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DAVOS 2024: On the Frontlines for Nature

<ul><li>WTO seeks deal after 18-month deadlock</li></ul>



<ul><li>China voices an objection to proposal</li></ul>



<ul><li>Chief hopes for deal by June ministerial</li></ul>



<ul><li>Recasts, adds China comment, bullets</li></ul>



By Emma Farge



GENEVA, May 6 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The first World Trade Organization meeting to discuss a draft agreement to temporarily waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines went &#8220;very well&#8221;, its chair said on Friday, although some members voiced reservations.



The WTO&#8217;s 164 members on Friday discussed the &#8220;outcome document&#8221; that stems from months of negotiations between the main parties &#8211; the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa &#8211; in an effort to break an 18-month deadlock over the issue.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2WV1EH&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;It went very well and here&#8217;s why I say that. No member rejected the outcome as completely unacceptable,&#8221; Ambassador Lansana Gberie from Sierra Leone, who chairs the council tasked with finding an agreement on the waiver, told Reuters after the closed-door meeting.



&#8220;Most said this could be developed into a negotiating text and that&#8217;s the trajectory we have to follow.&#8221;



However, two Geneva trade sources said after the meeting that some delegations had said the proposal fell short since it was too narrowly focused on vaccines, echoing criticism from some civil society groups.



And while China voiced broad support for the document it also raised an objection to some of the wording that appeared to exclude it from the waiver on the basis of its global share of vaccine exports, the two sources said.



China&#8217;s statement sent by its WTO mission in Geneva called the wording &#8220;an unreasonable and arbitrary criterion&#8221;.



The waiver idea, proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020, is supported by the majority of members of the global trade body.



But some wealthy countries including Britain and Switzerland have in the past raised objections on grounds that it could harm pharmaceutical research.



WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has been involved in brokering the talks and wants a deal by the June ministerial conference, says an agreement would be &#8220;hugely important&#8221;.



The new draft deal, which has unresolved areas, must pass by consensus and any member of the organisation has the right to a veto.



One delegate described Friday&#8217;s meeting as the moment the deal would &#8220;float or sink&#8221;.



Privately, some delegates have said a lack of public support for the deal by the main negotiating parties has sapped confidence among other members.



(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Edmund Blair)

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WTO meeting on COVID vaccine rights waiver went ‘very well’ -chair

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The potential for sports on the continent to turn into the next foreign direct investments pull has been highlighted by the success of the basketball Africa league but what will it take for more sports investment on the continent? CNBC Africa caught up with the Co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team and Aston Villa English Premier League Club, Wes Edens for more.

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Johnson &#038; Johnson’s Phase 3 trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has commenced in South Africa. The first South African ENSEMBLE participants were dosed last week. The study is also on-going in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Ludovic de Beaucoudrey, the Medical Affairs Director at Janssen South Africa joins CNBC Africa for more.

Johnson & Johnson begins Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine candidate trial in SA

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African state companies have requested billions of rand in funding from the government to help them weather the impact of the coronavirus crisis, a finance ministry presentation to parliament showed on Tuesday.



Loss-making state companies have long been an Achilles heel for Africa’s most industrialised economy, requiring bailouts that have placed its public finances under huge strain at a time of weak economic growth and helped push its sovereign credit rating to “junk” status.



The South African Post Office had requested 4.9 billion rand ($292.87 million) in support, broadcaster SABC was seeking 1.5 billion and airports company ACSA had applied for an equity injection of 3.5 billion because of the impact of COVID-19, according to the presentation by National Treasury officials.



Ailing power utility Eskom’s financial performance was worse than budgeted for as a result of limited economic activity during the pandemic, and arms firm Denel faced the risk of entering bankruptcy protection or being liquidated, it added.



The companies did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.



Denel, which makes military equipment for South Africa’s armed forces and clients around the world, told Reuters last week that it was not planning to seek new government equity injections despite a liquidity crunch aggravated by the pandemic.



It is unclear how much funding will be issued to the state firms. South Africa’s economy is forecast to contract at least 7% this year because of the coronavirus crisis and its budget deficit could balloon to as much as 16% of GDP in the current fiscal year.



