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Monday, 10 September 2018 05:21

Moneyweb reports that Advocate Gerrie Nel, nicknamed The Bulldog for his tenacity as a prosecutor, is considering a private action against former ANC chairperson John Block and his codirectors in a salt mining company in connection with a forged mining permit.

Nel is best known for prosecuting former para-Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius for the murder of Reva Steenkamp. He and a team of top investigators have joined AfriForum and established a private prosecutions unit.

Private prosecutions are only allowed if the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decides not to prosecute a case and upon it issuing a nolle prosequi certificate to that effect – which is only valid for three months.

SA Soutwerke directors who are in Nel’s crosshairs include Block; former mayor of the Khara Hais municipality Gift van Staden and Upington businessperson Andre Blaauw.

The case stems from a dispute between SA Soutwerke and Saamwerk Soutwerke about who was entitled to mine salt on Vrysoutpan in the Kalahari, outside Upington, between 2008 and 2011.

The Northern Cape High Court found in 2010 that SA Soutwerke’s mining permit was forged and ruled that Saamwerk was the rightful owner of the rights. SA Soutwerke vacated the pan in 2011 after mining it since 2008.

Despite the Northern Cape High Court finding the permit had been forged and that Block’s company must have known about it, the NPA confirmed in 2014 that it issued a nolle prosequi certificate to Jalie du Toit, then a Saamwerk director.

This despite the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), in dismissing SA Soutwerke’s appeal, expressing its dismay at the slow progress of a criminal investigation into the permit’s forgery. By then, it was two years since Saamwerk Soutwerke had laid criminal charges.

The SCA ordered both judgments be delivered to the national police commissioner, national director of public prosecutions and minister of minerals and energy.

Du Toit in 2014 placed an advert in local community newspaper Die Gemsbok, saying: “It took the state seven years to not prosecute SA Soutwerke”, and vowed to do it himself.

He said Blaauw’s affidavit admitted the directors were aware of the forgery.

Du Toit failed to proceed and his sons recently approached Nel for assistance.

If Nel’s team find the case is solid, they’ll apply for another nolle prosequi certificate and proceed with a private prosecution.

Nel said the question is, who perpetrated the forgery and who benefitted from it. The crux of the matter is whether the SA Soutwerke directors were aware of the forgery and were mining without a valid permit.

Possible charges include fraud, forgery and uttering as well as illegal mining, Nel told Moneyweb.

This report by Antoinette Slabbert appeared in The Citizen of 7 September 2018

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Sunday, 09 September 2018 11:00

Business Times reports that MultiChoice, grappling with new competition in the form of streaming services such as Netflix, is considering job cuts as part of its plan to create a "leaner" business.

The company has asked a large number of people to reapply for their positions, said a person familiar with the matter, on condition of anonymity. As many as 200 jobs could be on the line, the person said. The business has about 7,000 employees across Africa.

"We are creating a leaner and more agile organisation in order to remain globally competitive," a MultiChoice spokesperson said. "We are looking at different ways to transform our business into a more agile and digitally focused company."

MultiChoice's satellite TV business, DStv, faces its biggest existential threat since its launch 23 years ago as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming giants wade into the local market.

The new competition - which prompted MultiChoice to launch its own streaming platform, Showmax, in 2015 - is taking its toll on DStv's premium subscriber base. These are its most important customers as premium packages deliver higher margins and profits. In the year ended March, MultiChoice lost 41,000 premium subscribers across all its African markets.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck said a downsizing of MultiChoice was inevitable. "It's an interesting stage in the company's history in that it's at the peak of its subscriber growth," Goldstuck said.

While the total subscriber base is growing - MultiChoice added 563,000 in SA in the year to March - it is coming from far less profitable lower-cost packages.

"What the growth masks, although MultiChoice hasn't tried to hide it, is the beginning of the decline in the premium packages, and that is the writing on the wall of traditional pay-TV ... as fibre is being rolled out in SA, people are switching from expensive pay-TV to low-cost streaming services," he said.

MultiChoice's parent, JSE-listed Naspers, has been considering an unbundling of the company. Naspers plans to generate 100% of its revenue from the internet in the near future, CEO Bob van Dijk said in December. In the year to March, 79% of revenue came from internet services, from 73% a year before.

Van Dijk said in March if Naspers listed MultiChoice separately, that could help it to reduce the group's valuation gap relative to its main asset, Tencent.

