Darlene Creamer

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Darlene Creamer

LONG SHADOW

22nd November 2024 The election of Donald Trump as America’s next President did not come as a total surprise. Nevertheless, it is still sending global shockwaves that will be felt for at least the coming four years, but probably longer. As with every country in the world, South Africa will have to adjust its... →

SHOCK ABSORBER

15th November 2024 Apart from Eskom itself, it will be one-way traffic when the National Energy Regulator of South Africa hosts public hearings into the State-owned utility’s latest revenue application between November 18 and December 4. Business, local government, labour an civil society organisations will all be... →

GEO-JUGGLING

8th November 2024 Hardly a week goes by without at least one headline pointing to an issue that could result in the collapse of the Government of National Unity (GNU), which has been widely welcomed at home and abroad. Many of these are domestic, from basic education to health. In a context where geopolitical... →

INFLATION TARGET

1st November 2024 South Africa’s official inflation-target band is 3% to 6%, but South African Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has made it clear for some time now that his target is actually the mid-point. In a recent speech, Kganyago acknowledged concern about the employment and growth costs of pursuing a... →

SORE THUMB

25th October 2024 Business and the markets have reacted positively to South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU). Cooperation also seems to be the order of the day in many departments and provinces. South Africa’s economic heartland of Gauteng, however, is sticking out like a sore thumb in its overt and... →

NEW TARGET

18th October 2024 There is scepticism about the current close relationship between government and organised business, but there is also broadbased acceptance that their collaborative efforts in the areas of Covid and loadshedding have been pretty effective. In cementing the relationship under the Government of... →

HIGH-WIRE ACT

11th October 2024 The lack of grid capacity has emerged as a key constraint to South Africa’s renewable-energy ambitions. While the National Transmission Company South Africa has a plan, it lacks the balance sheet to go it alone. The problem is that there is still no obvious agreement on the model that could be... →

TARIFF TUG OF WAR

4th October 2024 With the official release of Eskom’s allowable revenue application, which confirms that it is indeed seeking a hefty 36% hike next year, all eyes will now turn to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa. The upcoming public hearings in November and December are likely to be robust and... →

FISSION AGAIN

27th September 2024 Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is the latest government champion of nuclear. He has described opposition to the technology as unscientific and has insisted that South Africa should be gearing up to add more capacity beyond Koeberg. The question that this latest ‘fission... →

GROWTH RETHINK

20th September 2024 A combination of external shocks and internal own goals has left South Africa in a low-growth trap. With the Government of National Unity now prioritising inclusive growth, organised business believes it is also time to rethink the country’s growth strategy. “South Africa must aspire to become a... →

WRECKING BALL

13th September 2024 Extortion rackets are in the news, but construction sites have for too long been especially vulnerable to so-called business forums, who greedily distort well-intentioned localisation policies to the point where contractors are often forced to abandon the sites. If South Africa has any chance of... →

TARIFF TUSSLE

6th September 2024 South Africans are gearing up for another hostile round of public hearings into Eskom’s revenue application for the coming three financial years. Most of the attention will be on the potential for another hefty tariff hike, in the unlikely scenario that the application is fully approved by the... →

MAYORAL CHAIRS

30th August 2024 There has been little public enthusiasm shown following the election of Dada Morero as Johannesburg’s mayor for a second stint. He is the eleventh mayor since 2016 and the city has become the poster child for the perils of coalition politics, and where a lack of formal guardrails allows for... →

ORANGE SQUEEZE

23rd August 2024 South Africa has, for the first time, requested the establishment of two dispute panels under the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement system to review measures affecting the import of South African citrus into the European Union (EU). The dispute relates to the approach being taken by... →

ADDED PRESSURE

16th August 2024 The world has become a true pressure cooker both geo-politically and in the domain of domestic politics. The deadly drums of war can be heard across several regions, elections are often not only competitive but violent and in some cases stolen, riots have replaced protests, xenophobia is growing... →

DEMOCRATIC RELAY

9th August 2024 Races have not been confined to the Olympic tracks, fields and pools this year, with nearly 100 countries having also held elections. Many of these polls have been highly competitive and unpredictable, including South Africa’s, where no single party secured an outright majority. Without question,... →

CLOSED SHOP

2nd August 2024 The objection lodged by Eskom’s distribution unit to the issuance of licences to private traders in areas where it currently holds a licence has sent shockwaves through the nascent industry (see also page 28). The move also raises serious questions about the potential for the utility to continue... →

NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE

26th July 2024 Municipal electricity distributors are facing a perfect storm of rising wholesale electricity tariffs, falling demand from affluent households and businesses that have invested in rooftop generation, aging network infrastructure, skills shortages, electricity theft and a revenue model that does... →

GROWTH LEVER

19th July 2024 There are indications that the Presidency and the National Treasury would like the next phase of Operation Vulindlela to move beyond a focus on binding constraints, such as loadshedding and a collapsing freight logistics network, to growth. The details of how this will be pursued are not yet... →

CHAIRS AT THE TABLE

12th July 2024 South Africa’s government of national unity is unquestionably the best outcome from what was a potentially treacherous political moment. Given the number of issues and interests at stake, it is also no surprise that the number of Ministerial seats at the Cabinet table has increased. It is... →

