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To think that you could have picked up Anglo American Platinum shares for less than R180 each six years ago. Back then, with the prices of platinum group metals (PGMs) in the gutter, Amplats was forced into a brutal cull of staff and mines. Now the company has paid R300 in dividends for the 2021 year — an R80bn windfall for investors, not to mention the tens of billions of rands that will go to the SA fiscus. Sure, CEO Natascha Viljoen hasn’t had to do any of the nasty stuff her predecessor Chris Griffith was forced to, but Amplats clearly hasn’t lost its head since PGM prices began flying. Parent Anglo American must be delighted.
A bad week
Throw a dart at Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet and you’re bound to hit something useless, but it doesn’t get more bumbling, clueless or brazen than Mr Fix Fokol, Fikile Mbalula. The transport minister is having a torrid week: the Road Accident Fund has been caught hiding debt of R300bn; the Passenger Rail Agency of SA is a diabolical shambles, to the detriment of every single citizen who relies on public transport; and now Mbalula’s department’s brand-new online payments system for driving and vehicle licences crashed just a day after its glorious launch. If only there were a ministry for hot air, we’d all be winning.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
A bad week for Fikile Mbalula
A good week
To think that you could have picked up Anglo American Platinum shares for less than R180 each six years ago. Back then, with the prices of platinum group metals (PGMs) in the gutter, Amplats was forced into a brutal cull of staff and mines. Now the company has paid R300 in dividends for the 2021 year — an R80bn windfall for investors, not to mention the tens of billions of rands that will go to the SA fiscus. Sure, CEO Natascha Viljoen hasn’t had to do any of the nasty stuff her predecessor Chris Griffith was forced to, but Amplats clearly hasn’t lost its head since PGM prices began flying. Parent Anglo American must be delighted.
A bad week
Throw a dart at Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet and you’re bound to hit something useless, but it doesn’t get more bumbling, clueless or brazen than Mr Fix Fokol, Fikile Mbalula. The transport minister is having a torrid week: the Road Accident Fund has been caught hiding debt of R300bn; the Passenger Rail Agency of SA is a diabolical shambles, to the detriment of every single citizen who relies on public transport; and now Mbalula’s department’s brand-new online payments system for driving and vehicle licences crashed just a day after its glorious launch. If only there were a ministry for hot air, we’d all be winning.
‘Smart’ driver’s licence card to roll out in October 2023
SA’s dysfunctional road traffic system
SA’s big platinum face-off
WATCH: Amplats benefits from higher platinum output and prices
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Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.