But it would not be an easy task. "It's not straightforward. There are a number of considerations, for example, licence conditions and our Phuthuma Nathi [MultiChoice's black empowerment vehicle] shareholders."

Goldstuck said it would make sense for Naspers to sell its non-internet units. Even the internet-based Showmax faces difficult times. If Netflix started offering local content in SA, "that would be a massive threat to MultiChoice, because Showmax's only real differentiator is local content".

The original of this report by Nick Hedley appeared on page 1 of The Sunday Times Business Times of 9 September 2018

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Thursday, 06 September 2018 06:46

Sowetan reports that human error could be behind the head-on collision of two Metrorail trains that left 112 people injured in Selby, southern Johannesburg on Tuesday morning but there are fears that more train accidents may occur.

Transport unions the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) and United National Transport Union (Untu) have warned that poor Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) infrastructure and the continued use of manual train authorisations could lead to more accidents.

The accident, which occurred when trains were manually authorised, came just three days after the Rail Safety Regulator (RSR) renewed Prasa’s safety permit for 12 months, but “with special conditions”.

RSR spokesperson Madelein Williams said the special conditions included a plan detailing how Prasa would deal with manual train authorisations, which led to Tuesday’s accident.

“We are concerned about the manual train authorisations so we asked them to give us a plan on how Prasa would deal with them,” Williams said.

“Other special conditions included the urgent filling of vacancies for critical positions and how Prasa would roll out its maintenance plan.”

She said they hoped to have a report with preliminary findings today as their investigators went to the scene of the accident to gather information.

Satawu spokesperson Zanele Sabela said Prasa infrastructure was “aging and needed urgent modernisation”.

“Whenever there’s such crashes Prasa has ready excuses of human error or cable theft and what they don’t mention is that there’s a problem with their old, aging infrastructure,” Sabela said.

Untu has warned that Prasa was a disaster waiting to happen.

“Prasa is a ticking time bomb operating death machines due to its inability to combat crime and vandalism, [and] its inability to do proper [maintenance,” said Untu’s Steve Harris.

Metrorail spokesperson Lillian Mofokeng said one train was travelling from Faraday station towards New Canada, while the other was coming from Naledi, Soweto.

The trains were being operated manually because of a signalling upgrade.

Mofokeng said the most serious commuter injuries were back injuries and that four Metrorail staff were assessed for injuries and will receive counselling. She said the cause of the accident was being investigated.

The original of this report by Isaac Mahlangu and Karabo Ledwaba appeared on page 8 of Sowetan of 5 September 2018

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Tuesday, 04 September 2018 08:32

BL PREMIUM writes that you’d be forgiven for being puzzled by trade union Solidarity’s insistence that white employees be included in Sasol’s new employee share scheme, which is intended to bolster transformation and increase black ownership.

The union claims it’s in direct violation of the mining empowerment charter and the general practice at mines. The company disagrees. After months of discussions common ground cannot be reached.

But it is best not to underestimate the well-oiled machine that is Solidarity.

Whether by sheer luck or by design, the union, which declared a dispute in January, has begun a three-week strike that coincides with a large planned maintenance shutdown at Sasol operations.

The tactic of choice is "work to rule", which entails doing the bare minimum in an attempt to slow down the process. Solidarity’s 6,300 members are typically highly skilled and constitute 20% of the company’s 31,000 permanent employees.

It’s not immediately obvious that the industrial action will have a notable effect if you consider that operations are already being closed and production forecasts have been cut. Sasol estimated the shutdown would take two million tons of product out of the production guidance for the year.

But three weeks gives the union time to execute its strategy and increasingly exert pressure on the company.

Sasol had anticipated an improved performance in this financial year. At the release of Sasol’s annual results in August, Bongani Nqwababa, joint president and CEO, said two risks to the outlook included the large planned shutdown not going smoothly, and any unforeseen labour issues.

Unfortunately for Sasol, both are now on the horizon.

Read the original of this report at BL Premium (paywall access)

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Monday, 03 September 2018 10:19

BL PREMIUM writes that, as a figure who worked hard behind the scenes to raise business's voice against corruption in government, Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan, the former CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, feels the fight against the scourge has started a "bit late" but that it could be corrected.

In an interview just days ahead of his August 31 start as CEO of Vedanta Resources, the diversified Indian mining and energy company, Venkatakrishnan said the lessons he'd learnt at the helm of the world's third-largest gold company were invaluable and positioned him to take up the new job.