One bright spot was agricultural lender Land Bank. It had resumed interest payments to lenders from Aug 11, the presentation showed, after defaulting earlier this year and being promised a bailout in a June budget.



($1 = 16.7310 rand)

South African state firms request bailouts over COVID-19

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) &#8211; Ten countries account for 80% of the new coronavirus testing taking place across Africa, a regional body said on Thursday, indicating that little testing is taking place in many countries around the vast continent.



COVID-19 confirmed cases across Africa have accelerated and are close to hitting a million this week, and experts say low levels of testing in many countries means infection rates are likely to be higher than reported.



Some governments across the continent are too poor or conflict-ridden to carry out widespread testing, while others are reluctant to share data or to expose their crumbling health systems to outside scrutiny.



South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Mauritius have each conducted more than 200,000 tests, said John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).



So far nearly 9 million tests have been conducted across the continent, up 9.4% from last week’s tally.



“This number indicates we reached 90% of our goal for the partnership to accelerate COVID testing,” Nkengasong told a virtual news conference.



The regional body said it had supported 14 other countries with an additional 240,000 tests.

CDC coronavirus

10 countries account for 80% of Africa COVID-19 testing – Africa CDC

COVID-19 has wrought havoc on poor households in countries across the world. In South Africa, more and more people are facing hunger resulting from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/cover-story/2020-07-15-the-jobs-reckoning-is-here/">mass job losses</a>&nbsp;and small, poorly implemented supplementary cash grants.



On top of this the pandemic has put in stark relief the country’s poorly understood food system, in which powerful firms operate with little oversight while vulnerable actors in the informal food sector face over-regulation.



When the country went into lockdown on 26 March 2020,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dti.gov.za/news2020/FAQs-EssentialServices.pdf">government placed</a>&nbsp;the formal food sector at the centre of continued food supply. Informal food vendors were restricted. Yet these vendors provide an important source of food and livelihoods for the majority of South Africa’s population.



The South African constitution recognises the right to food. But the government’s failure to enact specific legislation on food rights has resulted in incoherent food security policies. Even the smallest increases in prices of products in the basic food basket can have a significant impact on poor households and in local markets. Therefore, access to affordable and nutritious food through formal and informal food markets is critical for ensuring people’s right to food.



In this article, we highlight indicators of a distressing rise in the prices of essential food products that is contributing to South Africa’s hunger crisis. We call for the urgent expansion of price controls to items in the basic household food basket, as well as an inquiry into the price-setting of major retailers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Have food prices increased?</h2>



StatsSA recently&nbsp;<a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0141/P0141April2020.pdf">published</a>&nbsp;the headline urban consumer price index (CPI) as having&nbsp;decreased&nbsp;by 0.5% month-on-month in April 2020. But the statistics body&nbsp;<a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0141/P0141April2020.pdf">explicitly cautioned</a>&nbsp;that its new price collection strategy had been severely limited by the lockdown regulations. The headline number potentially reflects very different pricing behaviour of major retailers that have an online presence. Moreover, smaller retailers are excluded from this methodology – despite comprising half of poor household food spending based on data from the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0100/P01002011.pdf">Income and Expenditure Survey</a>&nbsp;of 2011.



Evidence of large price increases on essential food items is recorded by the NGO Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity’s&nbsp;<a href="https://pmbejd.org.za/index.php/household-affordability-index/">price surveys</a>. They find an 8.2% increase in the price of a household food basket for the three-month period from 2 March to 3 June 2020. This includes large increases in the prices of essential food items at the local level over the period, such as an 18% increase for sugar beans and a 14% increase for brown bread.



Table 1: Month-on-month price increases for essential food items, March to April 2020



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349102/original/file-20200723-21-1boiwi4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""/><figcaption>Source: StatsSA detailed weekly price data for April and PMBEJD weekly price data for April. Items have been matched by authors for comparability.</figcaption></figure>



Comparisons of the StatsSA and Pietermaritzburg surveys are limited by timing and availability of item specific data. But both sources show that prices of brown bread, eggs, potatoes, salt, and soup increased in March and April. These are essential food items not necessarily monitored under current COVID-19 regulations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why is this not a Competition Commission case?</h2>



The price hikes have drawn the attention of the country’s Competition Commission. In a recent food price monitoring&nbsp;<a href="http://www.compcom.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Essential-Food-Pricing-Monitoring-Report.pdf">report</a>&nbsp;it pointed out significant inflation in the prices of various food items. It commented that, in some cases, the increases and high margins were not justified by the changes in the operating costs of the suppliers.



