Welcome to the ninth edition of the South African Business journal. First published in 2011, the publication has established itself as the premier business and investment guide to South Africa.
This issue has a focus on economic recovery plans which have been put in place to tackle the challenges thrown up by the global Covid-19 pandemic. National government’s focus on infrastructure and the use of Special Economic Zones is highlighted, together with a feature on the nascent maritime economy. Regular pages cover all the main economic sectors of the South African economy and give a snapshot of each of the country’s provincial economies.
South African Business is complemented by nine regional publications covering the business and investment environment in each of South Africa’s provinces. The e-book editions can be viewed online at www.globalafricanetwork.com.
OVERVIEW Banking and
OVERVIEW Banking and financial services Investors are getting behind fintech. Naspers Foundry is one of several investment funds looking for opportunities in the financial sector. Insurance technology is of particular interest, together with credit services and payment systems. The appointment by mobile operator Vodacom of a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2020 gave further insight into the growing link between the digital world and the world of finance. The new executive, Raisibe Morathi, was for 10 years CFO of Nedbank. Morathi also served on the board of Sanlam, a giant in the SouthAfrican financial sector. In 2019, Sanlam, which has 20 319 SouthAfrican employees, distributed R190-billion between employees, shareholders, government and clients. Capital Appreciation, which is part-owned by the Public Investment Corporation, is already invested in a software developer, a credit card payment terminal provider and has R500-million available for further investments. African Rainbow Capital, with about 5%, has a stake in the investment company and is the owner of TymeBank, which received a banking licence in 2017. Tyme stands for Take Your Money Everywhere and refers to the bank not having a branch network. Perhaps the lockdown encouraged customers to think in digital terms because Tyme reported in October 2020 that it had 2.4-million customers, up from 1.4-million at the end of March. A 400% increase in the use of services such as airtime and electricity purchases was also noted. Discovery Bank officially launched in March 2019 and is experiencing rapid growth with deposits of R3.7-billion. Discovery Bank is applying the behavioural model it uses in its health business to reward good financial behaviour. Another relatively new bank is Capitec, which is steadily increasing its customer base by providing banking for business and individual customers in what it describes as a simple manner. In SECTOR INSIGHT PSG is selling a big stake in Capitec Bank. May 2020, investment holding company PSG announced that it would reduce its holding in Capitec Bank from 32% to 4%, earning about R4-billion by selling those shares. South Africa’s financial services sector has expanded by the opening of several new stock exchanges. Pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare has taken a second listing on A2X. Of the four new exchanges, Equity Express Securities Exchange (EESE) trades in Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) while ZARX and 4AX are targeting companies that are not listed elsewhere. ZARX has agricultural holding companies like TWK and Senwes among its clients. The JSE is the world’s 19th biggest exchange and nearly 400 companies are listed on the JSE or AltX, the JSEowned exchange for smaller companies. ■ ONLINE RESOURCES Financial Sector Conduct Authority: www.fsca.co.za Insurance Institute of South Africa: www.iisa.co.za SouthAfrican Institute for Chartered Accountants: www.saica.co.za SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2021 84
CPD CONTiNUOUS PROFESSiONAL DEVELOPMENT “ Attending CIGFARO Training and webinars has allowed me to earn CPD points while participating in Technical discussions to help improve my professional capacity. This is a great time to be associated with a SAQA recognised Professional Body. ” Ms Zanele Malaza (PGFO), CFO City of Mbombela CONTACT US:
