Features

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu has suspended the tender process aimed at securing a new distributor for the country’s social security cash payments for millions of people, afterG4S Plc lodged a complaint about discrepancies in the bid procedures. “I have resolved to have the bid for the provision of the cash payment services for social assistance suspended,” Shabangu said in an affidavit filed at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday….

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Steinhoff International Holdings NV sold out of Hungarian electronics retailer Extreme Digital after its partners moved to cut ties with the South African company embroiled in an accounting scandal. Hungary’s Competition Authority approved the disposal of a 50.4 percent shareholding to the company’s two founders for an undisclosed sum, Extreme Digital said in a statement Wednesday. Steinhoff bought the controlling stake in 2015 as part of an aggressive expansion through…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Hundreds of opposition demonstrators took to the streets of Madagascar’s capital to protest a deadly crackdown on an anti-government rally, as the country’s president warned of a coup plot. The protesters gathered in the city’s main square two days after five people died when security forces fired on people demonstrating against the country’s new electoral laws, Agence France-Presse reported, citing unidentified organizers of the rally. President Hery Rajaonarimampianina warned in an…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A South African judicial commission faces a daunting task in investigating allegations that members of the Gupta family and their allies connived with former President Jacob Zuma and his son Duduzane to loot billions of rand from state coffers. Its success or failure will go a long way in determining whether South Africa can put behind it years of mismanagement and plunder during Zuma’s scandal-ridden administration that undermined investor confidence and…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The finance industry’s attitude to automation and technical innovation resembles the old song lyric: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” Bank executives love to warn of robots replacing humans across the industry, but basic IT management often seems beyond them. The blockchain and digital currencies are the future, they tell us, but no-one seems quite sure what to do with them or whether they really want them….

MORONVIA (Capital Markets in Africa ) – Liberian President George Weah ordered a probe into Exxon Mobil Corp.’s 2013 deal for drilling rights off the West African nation’s coast, his office said. The investigation follows last month’s report by campaign group Global Witness that Exxon purchased the rights despite knowing that the block was suspected of being partially owned by Liberian individuals who may have illegally granted it to themselves while holding public office. Exxon voiced concerns over the…