<a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202004/43205rg43205gon448.pdf">Regulations</a>&nbsp;introduced in March after the government declared a state of disaster to manage the COVID-19 pandemic empowered competition agencies to investigate firms believed to be charging excessive prices for certain essential healthcare and food items. But not a lot has happened. Although 38% of the 320 complaints received by the competition commission by the end of June related to food prices, only one has so far led to an administrative penalty for a firm. This was the Food Lover’s Market case relating to the price of raw&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-07-14-food-lovers-store-admits-to-charging-excessive-price-for-raw-ginger/">ginger</a>.



Cases of excessive pricing of goods and services are among the most difficult to prosecute. This is because of the complexities of determining the extent to which prices are high; relevant cost parameters that have to be considered; the reliability of benchmarks; and the availability of data.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What can be done?</h2>



During the most severe part of the lockdown in the country, the government addressed the issue of higher food prices by concluding an agreement with major retailers to limit price increases on key items. But this lapsed immediately after the first easing of the lockdown on 4 May. Since then retailers have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.compcom.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Essential-Food-Pricing-Monitoring-Report.pdf">increased prices</a>&nbsp;of certain food items in response to higher input prices. We believe a renewed list of price limits should be put in place.



Along with capping price increases for key food items, we propose that the list of items subject to the price monitoring regime be broadened. The Competition Commission’s assessment – and our own – indicate that there has been some positive effect of the food price increase restrictions for food items already included in this list, such as maize meal and frozen chicken. But the published&nbsp;<a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/383217/new-regulations-bring-coronavirus-price-controls-for-certain-high-demand-products-heres-what-is-on-the-list/">list</a>&nbsp;of 22 critical products and categories, including 11 basic food items that are price-monitored, does not go far enough. The list of 11 food items leaves out brown bread and dried foods such as legumes, for example, which are staple foods for the poor and a major source of nutrition. The inclusion of frozen vegetables, on the other hand, points to poor targeting and a limited understanding of what constitutes the food basket of low-income households. Frozen vegetables are staples among middle-income households.



Table 2: Comparison of essential food baskets



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349109/original/file-20200723-29-105x169.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""/><figcaption>Notes: Food poverty line basket compiled by the StatsSA. VAT zero-rated basic foodstuffs are defined by National Treasury/SARS. Price monitored goods are published by the National Consumer Commission list in Reg. 350 of Government Gazette No. 11057 of 19 March. PMBEJD household food basket is compiled in consultation with women living on low incomes in Pietermaritzburg.</figcaption></figure>



We recommend the urgent expansion of the list to include brown bread, fresh vegetables, eggs and sugar beans, among other products. A failure to do this may well reverse any positive impact of increasing the rand values of social grants. At its core, the right to food is about protecting people’s right to feed themselves.



While the expansion of social protection measures does in part contribute to access to food for poor and vulnerable households, government should play a role in monitoring and regulating the food sector to ensure a more equitable and sustainable food system for consumers and actors in informal food markets. Price limits should be complemented by an inquiry into the price-setting of major retailers. The weaknesses in the StatsSA pricing data highlighted above indicate the need for more comprehensive data to inform ongoing monitoring of food prices.



The effects of COVID-19 will endure for some time to come, including large-scale job losses, and so it is certainly not too late to intervene. Poorer South African households cannot continue to endure both a crisis of joblessness and food price increases.

Everyday_african_urbanism_yasser_booley_51990

South Africa needs better food price controls to shield poor people from COVID-19 fallout

#Africa50: Why Investing in Digital Infrastructure post-COVID-19 is Critical to Africa’s Recovery

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ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said on Sunday he had tested positive for COVID-19, and became the first member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet to contract the new coronavirus.



