state-owned - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

South Africa’s PetroSA targets Mozambique gas in new sales deal

SOUTH Africa's PetroSA expects the first flows of gas into the country from a deal with Mozambique's national energy company ENH later this year, officials said, amid efforts to shore up supplies ahead of a potentially crippling shortage. Handed a gas trading licence by regulators in March, state-owned oil and gas company PetroSA has moved quickly to secure a deal for an initial 2 petajoules of gas a year (PJ/a), with the scope to rise to 200 petajoules eventually. That would be enough to supply scores of industrial gas users, including steelmaker ArcelorMittal, which currently relies on around 190 PJ/a,…

Apr

2024

By The African Mirror

State capture in South Africa: time to think differently about redress and recovering the stolen loot

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS, EDITORS CHOICE

SOUTH Africans are plunged into darkness daily by rolling power cuts. These are a stark reminder of the destruction that years of state capture wreaked on Eskom, the state-owned power utility. Eskom’s inability to meet the energy needs of citizens and the economy is now the undeniable example of how state capture made parastatals and other state institutions ineffective. The country urgently needs action to recover the stolen funds and fix the economy. So far, President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered only a few general targets, and outcomes have been dissatisfying. For example, the “total of R2.9 billion” that he said…

Feb

2024

By FELIX NJINI and VERONICA BROWN

Zambia set to negotiate bigger stakes in new mining projects

BUSINESS

ZAMBIA is keen to negotiate larger holdings in new mining projects to raise its revenue and boost spending by investors on social projects, mines minister Paul Kabuswe said. The push by Lusaka through state-owned ZCCM-IH would apply to future agreements, but does not include existing mines and should not unnerve investors, Kabuswe told Reuters. Zambia is Africa's second-largest copper producer after the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. ZCCM has interests of 10% to 20% in mines including those owned by Barrick Gold, Vedanta Resources and First Quantum Minerals. ZCCM sold a 51% stake in Mopani Copper Mines to a unit of…

Jan

2024

By TIKSA NEGERI

Ethiopia’s Ethio Telecom posts 14% rise in half-year earnings

NEWS

ETHIOPIAN state-owned telecoms company Ethio Telecom posted a 14% rise in half-year profit helped by growth in its mobile phone-based financial service Telebirr. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to 19.77 billion birr ($352 million) while revenue grew by 26% to 42.86 billion, CEO Frehiwot Tamiru said in a statement. Subscribers to Telebirr, launched in May 2021, grew to 41 million of its 74.6 million total subscribers, Frehiwot said while handling transactions worth 910.7 billion birrs. Ethio Telecom, a former monopoly, competes with Safaricom Ethiopia, which launched commercial mobile network services in October 2022 after winning the…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

S.Africa’s Transnet seeks government bailout as debt mounts

BUSINESS

SOUTH Africa's state-owned logistics company Transnet has requested an unspecified cash injection from the government as it seeks to reduce debt and return to profitability, it said on Thursday. "Transnet has requested that national Treasury provide an equity injection to support the recovery plan implementation needed to reduce debt and meet required financial ratios for debt capital market participation," Transnet acting CFO Hlengiwe Makhathini told a media briefing. Board chairman Andile Sangqu said Transnet would be unable to carry out its turnaround plan, which seeks to restore freight volumes and return the company to profitability over the next 18 months…

Oct

2023

By BRIAN BENZA

Botswana’s ODC halts diamond sales as industry seeks to reduce glut

BUSINESS

BOTSWANA'S state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) has temporarily halted its rough stone sales as part of an industry-wide drive to reduce the glut of inventory caused by lower global demand for jewellery, its managing director Mmetla Masire said. ODC, which reported a record $1.1 billion in revenue in 2022, holds 10 auctions a year to sell its 25% allocation of production from Debswana Diamond Company, a joint venture between Anglo American's De Beers and Botswana, in terms of the partners' gem sales agreement. Debswana produced about 24 million carats last year, with ODC getting an allocation of about 6 million carats.…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia to launch a tender for second telecoms licence in June -regulator

NEWS

ETHIOPIA will launch a tender for a second international telecoms licence in June, the industry regulator said, as the Horn of Africa nation seeks to expand the sector. In November, the government said it had resumed the plan to issue a full telecoms licence for the operator, which will be the third alongside state-owned Ethio Telecom and Safaricom Ethiopia, partly owned by Kenyan operator Safaricom. "We have planned to launch the tender in June. More details will be released when we approach the launch date," Balcha Reba, director general of the Ethiopian Communication Authority, told Reuters via a text message. The telecoms…