029 annual flights. The busiest "airport pair" in 2017 was the route between Jeju, an island off the coast of South Korea, and Seoul's Gimpo International Airport with 64 991 flights recorded for the year. In second place was the route between Melbourne and Sydney (54 519 annual flights) and third that between Mumbai and Delhi (47 462 annual flights). (Fin24)

MINING SECTOR CLIMBING OUT OF A HOLE

SA's mining industry showed an overall improvement during 2018, with bulk commodities offsetting the continued underperformance in gold and platinum. In PwC's SA Mine report, the 10th in the series, it noted improved capital expenditure for the year to end-June, jumping 19% off a decade low, while the market capitalisation of the 31 companies surveyed improved to ZAR482 billion from ZAR420 billion. The bulk of that increase came from iron ore producer Kumba Iron Ore. Industry revenue grew to ZAR398 billion from ZA370 billion, but operating costs expanded to ZAR312 billion from ZAR278 billion. In the 2018 period, mining companies notched up impairments of ZAR46 billion compared to the previous year's ZAR22 billion, leaving the industry in an aggregated net loss position of ZAR11 billion from a ZAR16 billion profit before. (BDLive)

COURT PUTS SASSA IN A SPOT OVER DEDUCTIONS

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled that it is up to the social development department – which oversees the operations of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) – to consider drafting legislation that will protect social grant beneficiaries from predatory marketing practices and unlawful deductions. The controversial seven-year relationship between Sassa and social grant distributor Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) came to an end on October 1. The judgment delivered by Judge Mahomed Navsa upheld the SCA’s suggestion during hearings that instead of it making an order “directing the government to make measures, it might suggest to government that it consider taking legislative steps to protect social grants beneficiaries”.(Moneyweb)

NO PROFITABLE PROSPECTS FOR POST OFFICE - AG

Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu has raised doubt about whether the SA Post Office (Sapo) can return to profitability in the near future after it unveiled another loss of more than ZAR900 million. Sapo, which continues to rely on government bailouts to stay afloat, along with other state-owned entities such as Eskom and SAA, posted a loss of ZAR908 million for the year to March 2018. Though this was a marginal improvement on the previous financial year, when it lost ZAR987 million, Makwetu painted a bleak picture of Sapo’s financial situation. "The Post Office Group did not generate sufficient revenues to finance its high cost base. These conditions, along with other matters … indicate that a material uncertainty exists on the Post Office Group and [the] company’s ability to continue as a going concern," Makwetu said in Sapo’s annual report tabled in parliament at the weekend. Sapo received a ZAR3.7 billion capital injection from the Treasury in October 2017 and used it to pay creditors and pay down debt. It requires more money. (BDLive)

SANRAL’S E-TOLL COLLECTION NOT GOING ANYWHERE

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) said the e-tolls collection contract has just two months left and lawyers are increasing the number of summonses issued – which ups their fees but not the collections. It added that recent answers to questions put to the minister of transport in Parliament on e-tolls revealed that only 3 724 (24%) of the 15 505 summonses issued from April 2015 to August 2018 have actually been served on the defendants. Of the summonses served, 1 320 are being defended, with Outa’s lawyers currently defending 1 028 of those cases under its e-tolls defence umbrella (78% of all cases being defended). The minister’s reply indicates that ZAR10.231 million was collected through this legal process from January 2016 to August 2018, while Electronic Toll Collections (ETC) spent ZAR4.6 million on legal fees to collect this.This is compared to the total outstanding e-toll debt of about ZAR11 billion, Outa said. (Moneyweb)

INVESTEC READY TO PUNCH ABOVE ITS WEIGHT

With only US$141 billion (about ZAR2 trillion) of assets under management, Investec Asset Management (IAM) says it will use its specialist active management capabilities to gain more global inflows. The unit, which Investec announced in September would be split from the group and listed separately, will compete with large global asset managers such as Blackrock and Vanguard, who respectively manage US$6.3 trillion and US$5.1 trillion of assets on behalf of their clients. Investec is viewed as a mid-sized manager that is trying to avoid being stereotyped as only an emerging-market specialist since it is domiciled in Africa. (BDLive)

GROUP FIVE ON THE ROPES

Struggling engineering and construction company Group Five has plunged deeper into the red and announced the resignation of its long-serving chief financial officer. Group Five posted a net loss of ZAR1.3 billion in the year to end-June, in line with its recent guidance, and against a loss of ZAR840 million in the matching period a year ago. The delayed Kpone power plant contract in Ghana cost the South African company dearly, as it racked up losses of ZAR1.3 billion. Group revenue dropped 26.2% to ZAR7.3 billion, mainly as a result of a 20.2% drop in revenue from the construction SA unit and an 82.3% plunge in revenue from the engineer, procure and construct unit, which was hit by delays to the Kpone project in Ghana. (BDLive)

HUAWEI RINGING THE CHANGES IN SA

Huawei Technologies is building two distribution warehouses and a research and development lab in South Africa as part of the Chinese technology company’s ambition to be the biggest seller of high-end smartphones in the country by the end of 2019. Chinese telecommunications companies, which represent the largest nation in the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) grouping, are looking to SA for growth. In September, state-owned operator China Mobile opened an office in Johannesburg and said it had signed an agreement with MTN for a "strategic alliance relationship". Huawei ranks third in SA — behind Samsung and Apple — in terms of sales of smartphones priced at about ZAR8 500. (BDLive)

TENCENT TUNING InTO AMERICAN IPO

Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the online-music arm of China’s largest socia -media company, filed for a initial public offering in a continuing surge of US listings by Chinese companies. The music-streaming site listed its offering size as US$1 billion (about ZAR14.3 billion) in a filing yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Tencent Music is preparing to sell shares after its parent company reported its first profit drop in at least a decade while also grappling with new game-approval restrictions imposed by Chinese regulators. (Bloomberg)

Budgeting … for General Workers

We thought we would share a senior management comment from a recent “budgeting for Workers” workshop

“Many thanks for your very interesting workshop. The Ascot Inn staff were most appreciative and I think you very cleverly aimed your message to suit their needs.”

We think that sums it up pretty well and with year end bonus time coming up, you would be helping your team to be wise with their money, so that the LONG shutdown break doesn’t feel like an eternity for them.

With only 10 weeks to go until we hit mid-December when yearend shutdowns start, you need to book your session ASAP.

CLIP Budgeting for worker’s session
2 hours of facilitation ǀ Your work-place ǀ R3200 ǀ up to 25 people
Included
budget sheet in English, Zulu and pictures / Win or lose card  
Savings jar / isiZulu interpreter 

(Terms and Conditions Apply)

Book Now:  Shan Cade |  shan@shancade.co.za  | 078 801 0896
www.shancade.co.za