BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Tshwane freezes salaries of 7,000 unverified municipal workers

The cash-strapped City of Tshwane is withholding the salaries of close to a third of its staff pending the completion of a vetting process aimed at removing ghost employees from its payroll. Tshwane, like other municipalities across SA, is in a precarious financial position due to declining revenue collection as…

25 Aug 2020 10AM 3 min

THE GUARDIAN: Name the firms that got state-backed Covid-19 loans

The UK public have a right to know who the recipients of £50bn of government-backed coronavirus loans are. By not releasing details of the 1.2-million businesses that accessed cheap, guaranteed state funding, ministers are leaving the government open to accusations that it has something to hide. This charge is easier…

25 Aug 2020 10AM 2 min

Gauteng legislature wants David Makhura to report on Covid-19 food parcel corruption

The Gauteng provincial legislature wants premier David Makhura to submit a report about alleged corruption related to Covid-19 food parcels. In a full sitting of the house‚ the provincial legislature adopted a budget vote report. The document‚ among other things‚ calls for Makhura to present a report to the legislature…

25 Aug 2020 10AM 1 min

SA revokes directive for power ships to generate emergency electricity

The government has revoked an approval for Turkey’s Karpowership to set up emergency power in SA without the required environmental permits, the department of environment, forestry and fisheries said on Tuesday. The department said in a statement it had withdrawn a section 30A directive granted to the company. Under the…

25 Aug 2020 9AM 1 min

Russia says Germany rushed to Alexei Navalny poisoning diagnosis

Moscow — The Kremlin said on Tuesday it saw no need, for now, to investigate the circumstances leading up to opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s grave illness and that a German clinic’s initial diagnosis of poisoning is not yet conclusive. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on Russia to investigate…

25 Aug 2020 9AM 2 min

Fibre operators muscling out internet service providers

For most city dwellers living in a Covid-19 world, waking hours are increasingly spent online for activities related to work, school, shopping, leisure or life in general. More consumers need good internet connectivity at home, and for more reasons than before. We have a long way to go to ensure…

25 Aug 2020 9AM 4 min

Oil prices lift as output is cut in US Gulf Coast due to Tropical Storm Laura

London — Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday, supported by production cuts in the US Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Laura was forecast to become a major hurricane, while rising coronavirus cases in Asia and Europe capped gains. Brent crude oil futures added 37 US cents, or 0.82%, to $45.50…

25 Aug 2020 8AM 2 min

EOH government contract under forensic probe

A forensic audit is underway into a R400m irregular contract with JSE-listed software company EOH for the design of an identification system for the department of home affairs. Auditing firm Nexia SAB&T was appointed in May to investigate the entire tender process for the design and roll out of an…

25 Aug 2020 7AM 3 min

R100m auction of Bosasa assets was unauthorised, court rules

The high court in Johannesburg has declared that any auction of assets of the six African Global Operations companies‚ formerly known as Bosasa‚ which were in liquidation before the second meeting of creditors, is prohibited. In a judgment passed electronically on Monday‚ the court held that any sale while such…

25 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

Africa to be declared free of endemic wild polio, four years after the last case recorded

Lagos — Nigerian Gbemisola Ijigbamigbe’s right leg was virtually paralysed after she contracted wild polio aged 11 months. Now the 28-year-old leads an active life as a wheelchair basketball player and also enjoys swimming and kayaking. “Polio is not a death sentence,” she told Reuters, smiling. Thousands of people across…

25 Aug 2020 7AM 3 min

Big brands nurture nature as business demands sustainability

Barcelona — From helping Mongolia’s goat herders produce cashmere more efficiently to counting insects on “biodiversity plots” planted on farms, some of the world’s biggest brands are blazing a trail with innovative efforts to nurture nature. Sustainability researchers say businesses have shown a surge of interest in limiting the harm…

25 Aug 2020 7AM 7 min

Facebook to challenge block on anti-Thai monarchy group

Bangkok/Singapore — Facebook said it’s preparing to legally challenge the Thai government’s request to block access to a private group critical of the monarchy. Thailand’s government blocked the “royalist marketplace” group — a page with more than 1-million members that discusses the country’s royal family — as the administration continues…

25 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

Getting Covid-19 twice is not good news, but it is too soon to panic

Amsterdam/Brussels — Two European patients are confirmed to have been re-infected with the coronavirus, according to regional public broadcasters, raising concerns about people’s immunity to the virus as the world struggles to tame the pandemic. The news follows a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man…

25 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

Covid-19 vaccine candidate could be with regulators within next four months

London — Trial data for the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s possible Covid-19 vaccine could be given to regulators in 2020 still, but corners cannot be cut to speed up approval for emergency use, a scientist leading the trials said on Tuesday. The Oxford vaccine produced an immune response in…

25 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

Aramco’s promise to pay its dividends may backfire

Saudi Aramco’s senior management reshuffle is more than just a game of high-level musical chairs at any old energy company. The oil giant faces an uphill battle to meet promises made before its record-setting initial public offering (IPO) last year — and before the coronavirus pandemic hit — to deliver…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 5 min

Parliament and Pravin Gordhan shred DA’s electricity bill

Parliament has made short shrift of a DA-sponsored bill proposing the introduction of a privately owned electricity grid operator. The Independent Electricity Management Operator Bill (IEMO), which was introduced on Tuesday by DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone, was discussed in a joint meeting of the committees on public enterprises and…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 2 min

Buildings set alight as US city rages over police shooting

Kenosha — Arsonists set several buildings ablaze and torched much of the black business district in a second night of unrest in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, triggered by the wounding of a man shot in the back by officers as his three young sons looked on. Police in riot…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 3 min

European shares lift partly on sentiment about US-China comments

London — European shares opened higher on Tuesday, with market sentiment propped up by the US and China saying they are still committed to their phase 1 trade deal, and some increased optimism about Covid-19 vaccine development. After the Stoxx 600 saw its biggest daily gain in almost two weeks…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 4 min

UK schools fiasco was accident waiting to happen, but Boris Johnson didn’t see it

Pundits are rightly accused of exercising the wisdom of hindsight, but some political disasters really are inevitable and have been loudly predicted before the event. The UK government’s most recent fiasco, over the grading of state examination results for 18-year-old school students, was one such event. It was an accident…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 5 min

Britain’s retailers worry as consumers trickle back

London — Spending by shoppers, drinkers and diners is vital to Britain’s effort to emerge from its deepest recession for three centuries. News last week that retail sales rebounded by more than forecast in July stood out against a backdrop of unprecedented job cuts at Marks & Spencer Group, a…

25 Aug 2020 4AM 7 min