Here’s what happened in SA business this week | Business

In a week capped by a State of the Nation Address that encompassed measures to combat load shedding, including having a new electricity minister, the business world once again continued to face the brunt of the disaster.

The call to the market for a 20-year lease on the Durban-Johannesburg container line published on the last Friday of January surprised everyone. Questioned by annoyed ANC MPs at a parliamentary committee meeting last week, Deputy Minister Phumulo Masualle said the ministry knew nothing about it and"had asked Transnet for a thorough explanation".

SA's largest steel producer ArcelorMittal says a combination of load shedding, rail dysfunction, and strikes shaved off R2.3 billion in earnings in its 2022 year, and it's now pushing ahead with plans to put its rail transport and energy production at least partially under its control, at the expense of some of its other priorities.

The group said it had recently had to deal with a"significantly more difficult trading environment with unprecedented load shedding and a further downturn in the economy".Former Eskom executive Dan Marokane has been appointed interim CEO of Tongaat Hulett, a company whose future is still in severe doubt after its crippling debt pile pushed it into business rescue last year.

Vivo Energy, owned by Dutch-Swiss commodities group Vitol Energy, owns 2 600 service stations across 23 African countries. It doesn't operate in South Africa, but elsewhere on the continent it owns service stations under the Engen and Shell brand. Four years ago, Vivo bought the Engen business in nine African markets.

In an open letter to Ramaphosa - sent on behalf of the CEOs of Shoprite, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Tiger Brands, Burger King, British American Tobacco, Walmart-owned Massmart, Steers-owner Famous Brands and others - the CGCSA says that load shedding has"escalated catastrophically" and was crippling businesses.Read more Helium and natural gas group Renergen has announced the departure of three non-executive directors on Monday.

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