Star 2026-01-12

Automotive group Motus Retail has retrenched 86 employees and implemented remuneration and benefit changes affecting a further 579 workers from 1 January 2026, prompting strong concern from labour unions Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA) and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu). The automotive retail giant announced on 31 December that the retrenchments and cost-cutting measures followed a restructuring process initiated in terms of Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act on 9 October. The process came after Motus reported a 1% decline in revenue to R112.60 billion for the year ended 30 June, while operating profit slipped slightly to R5.48 billion. The JSE-listed group attributed the weaker performance to lower contributions from new vehicle sales, which declined by R3.33 billion, or 6%, largely in its international operations. Cosatu last…

The National Treasury and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) have confirmed that the December tranche of the Local Government Equitable Share (LGES) was disbursed over the festive period to 75 municipalities whose funds had been withheld due to financial mismanagement. In response to Business Report, Treasury on Friday said all municipalities that had their December 2025 equitable share allocations withheld had now been paid. However, Treasury stressed that the underlying issues which led to the withholding remain the responsibility of the municipalities to resolve. It said these included issues such as ensuring that the municipality has a funded budget or a budget funding plan, making payments to third parties, such as the SA Revenue Service (Sars), and instituting measures to deal with unaccounted for, irregular, fruitless and wasteful…

Shares in Glencore surge 10% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, closing at over R100-per-share Glencore’s strong exposure to copper appears to be a key driver behind Rio Tinto’s renewed acquisition interest in the global resources group, which has operations in South Africa and saw its shares surge 10% on the JSE on Friday. The two mining giants have confirmed that discussions are under way on a potential merger that could create a mining behemoth with a market value of more than $200 billion (around R3.42 trillion). Any combination would significantly expand exposure to copper, a metal increasingly in demand due to the rapid growth of renewable energy, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence. “Rio is most likely attracted by Glencore’s copper exposure,” Roy Topol, portfolio manager at Cratos Asset Management told…

Discovery Health’s members should not bear the brunt for mistakes the Administrator made when processing the claims of its members, according to MISA, the Motor Industry Staff Association. The organisation said in a statement that believes it is unacceptable that Discovery Health thinks it can just dump affected members in financial turmoil overnight and walk away with its profits. Discovery Health Medical Scheme has sent communication to about 0.6% of its members requesting them to repay co-payments after a processing error saw claims incorrectly paid out at a higher rate than their plan's benefits allow. Media reports suggest Discovery is claiming as much as R22 000, R25 000 and R37 000 back from some of its members. The error is related to the Above Threshold Benefit (ATB) on the Executive,…

Tech giant Meta has announced major agreements with three US nuclear energy companies that it says will add up to 6.6 gigawatts of clean power by 2035. The deals make Meta one of America's largest corporate buyers of nuclear energy as it seeks to fuel its artificial intelligence operations. The Facebook parent company signed agreements with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo to extend existing nuclear plant operations and develop advanced reactor technology, following a similar agreement with Constellation Energy last year. "State-of-the-art data centers and AI infrastructure are essential to securing America's position as a global leader in AI," said Joel Kaplan, Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer. "Nuclear energy will help power our AI future." The agreements will provide financial support to extend operations at three existing nuclear plants while backing…

In 2023, a mine operating along the Central African Copperbelt moved its first test consignment through the Lobito Corridor, using the refurbished rail spine that links the Democratic Republic of Congo to Angola’s Atlantic coast. Roughly 1100 tonnes of copper concentrate from the Kamoa-Kakula complex in Kolwezi were loaded at the Impala Terminals facility and sent west by rail to the Port of Lobito. The journey took eight days. Until this trial run, more than nine-tenths of the mine’s output had been routed through Durban or Dar es Salaam, where a single turnaround typically stretched to six weeks. Angola, the DRC, and Zambia have positioned the corridor as a flagship, with financial and political backing from the United States, Italy, the European Union, and a coalition of multilateral financiers under…