The Editorial Team |

Living Off Garbage at the Bottom of World’s Most Unequal Nation

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – In the financial capital of South Africa, an informal army of collectors find their best chance of income curbside in wealthy suburbs. Luyanda Hlatshwayo wakes up at 4 a.m. in the abandoned inner-city school building with shattered windows he calls home. He stuffs a pair of worker’s gloves in his pocket and rides a warehouse trolley like a giant skateboard to a suburb of South Africa’s economic metropolis, Johannesburg:…

Ramaphosa’s Quandary: a Team to Revive South African Economy

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s triumph in guiding his African National Congress to a sixth straight election victory has left him with an even more formidable challenge: to pick a cabinet that can dismantle a shadow state of corruption and revive the flagging economy. His window of opportunity to install an administration free of ministers tainted by graft and to impose tough economic reforms, without deepening rifts in an already-divided…

Ramaphosa Revives South African Advisory Unit to Drive Policy

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has reinstated an advisory unit in the office of the presidency as he seeks to speed up policy execution. “The presidency’s policy and research unit has been established and is modeled on a similar unit that existed during former President Thabo Mbeki’s time,” Khusela Diko, Ramaphosa’s spokeswoman, said by phone from Pretoria. “It will advise the presidency on policy and implementation of policy, and that service will also…

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – On May 6, Kenyan authorities arrested and then released Boniface Mwangi, a Kenyan photographer and political activist, on suspicion of fomenting a “revolution” against the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta. The previous week, news reports said Mwangi participated in the “Beyond Zero Corruption” campaign in Nairobi (also dubbed the Red Vest Movement) — an initiative highlighting the poor state of Kenya’s economy, rampant corruption and entrenched impunity in the…

Brexit Delay Rekindles Allure of U.K.’s Junk Bond Market

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Broadband and pay TV provider Virgin Media is the latest company braving the U.K.’s unloved debt market to raise funds following a lengthy delay to Britain’s departure from the European Union. The company sold 300 million pounds ($390 million) of bonds late on Wednesday as part of a $1.2 billion equivalent deal. On the same day, Co-Operative Group, which provides a range of services from funerals to supermarkets, also sold 300 million…

The U.K.’s Big Saudi Bribery Probe Is Stuck in Legal Limbo

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nearly a year after the U.K. Attorney General sought external legal advice on the country’s most sensitive bribery case, the logjam surrounding the saga appears no closer to easing. More than 14 months ago, the Serious Fraud Office, the U.K.’s top white collar crime prosecutor, asked the Attorney General to approve charges against former employees of a unit of Airbus SE. It alleged that the Riyadh-based subsidiary, GPT Special Project Management,…

Kenya Plans $210 Million Rail Upgrade as SGR Phases Delayed

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya will spend $210 million on linking and upgrading older tracks with its new standard-gauge railway as it abandons a plan to extend the Chinese-funded project to Uganda’s border that would have created a faster export route to the Indian Ocean for landlocked neighbors. Of the sum, $60 million will fund a 43-kilometer (26.7 mile) meter-gauge line that will act to connect the old and new railways, according to…

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