Factories take steep dive but AG sovereignty stands tall

THE auditor-general of SA is one of two national audit offices in the world enjoying “very high independence” to carry out its duties without fear or favour, a report from the World Bank showed. The chapter 9 institution was one of only two (the other being Seychelles) of 118 countries assessed to have very high independence from any undue political interference.

SHAREHOLDERS of Royal Bafokeng Platinum may be in store for a bumper final dividend in 2021 after the miner declared a R1.5bn interim payout that matched its maiden annual dividend in 2020, with the group still having money left in the kitty.

THE Medupi coal-fired power station — long plagued by cost overruns, delays and design defects, causing intermittent breakdowns in some of its units — had been completed, Eskom announced. Energy analysts said Eskom still needed to fix design flaws at the plant.

CONDITIONS in the manufacturing sector fell to a 14-month low in July, highlighting the damaging effect of SA’s stricter lockdown measures and the fallout from the recent violent protests. The Absa purchasing managers’ index — one of the first data points to tally the impact of these events on the economy — suffered a record single-month decline of almost 14 points, sliding to 43.5 from 57.4 in June.

THE motor industry’s post-Covid sales recovery was stopped in its tracks in July by riots, cyberattacks and increased lockdown restrictions. Aggregate new-vehicle sales for the year to date are still well ahead of 2020, but they took a big knock. The industry sold 32,949 cars and commercial vehicles, almost 20% fewer than the 38,131 in June.

LAST year was the most intensive load-shedding year in five years, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research said in its update for the first half of 2021.