Star 2026-01-23

DAVOS - Sekunjalo chairman Dr Iqbal Survé has called for closer collaboration between government, business and society to strengthen South Africa’s image as an attractive investment destination, saying the country’s future success depends on stakeholders working together. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Survé welcomed the tone and substance of speeches by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola and Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana, saying they reinforced the message that South Africa is moving in the right direction. “I think they were really good speeches by the ministers,” said Survé. “They reaffirm South Africa’s trend towards becoming a more investment-friendly destination. That’s good for the country and good for South Africa’s brand image.” As a leading figure in the private sector,…

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane says there is no replacement contract in place for the existing power supply agreement Eskom is racing against time to secure a new power supply agreement with Mozambique’s Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), as the current deal that supplies electricity to Mozal aluminium smelter is set to expire at the end of March, raising the risk of major operational disruptions if negotiations fail. Speaking amid growing concern over the looming deadline, Eskom CEO Dan Marokane on Thursday confirmed that the existing power supply agreement will formally end in March and that no replacement contract has yet been concluded. This has heightened anxiety around the future of Mozal, one of southern Africa’s largest aluminium smelters owned by South32 and a significant industrial consumer of electricity. Late last…

State defence entity Denel has remained mum as labour and political parties have sounded strong alarm bells after employees at Denel PMP and Denel Dynamics were informed that the divisions are unable to pay salaries for this month, in what appears to be another salary crisis at the state-owned company. Strong views have been expressed calling for the appointment of a new, permanent board with appropriate expertise in the defence industry, engineering, finance and project execution; consequence management for the non-implementation of board-approved strategies; a new management approach with zero tolerance for corruption; and serious consideration of public–private partnerships to restore sustainability, protect strategic capabilities and secure jobs. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which among other labour organisations has been involved in charting a turnaround plan,…

Sasol's Louisiana Integrated Polyethylene joint venture cracker experienced an extended outage in the three months to December 31. "The plant was successfully restarted at the end of December 2025. Our self-help measures continued to deliver benefits, which led to lower costs and capital expenditure," directors said on Thursday in a business update. An online search showed that LyondellBasell, as co-owner of the plant, had to balance the Louisiana outage first reported in November, against its global cracker network, mitigating supply disruptions through other facilities. The outage, however, did not appear to dampen investor sentiment following the release of Sasol's business update, as the share was a top mover on the JSE in the morning, rising 6.1% to R106.33. The price has risen steadily since a new strategy to optimise operations…

Zanele Matome, the CEO and founder of Welo Health, is making her mark on the global stage as one of the few African tech entrepreneurs invited to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Born and raised in Rustenburg in South Africa’s North West province, Matome is using her debut appearance at WEF to seek strategic investors who can help make her digital health startup a household name globally. Matome is the CEO and co-founder of Welo Health, a South Africa–based digital health tech startup that helps employers better manage the health of their workforce. Welo Health connects corporates, health insurers, and healthcare professionals through a single, flexible ecosystem designed to improve health outcomes while boosting productivity. Built as an infrastructure platform, Welo Health enables companies to reduce absenteeism, manage…

A stronger rand is translating to mixed fortunes to the cost profile of South32’s aluminium production in South Africa and Mozambique while higher energy costs and other raw materials are also weighing In South Africa, South32 produces aluminium from Hillside Aluminium, which is located in KwaZulu- Natal while it also mines for manganese at the Wessels mine in the Northern Cape. The company also operated Mozal Aluminium, which it was planning to mothball due to a failure to secure a power supply agreement for the operation. Over the quarterly period to December, South32 completed planned maintenance works at the South Africa mine. This helped to bring up South32’s total manganese production for the period by 58% “as Australia Manganese returned to normalised production rates, while South Africa Manganese completed planned…