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Cape Town - In case you missed it, here is a roundup of Friday's top 5 reads on Fin24.
KPMG client rout continues
Consumer goods distributor AVI says it will stop using KPMG after the auditor admitted to falling short of its own standards when doing work for the politically connected Gupta family.
AVI, which has a market value of R34bn, becomes one of the largest South African companies to drop KPMG after Munich Re of Africa, Sasfin, Sygnia Asset Management and Hulisani announced they will stop using the firm’s services.
"The board of AVI has considered the information relating to KPMG and certain of its past activities that is currently available to it, and has concluded that it is appropriate to give notice to KPMG,” the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement.
"The termination will be effective on the close-out of all matters pertaining to the 2017 financial year-end audit."
Gigaba takes action to prevent politicising of PIC
Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba is concerned about what he calls "the politicising of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC)".
And he is ready to take "bold action" in this regard, he said in a statement issued by National Treasury. “We need to assure pension holders that those with political or economic power will not be allowed to unduly influence the PIC,” said Gigaba.
In September Bloomberg reported that National Treasury is pressuring the PIC to provide as much as R100bn to fund struggling SOEs, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
This led to Cosatu threatening to replace the PIC with privately owned fund managers to oversee its members' pension funds.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) and the Public Servants Association (PSA) then called for vigilance to prevent workers' pension funds managed by the PIC from being used to bail out SOEs.
At a media briefing towards the end of September Gigaba gave the assurance that pensions managed by the PIC are safe and that the PIC was not approached by Treasury for R100bn to bail out SEOs. He said he has full faith in the PIC CEO and board.
Eskom interim CEO Dladla out, new acting CEO in
Eskom announced that it is replacing acting CEO Johnny Dladla with Sean Maritz. Maritz is Eskom’s CIO and group executive for information technology and has been appointed as the interim group CEO with immediate effect.
"In an effort to embed organisational stability, it is imperative that the role of Eskom’s group CEO be permanently filled. The recruitment process will begin in due course," Eskom said in a statement.
"The Eskom board has decided to rotate current executives in this role to ensure exposure. Mr Johnny Dladla has occupied the role of Interim Group CEO since June 2017."
Vodacom: Medication likely by drone in SA by 2025
Vodacom will be exploring new digital opportunities which include medication delivered to rural areas by drone and self-parking taxis.
The new opportunities were announced amid the firm’s rebranding with a new logo and tagline: “The future is exciting, ready?”
Vodacom’s chief of its Consumer Business Unit, Nyimpini Mabunda, made the announcements at a closed briefing at Vodaworld in Midrand, Johannesburg.
“There are a lot of advances around the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that are not around yet, but when they happen, Vodacom will be there and it will be one of the first, if not the first, to bring these technologies to market,” Mabunda said.
Durban/Joburg fuel pipeline opens after years of delays
Transnet’s long awaited Durban to Johannesburg pipeline, pumping fuel inland from the coast, finally completed its nine year journey this week, when the new pipeline and its fuel accumulation facility near Heidelberg was officially launched.
The state-owned entity’s New Multi-Product Pipeline had been dogged by delays and cost overruns, but will significantly improve security of supply risk for Gauteng’ fuel supply.
The cost of the project, dubbed Medupi II by the Democratic Alliance in Parliament, jumped from R12.7bn to R30.4bn in the nine years it has taken to complete.
Although the 555km pipeline first started transporting diesel in 2012, the full completion of the plant now enables the pipeline to move four petroleum products, including the two grades of petrol, unleaded 93 octane and unleaded 95 octane.
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