ACTION POTION

5th July 2024 To succeed, the government of national unity will be a case of ongoing negotiation and daily give and take. It will be crucial, therefore, that visible progress be made where there is either full agreement or at least “sufficient consensus”. Here, the reforms under way through Operation... →

HIGH-WIRE ACT

28th June 2024 The maturity shown by South Africa’s political parties following what was the country’s most competitive elections since the advent of democracy was truly impressive. The fact that a government of national unity could be established so quickly helped settle frayed nerves and anxious markets.... →

PORT PRESSURES

21st June 2024 The World Bank Port Index, which ranked South African ports near to the bottom of the global pile, is backward-looking and is, thus, not fully reflective of recent efforts made to address bottlenecks. Nevertheless, the port system still has a long way to go not only to recover from State capture... →

COALITION ANGST

14th June 2024 Coalitions were always the most likely scenario for a country that selects political representatives using a system based on proportional representation. Nevertheless, actually moving from a majority government to one based on coalitions or cooperation is still unsettling. Doubly so, given the... →

TARIFF THREAT

7th June 2024 The reforms under way in the freight rail sector are advancing at an impressive clip and should soon open the system to new private operators. However, there are warnings of a prohibitively high tariff outcome should the methodology outlined in the draft Network Statement be introduced. →

AFTER THE STORM

31st May 2024 The election storm, which has just past, carried with it developments that were at times entertaining, at times revealing and at times downright disconcerting. Now that it has passed, attention will turn to the governance arrangements that will follow in its wake. →

DEVASTATING

24th May 2024 The deadly collapse of a building in George while under construction is simply devastating for the families of the workers who perished. It has also raised a number of questions about the state – including the state of safety – of South Africa’s building and construction industry. The industry... →

THE OTHER POLL

17th May 2024 There has been much discussion about South Africa’s attractiveness to investors following BHP’s bid for Anglo American’s non-South African assets and confirmation that Shell will be disinvesting from its downstream activities in the country. While these developments have more to do with corporate... →

HEAT IS ON

10th May 2024 Reaction to BHP’s bid price for Anglo American may be cool, but it has definitely ignited renewed interest in mega mining mergers. It has also brought to the fore the importance of copper to the emerging energy transition and, more worryingly, investor weariness of South Africa as a mining... →

COALITION MATHS

3rd May 2024 With the polls suggesting that the African National Congress is unlikely to secure an outright majority in this year’s election, much attention is being given to coalition politics. While this is arguably an inevitable outcome of our proportional-representation system, many voters are rightfully... →

STILL FLYING

26th April 2024 Years of State capture, corruption and ongoing crime and violence have left deep scars and have taken most of the gloss of any celebrations marking 30 years of democracy. Nevertheless, South Africa is still a significantly better place than it was before 1994 and has made some strides towards... →

STORM WARNING:

19th April 2024 The storms that lashed the Cape earlier this month caused devastating damage, with many still picking up the pieces. One can only hope that the coming election storm is far more benign, but some of the pre-election rhetoric is cause for concern, while some pre-election coalition pacts seem to be... →

UNDERWHELMED

12th April 2024 While voters will receive three quite different looking ballots on May 29, this seeming increase in choice is not necessarily translating into greater excitement. Yes, some independents will feature for the first time and, yes, there are some interesting new parties. But with some form of... →

SHOCKING

5th April 2024 As expected, stakeholder responses to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s gas-heavy Integrated Resource Plan 2023 has been far from complementary. While still a draft, some commentators believe it should simply be recalled, given its outlandish assumptions, lack of transparency and... →

WATER WORRIES

29th March 2024 Gauteng’s three metropolitan councils are now failing regularly to ensure that their residents and businesses have a constant supply of water. The massive outages in March brought to the fore not only the poor state of the province’s water infrastructure, which is prone to leaks, but also... →

EXTREME PRESSURE

22nd March 2024 The Competition Commission’s Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry has thrown some light on the existential crisis being faced by South Africa’s media. Part of the problem lies in the weak economy, but a large portion arises from the disruption associated with the rise of giant digital... →

GAS CLIFF

15th March 2024 Warnings of a gas day zero in 2026 are alarming, but not new. There has however, been very little progress on possible remedies. Disputes over gas pricing have arguably made cooperation difficult, but that is what is desperately needed. All eyes are now on the government-led task team set up to... →

LOADSHEDDING GRIEF

8th March 2024 There is grave peril in forecasting any improvement to the loadshedding outlook, as President Cyril Ramaphosa found recently when Eskom declare Stage 6 days after he suggested in his State of the Nation Address that the worst was over. Likewise, the credibility of Electricity Minister Kgosientsho... →

OWN GOALS

1st March 2024 The 2024 Budget has, once again, highlighted what happens when government scores one own goal after another. True, there have been some disruptive external shocks, most recently the Covid lockdowns and the energy shock associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, far too many of the... →

HANGING ON

23rd February 2024 HANGING ON: There was a near audible sigh of relief when ArcelorMittal South Africa announced a six-month deferral to its plan to close its loss-making long-products business. While the group sees a plausible case for salvaging the business, it stresses that the path relies on many moving parts,... →

BUDGETARY MAZE

16th February 2024 It is now almost impossible to remember a time when commentators were not describing the South African Budget as the most difficult ever for a post-apartheid Finance Minister to navigate. Given the backdrop of worsening fiscal balances and looming elections, however, it is sadly no cliché this... →

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