But while he steered AngloGold through one of its toughest times, and despite failing to convince shareholders to back a plan to separate the company's international assets from the local ones, creating two separately listed entities, it was the broader role he played outside the company where he made his mark and his strong brand of ethics and values was felt.

He was involved in the Minerals Council SA, then called the Chamber of Mines, and was a director of Business Leadership SA (BLSA).

"Corruption is like cancer. If you don't catch it early on it spreads very, very quickly. You need to nip it in the bud. That corruption was happening here and was endemic across certain parts," Venkatakrishnan said, conceding that perhaps the business community had been too slow to speak out and tackle the problem.

"Business is an important voice and it was lost in the wilderness before, and historically it sat on the sidelines, worrying about how speaking up would impact its business. We had to do introspection and see where we were at fault, make corrections and then move forward. This was all important for us. It was an absolutely critical moment where potentially SA was about to jump over a cliff and it had to be pulled back," he said.

Preferring to voice his opinions "behind the scenes without fear of retribution and fighting for what I believed was just and correct", Venkatakrishnan helped mobilise BLSA in taking a stance against corruption, joining a number of SA's senior executives in publicly opposing the rot festering and flourishing during the presidency of Jacob Zuma.

Asked if corruption had been caught early enough, he said: "Honestly, no, but better late than never. It should never happen in the first place. Here, it was probably caught a bit later but before it was too late.

"It can be reversed. It won't be a walk in the park, but if there's a will and co-operation of people saying, 'not another time. We've nearly lost the country once and we won't make that mistake again'."

Another driving factor in his role in raising business's voice against corruption was the fact that one family - the Gupta family, with its links to powerful politicians like Zuma and others who were milking state-owned companies - was tarnishing the image of 1.3-billion Indians, he said. Venkatakrishnan was born and educated in India.

He had the highest praise for AngloGold chairman Sipho Pityana, who was easily one of the most fearless and outspoken business leaders about the rottenness of Zuma's presidency, using public platforms to air his concerns and criticisms.

Although he declined to speak about his role at Vedanta or the mandate given to him by chairman and controlling shareholder Anil Agarwal, Venkatakrishnan spoke openly of his three regrets during his five years as AngloGold's CEO and eight more as its CFO, as well as lessons learnt that he would apply in the new job for which he'll be headquartered in London.

Featured at the top of both what Venkatakrishnan learnt and what his key regretswere during his tenure was that AngloGold's mines, mainly those in SA, were unable to achieve a sustained zero-harm status. "Safety is paramount. It's not something you compromise on, because a safe mine is a productive mine and all other metrics follow through," he said.

"We improved our safety numbers at AngloGold, but my big regret is not getting to zero harm. People shouldn't have to die at mines. I wish we'd done better."

A second area of regret was that in the early 2000s, when he joined AngloGold after it bought Ashanti Goldfields, where Venkatakrishnan had dealt with a toxic hedge book - essentially sales of gold contracted forward at below spot prices that threatened the viability of the company - he found the same situation at the South African company.

Anglo American, then the majority shareholder in AngloGold, declined to step in and help remove 12-million ounces of gold from the hedge book which were well below spot prices, forcing the company to approach shareholders and lenders to close the positions.

Venkatakrishnan's predecessor at AngloGold, Mark Cutifani, said in 2010 the company had spent $6bn to close its hedge book, which if unaddressed would have cost it $10bn in lost revenue.

The third regret was the inability to persuade shareholders in September 2014 to split AngloGold, with the South African assets forming the nucleus of a larger metals business. "I wish we'd gone about it differently. I think the asking price was too high because we wanted to get the best from both sides of the split. With hindsight, we could have done it better," Venkatakrishnan said.

"Having said that, looking at the safety regrets, we were forced to look at ourselves and how to improve. The hedge book, it brought discipline into the company, while September 2014 forced us to develop self-help measures and do everything without asking shareholders for a dime."

Since 2014, AngloGold has reduced its South African assets to just the Mponeng mine, the world's deepest at 4km below the surface, and a tailings retreatment business, after selling and closing the rest of its assets.

"The intention in September 2014 was to make the South African arm a much bigger entity. Would it have changed the future of the South African gold assets? Probably not," he said.

Venkatakrishnan left SA with a positive view of the future for the country, despite the noise and the difficult discussions around contentious issues.

"In SA, debate tends to happen in the open. It tends to be loud. And it tends to be very vocal, but ultimately consensus is reached and the country moves forward."

Read the original of this report by Allan Seccombe at BL Premium (paywall access)

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