Onyeama, 64, said on Twitter he had taken a COVID-19 test because of a throat irritation.



“Did my fourth Covid-19 test yesterday at the first sign of a throat irritation and unfortunately this time it came back positive,” he tweeted. “Heading for isolation in a health facility and praying for the best.”



Buhari’s cabinet has been conducting executive council meetings virtually as part of measures to keep the government working while abiding by social distancing rules.



The government started a phased easing of lockdowns in May after implementing measures to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed 778 people in Nigeria and infected more than 36,000.



Onyeama has played a role in repatriating Nigerians stranded because of travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.



Buhari’s former chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died in April from the novel coronavirus, making him the most high profile person in the country to die from the virus.

1280px-Geoffrey_Onyeama_-_June_2016

Nigerian Foreign Minister Onyeama tests positive for coronavirus

TUNIS (Reuters) &#8211; The collapse of Tunisia’s shortest-lived government since its 2011 revolution has plunged its young democracy into a new crisis after successive failures by elected leaders to turn political freedom into economic success.



Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh’s coalition had only taken office in February after months of political wrangling in the deeply fragmented parliament formed by last year’s election.



His resignation on Wednesday means there will be a new round of talks to try to form a government and, if that fails, another election just as the country demands clear leadership to handle the global pandemic and its economic fallout.



For Tunisia, widely seen as the sole comparative success story of the “Arab Spring” it triggered nine years ago with the revolution that introduced democracy, the stakes could hardly be higher.



“Enough is enough,” said Samia ben Youssef, a teacher out shopping at a street market in the Ettahrir district of Tunis.



“At a time when people are suffering from a crisis, when coronavirus is spreading around the world, they let us face our destiny alone,” she added.



Already, in the impoverished southern towns where the rising flared in 2011, a fresh wave of protesters are demanding jobs and more government aid, while the government said last week it wanted to delay debt repayments to four donor countries.



On Thursday some of these protesters started blocking Tunisia’s modest oil exports by closing a pumping station, a tactic that has already damaged the phosphate industry.



Against this fraught backdrop, Tunisia faces a reckoning with its awkward democratic model, a mix of parliamentary and presidential systems but without a constitutional court, which was intended to resolve disputes but has not yet been set up.



With many leading politicians, including the president, wanting to change the system, the party that did best in a recent opinion poll is the one that champions the old, pre-revolution, autocracy.



“My fear is we are entering an era of turbulence and without having enough political force to face it &#8230; It’s a very gloomy scenario,” said Youssef Cherif, a political analyst.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">POLARISATION</h3>



Politicians now have until late August to form a new government with majority support in parliament, but will struggle to bridge the divisions that weakened Fakhfakh’s coalition.



The largest party is the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the only constant presence in Tunisian politics since the revolution as numerous other parties rapidly came and went. But it has only a quarter of the seats and its leader, Rached Ghannouchi, faces a vote of confidence as parliament speaker.



Tunisia’s biggest political rift is over fiscal policy. Ennahda has tended to stand with parties that favour reforms sought by donors to curb spending and public debt.



President Kais Saied appears to stand on the other side of that division, Cherif said, along with Arab nationalist parties and the other major player in Tunisian politics, a powerful labour union.



Talks have already started with the International Monetary Fund over a new loan programme, but it has previously wanted tough economic reforms that much of parliament opposes.



In parliament on Thursday the tense political atmosphere was encapsulated by Abir Moussi and her populist Destouri party, which voices support for the ousted autocracy of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who died in exile last year.



They seized the speaker’s chair to stop Ghannouchi sitting there, raising the spectre of renewed tension between Islamists and secularists and aggravating the risk of street confrontations between their supporters.

