The South African Mint Company, a subsidiary of the SA Reserve Bank, has announced the appointment of Honey Mamabolo as its new managing director Director. The central bank said Mamabolo’s background as an engineer, together with her experience in finance and manufacturing, makes her an ideal fit for the role. She has 20 years’ experience across various industry sectors, including mining, retail banking, energy, development finance and manufacturing. Before joining the South African Mint, Ms Mamabolo was the Chief Executive Officer of Thebe Unico, a leading manufacturer and supplier of…
Read MoreDay: 24 Feb 2020
AI poised to make customers more powerful than bank
Increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is likely to see the banking industry moving towards an environment where the customer owns their data and can easily move between banks or other financial organisations with their historical financial information. Prema Varadhan, chief architect and head of AI at Temenos, says this is a long-term aspiration that traditional banks may struggle to attain in the medium term. However, the first step was taken with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe in 2018.…
Read MoreSummer crops: SA farmers set for a good year
South African summer crop farmers are expecting a bigger harvest this year. This is despite the 2019/20 production season starting on a negative footing with delayed rainfall across the country. Summer crops include white maize, yellow maize, sunflowers and soybeans. Preliminary planting data from the National Crop Estimate Committee (CEC) shows 2019/20 summer crop area at 3.97 million hectares. Read: South Africa’s maize planting area seen up 9% on good rains South Africa’s major summer crop plantings Source: Agbiz Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agriculture Business Chamber (Agbiz), says the recent increase…
Read MoreWorley to provide engineering services for Sasol South Africa projects
Australia-based Worley has signed a five-year deal with Group Technology, a division of Sasol South Africa (Pty) Ltd, to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for Sasol’s capital projects portfolio The partnership will focus on efficiency improvement and environmental initiatives, from front-end engineering design to project completion. (Image source: Worley) These include efficiency improvement and environmental initiatives, from front-end engineering design to project completion. Worley’s energy and chemicals services business in South Africa, jointly owned by Worley and Matasis Investments, provides global expertise to help energy, chemicals and power customers…
Read MoreUnfit for human consumption’: Canned pilchards products recalled by manufacturer
The manufacturing company explained that there might be a ‘canning deficiency’ and there is a possibility that some customers might have bought an affected tin. West Point Processors announced on Saturday that customers who bought pilchards in tomato sauce 400g tins recently must be returned for a refund due to the canned product being “unfit for human consumption”. “Because consumer safety is our top priority, we wish to recall some pilchards in tomato sauce products,” the company said in a statement. The manufacturing company explained that there might be…
Read MoreBeneficiation, manufacturing potential big job creators
JOHANNESBURG – African Quartz executive chairperson Dr Dennis George welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, to speedily and radically increase generation capacity outside of Eskom. The President said a Section 34 Ministerial Determination will be issued shortly to give effect to the Integrated Resource Plan 2019. Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act empowers the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy to allow municipalities to purchase power outside of the national grid. Such a determination will enable the development of additional grid capacity from other sources and…
Read MoreEgypt develops comprehensive strategy for manufacturing cars
The government has developed a comprehensive strategy for the automobile and electric cars industry, said Egyptian Minister of Military Production Mohamed al-Assar on Sunday. He added that the plan is currently being formulated and will soon be announced by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with the relevant ministers on Saturday to discuss this strategy, Assar said. This strategy covers multiple dimensions, such as converting cars to work with gas or electricity and replacing cars over 20 years of age with a new electronic model, he said.…
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