Star 2026-02-10

Mining Council SA says benefits likely to begin filtering through in the second half of this year Booming gold and other high commodity prices will provide a big boost to South Africa’s tax collections, with the benefits likely to begin filtering through the fiscus in the second half of this year, while also growing the mining sector, Minerals Council South Africa President Paul Dunne said on Monday. He predicted at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Monday that current high metals prices were “not a flash in the pan,” - metal commodity price cycles are notoriously volatile - and this “not unsubstantial tax windfall” is likely to provide a welcome relief for the government, which has been hard pressed to find additional tax income in recent years. Mineral and…

The resignation of Land Bank CEO, Themba Rikhotso, announced on Friday, has been met with shock and concern across South Africa’s agricultural sector, with industry leaders warning that uncertainty at the institution could have far-reaching consequences for farmers and food security. Land Bank confirmed that Rikhotso, who joined the development finance institution on 1 April 2023, will remain in its employ for the duration of his notice period, which runs until the end of April. In a statement, the bank said Rikhotso will be taking up a role at another South African banking institution. The bank said Rikotso assumed leadership during a particularly challenging period and provided steady and focused leadership during a critical phase of its stabilisation. “Under his tenure, the Bank achieved notable progress in its turnaround programme,…

A revised Mining Resources Development Amendment Bill (MRDAB), which the industry had expressed deep reservations about initially, is expected to be released by the government in the first three months of this year. The first iteration of the bill that was released in May last year had raised concerns in the industry about policy certainty - mines take up up to ten years to develop at great cost and so require certainty in government policies on mining. The initial bill had also raised concerns about investor confidence in the sector, the potential for further bureaucratic burden, unclear implementation guidelines and ownership and governance implications. Minerals Council South Africa President Paul Dunne said Monday at the Mining Indaba there had subsequently been lengthy engagements between the industry and government on aspects…

National Treasury has no legal obligation to provide the South African Post Office (SAPO) with the R3.8 billion required to recapitalise the restructured entity, Parliament’s legal adviser has warned, as lawmakers push for an urgent meeting with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to lobby for the funds. Advocate Aadielah Arnold, Parliament’s legal adviser, told the Portfolio Committee on Digital Technologies that the R3.8bn cited by SAPO’s business rescue practitioners cannot be regarded as a binding commitment by Treasury under the national budget framework set out in the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). "In our view, the facts present a scenario where the commitment made can be described as a tentative, provisional, conditional or a non-committal. So, I think it's evident that the R3.8bn will not be forthcoming or…

After years in the agricultural sector and having worked at the frontline of political lobbying, disaster management, farmer development, land reform, biosecurity, financing, and farm security, I am deeply alarmed. It has become impossible to ignore the growing risk: if departmental officials continue to brush aside or outright dismiss the recommendations of Treasury and the expert task teams appointed to guide them, South Africa will inevitably be confronted with severe threats to both food security and food affordability. In my search for clarity, I examined multiple reports detailing the deteriorating state of South Africa’s animal biosecurity. When comparing the findings of the 2022 Task Team on Animal Biosecurity, the 2025 National Treasury Budget Review, and the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) Q2 2024/25 Performance Report, a deeply unsettling picture emerges. One…

Board governance is, by design, an exercise in distance. They do not sit inside the organisation’s operational systems. Instead, they govern through information. What boards see and hear are already mediated by layers of interpretation and selection. Behind that visible information lies a deeper organisational reality that often never reaches the table at all. This gap between what is presented and what is real is a core governance risk because boards remain accountable for outcomes that emerge from precisely those areas they do not observe directly. What boards see is usually formal, structured and deliberate. Board packs are designed to be comprehensive yet concise, presenting performance through agreed dashboards and framing risk in relation to appetite and assurance expectations. These artefacts matter because they enable boards to discharge oversight responsibilities…