IMF_logo

Public debt, populism and protests as Tunisia faces crisis

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand was unchanged early on Friday as investors reassessed the impact of coronavirus, with infections locally and worldwide continuing to climb. At 0715 GMT the rand had not moved against the dollar, still trading at its overnight closing level of 16.7400 per dollar. The rand rallied most of last week and early this week, reaching one-month highs. But momentum has since stalled as coronavirus infections rose around the world, especially in the United States, and local cases breached 200,000. Risk demand was also weakened by data showing China consumer demand slackened and by renewed tensions between Washington and Beijing. President Donald Trump’s administration is reported to be considering banning travel to the United States by all members of the Chinese Communist Party. “The South African currency surrendered gains as risk appetite ebbed in the wake of poor data out of China, dwarfing optimism surrounding promising vaccine trial results,” said analysts at NKC African Economics. Bonds were weaker, with the yield on the 2030 government issue up 7 basis points to 9.42%.

ArcelorMittal South Africa fined R3.64 million over hydrogen sulfide emissions

South Africa’s rand flat as COVID-19 infections climb

LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; Blended finance, a mix of public and private capital, is set to boom in Africa to meet funding demand from businesses cash-strapped in the wake of COVID-19 and as investors seek safeguards against financial risks.



Africa has been hit hard by the pandemic, pushing it into its first recession in 25 years and likely to drag 27 million people in the sub-Saharan region alone into extreme poverty.



Businesses across the continent have struggled as banks and other financiers have slashed lending at a time when companies facing plummeting revenues need cash to pay suppliers.



Blended finance, which gained traction in recent years to help governments respond to long-term challenges such as climate change and food security, is helping fill the void.



Proponents such as the World Bank’s private sector investment arm IFC and the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation have in the past helped mobilise up to $50 billion for Africa, more than a third of the global market.



But with the continent facing an estimated $44 billion fiscal gap, such funding is being used to help fix short-term challenges, like trade finance for medical supplies or working capital to keep businesses afloat.



For example, the IFC says it is allocating twice as much funding to blended finance as in recent years.



“What we’re seeing is a tremendous amount of demand from distributors for some sort of working finance to help their customers,” said John Simon, founding partner of U.S.-based TOTAL Impact Capital, which aims to invest for social good.



TOTAL Impact Capital and another firm, Cardano Development, aim to harness blended finance in countries including Kenya to help buy thousands of pharmaceutical sales invoices where goods have already been delivered.



By advancing only a portion of the invoice value, with the balance paid at collection, the investment ensures returns for investors, while alleviating cash flows for the companies by shortening payment cycles, said Nico de Nijs CEO of IMFact, a company set up by the pair.



Demand has surged in the pandemic’s aftermath, said Ladé Araba, Africa managing director for Convergence, a global network for blended finance, noting more interest from institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies.



Comparing the demand in 2020 to spikes after the 2008-9 financial crisis and in 2015, she said many of the deals involved loans which offered more generous and flexible terms than those from a bank or institutional investor.



Calculating returns for blended finance can be tricky.



As they involve a “concessional funder”, returns for private investors were often limited by the need to avoid the perception of subsidising private profits, said Simon.



Araba said such funding attracted private investment by either transferring risks to soft loan providers or providing an additional risk premium &#8211; and a more attractive upside &#8211; for investors.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">SHRINKING PIPELINE</h3>



International banks are striving to play a role, either through lending or by pulling in private investors.



Japan’s MUFG was one of several banks involved this month in a loan, backed by a 359 million euro ($409.5 million) guarantee by MIGA, part of the World Bank Group, to help the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank offer trade and project finance to its 22 member states.



JPMorgan in January launched a unit through which it aims to finance more than $100 billion annually in development activities from investment banking deals, with extra contributions from its markets businesses.



IFC is using blended finance to support cash-strapped companies it deems have a sustainable future with a focus on International Development Association (IDA) countries, many of whom are in Africa, said Martin Spicer, IFC’s director of blended finance.



“We’ve had a shrinking of the immediate pipeline of projects, but an increase in the COVID funds part of the business,” said Spicer, adding that the timeline was uncertain for the delayed projects.



Before the coronavirus outbreak, about 50% of blended finance investment targeted energy and financial services, said Araba.



This was partly because much of the focus had been on helping governments meet global targets to improve education, infrastructure, food security, climate change and health by 2030, requiring $5 trillion to $7 trillion per year.



