Flash Briefing: Added pressure on Magashule; Steinhoff results delayed; Brimstone lines fishing merger

By Alec Hogg

Today’s global news headlines:

  • Pressure mounted over the weekend on the man who oversees day-to-day running of South Africa’s ruling political party. The Sunday Times reported that ANC secretary general Ace Magashule has been instructed to stop using the party’s official channels to defend himself against corruption allegations. And on Friday, the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture heard that Magashule had admitted to receiving a retainer of R1m a month from the Gupta family. Mxolisi Dukwana, who served as the economic development minister in Magashule’s Free State provincial cabinet, told the Commission the former Premier’s admission was made in his presence during a meeting at the Gupta’s home. Dukwana said he was offered R2m a month by the Guptas provided he signed off on an IT project that could have run for a decade. Dukwana, who says he turned down the offer, was fired by Magashule in 2012.
  • Another round of trade talks between the US and China wrapped up in Washington over the weekend with both sides happy with the progress and promising to continue talking via videoconference. US President Donald Trump, whose approach to the talks has been widely praised, said although there was no precise timeline for any deal, what he called the two hardest points for his country had now been successfully negotiated. Meanwhile China’s muscle expanded further last month. China’s central bank announced last night that its foreign exchange reserves rose for the fifth straight month, growing by $8.5bn in March to just over $3trn.
  • South Africa’s leading food group Tiger Brands is to unbundle to shareholders its remaining 49m shares in South Africa’s biggest fishing group, Oceana. In January, Tiger sold 8m shares to black owned investment group Brimstone for R581m, raising Brimstone’s shareholding from 17% to 23%. The unbundling will boost Brimstone’s Oceana stake to over 30%, lining up a potential merger between Oceana and Sea Harvest, a group which Brimstone controls with 55% ownership. Tiger’s decision, announced on Friday, follows a strategic review at the embattled food group. The Tiger Brands share price edged half a percent higher on the news. Oceana’s share price fell almost 3% on Friday while Sea Harvest’s price was down 2%.
  • Unscrambling the Steinhoff mess is going to take even longer than anticipated. The company announced late on Friday that its auditors Deloitte have pushed out the projected date for publication of the financial results for 2017 and 2018. Deloitte has blamed this on complexities involved in a “track and trace” process around fictitious transactions identified during the PwC forensic audit. The transactions were passed over the past decade on the instruction of former CEO Markus Jooste to create false profit of €6.5bn which was reported in the financial results. The 2017 financials will now be delivered on 7 May and the group’s 2018 results on 18 June.
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