Welcome to the 13th 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, supported by an e-book edition and website at www.southafricanbusiness.co.za.
A special feature in this journal focusses on the vital focus on infrastructure that is seizing the attention of the political and business leadership of South Africa. This is not the arena of endless talk shops. Rather, 160 CEOs of some of the country’s most influential companies are rolling up their sleeves and trying to make things work better. The article looks at steps being taken by a combination of the public and private sectors to beef up the country’s railways, ports and energy network. Crime is also under the spotlight. As this journal goes to print, South Africa will ascend to the presidency of the G20, a singular honour and an opportunity for the country to put its best foot forward. A brief overview of each of the country’s provinces is also provided.
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. These unique titles are supported by a monthly business e-newsletter with a circulation of over 35 000. The Journal of Africa Business joined the Global African Network stable of publications as an annual in 2020 and is now published quarterly.
OVERVIEWICTAmazon.co.za
OVERVIEWICTAmazon.co.za has arrived in South Africa.SECTOR INSIGHTOld Mutual’s new bank willbe “digital-first”.South Africans have more e-commerce choices than ever.With e-commerce having been turbo-charged by the Covidepidemic, online sales increased to R30-billion in 2020, a riseof 66% over the previous year (ITA). This reached R71-billionin 2023, according to a World Wide Worx report.Clothing and groceries are the biggest sellers, with mostsupermarkets having aggressively rolled out delivery apps, resulting in theresurrection of the buzzing 50cc motorbike in many neighbourhoods. InMay 2024 Amazon launched its online shopping experience, offering 20product categories and 3 000 pickup points.Among the leaders in e-commerce are Takealot, Shein and Bash,the platform of TFG, formerly known as The Foschini Group. More than500 brands can be purchased using TFGMoney, a bank account createdwith TymeBank. Other successful e-commerce retail operations includeSixty60 (Checkers), Massmart (Makro, Game and Builders) and the JDGroup (Everyshop).TFG is building a 75 000m² distribution centre in Gauteng with theintention of delivering 70% of all its online sales, and all of its fashionitems, through that single site.As South Africa joins the global trend towards online shopping, datacentres are going up all over the country. The latest to join the trendis software company Oracle which has chosen Johannesburg as theheadquarters of its African cloud region. All of the company’s cloudregions (data centres) worldwide will be 100% powered by renewableenergy by 2025. Teraco stores data in Johannesburg, Durban and CapeONLINE RESOURCESBusiness Process Enabling SA: www.bpesa.org.zaIndependent Communications Authority: www.icasa.org.zaTechnology Innovation Agency: www.tia.org.zaTown while Africa Data Centre(ADC), part of the Liquid TelecomGroup, has purchased a Tier IVdata centre in Johannesburg.Oracle has announced aninterconnect service between itselfand Microsoft Azure data centres.This allows customers of bothcompanies to export data fromone to the other at no cost. Thecompanies are competing withGoogle Cloud and Amazon WebServices (AWS), among others.AWS announced at the2023 South African InvestmentConference that its investmentplan for South Africa to the end of2029 amounts to R46-billion. Bythe end of 2022, R15.6-billion hadalready been invested. The AWSAfrica Region was created in 2020when AWS opened a data centrein Cape Town.The Reserve Bank is speedingup EFTs between banks with theintroduction of a Rapid PaymentsProgramme. Bank Zero not onlyuses biometric authentication forlogging in, but offers zero-costbanking.Old Mutual is now faradvanced in rolling out its newlyapproved bank. The CEO of OldMutual, Iain Williamson, toldthe Sunday Times that the bankwould be a “digital-first offering”where a “cleverly and intelligentlydesigned app” will be thecentrepiece of interactions. ■SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 202588PHOTO: Amazon.com
TourismEvents tourism is making a comeback.OVERVIEWSECTOR INSIGHTSun International’s bid forPeermont is opposed.On its 20th birthday in 2023, the Cape Town InternationalConvention Centre celebrated having hosted more than 9 000events, with 700 of those being international events.In the five years to 2029, South Africa will host 25 big internationalevents. According to the South African National Convention Bureau,the conferences and exhibitions will generate about R240-millionto add to the national economy. The successful bids were achievedout of a total of 48 bid submissions that were made, less than half thenumber of bids that were made in 2021, the year before Covid hit. Inthat year South Africa made 119 bids, of which 58 were successful.South Africa won top spot for meetings and conference destinationsin the Middle East and Africa region in the 2023 rankings published bythe International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA). In thatyear, the country hosted 98 international events that met the criteria setby the ICCA, and these had an estimated economic impact of R2-billion.Between January and May 2024, 3.8-million tourists visited SouthAfrica, an increase of nearly 10% over the comparable period a yearbefore. Total foreign-direct spend went up in 2023/24 to R95.1-billion,an increase of 27.5%, and the total combined contribution of tourism toGDP was calculated to be R458.9-billion in 2023.Sun International’s bid to purchase Peermont, owner of EmperorsPalace, is being resisted by the Competition Commission which willrecommend to the Competition Tribunal that the merger be blocked.The proposed purchase, for R7.3-billion, would combine the 11 casinocomplexes of Sun International with the eight run by Peermont.Another hotel matter is being decided in the South Gauteng HighCourt in Johannesburg. A minority shareholder in Legacy Hotels is tryingONLINE RESOURCESAfrican Business Travel Association: www.abta.co.zaSouth African National Parks: www.sanparks.co.zaSouth African Tourism: www.southafrica.netto buy it, stating that relationsbetween itself and the majorityshareholders have irrevocablybroken down. What makes theconflict rather more interestingthan an ordinary commercialdispute is that the bid is comingfrom Ensemble Hotel Holdings,a subsidiary of Libya’s sovereignwealth fund. Two investmentvehicles controlled by SouthAfrican hotelier Bart Dorresteinhold the majority of shares inLegacy Hotels, which includes TheLeonardo, Michaelangelo Hoteland Michaelangelo Towers, DaVinciPenthouse Suites, The PortswoodHotel, four lodges in the Pilanesbergand two in the Kruger National Parkin its 17-property portfolio.South African National Parks(SANParks), which runs nearly 70%of South Africa’s 509 state andprotected areas, has a number ofpublic-private partnerships (PPPs)and has held an investmentsummit to showcase a further100 opportunities in 12 nationalparks. There are currently 60 PPPsin operation in South Africa.There are 711 745 peopleemployed in the tourism industrynationally, with road transport(29%), food and beverages (20%)and accommodation (19%)absorbing the largest numbers.The sector contributes 9% toSouth Africa’s gross domesticproduct (GDP). ■PHOTO: CTICC 89 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2025