($1 = 0.8766 euros)

Farmers_farming,Jimma_,Ethiopia

Public, private lending mash-up offers lifeline to virus-hit African firms

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand was weaker in early trade on Thursday, pausing a recent rally to one-month highs as disappointing Chinese consumption data dampened investor hopes of a quick economic recovery from the coronavirus.



At 0730 GMT the rand was 0.47% weaker at 16.6775 per dollar from the previous session’s best of 16.5075.



Wednesday’s rally, across most emerging market assets, was spurred by progress in finding a vaccine to counter the pandemic by U.S. firm Moderna, whose experimental vaccine showed it was safe and provoked immune responses to the novel coronavirus in all 45 healthy volunteers.



But China’s unexpected drop in retail sales &#8211; for a fifth straight month &#8211; poured water on the enthusiasm and saw some investors run for cover in safe-haven assets.



“The rand is trading on the back foot as demand for the USD recovered overnight,” market economists at ETM Analytics said in a note.



“Should the market’s spotlight once again shift away from the rising coronavirus caseload and simmering US-Sino tensions, however, the local unit could have a second attempt at the 16.50/$ level.”



Bonds also weakened, with the yield on the benchmark 2030 government issue up 2 basis points to 9.38%.

south-africa-cape-town-griqua-town-r5-griqua-town-coin

S.African rand slips as weak China data overshadows vaccine hope

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Like many of her compatriots, Kubashnee Moodley made her first foray into online shopping during South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown. She is not a satisfied customer. The 42-year-old business management coach was once charged for a parcel she never received and also had groceries delivered to her Johannesburg home after dark. “I was not going to risk going to the gate &#8230; especially with crime so high,” she said. Moodley’s experience encapsulates the challenging situation facing the e-commerce sector in Africa’s most advanced economy. Having long lagged behind much of the world in terms of e-commerce, South African retailers and delivery start-ups have been doing a roaring trade online as consumers shy away from shops during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the likes of Pick n Pay, Checkers and OneDayOnly experiencing an explosion in demand. But this post-COVID boom is straining the capacity of even the largest retailers, leaving some customers complaining of long wait times and poor service. The ability to alleviate those growing pains will dictate which companies emerge as e-commerce leaders and which will be left behind. Factors such as fear of parcel theft, online fraud and high mobile data costs have long hindered South African e-commerce growth, experts say. Global e-commerce leviathan Amazon does not operate in the economy of 58 million consumers, partly because of the cost and challenges of setting up the required infrastructure, analysts say. And African giant Jumia only launched in South Africa this year. Amazon, the vast majority of whose customers have to rely on cross-border shopping at its 16 websites around the world, declined to comment. ONLINE LAGGARD E-commerce accounted for only 1.6%, or $1.2 billion, of South African retail sales in 2019, according to London-based market research firm Euromonitor International. In the United States, the figure is 14.8%. Even Kenya shops more online than its larger neighbour. However, Euromonitor expects sales to double this year while Nielsen South Africa’s retail lead analyst Gareth Paterson predicts up to 200% growth in online food purchases. A survey conducted by Visa found that 64% of consumers in South Africa bought groceries online for the first time because of the coronavirus outbreak and that 53% made their first online purchase from a pharmacy. When lockdown restrictions imposed in late March were loosened in May, market researcher Urban Studies found that only 50-70% of customers returned to shopping centres. “This was the quantum shift,” said Anthony Thunstrom, chief executive of clothing and homeware retailer TFG. “We probably advanced two to three years in terms of online demand because of COVID-19.” Nikki Lincoln, a 34-year-old communications specialist, thought shopping online would spare her the “unnecessary risk” of going out during the pandemic. “Woolworths has closed off online deliveries for my area, so I can’t shop there at all. And Pick n Pay has such a long waiting time you might as well just go to the shop,” she said, naming two of South Africa’s leading supermarket chains. CAPACITY BOOST Woolworths said that home delivery suspensions were temporary, resulting from an employee testing positive for the virus, but acknowledged that increased demand had caused delays. In April it launched a drive-through click-and-collect service, boosting its online capacity by 50%. When the lockdown began, Pick n Pay partnered with Bottles, an alcohol delivery app that expanded into groceries with the promise of same-day service. “Our enhancements last year to create a stronger online operation &#8230; enabled us to expand our offer in response to the demand for online shopping. Our team rapidly increased its capacity and reach and met the needs of many new customers,” Jessica Knight, head of online at Pick n Pay, said without commenting specifically on delays. Sixty60 &#8211; a grocery delivery app run by Shoprite’s Checkers supermarkets &#8211; backed away from hourly dispatching, opting instead for same-day delivery. It is now expanding its delivery area weekly. Companies hoping to compete, therefore, are quickly pumping money into their e-commerce offerings even as they feel the pain of a pandemic-induced economic downturn. Grocery delivery business Zulzi was forced to limit trading to two hours a day for two weeks after shoppers overwhelmed its app, but it has since quadrupled the number of shoppers and drivers it employs and doubled its customer care staff. It is now processing 2,000 orders a day &#8211; five times 2019 levels &#8211; and has done a year’s worth of turnover in the past two months. TFG, the brands of which include @home, Foschini and Markham, plans to raise 3.95 billion rand ($234.2 million) this month, partly to bolster its e-commerce business. ($1 = 16.8698 rand)

