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| Today in History | ||
1975: The fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, to the Vietcong, marks the end of the Vietnam War. |
| News worth knowing | ||
COMRADES UPPING THE CHARITABLE ANTE The Comrades Marathon charitable fundraising is sitting at nearly twice the amount it was at this time last year, and is well on its way to beat last year’s total of ZAR3.8 million. To date, nearly ZAR2.5 million has been raised by the six Comrades Marathon official charities and their Race4Charity runners. At this stage last year, the amount stood at ZAR1 237 822.31. Thus far, 583 runners have signed up for the Race4Charity fundraising initiative. Currently, CHOC (Childhood Cancer Foundation) is heading the list with ZAR89 214, followed by World Vision South Africa on ZAR498 232, and Wildlands Conservation Trust (ZAR316 440). The Comrades Marathon will set off on June 10 from the Pietermaritzburg City Hall. (CMA) |
LONG WEEKEND SMILES ON RAND The long weekend helped the Rand recover from the more than ZAR12.50 to the US Dollar it weakened to last week to trade at ZAR12.31 at 7 am today. Trade is likely to be thin on the JSE. While many South Africans taking today off ahead of tomorrow’s Workers’ Day holiday, Old Mutual holds its annual general meeting (AGM) in London, commencing at 10am South African time. The insurance group on April 20 announced its time table for separately listing its UK arm, Quilter, and distributing most of its Nedbank holding to shareholders. Steinhoff International, which fell 11.3% to ZAR1.96 on Thursday when the JSE closed ahead of Friday’s Freedom Day holiday, last traded at €0.13 in Frankfurt — which equated to about ZAR1.94 at this morning’s exchange rate of ZAR14.94 to the euro. Steinhoff’s share price fell on Thursday after it confirmed that its former chairman Christo Wiese was suing it for about ZAR59 billion. (BDLive) |
MYSTERY DEEPENS AROUND VBS BANK’S MURKY DEALINGS The crisis-ridden VBS Mutual Bank lent out large sums of money to its own directors, municipal officials and the SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) to finance a building the union already owned. At least five of VBS’s senior executives received mortgage loans running into millions of Rands between 2015 and last year. The October 2017 mortgage deal worth ZAR11.8 million, which VBS signed for the Samwu headquarters in Johannesburg, is now shrouded in mystery. This week, Samwu denied that it ever mortgaged its headquarters, Samwu House in Marshalltown, downtown Johannesburg, with VBS last year. It instead claimed that it owned the building outright and had done so since 2007. The SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) placed VBS under curatorship last month when it ran out of cash after relying on large, illegal, and short-term municipal deposits to fund long-term loans. VBS curator Anoosh Rooplal earlier this month withdrew VBS’s annual financial statements for 2017 because they were not to be trusted. One respect in which these statements are almost certainly incorrect is in the misreporting of related-party loans – or loans to its own employees and shareholders. The 2017 annual report does declare a big spike in “related-party” loans to its own directors. These jump from only ZAR800 000 in 2015 to around ZAR14 million by March 2017. (Fin24) |
BLOOD ON THE FLOOR AT PIC The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has fired its executive head of risk for “incompetence” and suspended other senior officials, seemingly in relation to media leaks and allegations against CEO Dan Matjila. At the same time, more apparently ill-conceived PIC deals are coming to light – costing the corporation’s clients billions of Rands. The PIC is the continent’s largest asset manager and invests the pension savings of South African government employees. City Press has learnt that the PIC’s head of risk was fired last week, after having been placed on suspension in March. It is understood he had, among other things, produced sub-par paperwork and did not foresee the implosion of VBS Mutual Bank, in which the PIC is a shareholder. (Fin24) |
MKHWEBANE FACES FLAK OVER ‘WHITEWASH Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane seemingly altered crucial remedial action in the provisional report on the Vrede dairy farm by predecessor Thuli Madonsela before she released the final report, which has widely been described as a whitewash. This is revealed in a supplementary affidavit filed by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) in the High Court in Pretoria, where Casac has filed its application to review and set aside the report. The report was released in February and has been taken on review by Casac and the DA. The record of the decision, according to Casac, reveals that a Treasury report — which had previously not been made public — pointed to the active involvement of former Free State premier Ace Magashule and former MEC for agriculture Mosebenzi Zwane, in facilitating the unlawful project. It recommended disciplinary action against the then head of the agriculture department Peter Thabethe. (BDLive) |
