President Cyril Ramaphosa has recently announced the formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in South Africa. This decision was made in response to the clear desire of South Africa’s people for political parties to cooperate for the nation’s future. The GNU is a coalition of 11 parties that have committed to collaborating together.
Operation Vulindlela (OV) has emerged as a crucial initiative in South Africa, aimed at accelerating the implementation of structural reforms to foster economic growth. Recently, a successful two-day conference was held to assess the progress made by OV and chart the way forward for the next five years. This article will delve into the key highlights of Operation Vulindlela and explore the support it has garnered, including that of the Democratic Alliance (DA).
In a recent media release, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) announced the enforcement of stricter regulations regarding the filing of Beneficial Ownership Declarations with Annual Returns for companies and close corporations. This move is in response to the amendments made to the Companies Act, 2008, by the General Laws (anti-Money Laundering and Combatting Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act, 22 of 2022. The aim of these regulations is to promote transparency, combat financial crimes, and enhance corporate governance in South Africa.
All employers - whether individuals or businesses – must be registered for COIDA, which aims to provide all employees with access to compensation if they contract an illness, suffer a disability or die while at work.
StatsSA has released gross domestic product (GDP) data for the first quarter of 2024, showing South Africa’s GDP has decreased by 0,1%.
Beneficial Ownership Registers - Now Mandatory with CIPC Annual Returns
The upcoming South African elections hold the promise of change, introducing a range of potential impacts on local businesses. As business leaders, we must pay attention to several factors that could significantly affect the business environment:
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has unveiled a sweeping plan to overhaul the governance and management of state-owned companies, which he said have been plagued by corruption, inefficiency and poor performance. The plan, which was announced in his medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday, aims to restore the financial viability and strategic relevance of the entities, which collectively have more than R1 trillion in assets and employ over 300 000 people.
The Companies First Amendment and Second Amendment Bill were tabled in Parliament on the 28 August 2023, and have been published. [The initial draft of the Companies Amendment Bill was published in 2018, followed by a revised draft Bill in 2021, both of which have undergone extensive public consultation and engagement].
The government and business leaders have announced the progress made in their partnership to address the most pressing challenges facing the country. The partnership, which was launched last year, aims to foster collaboration and innovation across sectors and regions, and to leverage the strengths and opportunities of both public and private actors. Some of the key achievements of the partnership include inter alia:
Ms Yanga Mputa has been appointed as the new Chief Director of Tax Policy at the Ministry of Finance. Ms Mputa has a wealth of experience in tax administration and policy, having served as a senior manager at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and as a tax consultant at PwC. She holds a Master of Commerce degree in Taxation from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor of Accounting Science degree from the University of South Africa.
Since the establishment of Operation Vulindlela in October 2020, government implemented structural reforms to stabilise South Africa’s energy supply, establish a competitive logistics network, reduce the cost and improve the quality of digital communications and reform the visa regime to enable businesses to attract the skills they need to grow, and to make it easier for tourists to experience a world-class African destination.
In South Africa, idiosyncratic factors continued to weigh on domestic financial sector resilience and overall economic growth prospects. The most notable country-specific vulnerability is the increasingly detrimental and widespread ramifications of an insufficient and unreliable electricity supply, while concerns over the deteriorating South African rail and port infrastructure networks also continue to grow.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has introduced upgraded banknotes and coin into the South African market with effect from 4 May 2023. The denominations will be introduced incrementally. The upgraded banknotes and coin have enhanced security features and new designs; however, the broad themes for the upgraded banknotes remain the same as the current banknotes, while the theme for the coin is deep ecology.
In March the Monetary Policy Committee decided to increase the repurchase rate by 50 basis points to 7.75% per year, with effect from the 31st of March 2023. Three members of the Committee preferred the announced increase. Two members preferred a 25 basis points increase.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020. The Amendment Bill seeks to advance transformation of South Africa’s workforce by setting equity targets for economic sectors and geographical regions, and requiring enterprises to develop transformation plans.
As this year commences, high inflation and weak economic growth continue to shape global conditions. Russia’s war in the Ukraine drags on and recession risks remain elevated in the Euro Area, even though energy constraints have eased. Growth prospects for the United States this year are lower. The growth outlook for China has improved but is likely to remain modest by historical standards. In the developing world, a number of economies face debt distress, exacerbated by tighter global financial conditions.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, will deliver the National Budget Speech on 22 February 2023. As usual, the budget allocation always aims to strike a balance between competing national spending priorities and limited resources.
Operation Vulindlela is a joint initiative of the Presidency and National Treasury to accelerate the implementation of structural reforms and support economic recovery. Operation Vulindlela aims to modernise and transform network industries, including electricity, water, transport and digital communications. The diagram below is a roadmap to governments reform and growth.
Two key Acts of Parliament, designed to strengthen South Africa’s system of Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), have been signed into law. These laws will strengthen the fight against corruption, fraud and terrorism, and also assist South Africa in meeting the international standards on AML/CFT, and to reduce the prospect of greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) MLI has been published in Government Gazette 47559 of 25 November 2022. The overall goal of the BEPS MLI is to swiftly update the existing network of bilateral tax treaties to reduce opportunities for tax avoidance and base erosion by multinational enterprises. The BEPS MLI will be applied alongside existing tax treaties. South Africa currently has 79 bilateral tax treaties in force. In addition, a now defunct bilateral tax treaty with the United Kingdom was extended to Granada and Sierra Leone. 76 of these tax treaty countries have been listed by South Africa in the notifications and/or reservations to be covered by the BEPS MLI. These 76 tax treaties will, after all these countries have ratified the BEPS MLI, meet the tax related BEPS measures without the need to renegotiate these existing bilateral tax treaties.
High inflation and weak economic growth continue to shape global conditions alongside monetary and fiscal policy responses. Russia’s war in the Ukraine drags on, impairing trade and raising prices of a wide range of energy, food and other commodities. Growth in the United States is set to weaken, and remains low in China. Although energy constraints have eased somewhat in the Euro Area, recession risk is high. Additionally, a number of developing economies face debt distress, exacerbated by tighter global financial conditions.
The 2022 MTBPS presents a strategy to continue stabilising the public finances while supporting economic growth in a highly volatile global economy. Fiscal consolidation is achieving the objectives of the strategy originally outlined in the 2020 MTBPS. Lifted by better-than-expected revenues, the fiscal position is stronger. At the same time, increased funding for safety and security, fighting corruption and delivering infrastructure will support longer-term growth prospects.