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South African e-commerce is a COVID-fired market of risk and reward

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s rand recovered in afternoon trade on Friday, after sliding earlier due to concerns about rising COVID-19 cases both at home and abroad.



At 1505 GMT the rand was 0.42% firmer at 16.7800 per dollar, bouncing back from a session low of 16.9725 hit earlier.



“Given all the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic and global economic recovery prospects, market sentiment continues to switch between risk-on and risk-off in a matter of seconds,” said market economists at ETM Analytics.



“If the market really bought into the economic growth optimism and recovery narrative, it wouldn’t be hedging its bets with gold purchases. Markets may well be positioning for additional monetary and fiscal stimulus measures in the months ahead.”



The United States on Thursday reported the largest one-day increase in coronavirus cases by any country since the start of the pandemic, while cases have jumped in major cities such as Melbourne, Tokyo and Hong Kong.



Locally, confirmed COVID-19 cases are also on the rise.



The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) slipped as investor optimism about a market recovery was overshadowed by continued worry over coronavirus.



The benchmark FTSE/JSE All Share Index dropped by 0.64% to close the week at 55,431 points while the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Companies’ Index closed down 0.74% to 51,154 points.



The benchmark index rose 1.67% this week.



Bonds firmed, with the yield on the benchmark 2030 government issue dropping 15.5 basis points to 9.495%.

101416618-rand

South Africa’s rand recovers but caution remains, stocks slip

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Africa could have a COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter of 2021 if human trials underway in South Africa succeed, a university professor heading the trials said on Thursday.



The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 experimental vaccine is one of 19 being tested on humans globally in a race to find vaccines to stop a pandemic that has killed more than half a million people so far.



It is also being tested in Brazil by Oxford University scientists who are working with British drugmaker AstraZeneca on development and production.



“A vaccine could be made commercial as early as the beginning of next year,” said Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at University of Witwatersrand who is leading the South African trial.



“But it is completely dependent on the results of clinical trials,” he cautioned, adding that out of the 19 potential vaccines being tried out, the most positive outcome would be if even two succeed.



Trials will depend on 2,000 volunteers aged 18-65 years who will be monitored for 12 months after vaccination to asses its efficacy.



Madhi, however, said early results could be seen by November or December.



“The timing of an efficacy read-out depends on when we have approximately 42 Covid-19 cases at least one month after vaccination,” he said.



COVID-19 cases in Africa topped half a million as of Wednesday, with almost 12,000 deaths.



Madhi said governments must put in an upfront purchase order for the potential vaccine.



A number of countries, including the United States and several in the European Union, have struck deals with drugmakers to reserve supplies of the experimental vaccines, even before they have been approved.



“(The) big challenge is we are looking at requiring billions of doses of vaccine. It is really going to be how companies can scale up and make it affordable and accessible,” said Pontiano Kaleebu, director at Uganda Virus Research Institute.



African manufacturers have not manufactured a single vaccine in the last 25 years, Madhi said.

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