DATA ROLL OVER TO CHALLENGE CELL COMPANIES New regulations that end cellphone users losing unused data may benefit consumers, but could end up being a headache for mobile operators. The final End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations were announced by the Independent Communications Authority of SA on Thursday. Data network operators must now allow customers the option to roll over unused data. Licensees will also have to send usage depletion notifications to consumers when usage is at 50%, 80% and 100%. They must also allow consumers to transfer data to others. The new regulations will no longer allow service providers to charge out-of-bundle rates for data when it is depleted without the consumers’ "specific prior consent". Operators believe the new regulation will make it difficult to plan for capacity, as data will no longer expire at a predetermined date. (BDLive) |
NICOTINE INDUSTRY SET TO FIGHT NEW CURBS The department of health’s new bill on tobacco products proposes a complete ban on smoking in outdoor public places, prohibits vending machines and brings e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery devices into the regulatory fold for the first time. The cabinet announced on Thursday that it had approved the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill — the government’s first significant reforms to tobacco control legislation in a decade. It is due to be gazetted for public comment this week. Lorato Mahura of the health department’s tobacco control unit said the government expected pushback from the tobacco industry. "Our motive is to protect public health. Their mandate is to protect profits. We are going to be tampering with their profit-making processes. Of course they are going to fight back," Mahura said. (BDLive) |
BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY TO WEED OUT BLOOD JEWELLERY IBM, a group of four gold and diamond industry companies, and an independent laboratory are developing a blockchain network for tracing the provenance of finished pieces of jewellery from mine to store. The TrustChain Initiative, which will run on IBM’s technology, includes precious-metals refiner Asahi Refining, US jewellery retailer Helzberg Diamonds, precious-metals supplier LeachGarner, jewellery-maker the Richline Group and a global safety consulting and verification company UL. TrustChain is the latest effort by the jewellery industry to use blockchain — a real-time digital ledger that is immutable — to prove to consumers that their purchases don’t include blood diamonds or conflict metals and are ethically sourced. IBM has also been actively helping form a slew of blockchain-focused companies and industry initiatives around various supply chains. (Bloomberg) |
BRACE FOR MORE DATA LEAKS, FACEBOOK WARNS Facebook is on the hunt for other Cambridge Analytica-sized data leaks, and the company warned Thursday that users and investors might not like what it finds. A few years ago, 270 000 people used a personality quiz app on the social network and shared information on their Facebook friends. That added up to as many as 87 million people. The data was later passed to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, without users’ consent. After public uproar, Facebook announced it would audit all popular apps from when its data rules were looser. Facebook said it expects to discover and announce more "instances of misuse of user data or other undesirable activity by third parties," according to a filing Ih the Securities and Exchange Commission. The media may uncover foul play before Facebook does, the company also said. Either way, "the discovery of the foregoing may negatively affect user trust and engagement, harm our reputation and brands, and adversely affect our business and financial results," the social-media giant said in the filing. (Bloomberg) |
MORE NEWS, NOTICES AND APPEALS
IT’S ALMOST TIME FOR HOSPICE’S NIGHT OF THE STARS Msunduzi Hospice presents our annual Night of the Stars, a jazz and comedy dinner with talented musician Melvin Peters together with Winston Mankunku and Barney Rachabane. Enjoy comedy with renowned Mamba Republic, united talents of Ben Voss (Beauty Ramapelepele) and internationally acclaimed author John van de Ruit (Spud) – savagely funny look at all that is wrong and very wrong in the Rainbow Nation. Enjoy amazing food, laughter an great entertainment whilst supporting a very worthy cause on Saturday, May 12 at 6.30 at the Golden Horse Casino Conference Centre. The cost is ZAR325 per person, tables of 10 available. For more information, call Tanya on (033) 344-1560. |
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